Ummm ... it IS September ... right?

It has been more than two weeks since I last posted in this blog -- a rather long time for me, in general. What have I been doing? What is going on in my life?

1) Work. In my profession (student services - higher education), August is the nastiest time of year due to the beginning of the academic year. Add in the fact that I am the head of my area and you open up an even more interesting bag of challenges.

2) Work. As the head of my area, I also deal with any and all personnel issues. Some significant challenges this summer and particularly in August have taken an inordinate amount of time and energy. With September beginning, however, I believe that things should clear up a bit. Since the issues are personnel related, however, I am not able to mention them in this blog. Trust me, though -- I earned my money this past month at work!

3) Family. The start of the school year has been more challenging this time around since my youngest is adapting to college (although she has already earned a semester's worth of college-level credit through dual-enrollment classes taken while in high school), my oldest is returning to college to complete the last two years of her bachelor of arts degree and my son is hoping to finish his bachelor of science degree this coming May. My wife spent a ton of extra time -- evenings and weekends -- getting the computers prepared for the school at which she works. My mother continues to struggle with heath issues, which also weigh heavily on her care giver, thundering36. But, as always, we meet challenges head on, do what we need to do, and hopefully come out okay on the other side.

I am thankful for social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, for allowing me to occasionally leave my busy, regular world and get caught up in the fun SOME people are having. While I have been dedicating myself to work, cokeboy99 has been to Las Vegas not once, but twice, Flushhdraw moved there, Koala visited there all the way from Australia, TBC added to his list of Las Vegas 86's (due to some things from the past) and some of the Las Vegas locals (I am not calling out anyone in particular here) have been embroiled in contentious interpersonal situations (how is THAT for making things sound nice!) that provided for interesting reading.

However ... I am ready to begin counting down the days until I will be in Las Vegas for a professional conference (32), and will possibly -- POSSIBLY -- find some time to get in a few poker sessions, meet up with old friends, and have a little fun.

So ... life has been busy but is starting to get a little more reasonable.  Happy I made in through one more August.

Cheers!