Haircuts

BEFORE HAIRCUT

You got your 1st haircut this weekend. I brought you in for your appointment, and I was told that you would need to be shaved basically (aka Bad Mommy for not taking you in sooner for the matting). I don't think I prepared myself for what you would REALLY look like when you came out a few hours later. I told them that I preferred you with about at least an inch or two of hair, but they could not make any promises. It also depended on how much you wiggled. Shit. You were destined to be shaved.

AFTER HAIRCUT

I come to pick you up, and they tell me that they were able to keep about an inch and a 1/2 all over but a few places are pretty choppy but you look REALLY handsome. They go to the back and bring you up after you have heard me speak, and are now barking. I know your bark, like a mother knows their child's cry. I KNOW your bark. After all, you have never been afraid to use it...how could I NOT know? You are a very opinionated dog if I may add. But that is besides the point. You walk out, and I am 100% sure that you are NOT my dog. It almost felt as if we didn't know each other. You looked as if you had been violated. Your eyes bled emotions of timid, scared and sad. I was sad, too. You looked nakey! I soon realized it was really you when you started doing your usual "I know where we are in the car" barking. But I knew this wasn't the time to show my emotions, as you would pick up on everything I was feeling. Instead, I tried to make you feel as handsome as possible on the way home as you rested your muzzle on the center armrest that you have made your official headrest when you are going for a ride in the green machine. As the night went on, I became much more adjusted to your new look, and you began to grow confidence. Now, you LOVE your new-do. You stay cool, and can play for hours. Before you were overheated after 30 minutes. You are soft, and I love petting you. And you really know how to work the ears now, because they didn't really trim those at all. You are a cute little fuzzy butt. But I love you, bald or scraggly and matted, because I'm your mommy. Daddy and I took you to DogFest the next day, and saw another doodle that we swore was you. But we knew we had the right dog. You loved us. And we love you, and always will. So if you feel bald or naked at the dog park with your friends, know deep down your mommy and daddy still love you. You are loved, always and forever.

Amore

After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable.  A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go.  You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow.  - H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance

                           This was Rich's Love Day present to me. It is pretty much the coolest   Valentine's Day gift ever. Why? I have wanted a beach cruiser for a LONG time. But he didn't stop there. He got it in RED. My favorite color. To take the cake, because our new place is on the beach, it suits my needs perfectly. It was and is perfect.


        Love Day was perfect. It was the best I have ever had. It was everything I could have wanted and more. Sketchy phone calls that hinted at things being hidden. Knowing that at home the doodle was curious about the giant thing in the living room in HIS living room spot ( and yes, I knew there was something too big to hide from the not-so-subtle hints over the phone). Walking into the apartment to see a red bicycle with a box of perfect chocolates placed on the seat, and the helmet hanging from the handle bars. Requesting filet mignon for dinner, and getting it. Having a home cooked meal together and talking silly things with cheesy love songs playing in the background. Opening, sharing and laughing at cards from family and one another. For our evening together, nothing else mattered. Not homework, not work, not cleaning, not laundry. Nothing seemed as important as giving our time to share with each other how much we really care and love one another. It was a perfect ride through Dreamland on our wonderful dream bikes that change and grow as we change and grow together. I love you.

12 Things I love about you (because 10 just didn't suffice)

1. I love when you just drank an entire bowl of water and you come up and rest your soaked beard on my thigh. 

2. I love when we run together first thing in the morning. Your excitement for life and others sets a great attitude and mood for the rest of the day. Even though you like running 7 minute miles, which I find hard to keep up with!

3. I love the head tilt you do when I say something you want or know about. Like when I ask you if you want to go out and go potty.

4. I love that you enjoy the weather out on the patio and how you focus your body to certain directions just to feel the wind blow through your hair. 

5. I love that you have the ability to make friends. Especially Boston, whom you recognize from the patio every single time. I also love that you two have a little love affair going on. 

6. I love that everyone calls you beautiful and handsome. Makes me proud, even if I didn't birth you.

7. I love how you will do ANYTHING for cheese. And I mean ANYTHING.

8. I love that you hate when I am on some sort of electronic device. It's a nice reminder that life isn't all about ipods and computers, but about interaction and relationships with others.

9. I love that you hate being in the backseat of the car because you can't be close to either of us. I love how you rest your head on the center console just to get enough of your body close enough to us for comfort.

10. I love that you chase leaves blowing in the wind.

11. I love that you are almost 70 lbs. of unbridled, fluffy, smooshy, mushy, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly love for everyone and everything that breathes or moves.

