A lot has happened in a year.

I started a business with a friend. Then lost that friend and closed that business. As it often goes with friendships made through, and fed by, social media, when they end, people choose sides. Before I even knew I needed to be recruiting, I lost several more.

Good riddance.

I kept the ones who mattered most.

This all happened while I was driving across the country with my husband and children to move to Portland, Oregon. I did this to keep a job I’d held for almost three years, working from the comfort of my suburban Atlanta living room – often times in PJ bottoms, always without a bra on.

So, now I work in an office in Portland’s Pearl District: a hip locale of warehouses turned office spaces, breweries, coffee shops, homeless hipsters or hipster homeless, and cyclists who give zero fucks about where you need to be. There are dogs in our office, a keg, a fully stocked kitchen, a slackline (look it up), and whiteboard walls. I get paid to be on social media ALL DAY LONG. Well, actually, that’s what I got paid to do before I moved. Now, I attend meetings, pitch ideas to the VP of Marketing, and I’m trusted to manage projects with budgets in the six-figures.

At some point when I wasn’t paying attention, I got a career. (And I lost over 50lbs. Fuck.Yeah.)

I go to work with awesome, inspiring people, and I’ve only not worn a bra to the office once. We have Game Night once a month and friends come over for food, drinks, board games, and LOTS of laughter. And somehow I got lucky enough to make a girlfriend who actually like, seeks out my company, and will meet me for lunch or coffee during the week. Those are the days when I practically skip back to the office, rejuvenated by her amazing smile, our laughter, and conversation. Oh, and my son is 5 and headed to kindergarten, and my daughter is 14, headed to high school. EEK!

And while all of that was/is happening, I started a website. When I was left with my previous venture all to myself, though I still loved the idea, my heart just wasn’t in it. Too many good memories with people who turned out to be bad for me and felt I was bad for them. And, to be perfectly honest, I went into it as a two-person thing. Without the other person, I realized I had no desire to write about fruity cocktails, Pinterest recipes, and the many ways you could wear a scarf. Nor did I have the desire to find others who wanted to write about that and manage them.

A dear friend helped me realize that I did not have to be stuck doing anything I didn’t want to do. I truly could do whatever the fuck I wanted. And I wanted to write about the TV shows I loved, and that my friends loved, movies, gaming, comics, and all the other things that made me proud to call myself a geek. So, that’s what I did – and Project Fandom was born.

And it has been a blast.

So, hopefully you understand, those of you who have been waiting for the next Twin Prophecies book, why it has taken so long. I put it on the back burner to start something that didn’t work out, but ended up giving me so much more. And I am ready to finish. And even bring you something new, but more on that tomorrow. The Twin Prophecies: Origins will be available by Christmas. Just in time for the holidays and start of a new year, of new beginnings.

A few weeks after the loss of friends, when I still did more crying about it than being angry, I finally listened to a conversation my now ex-friend had had about me. One thing continued to stick out, even weeks later.

“I hope Nina gets her shit together.”

I don’t think about it as much as I used to, but when I do, I laugh. Maybe it will enter my mind when I’ve completed a conference call in which I negotiated a contract, or when I’m making plans with my co-workers, or when I’m being high-fived by the VP of Marketing for a job well done, or I’m gazing at Mt. Hood while driving through my new state, or I’m considering climbing a mountain with the other ladies in my office (yes, a real mountain), or I’m laughing so hard that my face hurts because I’m sitting around a table with my family and amazing friends, or I’m cuddling with one of the office dogs in the middle of a workday, or I’m exchanging emails with the producer of a hit TV show and upcoming movie to secure a kickass prize to give away on Project Fandom.

I laugh, and I think, I may not have always known it, but my shit never stopped being together.