Poured the next cup forgetting the other was sitting right there.

This time of year, my friends, is when all categories break down. When faith, family, work, volunteer, passion projects, the DOGS, all collapse into one category.

That’s right. The DOGS. Disservice dog, having not accompanied me to start a load of laundry to run while I graded, helped herself to Cheryl’s Cookies Iced Trees. I know they were trees because she saved the packages neatly under my desk. She has eaten plastic before but this is Cheryl’s buttercream. As I type, she’s pretending it didn’t happen, but I promise you no one else put Cheryl’s cookies packages under my desk in five minutes.

There are things I can’t share but imagine if George Bailey taught film instead and he were drinking coffee instead of going to a bar. It’s me.

But I’m also the one responsible for hanging the travel posters and reminding my own self it’s a wonderful life. That’s the hard part - we‘re all George and Mary and Bert and Ernie and Clarence. Don’t take it out on Zuzu’s teacher or the kid playing the piano.