Steal a Post: 2025 in Chapters

For the second year in a row, this post is a blatant steal of Stephany's Best of 2025, A Month-by-Month Recap.

Credit where credit is due:

• The chapters concept is c/o Elisabeth's 2024 "write a book with me" project
• Kyria carried the chapters concept forward to 2025 in the "Looking Forward, Looking Back" series
• Stephany's 2024 post is here
• My 2024 thievery is here

January: Deep Winter

• The year started with a heap of work stress.  Tension headaches became the norm.
• It was very cold, but I didn't let that stop me from getting out on the weekends for a 100 mile hiking challenge (approximately 100 miles in 20-some hikes on a local trail network).
• We celebrated Doggo's Gotcha Day by "taking the dog back to the pound"...by which I mean we visited the shelter that we adopted her from to show her off and to renew her dog license.

February: One Week of Summer, Three Weeks of Deeper Winter

• I escaped from the cold for one week by going to Florida!  In an amazing stroke of Cool Blogger Coincidence, Lisa and I both had offsite work events at the same venue (hers ended the day that mine started).  Lisa and I met SHU and Jenny for lunch.  That weekend, I drove to west FL to hang out with Stephany!
• The Weather Gods were displeased and retaliated with a weather snap that was so bad that the hiking trails were closed due to ice.
• Work continued to be awful.  By the end of the month I adopted the practices of the rest of my team and stopped trying to be proactive or to put any effort into doing my job well or correctly.  No matter how much or how little work I did, it all still sucked.

March: Calm on the Surface, Planning Madly Underneath

• I had been making noise about leaving my job when I turned 50, which was now three months away.  The only problem is that for this to happen, I would have to take a stand instead of passively letting life happen.  Maybe I could get fired instead?  Except that it seemed to take years of incompetence for that to happen to other members of my team.  I was sitting on a mountains of unknowns in other areas of life and didn't know where to start.
• In the meantime I started making plans for fun in the months to come!  I scheduled a 10 day trip to California and figured out how to turn all of those credit card points into a plane ticket and lodging for my final night.
• I did a long weekend trip to Frankfort, Kentucky.

April: Why Am I Like This?

• The reward for being a good girl at work is more work!  April saw the kickoff of a massive work project that was scheduled to go live on July 1.  I continued to spin my wheels...I wanted to leave but I am also a serial people pleaser and doing what you want and what other people want you to do are often different things.
• Hubs and I had started rewatching every episode of Seinfeld at the end of 2024.  Many nights found us on the couch watching the show while Doggo watched us.
• The weather was nice enough for more hiking.  I came up with a bucket list of local hikes that we did with Doggo.
• Long weekend Capital Bender to Harrisburg PA and Annapolis MD.

May: California Girl

• I spent 10 days in my birth state!  A few days in Sacramento and the rest of the time in SF near Golden Gate Park.  I met San and Julie and it was everything.
• Work reached new lows.  I (re)learned that you can organize and send all of the OOO notifications that you want, and folks will still come calling for you and dump work with impossible deadlines on you without warning.  Technically speaking I did everything that was asked of me, but very rapidly.

June: Werk and (Lighthouse) Play

• Werk was awful.  The project from hell was clearly not ready to go live in July 1, so it was delayed to October 1.  Great, instead of three months of misery it was now six months of misery.
• Got out for a fun long weekend to Michigan to visit the capitol and to go on a lighthouse binge.
• Back at home, I finished the hiking challenge.

July: If You Keep Doing the Same Actions You Will Get the Same Results

• For the second year in a row, July was my least favorite month.  The weather was so hot that we were mostly homebound, and I was very workbound.
• Doggo and our July 4th jello shots played "who wore it best?"
• I finally "got off the pot" at work and quit!  My boss's response was that I was so wonderful that she did not want to lose me, and she asked if I would be willing to stay if they made it a part time position.  For some reason I said "maybe" instead of "hell no".

August: The Big Beautiful BC Trip

• I started the month off right with a trip to British Columbia!  I stayed with Nicole and Rex for a few days, and then went on a Vancouver/Vancouver Island bender.  My dreams came true toward the end of the trip when I found myself on a beach full of sand dollars in Parksville.
• I had another conversation with my boss where I finally grew a spine and quit for real.  For some reason I agreed to stay on until they found a replacement and to train that person, so nothing changed too much yet.

September: Maritime Living

• I went to the Maritimes (the collective name for the eastern provinces of Canada: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island).  I stayed with Elisabeth and family for most of the time and learned that Nova Scotia is even more wonderful than she says it is.  I went to Anne of Green Gables land!
• The project from hell at work?  Lol, it was delayed by another quarter.  I neither know nor care if it was ready for launch on Jan 1.

October: It's Really Happening

• Werk found a sucker a really nice person who needed the job to take my place and my last day was set for October 31.  
• The weather was absolutely beautiful, which made me regret staying on at work.
• Hubs and I finished the 100 mile bike trail that we had started biking in sections last year.
• Hubs and I finished our rewatch of Seinfeld.
• I needed a new project!  I started rewatching all of the Alfred Hitchcock movies in reverse order.
• On the afternoon of October 31, I said goodbye to my boss, packed up my laptop, walked it to the FedEx store, deleted work email and Slack from my phone, and enjoyed a nice long autumn walk before going back home.

November: FREEDOM!

• I kicked off early retirement with a road trip to Ottawa and Toronto.
• Back at home, I kicked off a planned schedule of learning and hiking plus whatever else I felt like doing.
• I spent the majority of the month pinching myself and asking if it was real that I was really retired. 
• Stepson #1, Hubs, and I all caught the Cold From Hell and were sick for a good long time.

December: Home for the Holidays (and On the Road the Rest of the Time)

• I got into a grove of alternating a week of travel with a week at home.  I went to Richmond VA and Tallahassee FL.
• The boys finished up the semester of college and the four of us spent most of the month back under the same roof.
• We did the holiday thing and had a blast with friends and family.

Thanks for hanging out with me in 2025!  2026, we're ready for you!!!