First, let it be said that Neil can throw down the gauntlet, give me a skite on the cheek with his handkerchief, or wave a red flag?I shall not be moved. Rest assured that all photos below have been posted all of my own free will. Free will, I tell you.

Now, on with whatever it is I came in here to share with you all.

One of the strange things that happens in the blog world (and let it be said we don?t want to know just how strange it can be) is that just when you are on your last dollar, just when you?ve puked up the dirt-covered raw turnip you?d eaten in desperation and vowed that tomorrow would be another day, just when you were certain beyond any doubt that your site had jumped the shark (or rather, given the size of your site it had perhaps landed face down in a puddle) THEY SUCK YOU BACK IN.

And you find yourself recounting the details of your day accompanied by photos. I mean, really, when you were sitting in 4th grade wondering if you really had to invite Jane Silberman to your birthday party since she was being a total bitch to you and totally stole your best friend away and maybe you could just ?lose? her invitation and who would ever know did you really think one day you would grow up to share details of your day accompanied by photographs?

Yeah, me neither.

But I have long since learned to avoid analyzing human behavior as it leads inevitably to madness or capitulation to the absurd. So without further ado?my day, as it were.

I drove around. A lot. There was much driving. The end.

Okay, I left the house at 8:30 am and got back at 4:30 pm in-between which time there was much driving.

There was also an hour of Native American storytelling at a rural elementary school that is so poorly funded we had to pay for the artist visit or the kids wouldn?t have had it at all. During the break, one little girl skipped by me singing the Abenaki song she had just learned and I suggested she see if the Storyteller?s CD was in the library (as I know most of the libraries carry his stuff) and she looked at me funny and said, ?we don?t have a library.?

Welcome to New Hampshire! Our schools don't need no pansy libraries! Now go on, git!

There was also some shopping in one of the stores that are so far north that I never go up there just to shop, but seeing as I had two birthday gifts and a wedding gift to buy it was a perfect opportunity since the shops up there are heavy on the handmade and the work is produced by the kinds of artists I love to support. Ended up having a great conversation with a woman who runs one of the co-ops and we made a plan to get together to brainstorm ways my organization and hers can collaborate.

There was much getting lost and looping around towns several times before I found the school I was looking for.

There was play and wrangling with an adorable 12-week old black lab puppy that had me down on the grass laughing wildly. (And no, *sigh*, I did not get to bring him home with me).

There was meeting with some fabulous teachers who I?d never met before in person, but had spoken with several times on the phone. Their faces lit up when they looked through the bags of goodies I was dropping off: books, cds, games, journals, lesson plans etc that would help them prepare their kids for an upcoming concert. All the work that had gone into making those kits happen, all the hours spent driving around the state to drop the bags off was made so worthwhile when I saw their faces as they explored what we?d put in there.

And that, my friends, is my new life.

I?m fucking Santa Claus of the north woods.

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