Melting Away

Happy Mardi Gras!
In Kansas – I have 3 hours and 30 minutes to eat meat and drink alcohol. That’s because at the stroke of midnight, Ash Wednesday begins.

This week, 50-degree weather and plenty of sunshine melted winter in Topeka.

Today, it felt pleasant to walk Daisy in our backyard. I’m happy she didn’t find any mud puddles to investigate. I don’t think our cozy apartment could withstand a puppy bath. Right now, Daisy is snoring on my blue chair from Cost Plus at Jack London Square.

Daisy misses Mark. Sometimes she’d run to the bedroom and sit by the door, waiting for him to come out. Other times, she would sit on the bottom ledge of his desk, waiting to place her puppy chin on his knee.

I don’t blame her. I’m feeling empty without my better-half. He’s back in Berkeley for work.

My mind wanders without another human being to bounce off my thoughts and observations. I think about planning a trip to the Big Easy and partying for Mardi Gras. Someday. Then I realize as long as I’m working in broadcast news, Feburary Sweeps will lock me into my work schedule.

I think about heading somewhere tropical for December. Maybe I can work out a month long vacation to Hawaii or Puerto Rico. Then I remember how my stiff loans for two universities tend keep me landlocked.

I wonder what will happen at the end of these two weeks. It feels like everything is in flux right now, in my life and my career. At times, it feels like I’m lame duck.

While Mark is away, I’m trying to keep our Christmas tree alive. He took down the lights and now it’s trying to survive as a table plant by the window. It needs lot’s of water and it’s managed to escape Daisy’s nosy attentions, so far. If it could make it to the Spring, I’d re-pot it and let it thrive on our balcony.

If I make it to the end of these two weeks, it will feel like Spring for me when Mark’s plane touches down at MCI.