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An Open Letter to My Friends and Family

Dear Loved Ones,

I know I have seemed a bit different lately. You must have noticed it, because a change like this doesn't happen gradually. It has only been a matter of a couple of months, though for some of you it may seem longer. A distraction here, a bit of inattention there, a casual remark that seems out of character. I want you to know I can't help it, and ask you to bear with me while I see this thing through. I expect it to be behind me a couple of months from now.

You have to understand that the foundation for this has been laid my entire life. From the time I was a little girl, I knew this might happen someday. Honestly, I didn't think it would take this long, or that I'd be this old when it did. I guess if I'm honest with myself, I've been anticipating it all along. I knew I'd be affected by it, but I guess even I didn't realize to what extent.

Certain days are worse than others. I'm getting through work days fine, but the weekends are tough. Saturdays... well, just forget about it! I'm just asking all of you who love me to bear with me, and support me, and forgive me if I forget myself at times.

But it's just not every year the Auburn Tigers make a run for the NCAA football championship!

WAR EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some days are more equal than others.

Got to work and the call center's phones went down -- not just a brief little outage, but a statewide problem at the phone company. Three hours later, we're still down and I am the one who has to explain to our customers why their call center isn't working.

Excuse me while I try to avoid a nervous breakdown.

(I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.)

Maybe just ONE bad hair day?

No, no bad hair days allowed. (But if there were going to be one, it would have been today.)

Instead, I'm going to list some blessings:

I have an amazing family and I love them dearly.

What went wrong today could have been worse and it's being fixed with little or no permanent ill consequences. (Whew.) And if it couldn't have been fixed, I would have gotten help from another quarter.

We get to go on a much-needed vacation at the end of this month.

I still have a job -- even if someone did accidentally take me out of the HR system.

Long, difficult days like this one come to an end, and the next day is almost always much better!

HGTV

My sweetie loves to watch HGTV. It doesn't really matter what show is on -- if it's HGTV, it's all good. (I, on the other hand, find most of the design shows extremely annoying.)

This is dangerous for me because any viewing of HGTV puts the quiet stability of my home in serious jeopardy.

The targets of the moment are the mantle in the living room ("It's just this big, white THING in the middle of the wall!"), the paint in the upstairs office ("It's just wrong!"), the kitchen table (I'm not really sure what the objection is to the adorable kitchen table, but it's on the hit list), and the bed in the master bedroom ("What would you think about hanging the back of a sofa on the wall as a headboard?").

I'm not into changing things up just for the fun of it. I don't mind doing household projects, but it's not my favorite activity. I'm the kind of person who's perfectly happy to leave the furniture right where it is. That way, I don't break my toes on it in the middle of the night. But these things make my sweetie happy -- and that makes for a happy home, in general.

I'm leaving town next week. Who knows what will be hanging on the wall where the mantle is now?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Colorado has the weirdest weather!

Thursday it was so warm and sunny I drove my convertible with the top down. Friday it snowed like crazy. Today it's sunny again, and the snow is melting.

I never know how to dress.

A New Job in August

That's what the psychic told us today when my spouse asked her when I was getting a new job. On the radio, no less. I just hope nobody from my current job was listening! It's our radio show, so the chances are anyone listening knew exactly who I am.

The job I have isn't so bad -- I'm just underpaid and over... well, over-pestered. A big raise and for the not-my-boss-but-thinks-he-is guy to back off a bit would make it fine. I get to take over programs (especially slightly struggling ones), transition them, and manage them. It's not dull and it keeps me on my toes. But it does NOT pay what it should, or what I'm accustomed to earning, so I am ready to let it go when the perfect job appears.

But in the meantime, I plan not to advertise that I'm looking on the radio again.

Snow what?

It's snowing outside right now, and that makes me happy. I love snow. I love watching it fall. I love playing in the snow. I love how clean and perfect everything looks when covered in a blanket of pristine white.

I grew up in Alabama, just far enough south that when it started snowing in the state, we'd wind up with freezing rain instead, lose our power for a week, and watch as the owners of the auto body shops in the area became wealthy. The ice was gorgeous, too, in its own way. The first morning after a night of freezing rain was amazing, as we'd wake up to a world encased in glass, glistening in the pale light. That was always fun until we decided to try to walk outside. We didn't know how to ice skate.

When I was in first grade, we had the only real snow I remember growing up. Our little town got 13 inches! The whole city shut down for a few days. My sister's boyfriend came to get us and we went to the arboretum and I got a piggyback ride through snow with no footprints (except those left by the squirrels). It was magical, and I've been hooked ever since.

Now I live where snow doesn't mean snow days, and people just go about their daily lives unless we get so much we're measuring it in feet instead of inches. It still makes me excited and full of anticipation. I mean, even if the forecast doesn't call for it, we might get two feet, right? A bad day making snowmen beats a good day at work any time!