First, let it be known that I love to kayak. I’ve kayaked the Snake River rapids.    

Yet here it is: September, and I haven't been in the kayak all summer.  Between what seemed like constant rain and a back injury, I’ve been a homebody.   So when Mel messaged, “Hey, you want to go out in the kayaks tonight?”  

HECK YEAH!  

Back in the days of Obstacle Racing, some of my friends auditioned and were accepted as one of the teams competing in the televised Spartan Ultimate Team Challenge!  That was pretty exciting on its own, but even better when a group of us got paid as extras to be part of the television audience.    

I arrived at college alone in the fall of 1978 with everything I owned stuffed into a paper bag and a rolled-up panda poster under my arm. Most girls’ dorm rooms were plastered with bands, actors, and the latest trends. I had none of that. I didn’t even know what I liked. At home, my room had always been bare except for that one poster—a panda I bought on the 4-H trip to D.C. It was my only possession that felt personal. I taped it to the dorm wall not because it was cute or fashionable, but because without it the space would have been as empty as me.

Aw friends, this might not be so much a post as an update and a peek at how my mind works.  Scary.   

I injured my back (again) in June and started seeing a chiropractic office where someone I knew had great success with their pain and mobility.  So even though I had a trusted chiropractor who worked with me when I was racing, his office was all the way out in Johns Creek.  I let the distance influence my decision in the moment and scheduled nearby with a practice that appeared to have ‘a proven track record’.    

Okay, I already know a bunch of you looked at the title and automatically thought of Physical Education. 

And then some of you need to go to confession because your mind went straight to Premature Ejaculation. 

Well... you're both wrong. Kinda. Physical education was never my favorite either, but that’s not today’s confession.  

Alby proposed on Valentine’s Day, 2023. In my Valentine, he wrote, “How about we go buy you a big ring?” I was so confused; I didn’t think he wanted to get married again. I waited a few days before I even clarified—You want to get me a big diamond at a jewelry store?  

YES, he nodded his head—Yes!  

You know the big diamonds at the store are usually Engagement Rings.

Again, he is smiling and nodding, YES, YES!  

For today’s confession, I invite you to go back in time with me 30 years. I have to write this now while I still remember it.

I might have taken the long path to becoming an adult by dropping out of college for a few years and then going back to finish my degree, after which I moved out of state with no goals other than to start over. I was a server and bartender for maybe 18 months before moving across the country to be a nanny and then landing an entry-level job at a major corporation. My early 30s were spent getting out of the financial mess that student loan bills and starting life on your own can create while earning little money.

Ok, nothing like starting a confession with a confession.   There was an AI trend going around recently saying, ask ChatGPT to describe you to someone you don’t know in a way it would be a warning and post the response here.   Oh, this sounds like fun, I’m in.  Most people had one or two paragraphs—the typical, ‘very nice girl, but don’t make her mad’—yada yada.

You guessed it, Sir Chat thought I needed a dissertation.   Apparently, there is plenty you should be warned about me. Harrumph.