Punchy Protagonist

 Normalize calling people out when they are acting like jerks. Hear me out. I know that we live in a society where, around every corner, there is someone just waiting to be offended about something. I also know there is something to be said about picking your battles. Being a teacher, I inadvertently stumbled into knowing a lot about this. In my mother's words, sometimes you have to decide whether it's "a hill you want to die on." I have also noticed that we live in a society that seems to be devoid of the concept of consequences. It is "easier," in whatever fictional rationality some people have made, to let individuals be. I have heard a phrase along the lines of people "living their truth." People are under the impression that they and they alone inhabit the center of the universe. Everyone and everything revolves around them, their opinions, and what they had for breakfast that morning. Nothing is as important as whatever is in that precious li...

 I have not posted about losing my beloved corgi, Hardy. I have mentioned it, fully and completely planning on dedicating a post to him, but I have not. I could not. Every time my fingers began to type, the lump in my throat would come back and I would have to relive that day over in my head. Even as I type now, my fingers shake and feel as though they might cramp. Blogging is usually so cathartic for me, so therapeutic. There are so many times that the only way I can truly express my feelings and thoughts is through writing. I am hopeful that as I type these, I will gain some sort of relief or release. Because, as of this moment, the knots in my stomach and throat say otherwise. When I close my eyes some nights, I can still see his little lifeless body on our bedroom floor. After a day of coaxing him from under the porch and trying several suggested treatments, he passed in a place that he felt comfort, a place where he spent so many nights when he would get too hot in the bed wit...

 These kinds of things just don't happen... around here. to us. to people like that. right now. this soon. Versions of this same sad song seem to play on repeat.... when they found her car in the river when I got the text about her brother when I saw the picture of us on the memorial slideshow when he text them where to find his body when she called my mother sobbing when 9 years did not seem like enough time I have thought this all too often lately. I am not naïve. I have been privy to such things for years. I know they exist. But now, left to my own devices, they haunt me. In such volume and so close to this heart of mine...I did not imagine. The truth is none of us know. What is happening. What will happen.  I should have seen the signs. I could have done more. What could I have changed? Why? Darkness is not my friend. Neither is solitude. My tears seem to cleanse what my heart wants to leak out, but it does not cleanse my mind. Not of the thoughts of what was. Not of the t...

This video shows a sad day in Arkansas as a brightly-clad crowd stood on the steps of the Arkansas Capitol Building belting out "Seasons of Love" in protest of a new proposed bill. Senate Bill 43 l in (and I regrettably say this at the moment) my home state wants to limit what they are calling "drag" performances, putting them in the same category as strip clubs and putting many restrictions on places that hold these performances. They cannot be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, etc, and prohibits them from public property. It would also prohibit those under 18 from watching. The incredibly vague definition of drag performances in the bill keeps throwing around the term "prurient interest," which I would love to pretend I did not have to Google...but I did. Apparently, it means "having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters." So there you go.  I read in another article that, somehow I suppose in an attempt to "make it b...

I recently lost my sweet Corgi that has been by my side for nine years. There is an imprint on my heart that will always be his and I have so many memories with him. The loss still stings, but he was so very loved. But, this post is not about him.  This post is about our other fur kid, Rip. Before he was my husband, my other half decided that he wanted another dog, which I had no objection to. Growing up, we always ended up with more than one dog at once so it was nothing to me. He was set on a heeler or a basset hound. I figured we would discuss and search, maybe even find someone we knew that had some puppies, and go pick them out a little while after we got married.  As usual with me, life had slightly different plans. A week or so before we got married, my husband came home with the cutest little 8-week-old blue heeler puppy.  In the midst of the stress of finalizing the wedding and the changes of moving a husband in, now we were adding a puppy. I had not had a puppy ...

"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...