My last post is so hopeful, so excited, so full of promise of posts to come.I remember thinking: If nothing else, this class will at least generate some posts. I suppose it would, and will, generate posts when I get to attend another class.  Yes, we were supposed to meet every other Wednesday, but since that first meeting there have been at least two weather delays, and an out of town conference for me.  I’m really looking forward to attending class again this week. Since I missed the last session, I almost feel like we will need to do introductions all over again.

About that conference … It was pretty great! As a board member for the organization I had quite a few meetings to attend, but it was wonderful to see old friends and colleagues, and to make new acquaintances. The keynote speaker, Dr. Vershawn Ashanti Young, was amazing, and I’m still processing and learning from his presentation. Our homework from his presentation was to watch Dr. Joni Jones speech about 6 Rules for Allies. Take 13 minutes from your day and watch it now. I’m figuring out how to incorporate this into various staff meetings now.

After the conference I got very ill, some sort of stomach thing that kept me out of work on Monday, which was not great because then we lost Wednesday – Friday to snow days. (I refuse to name winter storms.) Every year in NC we have a snow day or two, many of them unnecessary concessions to the weather hype. Every few years, however, there is a real snow event, one in which there is both an actual accumulation of snow, and the usual layer of ice. This was one of those years.  Lots of snow on the ground, then ice, then snow, then melt, which leads to more ice.  Most of it has cleared out by now, but as I trudged around to the grocery store and coffee shop the last couple of days, I found myself missing the mid-west. It is crazy, but I always feel energized by a good snow. It’s probably just because they are so infrequent around here. I’m sure the first time I actually had to deal with a full winter’s worth of snow again I would not feel so enamored of it all. For the last couple of days, however, I was able to feel that warm, fuzzy, nostalgia for a day of bright and glorious winter sun shining off a blanket of freshly fallen snow.

Part of the hope, excitement, and promise of those early New Year’s posts is that I felt like this would be a year of changes.  Also, I thought I knew what those changes were likely to be. Turns out I might have been counting chickens before the eggs hatched.  I still expect there to be some significant changes in my life this year; now, however, I’ve learned to keep those expectations a little more vague. None of which is really meant to be vague with you, dear reader. I just really don’t know what will happen. I just know that last year contained some pretty big closures – graduating, turning 40, etc, which means that there are spaces to fill in my life and we all know how the universe hates a vacuum.