It's All Set

Date: July 8.
Time: yet to be determined.
Exact location: yet to be determined.
General location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Purpose: Nuptials for me and the love of my life.
Invitees: Me and the love of my life. That's it.
Internet inivitees: All y'all.
Party invitees: Well, that'd be friends and family, on both sides, at two locales — western Kansas and northwest Missouri.

After much thought, much deliberation, goin' to the priest to find out how stinkin' long it takes to get a Catholic annulment, tryin' to figure out the cost of an elaborate affair, tryin' to figure out why we'd need to spend that money, tryin' to figure out where we'd come up with that money even if we wanted to spend that money, tryin' to figure out if we should do it in Maryville, Mo., or Leoti, Kan., or somewhere in between, hearin' horror stories from friends who are plannin' their nuptials and tryin' to please everyone in between, realizin' we don't need an elaborate wedding to show each other how much we love one another and figuring out that we'd rather have a heck of a shindig instead of a big ol' weddin' (WHEW! That took some time), my bride to be and I decided Vegas is the place to get ourselves hitched.

We'll come back to Middle America for the gatherings in both Maryville (her hometown and our home) and Leoti (my hometown). Anybody know of a cheap band (OK, free band) that'd love to play for us?

But we want this to be special for us, and with technology, the Internet can provide an outlet for our loved ones to witness our celebration. It'll be a weekend getaway — leave on a Friday, return on a Sunday. But it'll be nice.

I'm a fortunate man to have found such a special, caring, loving woman with whom to share my life.

On to the other things going on: We're finally all moved out of Oklahoma and into our own casa.

We had to wait until the second weekend in May to get into our house, which was the weekend after the Guymon rodeo. All of my honey's stuff and a few of my things were moved the second weekend in April, but moved into her parents' garage while we stayed there. A month later, we were able to move it into town.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we hightailed it back to Oklahoma City in her father's new pickup pulling an old horse trailer to retrieve the bulk of my stuff, which had been in a storage unit since the end of October. We got it home Sunday evening.

And as my life has seen some whirlwind changes in the last year, I can only say that it's getting better and better each day. I thank God for that.

And my friends, who helped me through my struggles and my down times and lifted me up.

A good week in Guymon

Funny how things get thrown around in circles.

Take last week in Guymon, for example. Here I was, busy as a beaver doing all I need to do to get things done, information sent to media outlets, letting folks know what was happening at the rodeo. I see a number of friends, I visit, I move on.

One friend in particular, steer wrestler Spud Duvall of Checotah, Okla., says, "How's it going, you ol' blogger?"

Say what? How many people know about this site? I mean, when I was unemployed and needing a writing outlet, this was the place to go. But the submissions have been far too far in between.

Before I took this gig in Maryville, I had already committed to being in Guymon for the rodeo. Folks around here don't seem to understand my following through on that deal and wondered how the hell I got vacation after just two months on board. Ah, therein lie the facts of when I accepted the position -- I had certain committments I had to follow through on, and I obtained the approval by my boss.

And while I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the visits and watching one of the best rodeos in America, it wasn't exactly a vacation. There were numerous details that had to be carried out, people to assist, helping with radio interviews, setting up other plans, doing some visits on the radio myself. I was awakened one morning at 7:50 by some radio station down state so that I could do a live interview about the Guymon Pioneer Days celebration.

It was all over before I even realized what I said, and truth be told, I know very little about the overall celebration -- I signed up for the rodeo, but I was tagged with the marketing duties of the whole deal. Never been to the Guymon parade or the merchantile or the Old Timer's breakfast, and I'd barely ever driven by the fairgrounds, so that was somewhat of a mystery in its own right.

Rain forced our hand on Friday night, but a hundred or so brave souls waded through a downpour to see the rodeo. On Saturday, it cleared by mid-afternoon, and that night's crowd -- and that of the Sunday televised round -- were phenominal. BTW, check your local listings for the Fox Sports Network near you. FSN Midwest will air the Guymon rodeo at 8 p.m. Monday, while FSN Southwest will air it at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Check it out, and see why I'm proud of that rodeo.

Comfort Zone

The love of my life and I returned to Guymon, Okla., the Oklahoma Panhandle and home of the Richest Rodeo in Oklahoma this week.

First performance is 7:30 tonight (Friday), and the weekend looks to be another fantastic event.

We're about to head off for a full day of activities. Part of my job is guiding some of the key ingredients of the rodeo to a radio show, help with that as need be. I'll also be helping anybody who is with the media who comes to town to cover the event.

It'll be busy, but it'll be fun. If you want to keep up with the happenings, click on to guymonrodeo.com.

We've run into a number of friends already, which comes with the territory when the love of my life lived around here for a dozen years or more and I spent six months or so in No Man's Land. But it also comes with the territory when you love rodeo like we do and run into friends that make this sport their way of life, the way they pay bills, the way they feed their families, the way they compete at a world-class level.

And since I've got Internet that works regurly -- unlike my current status at the new job and without Internet at my future in-laws' -- I hope to file a little bit from here this weekend.

So keep track, come back and enjoy.

And thanks for stoppin' by. ER, you comin'?