Yeesh, I Apologize

I haven't been around much this month. Maybe y'all have noticed. This is because real life... well, at least "school" life... has kicked up the intensity a notch as the end of the semester comes to a close. Right now, I'm on Thanksgiving break. Although I am making sure to get in my fair share of down time, the giant stack of papers to grade, as well as the paper I know I have to write for one of my own classes, are looming over my head.

I'll tell you what... I am SO ready for this grad school thing to be over. I am so burned out it's insane. I didn't know this level of burn-out existed! I literally don't want to do anything. I've lost all passion and interest in my thesis subject. Teaching is a bit of a chore. I'm just so tired. Ugh.

Okay, whiny moment over. Sorry about that :)



At least I have the dogs to brighten my day. They are totally my saving grace right now. Agility (and herding... though I haven't been out to Dianne's as much as I'd like this fall) has been a welcome distraction to the drudgery of school. I have really enjoyed building my working relationship with Cedar through learning this agility thing together. She is a blast, and so talented and enthusiastic. Our first trial was unbelievably amazing. Aside from all the winning we did, I was the most pleased with how relaxed Cedar and I managed to stay. Cedar tends to get nervous in new/exciting situations, and I tend to be ultra competitive and pretty intense in competition. But both of us were relaxed, happy, and focused. I hardly ever felt insecure or anxious. It felt like we'd always been competing in agility. Pretty cool. I'm curious to see how we do next year when we start competing in more trials and different organizations.

Some pix from practice yesterday:

















I can't wait to start doing more herding, too. It's been hard to get out to Dianne's regularly with how busy my schedule has been. But I miss it. A lot. And I bet Moss does, too. I love working him on sheep and can't wait to get out and do it more regularly again.





P.S. It's been snowing for the past day or two. We don't have much yet, only a few inches, but more is expected this week, and it's supposed to get really cold. Brr! At least it makes for good photo ops :)

Here's my street yesterday, when it first started snowing:



Here it is this morning:



Some pix of the collies in the snow: