The One Where I Walk Dogs

About a year ago, I signed up for a program at a local animal shelter where I walk the shelter dogs on Saturday. I got once every couple of months and I’m only there for a two hour shift.

Its really the pefect way to volunteer. It is a very small time commitment and I feel like I am adding something to each of the dog’s lives.

Each dog is so excited to get attention, go for a walk, and interact with other dogs.  They all get treats when we put them back into their kennels and they dig that part too.

The shelter has a policy to not destroy any animal that is adoptable, which also makes me feel good about volunteering there.

I would love to have another dog, but I have been able to resist falling in love, except for once. One week there was a dog that I absolutely wanted to take home from me and later tried to convince my husband to go back with me and see her. She was adopted by the next time I came back. I later heard the story of her adoption, and it was a blessing that she didn’t end up in our house. It turns out that she was aggressive with other dogs, which was a personality trait she did not show in the shelter. It would have made us and our current dogs miserable. Fortunately, the person who adopted her was able to get her the training she needed.

The only negative thing to say about the dog walking is that the dogs are all so energetic that I get rope burns from the leashes.

I go dog walking tomorrow and I am looking forward to it!

 

The One Where I Confess My Love For Christmas

I’m ready for Christmas. Its my favorite holiday. I love everything about it! (Well, at least I think I love everything about it, I am currently racking my brain for anything that would make my last statement into nothing more than a big fat exageration, and it is holding true so far).

I get really excited when I see people have started decorating their houses. And, I don’t mind the Christmas stuff in stores. The fact that Walmart has already been playing Christmas music for the last two weeks may be pushing it too far, but otherwise, I am on board!

I am especially excited this year to decorate my new house. We have a high ceiling in the great room and we are going to put up a 15 foot tall tree. I am having my family over for Christmas, and I am already planning all the other decorations I want to have in place and the food I am going to serve.

And, my other favorite part about Christmas is gift giving. I absolutely love to plans, shop, and wrap gifts.  I make lists of possible gifts and II try to pick up things all year round. My serious Christmas shopping starts with my mom the day after Thanksgiving. I also do a lot of online shopping for the perfect gifts. If I ever started my own business, it would probably be personal shopping.

I spend a lot of time picking out wrapping paper and ribbons and getting the look of my wrapped gifts just right. I know a lot of people don’t find value in spending time or money on wrapping since it will be discarded. I can understand that if you wrap them just prior to the event or hide gifts away until Christmas morning. I like to wrap the gifts well in advance and put them under the tree to enjoy for weeks. That makes the effort into making them look good worth it for me.

I can’t wait till next week when everything really starts to be decked out for Christmas!

 

The One Where My Dog Has a Bad Habit

My dog Dexter likes to pee on everything. He has a serious marking addiction. Its to the point where I am almost convinced the Dachshund mafia is paying him off to cause me pain and suffering.

Some things he has peed on in the last week include: our t.v. speakers, the kitchen island, and one of my fallen birthday balloons. Yes, you read that right. He marked a balloon.

I like to blame this bad behavior on my husband as Dexter came into his life during a period we were not together. Since he was with him during the formative years for potty training, I feel like he has the majority of the responsibility. Oh, and also, he refuses to have Dexter fixed (he has a strange thing where he doesn’t want the dog to go through anything he doesn’t want to go through or something). At almost eight years old, I am not sure that neutering would have any impact on his bad habits at this point.

This is a very embarrassing and time consuming habit. I clean up pee every. single. day. I don’t like mentioning it to people because it seems unsanitary and I worry people will be grossed out and not want to come to my house.

The only viable solution I can come up with is making him wear a diaper type thing. Its either that or I am going to go crazy one day and maim him. And, I really can’t imagine myself purposely causing pain to a living creature… especially a helpless dog. Even if it is a very very bad dog.

 

The One Where My Company Wants to Know About My Blog

So, there was an announcement on my company’s website today stating they want to know if anyone has a blog. I admit that I’m a joiner. So, my first urge was to jump and respond to the announcement, thinking that I might receive some cutting edge assignment at work. And, then I thought of Dooce and decided that it wasn’t worth the risk.

