Punchy Protagonist

"You look tired." "You look stressed." 🐦 These words were uttered twice in one week right in my general direction. I'd rather they farted .  They were followed then by "rough week?" and my favorite, "you look like you're ready for a fight." Maybe I am, Skipper...want to be next on my list? Just in case it is not well-known, the last thing anyone that is tired or stressed wants to hear is that they look as such. This type of comment is only acceptable if you are holding something to help combat that stress or exhaustion. You may not think this is a harmless comment, you may think you are being sincere. But, in reality, you are merely calling attention to something that we are already aware of, and something that we do not want to be. Do people ever stop and think before they point out the obvious that maybe there are reasons behind the disheveled look and the slumped shoulders? Maybe it is temporary....a bad night's sleep or a particu...

 You have seen us. Gathered around the show ring, leaning against the fence.  The has-beens. We may be teaching our own students the skills taught to us years ago. We may be toting around our children, holding halters and reminding them to have fun. We may be helping run the show, wanting the same experiences for youth that we had. We may just be there as spectators or in the ring as open exhibitors. Either way it comes, we are around...and those straight backs and intense stares at the judge used to be us. Just remember, one day we will all be there. We may have traded our Rockies for trouser jeans and our Fatbaby’s for Twisted Xs, but we endure. Not only do we endure, but with years in this industry comes knowledge. Knowledge and experience that can neither be imitated nor replaced. Many very late nights and very early mornings spent with family and people that became family. Losses that were hard to handle and wins that were hard fought for. Similar to the postal service, r...

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. I was talking to a fellow teacher friend of mine recently and we were reflecting on the past school year. The craziness, some funny stories, and the sheer chaos of it all. We discussed teacher shortages and how disrespectful students can be. I repeated something to her that I have said to other family and friends of mine, "when I was in high school, I would not DARE talk to a teacher the way some of these kids talk to me." My friend agreed.  She, I, and many others that I know have come to a conclusion that I am sure is not new...so many of the adolescent attitudes we are seeing, whether good or bad, stem from what they see outside of school and, more importantly, what their home lives teach them.  From what I can tell, we have a society of children, adolescents, and adults that need to listen to a little bit more Aretha Franklin. Maybe on repeat. Our pastor gave a sermon a few Sundays ago about resetting different things in our lives. One was our mouth. I defi...

 For the first time yesterday I admitted something out loud. I was tired, I had a headache, and I was ready to go home. This, unfortunately, seems to be the norm with my job lately. It started in the midst of the chaos that was a pandemic two years ago, and then carried on with the rapid fire and more chaos of trying to make up for that and accommodating all options of last school year. And now we are here again.  Tired. Tired of feeling unappreciated. Feeling like no matter what I do I am not caught up and will definitely never be ahead. Feeling like the inmates are running the asylum. Feeling like my job is 90% conflict resolution and 10% what it should be, and that's on a good day. Feeling like I am fighting an uphill battle and losing miserably. But mostly, I'm just tired. A kind of weary like there's always a weight on my shoulders or another dragon to slay around the corner.  Yesterday, out loud, I said "I could..." and then paused. On most days that phrase ...

 On the eve of my 31st birthday, I have the day off. I have been sitting watching a play I have never seen, "You Can't Take It With You," on a new Blu-Ray player because I broke our other one today while trying to pry the door open with a butter knife.  As I sit here, sipping on my Sonic drink and thinking of what kind of play I could write one day, the thought of friendships come to my mind. When I was at the store buying a new Blu-Ray player, I ran into a woman that I work with that asked me about a friend of mine. She did not know that we knew each other and asked probably the most loaded question for me to answer..."How do you know her?" I explained to her that my friend and I were very close in high school, played basketball together and went to church together. That I had also graduated and been good friends with her husband. We exchanged goodbye pleasantries but I kept thinking about my friend. What I should have answered was "you do not have the tim...

 I had, just a few hours before, posted about good memories and sweet times. I had posted about being where I am and the future and doing things I love. But last night something changed. Something hit me. Maybe it was sleep deprivation, maybe it was the fruity danger in my glass, maybe it was my husband leaving for work. Maybe it was a bad cocktail of a combination of dark thoughts and even darker skies. Last week was so busy that I did not have time to dwell on many emotions, and definitely did not have time to have mixed ones. If I am honest, I am so tired of feeling tired the majority of the time, or on my way to being there. I know it is just not getting over one exhausting event before moving to something "completely different" as Monty Python would put it, but I can also tell that I am not as young as I used to be.  We lost a calf last week.  I had named him Olly because he was born close to my Papaw's birthday. We had to bottle feed him for a while when he was youn...

Small town summers are made around it.  Prizes are won and lost at it. Chris Ledoux and Tim McGraw sang songs about it. That's right. I have survived another year of the county fair. Ever since I was a young tike, I have loved the county fair. When I was younger, I longed to show my cattle, walk around the bright midway lights with my friends, listen to my Papaw's stories of past adventures and vehicles at the car show, and crawl up on the family wagon that we parked arena-side to cheer on the annual PRCA rodeo.  These are parts of the county fair I still enjoy, but they are a little different now.  I watch the same excited and anxious looks I had on the junior's faces as I help them get ready for the livestock show. I cheer them on from the sidelines and offer help and guidance when needed. Instead of getting to miss school, I am now responsible for the ones that do. My family and I show in the open show, a one-night appearance of friendly competition fit in between busy...