I’ve been missing from here (still active on Instagram) for a little over a month – an amazing, incredible, life-changing month.  You see, more than twenty years ago I stopped having contact with my family of origin. I’ve managed to piece together a pretty awesome group of people who I’m proud to call family. There’s Mr. Pentulant and his amazing stick-together-no-matter-what family who welcomed me 100% into their fold. There’s an unbelievable friend who always made me feel like family – and even let me borrow his from time to time. And when my perfect son met and married his perfect girl, I felt that I had a whole family. I was good to go, chugging right along, happy, fulfilled, and living a pretty blessed life.

Last month, I heard from my sister. We started out slowly, but that didn’t last long. Pretty quickly, we were sending messages at the speed of light – learning about each other and (re)discovering all that we have in common.

We made plans to meet at the end of September in Portland, but then changed those plans and met in New York last week. We wandered through museums, saw a couple of musicals, had Starbucks, and sat around in our stretchy pants while I kicked her butt at Boggle.

There were some awkward silences. Some, “I wonder if she likes me,” on both sides (she does, I do!), but overall, we nailed it.

I’m going to Florida soon for her birthday. I’ll meet her husband, her daughter, her son, her puppies, and maybe even a friend or two. Oh, and she says she’s been practicing Boggle. (I’ll still win.)

It is astounding – how extraordinarily changed my life is.

I’ll get back to doing what I do here – posting inks swabs and pen reviews. I just need a moment to catch my breath and take it all in.