 

The One With Random Internet Searches

Random things I have been researching on the internet in the last week:

Angola Prison

The Farm (Tennesse Commune)

Christmas presents

How to Cook Prime Rib

Guitar Hero World Tour list of songs

National Blog Posting Month

This is pretty indicative of a normal week for me. I make mental notes all day long of things of interest that I want to research (sometimes I’m even organized enough to actually jot down a few key words). I like researching something and learning a little bit about it. I’d like to know a little bit about a lot of things. The internet is perfect for the type of knowledge I like to gather.

 

The One Where Guitar Hero Has Taken Over My Life

Need to write post… urge to play Guitar Hero is strong! It forces me to write in sentence fragments. Must rejoin guitar. *kiss* *kiss* *kiss*

 

The One With The Alphabet

I know a little meme is a bit of a cop out for me. But when you make a commitment to post everyday, its just a fact that sometimes you are going to need an idea starter! I got this idea from Slackermama.

A is for age: 30

B is for burger of choice: Ruby Tuesday’s Triple Prime Burger

C is for the car I drive: Chevy Cavalier and Scion XB

D is for your dog’s name: Socks and Dexter

E is for essential item you use every day: This is sort of a cheat, but I am going to say my purse. I carry it around with me all of the time because it has many essential items in it such as tissues, cell phone, gum, mints, ink pen, etc.

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: I can’t name just one, so I’ll give you three. Mythbusters,IT Crowd, and The Office

G is for favorite game: This is a tough one as I am a huge fan of games! My favorite board game is Cranium. Favorite card game is Euchre. And my favorite video game at the moment is Guitar Hero World Tour.

H is for home state: “Indiana, oh, Indiana, Indiana, we’re all for you!”

I is for instruments you play: I played the Clarinet for 6 weeks in 6th grade… and I took piano lessons from my best friend one summer… but I can’t honestly say that I play an instrument unfortunately.

J is for favorite juice: Orange Pineapple

K is for whose bum you’d like to kick: Close minded people who spend too much time bringing others down instead of coming up with compromises/solutions that will work for everyone.

L is for last restaurant at which you ate: Denny’s about two weeks ago. Diet Vanilla coke and pancakes just sounded really good that night.

M is for your favorite Muppet: Miss Piggy–I’ve always felt a kinship with her.

N is for number of piercings: Just two–one in each ear.

O is for overnight hospital stays: One when I was very young, less than 2 years old. I have no memories, but I have been told by my mother.

P is for people you were with today: My husband, mom, brother, cousins, aunts, and others for a party.

Q is for what you do with your quiet time: Read, take a bath

R is for biggest regret: None

S is for status: Active

T is for time you woke up today: 8:30

U is for what you consider unique about yourself: I’d like to think there are many unique things about me! One thing I can say is that I live in a round house.

V is for vegetable you love: Tomato (I don’t care if it is technically a fruit, I can’t think of it that way)

W is for worst habit: probably procrastination (I’m too busy procrastinating to think of a worse habit)

X is for x-rays you’ve had: lungs, wrist, sinuses, mouth, and probably others I’m not remembering right now.

Y is for yummy food you ate today: leftover birthday cake for breakfast (very nutritious), chicken broccoli stuffing bake for lunch, and then lots of junk at the party for dinner like spinach artichoke dip, meatballs, chicken strips, cheese ball, queso and chips, and more.

Z is for zodiac: Scorpio!

 

The One Where I’m a Do-It-Yourselfer

When I was growing up and throughout my college years, I was technical support and handywoman for my Mom as well as myself. There just wasn’t anyone else to do it, so I would figure out how to set up the computer, install software, put together a piece of exercise equipement, or install a new doorknob. if I couldn’t figure it out, it usually just didn’t get done then.

I didn’t always relish the tasks in front of me. They didn’t necessarily get done quickly either. Nor were they always done perfectly. But I got things done and I definitely got a sense of accomplishment when they were complete.