12. I love that you bark at the T.V. when you don't like something that is on, like Rocky Horror. I love that you will watch Star Wars for hours on end and never look away. 

New Beginnings

I have officially been the "newbie" employee at my job for a WHOLE month. That's right, 1 month.

(Side Note: How do I look in scrubs? Like a natural?)

Whenever starting a new job, there is always an adjustment period. First comes to training and getting to know all your coworkers. The interesting bit about my new job in the adjustment period is getting to know a staff that has all worked together for 10 years. This was actually one thing about the office that spoke to me in my interview, because usually people only stick by someone for that long if they love their job. The other adjustment has been having such a small number of staff. Some may say this can be a negative thing, but I think it works to make everyone feel NECESSARY to the team effort. The staff truly feels like family, which is so important when working with animals. When there is tension or upset, animals sense our emotions. If the staff felt this way, the animals would never cooperate with treatments.

My job title is Veterinary Technician Assistant. What is involved you ask? Well, a LOT of cleaning. A LOT A LOT A LOT of cleaning...cleaning dirty kennel runs, laundry, dishes, picking up poop, mopping, sanitizing surgical instruments, litter boxes, you name it...I do it. Most people would most likely hate doing these duties. But all that cleaning and busy work has proven to be a learning experience for me. A veterinarian at Gumbo Limbo once explained to all the interns that if the patient is not provided with the basic animal husbandry, no treatment given will be effective. Therefore, my cleaning serves a MAJOR purpose to the office running effectively. How can you expect a patient to get well in an unsanitary environment? And how can the rest of the office be expected to provide 100% excellent treatment if they are constantly having to worry about the other chores needing to be done? My eyes have been opened to what it TRULY takes to run an animal clinic. Besides it being a business and having to deal with finances and paperwork, you truly have to be able to do it ALL.

Even though I do a great amount of cleaning, I have also learned in my first month that the quicker you finish your chores, the sooner you get to hang out in the treatment room. And let me tell you...all that cleaning is SO worth getting to stand in on surgeries that are rare and even surgeries that are routine. By proving my capability, I have also been given duties to help prep a patient for anesthesia for surgery as well as help take radiographs. I have learned how to properly handle an animal. And the best perk of all is I am getting all the necessary veterinary hours for my upcoming vet school applications...and getting paid to do so. But beyond all those perks, the most important perk is that for once I am HAPPY and feel I am in the right place. Every pre-vet student at some point or another has to clean kennels and do the grunt work, but how else are you supposed to work your way to the top? I feel challenged. Every day is both a challenge and a surprise...a challenge that I may be asked to try something new and a surprise because of the excitement that can come along with that. And this happiness only proves to me that regardless of how everyone else feels, if you stick up for what you think is best for you, everyone that loves you will follow your path.

Lesson for the day: Do what you love and forget about all the rest. If it makes you happy, do it. You only live once.

Magic Life Ball

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "the future belongs to Those who believe in the beauty of their dreams". Sometimes I wish that the magic ball that we all used to shake and ask about future first kisses and high school graduations really worked. We are taught when we graduate from high school, we can be anything and do anything we put our minds to. We all have the ability to be amazing. The irony behind this thought process though is that if we are ALL striving to be the best, are we ever truly standing out? And just when you begin to think you really have it all together and feel you stand out, someone either next to you or half way across the country is already 5 steps ahead of you. While humility is important and "humbling", does there ever come a point where it has the ability to hold you back? And what if it holds you back from doing the most amazing thing of your life? It amazes me also that we are all on our way to achieving greatness, but how no one person takes the same exact road there as the other. Then the question really becomes, who defines what greatness really means?

I think we define what our greatest potential is. It is that inner feeling that everyone is born with. But no two people have the same inner feelings. So how is it that in a world with so many people with so many different agendas we are still able to form relationships? Or is that also linked in selfishness- make a connection that in the long run may benefit you?

As a student about to graduate with an undergrad degree in something completely useless to what I now want to do with my future, I find myself asking all kinds of questions. Going back as a post-bacc student isn't easy. While it may have its benefits, it doesn't necessarily feel the greatest sitting in classes with freshman who are fresh out of high school at 23. Do I really want to spend the next 6 years in school? Why not stop now? But then my mind opens the other flood gate and thoughts of being average and not living out my dream give rise to the nervous system that has learned to concentrate itself in the middle of my stomach.

But I find relief in this nervous and frightened feeling, as it seems to answer all the questions and I am reminded of how worth it those 6 years are. Will giving up my dream now be best? Well, thats like asking if I never made it to the top of Kili would I not have been upset....duh. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Do one thing everyday that scares you".