Saying Yes

Planning my visit to Asheville had me thinking back to this time last year. Lainie and I had just moved into a new house together in Austin without any solid expectations of what the upcoming twelve months would bring. Our two original plans, of living in a rat-free home and buying a functioning washer/dryer, had already fallen through, so all we really had was a signed lease and the hope that things could only go up from there.

Since then, after exchanging appliances and putting up with many visits from the pest control man, we buckled in and sat back while life did its thing. We had a lot of fun in our house. Lainie got engaged and started planning a wedding. We moved a bunch of furniture. She changed cities while I changed neighborhoods, and, for the most part, we both spend our days in wildly different ways than in early 2016.

I'll always admire Lainie since, when the world presented her with a completely new and exciting plan, she said "Sure, ok, I'll try it" instead of fearfully retreating back to her comfort zone. And now she lives in a cool house in a cool new city with a cool dude. I'm glad I have a lovely new place for visiting and the steady reminder that however good our known surroundings might be, there's always the fun chance that the unknown might be even better.

Thanks for having me, Asheville!