But I Have Not Been Idle....

Feels so good to be behind the keyboard again - at least the half with letters, not numbers. I really learned last year that the blog has to take a hiatus during busy season. I'm typically not coherent enough to write, assuming I can even stay awake long enough after I get home. Most nights I can't.

But I have not been all work. I have not been sitting idly by.

The week of Easter I was in Washington, DC attending a review course and exam. I can now call myself a certified fraud examiner. Three more initials are added behind my name on my business cards. I have one more credential I'd like to earn. Maybe later this year. If I can find the time to study. That's the rub. One of our instructors in the review course noted that we were all there because "Life got in the way".

And that was true. I'd been studying off and on for 18 months. Some people there had received the materials in 2006 and had finally signed up for the course just to help them get it finished. It really did help me focus and I got the job done. All four parts passed and now it is behind me.

I also finished a course for a personal growth opportunity. I started back in the fall and finished it Easter weekend. I learned a lot about a subject matter that was interesting to me and made some positive changes in my personal life.

As a part of that study, I got to marry my best friend. Again.

This time was different. It was the two of us and the priest. Two witnesses and three friends in the congregation. One of whom played wedding photograper with her phone. My underlying theme, no dress no drama.

It certainly would have been nice to have family involved, but, let's face it, most people don't get married on a Tuesday night at 5:30 after work. In the middle of busy season no less. Would not have been practical in the least to have anyone but those few folks there. But the most important person in my world was there and it was a simple service about the two us renewing the vows we first made almost 22 years ago.

Which is what weddings are supposed to be about. Not the flowers or the dress or the cakes or how many attendants in matching dresses you can line up beside you.

I also finished my Leadership Natchez class and will graduate on May 12. The importance of that program really can't be overstressed. I learned so much about Natchez through it. Things I might not have otherwise. And the important things - what our education and healthcare systems are really like; how to help our social services organizations that are helping others in need; that if I ever commit a crime it will federal since that prison was way nicer than the county and city facilities (that was only a joke - the part about committing a crime, not that the federal facility was nicer); and how to enjoy some of the truly unique cultural activities rooted in this town. Yesterday we capped it with the 2nd Annual Kickball Tournament.

So, I have worked, and worked a lot. But I've also played and learned and grown.

One of my audit clients uses Billy to clean their carpets. We had scheduled it initially for this weekend but when I looked at the calendar again I remembered the kickball tournament. It is a large commercial job so I have to help Billy with what I can, and it still ends up taking him about 15 or 16 hours. So I emailed the director and asked if we could push it back and told her why I needed to. A while later I received a response. It was fine to move it she said. Then she followed up "All I have to say about 'kickball tournament' - Life is not passing you by!"

No ma’am! Not much for standing on the sidelines.