Hello, Fellow Travelers!

It's been a good long while since I posted. I can only blame work, exhaustion and Bernie. Oh, yeah, and Facebook.

Yep, Facebook is the place where I post most of my trivial thoughts these days. It's also where I have the kind of three-second interactions that make us believe we're REALLY connected and staying in touch. But there's a good part of me that doesn't really believe it. At least I hope that our personal connections are worthy of more than three-second posts. I think we're worth more than that, don't you?

Anyway, I don't know if anyone still comes around. I did get a call from my friend Buddie, who reads but never posts a response. And I apologize here that I haven't called back, Buddie. I will.

It has been an interesting season, this winter. Especially this month of February. I've had countless banquets to attend, including one tonight for the Teacher of the Year being held by the school district. I've been to some awards banquets where I've actually won some awards for my work. That's been very nice -- but I have to say the quality of banquet food this year has varied WIDELY from pretty yummy to totally inedible. There was one banquet where none of the meals served were eaten because the entree was tough enough to make shoes for all the Haitian children. (Not my line, but it certainly describes that tough hunk of beef that probably got recycled.)

The best news of late is that Bernie the Wonder Eskimo Dog and I started dog training classes last night. He is a whiz! A genius! He really did so well and I am very proud. He can do "Heel!" and "Sit!" like a champion. I look forward to practicing with him more. I'm also a little sore today from spending an hour walking around the armory listening to the instructors who had us practice these two commands. I didn't think about me getting so much exercise from Bernie's class!

In the "Nothing New" category, I'm still working far more hours than I would like, but kind of feel like it's a hopeless fact of life. I daydream about calling in and taking a few days off to hibernate in a quiet hotel with clean sheets, a TV with cable and room service. All I want to do is sleep and turn into a sofa spud, just for a little while!

I am looking forward to spring's arrival in the near future. We've had way more snow here in north central Oklahoma than usual. One nice thing is that the weather provides plenty of excuses for dreaming of a new life in the spring. The anticipation is pretty nice. What will it be? A vacation? A new flower garden? (Not with Bernie around!) Will I finally paint the kitchen and dining room?

We'll see how it all turns out. Maybe I'll just buy some new stretchy pants after all these banquets!