Words to live by...

"A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others." ~Author Unknown

"A good wife is her husband's biggest fan -- no matter how crazy he is." ~Me


"May God give you.. For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer." ~ Irish Blessing

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Find that smile

This week was long.

Despite it only being a four-day workweek, and an entire morning of one of those days was spent watching the inauguration, it felt long. The kids were a bit crazed, and with the weather so outstanding, it was hard to spend all day inside working. I'm sure they felt the same way about spending all day in school learning. I had my mid-year evaluation scheduled for Thursday afternoon, requiring me to put together my professional portfolio for the year. That got postponed to Friday morning. Friday morning, it got postponed to Monday. Which is fine, but I am one to worry and stress about these things until they are over. I also started my grad class Thursday night, and despite getting out an hour and a half early from a three hour class, that made Thursday very long too.

I tried to get out when I could. Chris joined me on a very refreshing ride home from work on Tuesday. Spending an hour and a half on the bike to get home is much better than 45 minutes in traffic and then an hour on the blasted trainer. I got to class early on Thursday and sat outside before class, watching the sunset, and feeling horribly out of place on a college campus. Seriously, it hasn't been THAT long since my good old college days, but being back to the world of smoking and texting made me feel really old. I found myself slinking back into my old shell, wishing I had a book to read or something to ease the awkwardness of just sitting.

I had a great night with my friends last night in Ft. Collins, eating some interesting food and watching a pretty terrible movie. But it's always fun to get out with them and laughs were in abundance as usual.

Today I slept in. A lot. Then went about my day walking the dog and then going on a ride... the actual purpose of this post. The weather was nearly perfect. Somewhere along the path I noticed that I was smiling. The stupid uncontrollable kind of smile that finds its way onto your face without noticeable provocation. It felt so good to be out, doing something I know how to do, working hard, listening to some tunes, enjoying the day.

It felt good.
I rode about ten miles, racing the the batteries on my GPS, before stopping for a mid-ride snack. I sat by College Pond, ate some delicious peanut butter pretzel MoJo bar, and took some pictures of my pretty bike.

And one of me. Not a good one, but does show off the fact that my new Melenzana hat that I won in the snow race makes an awesome under-helmet hat.
Before Chris left for Camp Lynda this weekend, he put on my new present. Pink seatpost clamp!! SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET.
Trucky The Ducky wanted to go swim in the pond, but she had to settle for the shoreline instead.
After relaxing for a bit, enjoying the sunshine while the Camp Lynda-ers were fighting the rain and mud, I headed back onto the path and rode the 10ish miles home. I rode hard most of the ride and it felt good to shake some cobwebs out of my legs.

Random thoughts from my ride:
* I LOVE the new shiny pink stuff on my bike. It makes it fun and girly. However, I think the beauty might be attracting the prairie dogs and mesmerizing them with awesomeness, because I nearly ran over several that were just sitting there staring up at me with awe.
* I need to find a way to get a new ipod. Somehow the "sing-along-relaxing-songs" that are on my ghetto shuffle to get me through the drive home from work do not work well for bike rides.
* It's fun to pass decked out roadies on my fat-tired single speed. I smile. They sneer.
* Frisbee golf looks fun, I'd be terrible, but I should try it sometime.

Tomorrow is supposed to snow a bit, so the plan is to do homework, catch up on housework that has slipped without a house-husband around to take care of everything, and hopefully make some fudge then proceed to try my hardest not to eat the entire thing alone. Yum.

Happy weekend to everyone! I hope you find your smile somewhere this weekend.

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