The field is bare. Evidence of the preceding gathering is strewn around the ground. The wind sends tumbleweeds of forgotten signs cartwheeling across the countryside, but the recent crowds have all dispersed, gone to other places, seeking the excitement that is no longer to be found here.

What is this a description of? Is it a football or baseball field after the big game is over and everyone has gone home? Or maybe it’s the field where a circus pitched its tents, only to pull up stakes and move on after the show is over? Well, I suppose it could be those things, but, actually, it is the state of Iowa after the caucuses. The hoopla is over and the candidates have moved on.

Do most Iowans feel lonely, abandoned, forsaken? Hell, no! Most Iowans are saying, “Good riddance.”

I participated in my first Iowa caucus ever. Okay, I’m 45 years old; perhaps I have been neglecting my civic duties. But this year I decided to go, to see what it was like.

I did a little research first. In the Iowa democratic caucus, people gather in the camps of the candidates they support. Any group that has less than 15% of those gathered is considered “unviable”, i.e. they don’t have enough supporters to get a delegate. People in the other camps try to persuade them to join in supporting their candidate of choice. This all I learned from reading prior to the caucus.

I was a concerned. What if I didn’t know anyone there? Or worse, what if I did know people there, and they were supporting another candidate. Or I was expected to go to another group and try to persuade them to join? I was not thrilled about that idea.

Those fears, however, were groundless. I saw many people there, and some of the people that I personally identified and liked were already in the camp I had intended to support. Great!

I must say, though, that I found the caucus I attended to be quite disorganized. Those running it didn’t really seem to know what they were doing and didn’t seem too worried about following the rules. I wasn’t entirely sure they knew what the rules were. They frequently referred to their notes, and several times seemed to forget things.

Perhaps that is better than being high and mighty, stuffy and pretentious. I would have found that type of attitude intimidating.

Anyway, I went to the caucus and cast my lot with a candidate. I have done my civic duty. At least until next November.

Yesterday I talked about the tradition of eating cabbage on New Year’s and why I did it. There are many traditions or habits I am forming with my Master. I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on those.

I am not to wear any white underwear. It has become automatic now, to look for black, pink or red when I am shopping or when I am picking out my clothing. This I do in honor of my Master.

Every day I start my morning by logging on to the computer and saying, “Good morning, Master”. Master is rarely there to respond but that is not the point. Once, for some unknown reason he did not receive my IM. He asked me about it later that day. I cannot tell you how good it makes me feel to know that those little words on the screen are important to him, just as they are important to me.

I also IM Master when I come and go from home. I do not necessarily give him a laundry list of where I go and what I do. He is certainly welcome to that, of course, but all of the details could be quite tedious.

Before I go to bed, I also IM Master. If he is available, I ask permission. If not, I say good night and go to bed.

I look forward to forging more traditions and habits with my Master in 2008. I believe these things help to bind us together as O/one.

All families have traditions, especially around the holidays. My family had kind of a strange one, one that I’m not even sure anyone else noticed or follows anymore. My mother used to say that you should eat cabbage on New Year’s Day for good luck in the coming year.

That’s a strange one, now, isn’t it? Our New Year’s Day lunch would always include a bowl of coleslaw. I suppose perhaps I asked at one time because I generally think of coleslaw as a summer time food. You know, barbeques, baked beans, coleslaw and the like. But we always had our coleslaw.

I don’t know where this tradition came from. For all I know, my mother started it because she wanted an excuse to enjoy coleslaw in the middle of the winter. Or maybe it has some basis in the past. But I do know that on New Year’s Day, I have coleslaw, even though I am the only one in the house that eats it.

Why do I do it? I must admit that I don’t really think it brings any type of luck, good or bad. Maybe I like coleslaw and I like the excuse to eat it. But that isn’t the real reason that I continue this tradition. I continue it because it is a piece of my mother that I celebrate every year. In April, she will have been gone for 8 years, but I in this tradition I honor her and keep her a part of my New Year’s celebration. That has become the focus of the tradition for me…my mother.

After yesterday’s post listing what had happened in my life in 2007, I started thinking about 2008. I do not believe in New Year’s Resolutions. People make these lofty goals and give up on them within the month. What’s the point in that? If I think I need to make a goal, I make it. I don’t wait until January 1.

So what sort of list am I making this January 1st? This is a list of my hopes and dreams that I wish to be fulfilled in the coming year. There are no big earth-shaking things. I don’t anticipate moving or getting married (although, Master, you know I would do either/both for you if you wished). These are the just things I look forward to in 2008.

These are also realistic. I would love to win the lottery, but that is unlikely, so I won’t list it. These are the goals, expectations, hopes and dreams of a 45-year-old submissive from Iowa.

*Maintain my weighloss and continue incorporating physical activity daily.

*Guide my younger son into being a more independent young man.

*Get Master to come visit here this summer. (I have a plan…)

*Fulfill my duties as president of a fine arts association (for the sake of anonymity I will not divulge more) and finish my term in office.

*Continue to explore the new direction my career has taken this year. Reconnect with duties I used to have and now have again. Refine and improve on what I do.

*Continue to grow and progress both as a person and as the slave of my Master.

*Serve Master and make him proud.

I’m sure that 2008 will bring with it some surprises. What year doesn’t? But I look forward to 2008 without fear. Forward I go into the next segment of this journey we call life.