It has been brought to my attention that my writing is a little dark. I guess that’s true. Okay, well, I can be fun too. I’ll work on that. Part of the reason for my darkness may be my life experiences in the past several years. I am just now starting to process the deaths of people close to me and can therefore write about them. This is a good thing, I think.

For a long time, it was hard to talk about my husband and my brother. They died in the same year. The same year that I moved to West Virginia. My husband and I had been living in with my mother in her house outside of Pittsburgh. After he died, I was open to relocation. A recruiter called me about a job in the Mountain State, and so I ended up here. It has been quite an experience.

I met my boyfriend in the fall of 2011. He is a PhD student at West Virginia University. I work as a government contractor. In our spare time, we go hiking, sing and play guitar, and watch movies.

We are going hiking today as a matter of fact. The weather is starting to warm up. We will probably go to Coopers Rock State Forest, one of our favorite hangouts.