Mikey Likes It!

On Saturday, in preparation for my trip to Boston in a few weeks
(insert squeak of happiness here), Oliver and I went out to buy him a
travel crate.

In picking one out, I asked him to climb into one to see how he fit.
He did. Then, I shut the door and he sat down and look out at me
through the crate door, "Um, hold on. Um, I'm not so sure about this
now" He lifted one of his paws and gently touched the crate door.  Can
I come out now?

We bought that one, and I brought it home and assembled it with hopes
that I could leave it out and he would get used to it before we left.

I tossed a treat into it and he gingerly went in after it.

I was concerned. Maybe he's going to be totally freaked out about it
and I'm going to traumatize him with my bringing him home to Boston.

Playing on the computer later in the evening, I looked up. Where's my
dog? A second look had me no longer concerned about whether or not he
would adjust to his crate...

Questions

1. What is a question that people ask you that always gets on your nerves?
"Are you from Australia?"

2. Name something you have in common with all your siblings.
We have the same Mom and Dad

3. What is the greatest amount of physical pain you have ever endured?
knee surgery...no, shoulder injury, no, a UTI that went back up into
my kidneys...now THAT smarts!

4. What number of drinks constitutes your limit?
The shot of Nyquil I just took seems to be doing the trick

5. Do you fold your underwear?
no

6. Who was the last person you wrote a letter on paper to?
my friend's in-laws...to thank them for hosting me last weekend in Ft. Myers

7. Have you fired a gun before?
No

8. Name someone you consider a genius.
my dog...what do you mean? He is TOO a someone!

9. What was your favorite childhood toy?
my Big Wheels rocked

10. Name a sound that disturbs you.
fingers sliding down the strings of an acoustic guitar.

11. Name something random that you would never do.
kill myself... not on purpose anyway.

12. Name a person whose diary you would love to read.
one from an ancestor

13. Have you ever had the same dream more than once?
yes

14. Name a song that makes you happy.
Yes', Owner of a Lonely Heart

15. Name something that made you laugh this week.
when I returned from running errands to find the dog had eaten the
remainder of my sub sandwich (I left it on the coffee table. and it
WAS an Italian sub..yum!).

16. Do you like those TRUTH commercials?
yes

17. Dream Job?
please refer to my blog from a few weeks back called "What's Your Dream Job?"

18. If you were in an emergency situation and you had to deliver a
baby, could you?
sure, I have good reflexes to catch flying things

19. What do you like about being in a committed relationship?
that I'm in one...if I was, at least.

20. What do you dislike about being in a committed relationship?
that I'm not in one

21. If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
have a genius for a dog.
No, writing or photography

22. Name something you dislike about your mother.
that she didn't give me (or, I didn't inherit) her perpetual Pollyanna attitude.

23. Name something you dislike about your father.
that he didn't give me (or I didn't inherit) his love for sailing.
And that we share a tendency for a low boiling point.

24. What is on your refrigerator door?
notes, cartoons, pictures, handmade magnets, magnets from places I've
been, notes on the dog's allergy shots.

25. Name the closest thing to you that is green.
the blanket I'm sitting on

26. If someone who didn't know you had to guess your name, what would
they guess?
Sarah

27. Name something you have to do tomorrow.
get a the dog his traveling crate.

28. Name a movie you are looking forward to watching.
The Namesake

29. Have you ever called 911?
yes, when the neighbors upstairs were beating the crap out of each other

30. Name something you've heard about women that tends to be true?
we have vaginas

Jealous Dog

Another lovely weekend away. This time, with my close childhood
friend, Rachel in Ft. Myers (she was there with her husband, Sven and
their two daughters, Arianna, 3, and Tory, almost 2, to visit
in-laws).

I brought the dog this time, and as I wasn't sure how he is with kids,
I was a little nervous. Fortunately, it didn't seem to phase them that
he would quietly growl when they came near him. I would grab onto his
muzzle and give him a "no".

I was quite sure he wasn't going to hurt them, but still, I didn't
want them to be traumatized by him in some way.

Turns-out nothing would stop them from liking him. While Rachel and I
were out for the day, the girls took Ollie for a walk with Sven. Ari
was holding Ollie's leash when he took off, dragging her behind him.
Poor kid got quite a smashed-up finger, but still, she walked him
again later in the weekend!

