Happiness and Sadness

First off. I had a great race last night. I am still walking like somebody beat me, but apparently my walking muscles and my riding muscles aren’t the same. I came unattached from the group on the last lap, but I was up there when the bell rang. I actually moved up with two to go, because I found myself slipping back. That took some energy, but it was kind of fun.

As I said in my feedback I sent to the gym for the Resolve Your Resolution competition, last night I found myself asking different questions. It wasn’t just, “Oh goodness, how long is this again? Hang on, just hang on…” It was more like, “Hmm, we’re coming up on this turn, I want to be on this side.” Or, “I need to get ready to step on it after this turn when we hit the tail wind, I’m going to follow that guy’s wheel around.” In other words… I was actually racing. It was awesome. 

Second Thing. The paper I have been working on. Let me frame this out some. This paper was on my dissertation work. We have recast it and extended it to make it interesting to a different community than I had, in theory, worked in during grad school. But, I like where it is, and I wish it would have had this direction from the very beginning. That being said… finishing my dissertation and defending was a weird and tough part of my life. I mean, let’s be honest, tough is a very relative term, I’m looking for no sympathy here. I still got to work in a nice office and with a nice computer and all, so I mean… I’m lucky and appreciative. But, emotionally it was straining for various reasons.

I hadn’t worked on Lagniappe much since then. On and off, but not really pushing on it. I couldn’t really. It was like hearing a song on the radio that you used to listen to when you were in the midst of teen angst, and all of a sudden you feel sort of weird. Oh, is that just me? Anyway… yeah, it was like that.

But today I submitted the paper. Finally, a full paper on the subject. Now, of course, it still has to go through the reviewing process. A submittal in no way guarantees acceptance, far from it. But just getting this paper out the door, and being proud of it in the process, is a big win.

Third thing. Tomorrow we leave for a 7 day cruise on the world’s largest cruise ship. Carrie and I are both very excited. I know that cruises are a love’em or hate’em sort of thing. Carrie and I have never been on one. But what I am the most excited about is that it is 7 days of not having to think about stuff. I don’t have to worry about how we’re going to get somewhere, I don’t have to worry about finding a hotel room, I don’t even have to worry about where we are going to eat. It’s all planned out. Sometimes the adventure and mystery is fun. But right now, I need the relaxation. 

And as a bonus, I got up early this morning to check us in to our flights and found out that we got upgraded to first class all the way to Ft. Lauderdale. Woohoo!

Not to end on a down note, but all these wonderful things that I am very blessed and thankful for are happening at a sad time. The oil spill that is now hitting Louisiana’s extremely fragile coast is heart-breaking and infuriating all at the same time. My home state didn’t need another tragedy. My hopes and prayers are out there just hoping that some good news will break on this. But right now, it just seems to get worse.