33, part 2 - the pretty-darn-cool

I confess...it took me a bit longer to sit down to write this than I intended.  And I'm totally using bullet-points.  The good things that happened in my 33rd year:

• Really, I could just write about MM but I'll just say that I found the love I never imagined I would have with a wonderful man who can be all macho and fix stuff but still buys a gingerbread-scented candle from the little boy going door-to-door b/c he felt bad for the kid and knows I love gingerbread scent.  I honestly had thought I just no longer liked kissing or being held...I just needed the right set of lips and arms.
• I took action, put on my Brave Face and went through major surgery.  A lumbar fusion is a pretty big-deal operation and I'm still in recovery mode but there WAS bone growth on my last x-ray which is really encouraging.  I keep citing it but the doc said it was among the worst discs he's seen in years (and he does these several times a week) which was such a validation that the pain was real AND gives hope the surgery will help.
• Only one trip so far, though at least three more before the official 33rd year ends, but liking the new physical therapist.  I'd seen two in 2010...one I loved, the other felt a bit too much like an assembly-line, factory approach.  I'm hopeful this one will get me back into fighting shape.
• Put my past behind me.  It took an emotional trip to a Boston courtroom and then a long wait after, but the divorce is final and official and that's good.
• Loving my new Centre County home.  I read up on the area when I was looking at a job here summer-to-fall 2010 but came in second.  I was disappointed since I'd truly become a fan.  Then I met some boy at a party.  He lived near State College and it opened a conversation and swears he didn't want to meet the girl he was supposed to meet since I talked to him first.  So, I ended up out here after all.  Love the fact that most anything I need is close but I still feel like I live in a small town where neighbors wave and the mail-lady asks about my back and chases us down for a signature if she spots us going out before she gets to our door. 
• I may still lack the FT job but I can officially say I'm being paid to write.  It is just a ghost-writing gig for a attorney blog (largely personal injury but branching out), passed on by a friend when she took a full-time job herself, but it is writing and I get money so it still counts.  Another plus is it makes my resume less stale.
• I still have body image issues, but I have also been learning a lot about how I function.  I figured out an uptick in endo was tied to the pheromone/hormone change in having a man sleeping next to me after sleeping alone for a while (before the divorce too...partly his snoring, partly emotional).  I can tell when I'm getting sick by the endo too.  I'm getting better at reading soreness as well and figuring out how to tackle it. 
• Silly one -- I perfected the use of Amazon to order cheap books. $3.99 shipping isn't bad when the book costs a penny, especially when it is a book I wanted rather than just a "bargain bin" leftover.
• I know some new folks stumbled onto my blog and that makes me smile.

Hopefully 34 will bring more good news.   My little town seems to be making major preparations for my birthday....okay, maybe that's unrelated to my birthday and it may make me afraid to walk out our door that day (State College deals w/ crowds, we don't get them here).  Though I have suggested we offer the guest room for rental to someone with AP press creds (kinda like a background check, right??)...only about 1.5m from the hoopla-center.