In 2024, this is how I am currently filling my precious days and nights:
I am a research communications project manager at the Duke Clinical Research Institute supporting the coordinating center for the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes project, a major research network funded by the National Institutes of Health. I work from home and the DCRI office in downtown Durham. I like to walk to the coffee shops and record stores on my lunch break.
Last summer, we moved into this stunning, modern house nestled in the woods across from the home we had previously renovated and occupied here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We love to host family and friends for meals and celebrations around the long table made from the blackjack oak we milled in 2019. Anna’s back at UNC Greensboro for her final semester of nursing school, and Malia is in her second year at American University.
I play in pick-up games on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, and I watch English Premier League, Champions League, and other levels whenever my schedule allows. Oliver has developed into a strong player, too. Sometimes he joins us on Sunday mornings.
In 2023, we visited my brothers in Austin, and Erin and her sisters traveled out west to get three of her final four states for her 50 by 50 goal. We’ll hit the final one (Alabama, to visit the Equal Justice Initiative) soon. I visited my mother in Arkansas in January, and Erin and I spent a week exploring more of St. Croix in February.
I’m into my twenty-fourth year of this blog. I was mostly silent last year but now that I’m past the challenges of 2023 and healthier with therapy and friends and deep listening, I am ready to chronicle more of my life and the world around me. I also use Micro.blog to post short updates and photos of the turtles and snakes I encounter in the woods around us; see Wan Smol Blog.
Updated 02/18/24 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Inspired by Derek Sivers.
© Anton Zuiker