Now that the book stuff is all sorted -- old challenges put to bed, new challenges accepted, and books chosen -- I can turn my attention to a wrap-up of 2025 and maybe a look ahead into 2026.
I'm not very good with predictions, but I am noticing some trends.
Overall, 2025 was a good year. I celebrated my birthday by making some decisions to expand my life and my circle of friends. It seems to be a pattern right now that I have plenty of friends, but they live far away. I also have plenty of acquaintances, but they, too, live far way.
I moved to this town as a consequence of my relationship with Kayak Guy. I won't say it was a mistake, but . . . the connection was tenuous. We probably should have thought it through more carefully. Now that relationship has settled into a cordial but distant friendship. For a while we were spending a lot of time together, even after calling it quits romantically. It was casual -- meeting for meals and working on a few projects together -- but it wasn't healthy, so I gradually put a stop to that.
I don't regret buying my house here -- I got in when good prices were still to be had, so I have equity -- but it locks me into a geographical area that's fairly remote from the places I frequent. I should put down some roots here beyond owning a home, but so far, nothing doing.
And so, apropos of my birthday, I spent some time thinking about the best times and best friendships of my life in the past, and discovered that they revolved around horseback riding and Dungeons & Dragons (a tabletop roleplaying game or, as I like to call it, collective improvisational storytelling. Sounds fancy, right? If you're not familiar, here's a good introduction: What is D&D.).
Riding and roleplaying: an odd combination, right? But both are niche hobbies that require a serious time commitment and both attract a certain type of person . . . so I decided to give it a go.
I already started riding a few years back and that has been fun and fulfilling, but it hasn't created much socializing outside of my time at the barn. The barn is an hour away, and the people who meet there for riding and camaraderie live in various directions from that central point. We are all busy and further socializing seems unlikely to happen.
That left D&D. I played many, many hours in college and enjoyed it immensely. My friends and I formed deep bonds, both within the game and in real life; we ate meals together, threw parties together, and went to events like the local Renaissance Faire together. Then the centrifugal forces of graduation spun us off into various directions at different intervals. We kept in touch for a while afterwards and although the bond remained, our contacts and visits faded with time as we got busy with jobs, marriages, children, and all the details of everyday life. This was years ago, before email, texting, and social media made keeping in touch so much more doable.
Deciding to pick up the game again, I reached out to my local game store. They were nice people and welcomed me with sound advice about how to get started again. The game has changed a lot since I played in the early 1980s! Their help was very welcome, but that circumstance didn't really gel. There were no beginner-friendly games starting and there were no openings in their existing games, so I looked further afield. About an hour away I found a game store with a very active, beginner-friendly community and signed up immediately to participate.
That turned out to be a fantastic choice! I immediately met a game master who plays exactly the way I liked to play, lo, those many years ago, and several other players who also clicked with his approach. Suddenly I was involved in a Tuesday night game and a Saturday night game, every other week . . . and my D&D life ramped up to an exciting, enjoyable level.
Things have shifted a little since then. The Tuesday night game ran into some personality conflicts in-game and in real life, and imploded (not uncommon in D&D, which is ultimately a game about people); fortunately, a different Tuesday night game has taken its place.
I'm also playing in a Saturday night game and having a ball, especially considering how 7 strangers can coalesce into a fun-loving, adventurous party that laughs a lot and also gets things done! We have a wonderful mix of characters and an exciting storyline that challenges us to be heroes every time we play. It's everything I wanted in returning to the game.
As part of this exploration, I tried on-line play but it didn't work as well for me. I enjoy the camaraderie of sitting around a table with friends, without a lot of tech stuff to navigate. I'm also playing occasionally on Sundays, in a very high level game, but time conflicts are starting to phase that game out.
I haven't made any strong friends yet, but I'm definitely getting a dose of in-person interaction that enhances my life. I've also discovered that some people at work also play, which gives a different dimension to our water-cooler talk.
Overall, I'm extremely glad that I took the plunge to start playing again. A little reinvention is good for the soul, you know?
