I was just now staring at my screen pondering what to write to you, Dear Reader. Recently I’ve been reading through all of the previous blogs from the past ten years for a project (look for that it February!), so I am more aware of the things that I’ve written about. I am also cognizant of the things I’ve re-written about! Sports ranks up there pretty high.

But I had a bad sports weekend. It started on Friday when my Longhorns lost in the semi-final round of the college football championships. Then my Steelers were unceremoniously bounced from the NFL playoffs on Saturday. Then came Sunday and Arsenal failed to advance in the English FA Cup tournament. Fair enough, I’ll write about things not going my way.

As I sat there weighing my options and trying to see if something better would pop into my head before I dove in, I got a reminder notice on my computer screen: Take Baba to Dr in LA tomorrow. Gaa, bad to worse. If you know me or the blog, you will know that trips with Baba often devolve into a day of stress and frustration. But 90 year old ladies probably shouldn’t be driving into LA on their own.

The “trick” to success in these situations often involves a bit of a re-write. I need to change the narrative around what’s happening so that I don’t start convincing myself that all is lost before we even begin. Nothing has happened yet, so there are no guaranteed outcomes. I need to just take a positive attitude into the day and do my best to…

–Rise Up!!