Enter my husband. He is  extremely smart and capable. He can do anything. And he can do it quickly. I soon figured out that I was just in his way if I tried to help him with a task as my trial and error style doesn’t always fit well with his methodical and accurate style. So, I started letting him just do things.

That’s not to say that I never try and do something new on my own. Its just that often when I am halfway through I hit an obstacle which gets me shrieking in frustration. Next thing I know he is calmly helping me to get me to shut up. Its a nice thing which I love. Its just not so good for me expanding my skills or confidence.

I think there is something romantic about my husband helping me in that it shows that we are a partnership, but I don’t like being weak and needing to rely on someone other than myself.

When we were working on the new house (and, I really, mean physically working when I say that), I would struggle with every single task. Things were too heavy. Too detailed. Too complicated. I started to get really down on myself because nothing came easily to me. The things I did, such as painting and smoothing gravel for the foundation, did not make this a quality house. I was just cheap labor. All of the things we did, even the things we knew nothing about, seemed to come easily to my husband. And, he kept a good attitude to boot. In the meantime, I was usually crying somewhere while I did a poor job! The good news is I survived all of that and we are living in the house now.

I have two recent successes to combat the frustrations of the last few years.

1) I am writing this blog.  Fortunately, WordPress is making it easy for me! As I need to figure out how to do something, I just research it on the internet and figure it out. I  haven’t really done anything complicated yet, but I am pleased so far with what I have done.

2) I installed my new printer today. It was also made very simple with instructions by HP, but normally, I would wait for my husband to do this type of thing. That is ridiculous and I have to stop the cycle!

So, hopefully, I am on a path of “getting some of my own back.”

 

The One Where My Husband Surprises Me

My husband has a way of pleasantly surprising me for birthdays and other holidays. He acts nonchalant heading up to the event which always stresses me out (this is because I am a planner who tries to get all shopping done well in advance). Inevitably, he gives me the most awesome, fun, thoughtful presents. And, then I feel guilty for doubting him.

This year, I kept asking him if he was going to shop for my birthday and he would just shrug or joke that I wasn’t getting anything.

It turns out he ordered one of my presents in advance (a gorgeous Longerberger cake basket–I think he is hoping I will bake him a cake). Another, he purchased the day before, which I would have said was impossible since I rode with him to and from work and was with him all evening. He snuck out of the office during his lunch break and went shopping (and got me a scanner/copier/printer that I’ve been longing for)! Even though we normally have lunch together, I didn’t catch on because he told me he was really busy and couldn’t take a break. Which sounded believable to me!

He also bought me Guitar Hero: World Tour! Which we have been basically playing non stop with my brother who is in town. Very fun and addictive! We really love our Wii lately!

I had a few friends and family over last night for cake and punch and I received many other nice presents. I am very lucky to have a caring family to help celebrate my birthday with me.

 

The One Where I Turn Thirty

Today is my 30th birthday. The big 3-0. I have mixed emotions about the event.

I love birthdays and historically, have made a huge deal out of birthday celebrations (dinners, costume parties, drunken karaoke, etc.). I have become more subdued over the last few years as it takes a lot of energy and money to throw an extravaganza every year.

Many of my friends have set goals and made plans of what they wanted to accomplish before leaving their twenties behind. I have never set goals for myself based on age. So, the good news, is that I don’t have a since of regret about anything that has or has not happened so far. I just don’t buy into the hype that this birthday should change anything.

But, I can’t deny that there is a certain “weightiness” now that the day is upon me. It is undeniable that I am long past the age where I can get away without wearing make up to work (yet, I still don’t bother most days), and not dying my roots (been going grey since 20 and it is definitely not getting better at this point). The skin care routine that I have been sporadically dedicated to… needs to be a priority now.

Oh, and that whole motherhood thing… yeah, the old biological clock is kicking my ass most days.

Overall though, I look forward to the future and what the rest of my life holds for me. Whatever my age is.