~ Breathing ~

Hey!  Got my entry mailed to the Bay Team USDAA show in late January!  Two classes Saturday, and one on Sunday.

This weekend we were going to get an early start on re-training Riff 's weave-entries.  Per LP's suggestion, I bought four white plastic fence posts - the kind that has a little step on the side, so you can poke them into the ground easily.  I marked one of them so I could quickly set them up at 24" intervals.  Maybe I should add a canvas strap or something that approximates the metal stand of regular weaves, too. 

The plan was to drive around local parks until we found a comfortable spot for a few minutes of 2x2 training...assuming there won't be hoards of New Year's Resolution people jogging everywhere we go.  I prepared by studying my old Susan Garrett DVD work pages and notes, and looking at videos.  Tried to get a private lesson scheduled with LP, too, because in the past I've had trouble with Riff getting way too frantic and thought-less, while playing 2x2.  I'm hoping we can figure out what to do about it, if it comes up again.   

But now I'm sitting next to a Kleenex box, my head all stuffed up, wishing someone would cut it off.  Not really.  It's just....I don't get colds - hardly ever - never, even!  Maybe once a year....except I don't remember having one in all of 2011.  Haven't caught a cold in a coon's age, and I'm not a good patient and where the heck did this nasty thing come from anyway?! 

For a couple of days I tried to just ignore it, but it's grabbed my chest and made it hard to breathe if I walk around too much.  Breathing is a good thing, and I hate to miss it. 

Riff doesn't understand.  He gives me that big-energy border collie stare whenever I sneeze, and he's wondering if playing with the Kleenex box is as much fun as it looks. 

"Not fun," I keep telling him, but he doesn't believe me.   He wants to play. 

Maybe I should've come home before midnight on New Year's Eve...but we were having fun at our friend's annual dinner party.  The dynamics of the party have changed quite a bit over the years.  Easing away from martini-infused 'whooping-it-up,' we've all mellowed into playing a number of games after dinner, just keeping each other awake until midnight.  We're "old farts" now, but we manage.  We work together to finish a jigsaw puzzle before midnight - easily accomplished most years...but not this one!  We play Tetris on the TV, Scrabble in the kitchen, or just chat out on the back deck, by the warm bbq....


 Perhaps I spent too much time on the deck.  It was very cold outside...but so warm by the fire...and the company was excellent. 

At any rate, we easily made it to midnight.  Then we all grabbed wooden spoons and pots and pans and ran up and down the sidewalk, making lots of noise and yelling about the New Year...the neighbors totally expect it, after twenty years or so....and they love it!  Or so we tell ourselves, once back inside with a glass of bubbly.  This year we ended up forming a big circle in the kitchen, making a few toasts.  I love our old theatre friends - we're all so comfortable together.

Now, if I could only figure out how to be comfortable with this cold....

At least I'm getting it over with nice and early in the year.  So....Yay!!    (?!)