As for the dog - he was interesting to watch. He was well behaved for
the most part, but jealous, it seems. I was playing with the girls at
one point, picking them up and tossing them on the bed, over and over
when I looked down to find one of Oliver's toys sitting on the bed in
front if me and Oliver patiently sitting next to me, looking-up with
much anticipation.

I grabbed the toy and threw it for him. Then, he did something I've
never really seen him do more than once or twice - he brought the toy
back to me over and over and over. I would throw it over and over and
over, and every time, he came back with it.

Remember me?!  I'M you kid!!! Not those tiny human things! Look! See
how fun I can be?!

He was so exhausted from all the attention, he yawned his way back to
WPB and collapsed onto his bed once home.

We had hoped to get a picture of the kids with him, but they fell
asleep on the drive home from our lunch and ice cream excursion, and
since Ollie and I had to get going, we had to improvise.

Cleveland; Just What the Doctor Ordered

This past week-end I went to visit Suzanne and Joe in Cleveland and
met their daughter, Maya, for the first time.  Being in Ohio was
great. So nice to see a place where the seasons change! Our weekend
consisted of doing a bit of shopping, exploring, lots of talking,
lounging and cookie eating. Oh, and teaching Maya how to say "Al Gore"
while catching the end of The Inconvenient Truth one morning.

It could not have been better.

I arrived on Saturday, and in the late afternoon we were joined by
another friend from Ohio University, Aaron, along with his wife, Rita,
and their little one, Kylie.

As I watched them all interact with their daughters, I couldn't help
but NOT be surprised at how good they all are as parents. It was fun
to watch.

It's like we're grown-ups or something.

I met them all (with exception to Rita who I met through Aaron years
later) sophomore year, twelve years ago, in Gamertsfelder Hall, where
we all lived.

I spent time in Aaron's dorm room staring at a Magic Eye poster,
trying so hard to see the damn hidden image within it. Aaron kept
saying, "Let me tell you what's in it!". But I wouldn't let him.
Finally, he just told me, "Cyd, it's a joke, there's nothing in the
picture". His normally fairly sardonic sense of humor gave way a bit
to sympathy for my naivety that day, I think.

This past week-end, I was reminded of the quick humor I'd always
appreciated and it was nice to be around it again, if only for a few
hours. Cool to see, also, that he met his equal in Rita.

Joe also lived down the hall from me sophomore year. One of my
earliest memories of him was him going to the OU Halloween bash as
"Sporkman", some kind of super hero inspired by a utensil often found
at Taco Bell. That along with a large coat-of-arms that decorated his
dorm room wall popping off its nail and popping me on the head. As a
small trickle of blood went down the middle of my face, there was such
excitement when about six of us piled into someone's car to go to the
hospital to have it looked at.

It was a scratch, but everyone had some new entertainment for the
evening with that excursion. Any opportunity to get out of the dorm!

Thinking back on Suzanne, I didn't like her much. When we had become
friends later, she told me the feeling had been mutual. She was in my
English class (and also in the dorm) and I thought she was a snot.

She thought I was too.

But, I guess snots make for good friends because we lived together for
the next two years; our junior year in a house with six others
(including Joe), and senior year with a third.

She is now one of my nearest and dearest.

Our junior year she returned from a trip to Cincinnati with Joe (they
were just friends at the time) when she asked me to run an errand with
her in the most excited tone I'd ever heard from someone merely
needing to put gas in their car, "I am COMPLETELY in-love with Joe!"

And the rest is history.

Potty mouth

Growing-up, it was a dream of my brother Christopher and I to enter
the Guinness Book of World Record for sibling abuse.

Name-calling was a subset under the umbrella of abuse. I suspect my
early introductions into my trucker-mouth was from CJ.

One time, I was maybe ten, we had guests over. CJ was teasing me (or
something) and I said, "I'm gonna kick you in the BALLS!" Quite
loudly, quite clearly.

Dad glared at me and I quickly clarified, "I meant EYE balls!" I was
glad I explained myself - it's hard to know which balls a person may
be referring to.

Quite different from the time I called CJ "MR. Doucheman" and Dad
briskly pulled me into the other room and explained to me, in great
detail, exactly WHAT douching was.

No further clarification necessary.