Puppy love

Well as usual I’ve been pretty bad about writing in this journal of mine, so I will have to quickly touch on what has been going on for the past month.

June 4th was Jamie and my five-year anniversary. Maybe it’s just me, but I have always considered the anniversaries that come every five years to be a pretty big deal. So we were pretty excited. The only problem was that we couldn’t quite figure out where to go for our anniversary trip, so finally in the end I told Jamie that I thought that it would be a good idea if we took turns each year deciding what to do for our anniversary and that this year was his turn to decide! Have fun figuring it out! So he actually went along with it and we ended up going down to Disneyland for the weekend. I absolutely love going to Disneyland, I think it’s just a great place to hang out, go on the rides, eat all the junk food you possibly can, hang out with Frozone, etc. It’s a funny thing though, because if you tell people that live around here (Central Coast of California) that you are going to Disneyland, usually the first response is: “Oh really, why? Have you never been?” Etc. So after a few comments like this I finally figured out that the people that live around here truly don’t appreciate the idea of “Going to Disneyland.” Because I’ll tell ya what, you tell somebody back in Arizona (where I’m from) that you are “Going to Disneyland” and the response is most likely going to be “Oh REALLY! When?! How fun! I wish I could come! Please put me in your suitcase!” Etc. So hearing the underwhelming response from the people around here was a bit of a bummer but as I was walking down Main Street in Disneyland, holding a churro in one hand and a cotton candy in the other, donning my mouse ears, I couldn’t help but think: “Man they just have NO clue!”


So that was our anniversary it was really great. On the night of our anniversary we ate at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride), and they even gave us a box of chocolates for our anniversary. Oh, since we are on the subject of my anniversary, before I forget, I want to say thank you to all of you who sent cards and gifts. We really appreciate it! Like I said, we really viewed this year to be a big year for us, and we appreciate those of you who treated it as special as well. *Sniff* thanks!


So actually I should go back a ways, because the weekend BEFORE our anniversary we made a MAJOR purchase, a LIFE CHANGING purchase… We bought our first puppy!! Now I have never had a dog in my entire life, so for me it was a really big deal. His name is “Winston” (full name: “Harry Winston V”, after the jeweler and “V” for our five year anniversary gift to each other), and he is a Bichon-poo (a “hybrid” between a Bichon Frise and a poodle; he’s considered a “hybrid” because it is a purposeful mix of breeds). We love him. I wasn’t so sure about him at first, cuz he was driving me up the wall for the first couple weeks, but he has definitely gotten much better in the last couple of weeks, and I just love him now. He is definitely turning out to be a really sweet boy. PLUS the major new endearing quality is that he is now pretty much potty trained, which is actually pretty good for a puppy his age (three and a half months), because they say it generally takes 6- 12 months. So he’s a sweet big poofy white ball of fluff. Actually what he looks like is a little lamb, except for when he’s wet, he looks like the pitiful little shaved lamb in the cartoon “Boundin’” (Incredibles DVD). OK OK I think I’ve gushed enough about my baby.

So this weekend we are heading for Arizona, to visit my family. So yes, we are willingly subjecting ourselves to 114 degree heat. I know what you’re thinking – “Are they crazy?!” and rest assured, I do have an answer – yes. And what’s even crazier is that we are taking the dog. It was really Jamie’s idea, and I really was against it, but now I really am looking forward to taking him. Especially since I actually like the dog now. So it ought to be interesting to say the least. Hopefully my next blog entry is not entitled “The Yelping Crying Dog on an Eleven Hour Trip and the Day We Nearly Melted”. I’ll keep you posted.

So I haven’t done the “Thinking Blot of the Blog” for a while now, so I really need to get back on it, so here goes:

THE THINKING BLOT OF THE BLOG:

As you are driving down the road, and Mr. No Clue in his car cuts into your lane without so much as a turn signal, and two seconds later you are driving behind Ms. Paranoid who is causing retinal damage by hitting her brakes every second and a half (apparently unaware that brakes are for red lights, stop signs, and large objects or children that run out into the road, not for every dash in the center line), and then here comes Mr. Tailgate that drives right up to your bumper and proceeds to stay there for the next 10 miles even though there are two lanes to drive in, and finally you get to a stretch of the road where the speed limit is 50mph, but apparently nobody else got the memo (and they can’t read the big white and black signs next to the road) thus you are stuck driving 40mph; do you at that time then wonder: Is it all in my head or are the majority of people not smart enough to be out on the road? I honestly do think that you should have to have a certain IQ to be able to get a driver’s license. I mean, you really do have to be able to process and anticipate many things at one time in order to be an efficient and safe driver, something I do not believe the majority of people out there are capable of doing. So until they figure out a way to strain out all of the g.n.a.t.s. (Got No Ability To Steer) be on the lookout! We are surrounded!

