Lesson 356: In Circulation

Spring has spring in Erie, 

and for Eloise, tonight it finally feels like it.

We went out to Eaton Reservoir, 

known to locals as Bull Dam in North East this evening.

It's a really pretty place if you haven't wandered there yet.

The kids played catch,

Mr. Lamp Post caught a stringer full of fish,

and Eloise ran around the damn dam with some friends.

It felt great to be back in circulation with nature.

Eloise is like a plant.

If she doesn't get enough water, sunshine, and soil

(evident from the muddy blotch on my forehead),

I wilt.

The color is creeping back to nature.

I love spring green in the environment.

I hate it on clothing.

Every time I wear a spring green shirt, 

the kids ask me all day long if I am sick.

The animals are out and about.

They make for some great photo/word pairings,

and this blog a bit more interesting to read.

The Lamp Post inhabitants are getting the blood circulating, too

It feels so good!

One of us still has to practice piano inside,

before she goes outside though.

The flip side to all that extra fresh air and sunshine is that we are pooped out.

We aren't built up yet to all that moving around!

Here is Sam at Field and Stream last Saturday.

Here's Ellen after she realized he drooled on the chair.

'Tis the season for political races.

I have a sign in the Lamp Post front yard from this young man--

a former student!

Bowling season is coming to a close,

and it's time to collect the trophies.

Natalie has learned to put mail into circulation.

Grandpa got this friendly letter this week!

Watch for something to show up in your mailbox.

Natalie is going to be doing the Barber Beast on the Bay Adapted Course this year.

She's looking for some cheerleaders.

Fluff up your green pom poms.

She is going to need your support this September.

Eloise is scrambling around school, 

attempting to collect overdue library books.

I sign them out in my name for my students all the time--

because they have a limit and teachers don't.

Then, I forget who has what book,

and I dodge the librarians like a teenager dodges household chores.

Eloise is about to put her bookshelf into circulation.

I've read a million books, but save only my favorites.

I reevaluated this practice recently.

What am I saving them for?

They've just been sitting there collecting dust.

You can learn a lot about a person 

by looking at what they have displayed on their bookshelves.

Carved, wooden boxes,

and photos of Besties.

Armadillos and a signed copy of a perfect ACT score.

Whoops.

Sorry Tracy Northern!

I'll get that one back to you!

Eloise always makes plenty of room for God's Word,

and faith in action books.

And of course I have the perfect piece of driftwood that looks like a giraffe,

and the Travelocity gnome.

Soon, I will put these books into circulation.

They are the ones awarded to me by Wellness Coach Jennifer Taylor.

The information between the covers is just too good to hoard.

If you get one of my books,
Eloise only asks that you bitch up the book.

That is my own term for writing all over it.

Don't just read it.

React to it!

How better to do that than write all over the pages?  

Then it's your job to pass it on to someone else--

and take a photo of you doing so, of course.

My friend Tracy Southern and I do this all the time.

I buy a book, 

read it,

write in it,

and then mail it to her.

She writes back.

Well, actually,

she's ultra neat.

Most of the time she uses post-its and sticky tabs,

not to mark up the pages.

My friend Patty at work gave me this one.

I struggled with it,

read part of it,

and mailed it off to Tracy Southern.

When she mailed it back, it looked like this.

It encouraged me to give it another whirl,

looking at the characters and plot from her perspective,

and I LOVED it!

You may be the lucky recipient of this book that I fished out of a book bin.

If it winds up mysteriously on your doorstep,

consider it a gentle reminder that your personality

needs a bit of buffing up.

After all, you have to learn how to BE a friend,

before you can have them.

Get out there in circulation, Readers,

because we are DONE with hibernation.

Enjoy the new found freedoms of SPRING!
ELOISE