I know. It has been a while. I can't even remember the last time I actually posted a blog entry. I know it has been ages. Some of it is because I have just been too lazy. Posting shorter updates on Facebook is a lot easier for me because I can do it more quickly ... and more often. When I write a blog entry, I feel that I should make it lengthy, and that means I find myself thinking, writing, and planning more than I feel I have time for.

One of the big reasons I have been avoiding blogging is that things have just been tough. I know that most of you know about 2011 being the year of hell with Ray having a stroke and needing foot surgery to deal with a bad infection that almost led to a partial amputation and passing out at the supermarket that seemed to have been due to his sugar just bottoming out as his body was dealing with the post-surgery healing. Three major hospital visits in one year was not fun.

That was also the year we had our civil union ceremony. In fact, it seems we were the first same-sex couple in RI to have one, which led to multiple front page stories on the statewide paper. That was good.

All of the excitement settled down, but it also was a big part of a major collapse in our economic situation. He was uninsured for his health crises, though thanks to our civil union, he is now on my insurance. That has led to some tax issues since I have to pay federal taxes on the family insurance since it is considered income, which would not have been the case had we had been a heterosexual couple.

We actually came really close to losing the house ... REALLY close. Some luck and hard work has pulled us back from the brink and we seem to be starting to get our finances back in order. It will be quite a while longer for us to feel like we are stable in that area, but at least we are heading in the right direction.

In some ways, I felt that blogging meant I had to focus too much on some of the challenges we have been facing. I needed to not do that so I just backed off from blogging, just commenting on so many of your blogs because you are still people I considered to be amazing friends.

Well, I am hping to get back into the routine of blogging again. I have made it one of my new year's resolutions. Hopefully, I will be able to do that because I would really like to have the reliability of blogging back in my life.