A new year

2011 had a lot of pot holes (make that sink holes) in the road of life for me, but it ended on a high note. I am in a job that I like and those I work for value me.

I am optimistic for 2012, both for myself and for our country.

Life is what you make it. Even when life throws rotten eggs your way, you can find things to be thankful for. For me, it was friends, my health, my home, Molly, my loveable black Lab, and my tenacity in walking through storms.

Our annual cousins reunion is coming up in April. That is something I look forward to all year. I enjoy the drive down and back, watching Spring come alive, since often, on that trip, I leave Rochester with snow and ice on the ground! Seeing dogwood trees blooming in woods along the way is a promise that warm weather will always follow the harsh New York winter. Stopping along the way and hearing that distinct Southern accent among the locals takes me back to my childhood when life was much slower paced than it is now. And laughing when someone eyes my license plate and says, “You a Yankee, huh?” Then there was the time I stopped at a rest area in Alabama and was asked by an elderly gentleman, "What's a Yankee woman doin' way down he-uh all by huhself?"

With Spring and Summer come bike rides, canoe camping trips, local paddling, and cooking outside on my grill. Actually, with the mild winter we are having so far, I just may get in a few grilled steaks between now and Spring!

Life is good!