and, might i add…

It’s NOT really April 25th, as I write this! My blog is WRONG!  How does that happen?  How do I fix it?  And yes, I’m sure….because April 25th is my birthday, and that isn’t until tomorrow.

good at reading yours, bad at writing mine

So it looks like my plan of blogging more really isn’t working for me. But I did want to let you all know that I still like to “make the rounds” and read what you all have been up to. So I guess maybe that is actually “lurking”…sorry about that. I’m a user – I’ll use your blogs for my entertainment, but give you nothing back in return. I’ll try to work on that.

I think part of it is that nothing is really too new in my life. I’m OK with that, but it doesn’t make for an entertaining blog. Chris and I still live in the same house, although we are rapidly getting sick of our white trash neighborhood. If I hear one more motorized scooter or 4-wheeler whiz by at 2am, I’m going to call the realtor immediately. I mean it. We both wish we could pick up our house and move it to some 40 acre piece of land. He still works for Station 19 Architects, and is loving it. He is great at his job, and I’m so proud of him for changing the direction of his career to do something that he really loves, and is really good at.

I still have the same job that I don’t love, but pays the bills. I still have my “real job”, which is training my dogs and teaching 2 beginning pet classes every Thursday night. I’m also learning how to teach the intermediate class, so maybe soon I’ll start doing that, too. I’ve been working very very hard with Harley, trying to earn her Obedience Trial Championship. That’s easier said than done in this part of the country. For some reason, the Midwest is ultra-competitive and it’s very difficult to win at obedience competitions. But Harley and I train 5 or 6 days/nights a week, and she is really doing great. In fact, we are doing better than we ever have before. We’re going to a trial this weekend, where we hope to find success!

Teego is doing well, but I have been so busy focusing on Harley that he isn’t getting my full attention. I guess the only real ‘news’ with him is that he has started having occasional seizures. It’s a genetic condition, and it absolutely breaks my heart. He has a beautiful personality and I love him dearly. He doesn’t deserve to have this condition that he can’t understand. They aren’t too bad (approx 1 seizure every 2-3 months), but it’s likely they might get worse as he ages, or if he goes unmedicated. We have an appointment to see a specialist at the U of M vet school in a few weeks, where I guess he’ll be put on anti-seizure medication. Hopefully that will help.

There, how’s that for a post?!?

this could be our big break!

For quite a while, I’ve had an idea in the back of my mind to get Teego into show business. Well, at least into print or TV ads. He is a hilarious dog, and really enjoys learning all kinds of funny tricks. Yesterday, my mom sent me this contest that Hallmark is putting on, where you sent a picture of your pet, and a caption for a birthday card. 68 entries will get made into actual cards, and the top winner gets $1000 and a free trip and photo shoot. I am determined to make Teego a star! I just need your help on some funny/cute ideas for a humorous birthday card, starring a dog. So fire away – remember, I can probably teach him to do just about any pose/trick involved. He will very nicely do just about anything I ask of him…

It appears a few of you are

At least a couple people still look to see if I’m alive – that’s good!  So I suppose I will periodically write here.  Don’t know what I will write yet, but I will try to think of something.  Maybe some pictures if I get ambitious.

Are you still reading this?

It’s been a long time since I last posted.  A looooonnnngggg time.  But I do still read everyone else’s blogs, and I miss being part of our little blogging world.  I just don’t feel like I really have anything that would be exciting for you all to read about.  I pretty much work, and train dogs.  But I am considering writing again.  We’ll see.

So I thought I’d take an informal poll – who even still looks at my page anymore?  Comment here and let me know.  But then again, now that I am out of the habit, maybe I will forget to check this once again…argh.

apparently I made the right choice…

…by staying at my current job.  I just found out an hour ago that I'm getting promoted! Yay me.

country girl in the…suburbs?

I drive home, windows & sunroof & tailgate window totally open; warm wind blowing over my body. I wear muddy holey jeans, workboots, and a baseball cap. I've got dirt on my face and hands. An oranage Gatorade in one hand, chowing down on a turkey sandwich from the gas station with the other, while I drie with my knee. Country music comes from the speakers. My dog is in the back of my truck (OK, it's technically an SUV), covered head to toe with mud from training in the field & pond. My ears are still ringing just a tad from the gunfire. I'm totally relaxed and at peace with the world, and I'm thinking about the librarian's post about being a city girl in the country. I decide that maybe I lean a bit more towards the Country than the City. I like the peace and quiet of the wide open spaces. I like being relaxed and not caring what I look like when I walk into the gas station. like spending time outside teaching my dog to retrieve birds. I don't really even mind handling the dead birds – it's not a big deal. I like being dirty and working hard tending to horses. But there's a part of me that likes having Target and Burger King right around the corner…so maybe I'm not a "too far out in the country" girl.
I arrive home after my peaceful drive and immediately start bathing my muddy dog. In the course of bathing & drying him, I find 5 ticks, 4 of which I called my husband in to take care of. The fifth one I deal with like a squeamish little girl…and decide that maybe I'm not as much of a country girl as I thought.

tongue tied

sometimes i feel like i have been trapped inside myself.  i have a hard time saying things that i want to say.  i rehearse and re-rehearse in my mind the way i'm going to say something, and try to anticipate the response i'm going to get.  i'm always afraid that it's not going to come out right, or for some other reason i'm going to get a poor response from the other party.  maybe what i say will offend them.  maybe the so-called funny thing that i have to say won't be funny.  maybe i won't explain it right.  maybe it will just be stupid.  i do this with almost everyone and everything that is of any consequence.  something funny happened once when ___ and ___ happened…  do you have time to mail this for me today…  i really need more help doing ___…  do you want to go do ____ with me this weekend…
to make matters worse, i think i have been like this my entire life.  when i was in elementary school, i remember my "friends" laughing at me sometimes because i'd be thinking so hard about something i wanted to say, or replaying something that i had just said, that i would silently mouth the words.  i never even knew that i did this.  i also think my dad might have the same kind of problem.  my mom has told me before that he's always afraid he might do something wrong or make a mistake.  she says it's from the critical way his parents treated him when he was younger.  what if it's something i've inherited from him?  or learned from him?

all of this combines to make me feel like i have trapped myself into isolation. since i have a hard time sharing what i'm thinking, i feel like very few people really know me.  and that's my own fault.  even writing this was very hard for me, but i've been thinking about it a lot lately.

Update

OK. I never have time to write anymore…and I really don’t have time right now either. But I felt guilty that I left you all hanging about the job interview. So I’ll summarize. I think it went pretty well….but I also don’t want the job. It would be a lot of added responsibility that could be cool…but would also be more stress in my life that I don’t want right now. It also took me 40 minutes to get there – with no traffic. So, with traffic, we are talking over an hour for sure. I’m pretty sure that driving an hour each way, 5 times per week, is worse than carpooling with 4 other people for an hour each way, twice a week. So. That’s that. I haven’t heard anything at all back from them…and I don’t care. Even though I didn’t want the job, this was a good experience. I learned that I like my current job a lot better than I thought I did.

mega interview

ok, so my interview was rescheduled to Tuesday…from 11am-2pm…with 7 different people…

this is like a mega interview.  but i know this is what they do at companies like Microsoft, etc.  i just lucked out at my current job.  because the job came up so suddenly, they didn't do a "mega interview" with me, like they normally do with other people.

the main thing that sucks about it is i'm going to have to take a vacation day, since it's so much time.  that will work out OK if it turns out that i want/get the job…but if i don't, then i have just wasted a vacation day.  and i still don't know if i want the job or not.  change makes me nervous.