Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout

Every superhero has an origin story. Well, Chad and I aren't superheroes (although sometimes I think Chad comes close), and we aren't even a celebrity super couple. But if we were a super couple we would have a pretty awesome name ("Chamy"). So in honor of the recent 25th anniversary of our first date, here is our origin story. (Okay, as Chad pointed out an origin story has to be in the third person but I can't easily write in that perspective). Chad and I met at the beginning of our sophomore year of college at UW-Eau Claire, when he was assigned to train me to cover the Student Senate for the student newspaper. Chad's official title was "Senior Reporter" so I thought he was a senior and was immediately impressed by this worldly older man. Even though Chad wasn't actually a senior classman, he did exude confidence. At the first Student Senate meeting we went to, I was trying to act cool and impress Chad, so I followed his lead and didn't...

I tend to overbook myself. Or maybe that's just a slightly euphemistic way to say I have bad time management skills, and waste way too much time procrastinating on Facebook. Whatever the cause, a clear symptom of my condition is that I'm frequently late and dashing about in a frenzy. Most Sunday mornings I need to leave church as quickly as I possibly can to fit in some time to run errands or do laundry or make up some time at work or attend to whatever domestic or personal emergency I've created during a week of neglecting real life obligations. But not today. As I begin an official (if not necessarily voluntary) break from performances for at least a couple of months, today's to-do list was a lot more realistic than it's been for a while. So I purposefully took some time to hang out and be social at coffee hour after church today, and am amazed by how just taking a little extra time to chat with a few people makes be feel more connected to our community. ...

Argh! It's been several weeks since my last post. I must have the dreaded blogger's block. Actually, I don't feel any less inspired than usual. I may be even over-inspired. I have, what seems at the time, a great shiny thought, but it's quickly replaced by the next sparkly idea, and by the time I'm able to put fingers to keyboard, all the thoughts and ideas are a jumbled mess. I'm lacking the time and focus to pull some ideas together and put them into words. Now my standards for this blog are obviously not that high...my whole point is just to throw stuff out there and not worry about it too much. But even given that forgiving framework, I still need to form my thoughts into something. And I'm finding the longer I go between the posts, the more daunting this task seems. A friend even asked me about this blog tonight. Not in a "oh my god, I am so desperately waiting for another nugget of your wisdom when will you post next?!" but in a "Hey, ...