A DRB blogging breakie break

This week will be a busy one - we have a work conference Tuesday through Thursday and I begin classes again on Wednesday night. Then, on Saturday I am riding in a 12 hour solo "race" at Papago Park to train for the 24 hour race. So, I think I am going to take a week long break from DRB.

While my schedule leaves Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights open to toss something on ye' ole' blog, for some reason I am thinking I probably won't. But hey, maybe I will - I like to keep my readers in suspense!

A week from tomorrow is MLK Jr. Day and we have the day off of work. So, I am confident I will be posting something then. Until then, refer to paragraph two, sentences one and two.

Here are some random thoughts to close down the weekend:

RANDOM ONE - We had a little scare late this week when we heard (by the complete random chance of Omar's foster mom running into Omar's caseworker's boss), that the state of Colorado had not yet received our home study.

We were blown away; we had completed our home study in October and thought Colorado had everything they needed. Well, after several phone calls - and can you believe everyone I need to talk to actually answered their phones - I discovered that we first had to receive our foster care license from Arizona before our home study could be forwarded to Colorado. It turns out our license was hung up on a background check through the state of Ohio.

Well, my phone calls prompted the Arizona licensing office to redouble their efforts and on Friday we received our official license! Woo hoo! Our home study can now be forward to Colorado - phew!

RANDOM TWO - I submitted some poems to a blog I found randomly - www.lostbeatpoetry.blogspot.com - run by a published beat poet, Ron Cervero. He liked the poems I submitted and published several.

I was feeling very good that I had received my first "publication", and still am, except for the comments by several readers who thought my poems, in the words of one commenter, "insult the mastery, art, and beauty of poetry." Sheesh, hard core! I can smile about it now, especially since the publisher of the blog, Ron, emailed me very nice comments and told me to ignore the critics! Thanks Ron!

And, being honest with myself, if you read the comments on the poem, Circles (a poem which I really like), they are actually things I have thought before - that my writing is just a lot of quick thought that comes to my head and doesn't have much for formal structure and training. It is still on my list of "to-do's" to take a creative writing or poetry class because I think I could benefit from formal training. So, while I think the comments were a little harsh, they had merit! Although I disagree with the commenter that my poem lacked depth or a point - I think it has both.

RANDOM THREE - I rode 45 miles today in training for the 24 hour race! Woo hoo! All told, this week I probably rode close to 100 miles! I am wiped out and will probably take off most of this week and not doing any training or any heavy training in preperation for the 12 hour race on Saturday I mentioned. While it is technically a "race", I won't be racing it, I will be attempting to survive the 12 hours on my single speed. It is actually a charity ride for foundation honoring a young girl who passed away from multiple disabilities. The money from the ride goes to programs that provide children with disabilities athletic opportunities. So, I get to train and help a good cause! It's called the 12 hours of Pain and Purpose - a very apt name!

RANDOM FOUR - I have been downloading tracks or MLK Jr. and Barack Obama speeches and might download others to listen to on my Ipod. Some really cool ones set the speeches to electronic music which adds a whole extra vibe. I listened to "I have a dream" during my big ride today - quite inspiring!

RANDOM FIVE - I am running out of randoms...I love our back yard and all our plants - I have put a lot of hard work into our yard and plants and they are healthy, full and beautiful. I love the work. Just puttering away, it's fun! I never thought I would be a putterer, but I love knowing what I am doing is helping the plants live and be healthy and creating a wonderful environment full of green life! Half of the plants in the yard and in our house are inherited and half are ones I have planted on my own, but I love them all! They make me happy =) I know living in Phoenix sometimes gets me down, but I would have a hard time ever leaving our yard. And the trails - gosh, it is so beautiful out on the trails, I love it! They would be hard to leave too. Friends you can keep in touch with, trails though, they would be hard to call on the phone! Ha!

RANDOM SIX - I am almost through with physical therapy and the nerve pain I was experiencing from my neck down through my shoulders has mostly dissipated! I am so thrilled to being back on a healthy track and credit my doctor for recommending PT, my physical therapists attention and hard work, along with my Chiropractor who has given me great adjustments and introduced to me the chiropractic pillow! I sleep so much more comfortably thanks to this pillow and know the support it provides has helped me recover. I highly recommend YOU get one!

Well, I think that is all for now. Or all I care to write before I head to bed. I wish everyone a wonderful week!