Wednesday, April 27, 2005

I'll Still Get Carded When I'm 40

I turned 29 on Sunday and was hit with the realization that I had exactly one year left of being "twenty-something." This didn't really bother me, until I started thinking maybe it should bother me. So now it's bothering me - mainly because in other people's lives, it has bothered them, and for those of you who know me personally, you know I value other people's opinions much more than I value my own. (The fact that I am even expressing my opinions on a public web site caused a couple of pigs to get airborne.) For the past few days I've been making myself crazy with my "I'm almost 30 and I should be concerned about this for some reason" crisis. Through the magic of the internet that Al Gore created, I started reading things that other people want to do before they're 30. It began as a way to pass the time during lunch on Monday. I thought it would be amusing and entertaining, however, skimming several lists helped the paranoia set in. People want to do a lot of stuff before they're 30 - more than I really even want to do in my lifetime. Damn overachievers. I sat down and made my own list of the major goals that are of the utmost importance to me that I want to achieve at some point in the future. I came up with four (in no particular order):

I want to go back to school.
I want to have kids.
I want to travel to other countries.
I want a job, working with animals, that I love, where I will stay and work my ass off until I get too old to work there and retire and then start volunteering there.

Of course there are many other things I would like to do, but if I never get to do those things, I'm fine with that. If I never get over being claustrophobic, I won't feel like less of a person. If I never get a web comic site up and running, I won't feel like I didn't live up to my full potential. If I never go skydiving, I won't feel like I missed out. After 29 years, I've realized I need to stop comparing me to those who are not me. There will always be people that, when compared to them, I am the equivalent of a doorstop with an IQ of 53. On the other hand, there will always be people that in comparison make me look like a well-spoken, worldly, Nobel Prize winning genius.

I want to be a good partner, daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend, co-worker, student and volunteer. I'm a good mom to our current "kids" and eventually I want the opportunity to be a good mom to human kids. I am going to take my "Shortest List of Life Goals. Ever." and do it. It might be small, but it's going to take quite a bit of effort and growing and learning on my part. And if there's free time for skydiving, phobia-conquering, web comicing and any other ings, I'll consider myself fortunate.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Adventures In Procrastination



SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!

Okay so it's not much of a refund, but at least I don't owe anything.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

I Bet Press'n Seal Didn't Have This Use In Mind

I'm going to submit a testimonial to GLAD:
While we have yet to use Press'n Seal for any of the many uses suggested on your website, we have found it works wonderfully for wrapping The Dog's bandaged leg when we take her outside to pee. Thank you for helping protect our little critter from bacteria, dirt, moisture and other harmful things.

The Boss and I learned two things last weekend:
1) We have one tough little dog
2) Our next house, and subsequent houses, will not have stairs.

The Dog cut her leg on something in the backyard and had to go to the emergency vet on Saturday afternoon. She was fully prepared to keep playing fetch on her 3 uninjured legs, however the fact that she was bleeding and I could see flesh that was not supposed to be seen ended the game early. The vet determined she needed stitches, so we left her there and picked her up a few hours later. We knew she'd still be groggy from the anesthesia and were prepared for her to be pretty miserable. The tech brought her out to the waiting room, complete with a big lampshade collar. It was so hard not to laugh. The poor thing was still teetery from the anesthesia, her eyes were all bleary and there was drool everywhere, but we could tell she was happy to see us from her butt-wiggle. If there's ever a casting call for the part of "Drunk Dog" she's so getting it.
We are extremely thankful that she was back to near normal by Sunday morning. Carrying a 75 pound dog up and down stairs multiple times, especially at one in the morning, is not fun. Though, we'd do it a hundred more times if we had to. I suppose we could've made her stay either upstairs or downstairs for the entire evening and night, but The Dog gets to do whatever The Dog wants as long as it is not detrimental to her health.
She's learning to maneuver with the lampshade. It took her about a day to get used to it, and I'm so going to hell for giggling sometimes when she runs into things. The Boss and I have already thrown around ideas for Halloween costumes.
Now we're just dealing with a dog who has a severe case of cabin fever. She's been on restricted activity for 5 days now and it's making her crazy. No fetch = HYPER DOG. We have to continue to restrict her activity for the next week and a half. Wish us luck.