Get To Know Blogger Ginny Rayne in 2023

As a millennial female in a long-term and stable relationship, I’ve had my fair share of people asking when they could expect a little bundle of joy to arrive.  And I’ve had to search for an OB/GYN doctor for nearly a decade to find someone will to remove my perfectly healthy fallopian tubes (if you know, you know).

I don’t hate children; I LOVE kids. I have several nieces and nephews that I can spoil the s*** out of. And I have absolutely nothing against anyone who decides to have children, or who wants children in the future. The decision and ability to have/not have is a very personal decision that each individual person has to make for themselves and NO ONE should reserve ANY judgement on that decision. 

It is not my responsibility to repopulate the world, help mold the next generation, or to carry on my (or anyone else’s) last name. I’ve had some rude comments from friends, random strangers, and first-dates. I live my life authentically, so I have no problem including my decisions in everyday discussions, but my life legacy should not be (to quote one such encounter) “to make sure my husband is fed and to provide him children to carry on his last name.” There are a lot of reasons that ultimately led me to decide I didn’t want kids, and maybe that’s a post for another day; I just don’t think I should be in charge of any single person’s life. 

Just a side-note: the Boyfriend is in full-agreement and knows that I won’t be changing my mind in the future and that I can’t have children.

a little child-free humor 😛 

My first two fur babies were stray cats that arrived at my mother’s house randomly. They needed a home before Pennsylvania winter settled in and I had just the place. A couple years went by and the boyfriend at the time wanted a dog. So I agreed that we could get a dog.

I’ve always wanted to adopt a Pit Bull; they get a bad rap and are literally the sweetest dogs in the world. I figured we would be able to give any Pit Bull we adopted the love and attention it would need to gain our trust and we could change people’s negative opinion about them, or at least the opinions of those closest to us. Working with our local shelter, we found a deaf Pit Bull mix, heavily abused and distrusting of everything. And let me tell you, she is the such a ray of sunshine to everyone who meets her. Gaining her trust was a long process, full of patience on both hers and our parts. But once we did, her whole world opened up. Training is and always will be an ongoing thing and she loves going on adventures.

Our last two fur babies are two black kitties that were the Boyfriend’s from a prior relationship. They are cuddle bugs and fit in super nicely with the family.

With us both working from home, and our love of animals, we’ve recently started the process in looking for fur baby number six to save a life AND for our dog to have someone to play with. Our dog is currently a little dog-selective, and having not ever had a good experience playing with other dogs (since she was previously abused by dogs and humans), we are taking the process slowly and working with some fabulous dog rescue centers in our area to find her furever friend.

I had been an on/off vegetarian vegan for most of my adult life. I’d always be back to eating meat because 1) my family would refuse to acknowledge I didn’t eat meat and 2) sometimes being a vegetarian can be expensive and time-consuming, especially as a newbie. 

For as long as I can remember I have always thought of the animal behind the meat I was eating and it was hard to stomach it. A favorite dish to make of my mom’s is Roast. I would constantly think about the poor cow and how I would feel if someone slaughtered me to crock-pot my a**. Same thing with like bacon and even chicken wings. I couldn’t get my head over it, so I fully transitioned to a vegetarian/vegan diet a couple years ago.

Culinarily, I think vegetarian/vegan dishes are more flavorful and, for the most-part, healthier. I love playing around in the kitchen and creating new dishes. During pre-pandemic travel (for my corporate job), I loved going to new cities and discovering different vegan dishes and flavor profiles.

Reading is my super power. Not really, but it is one of my favorite hobbies. I love getting sucked into a new book. I read all different types from non-fiction personal development/growth to young adult fantasy. Fantasy is still, as an adult, my favorite genre to read and the books I most gravitate towards. I’ll try to provide my favorite book recommendations as I find really good ones. 

My friends and I have a book goal this year of 52 books, approximately 1/week. I think I’m on-track so far. Plus a book club is a good remote activity, so it’s been a good way to see friends and stay connected in the current pandemic environment.

All of the hardwood in our house was hand-crafted by yours-truly. Seriously, I ripped down plywood, sanded, laid, and stained ALL the hardwood in our house. AND it is one of my favorite projects to-date.

I have a my eye on a beautiful table saw to add to my power tool collection. This will take my project plans to the next level. Sometimes I’m sure the Boyfriend thinks I’m crazy and that I make projects out of everything when it is probably waaaay easier to buy the solution instead of creating it. 

However, I’m a big believer in using what I already have, instead of it going into a landfill; so why not update our mudroom bench to include what I want, instead of buying a new one??

I mentioned this a little bit in the vegetarian comment above. It is so much fun for me to think about food textures and flavors and see what will go well together. Yesterday, we made vegan Mac and Cheese and it was missing some of the creaminess that the Boyfriend and myself look for in Mac and Cheese. Soooo, I added some homemade guac for that creaminess we were looking for AND it turned our fantastic. I will definitely remember that for next time.

So much gratitude to the Boyfriend for loving me and letting me experiment. Apparently,  he’s either an experienced liar or he’s not hated all the food I’ve handed him. We do like to discuss new dishes to see what we can do better next time.

It started as a bucket-list activity during the year I was working on finding my happiness. And from there it became an actual hobby. The first time I dove, it was a little nerve-wracking and I was concerned that I would end up peeing when we jumped from the plane.

What actually happened was one of the greatest experiences of my life. You free-fall for seconds (depending on how high you jump from), and then you pull your parachute and get to see the world from a beautiful place as you slowly glide back to your landing zone. 

I am/was actually working on getting my skydiving license so that I can jump by myself. With the current pandemic, I put that on-hold for a little bit since so many of us have to be in a tiny little plane in order to jump. I will definitely be getting back to it as soon as this pandemic is not the first thing on everyone’s mind.