The Disclaimer and Mechanical Failure

The Disclaimer
Before I get on with today’s entry, I need to write a disclaimer about all of the entries in my blog. I realized I needed to do this after my mom calls me all worried, thinking that I am basically going nuts (in so many words), and I think to myself “I can’t believe my own mother, after knowing me all the twenty-five years of my life…she barely realized I’m nutso?!?” Just kidding. But she really did think I was losing it because of my journal entries. So for anybody else who is reading this and is also thinking that I’m losing my mind, don’t worry. This blog is simply a place for me to put forth my views and ideas in the world, and other random thoughts that pass between my ears, and sometimes the thoughts that go through my head are a bit quirky and different, and I try to write them in an entertaining and funny way. I guess that mix equaled “nutty” for my mom. So to all of my readers: no I’m not crazy, and no I’m not having a breakdown. Although if these thoughts and things I write in my blog are considered to be “crazy”, well then I thus seem to be a highly-functioning crazy person, and thus you still need not worry. And mom, if you are reading this…I told you not to because you worry too much about me when you read my blog! Oh, and one last thing to put in my disclaimer to set my mom's mind at ease:

If you are a psycho, stalker, etc, please do not read my blog or contact me in any way.

Thank you.

Mechanical Failure
So let me just tell you about my day yesterday. You know, throughout the day, it didn’t seem so bad, but then as I’m sitting at my desk today, and I look back at yesterday, I can’t help but laugh at how many things went wrong yesterday. So I will try to avoid being as wordy as I usually am and just write what happened yesterday (yeah, we’ll see...)

Yesterday morning Jamie left before me (he usually leaves after I do for work), so Winston (the puppy) was downstairs in the kitchen area, blocked off by the baby (puppy) gate. So all morning I heard him whining and crying, and basically freaking out, because he could hear that I was upstairs, and for some reason he hates being alone first thing in the morning if he knows someone is home - must be all the pent up energy from the full night’s sleep. Anyway, I digress… So I was almost ready for work, running five minutes late, and all of sudden I hear the jingling of Winston’s dog tag, seemingly at my feet, and I look down, and there he is!! “How on EARTH did you get up hear, and where did Jamie put you before he left?!?!” is what I exclaim. I pick up the puppy (who is all-too proud of himself to have found his way upstairs) and go downstairs to put him back in the kitchen. Upon examination of the scene, it seemed that he managed to push the baby gate down at an angle, far enough so that I assume he climbed the gate and flopped over, most likely on his head. So I put the baby gate back up and tighten it so that it doesn’t budge (and is almost ready to snap due to how tight it is now wedged between the walls). So I go back upstairs to finish getting ready, trying to ignore Winston’s now desperate and frustrated cries from the kitchen. After I am finished getting ready, I go down to the kitchen (trying to avoid completely stepping on Winston who is now glued to my heels) to heat up my Starbuck’s Carmel Machiatto (sp?) that I had bought but had not drunken the day before (so it had been in the refrigerator and is at this time cold). I am giddy with joy at the prospect of drinking my favorite coffee drink as I get out my thermos so I can take the soon-to-be-heated-up (and very much needed) coffee with me, and put the coffee in the microwave to be heated up. Well about halfway through heating it up I take it out to stir it so that it gets heated all the way through and put it back in the microwave, press “Start”, and nothing happens. I press “Start”, “Cancel”, I unplug and re-plug the microwave, hit it out of desperation…nothing. The microwave had officially died in the middle of heating up my liquid life. I now had a lukewarm cup of coffee to sustain me through the next four hours. Such is my life.

After I get home from work I have a couple of hours to do some laundry and try to relax before I have to go to my doctors appointment at 7:00pm. So Jamie tells me to sit down and relax and play my video game on Playstation. I agree and turn on the Playstation, but the game didn’t come on, there was a little flicker, and then nothing. So I turn it off and on, and then off and on again. Nothing. So Jamie goes over to the Playstation and exclaims – “It’s SMOKING!” Yup you guessed it. I had somehow managed to fry the Playstation the same way I had fried the microwave that morning – I had touched it. So by the time that fiasco was all said and done it was time for me to go to my doctor’s appointment. We didn’t have time to get dinner ready before I left, as we couldn’t defrost anything (the microwave) and the oven can only cook food so fast. I didn’t care too much since I figured I would be home by 8 or 8:15. Two hours later (after I waited in the waiting room for an HOUR with some creepy guy trying to talk to me the whole time – even though I was READING – I mean some people are just clueless), I finally got home and ate my unable-to-be-microwaved cold dinner.

Look at that, I managed to be un-wordy!!

Ha ha.