I'm really doing it

It is now official. I will have the honor of getting a dragonfly tattoo by Ken Dean tomorrow night. I'm so excited! I don't know what it will look like, what colors it will have, or even what size it will be - I'm leaving that up to him. Of course we'll talk a little bit about it but he's been doing it for a long time and knows what looks good and I trust his judgment.

The bad news is I can't swim for four days but that shouldn't be a problem since we're probably leaving for Binbrook Thursday night instead.

Still trying to work things out, but it might be possible to bring all the kids to the tourney with me! Yippee!

D

selfish...

I've been selfish lately. I haven't wanted to share anything, hence why I haven't. It's not even that I've done anything I don't want you to know either. I just haven't felt like writing.

So what's new? Well, I'm definitely heading to Binbrook this weekend. I'm trying to nail down the logistics now. I really need to be back on Monday since my brother can't stay Sunday night. Jay's coming on Monday to install the cellar door.

I was thinking of renting an RV so I wouldn't have to worry about any of it - I could bring all of the dogs and come and go when I needed to but that's not as financially feasible as I'd like it to be right now. I really need to stop doing stuff to the house so I can save some money.

So, I might have to drive over by myself, which I wasn't all that keen on, just so I can get back when I need to. I don't know. I could probably leave earlier than the rest of the team on Sunday if I needed to, I think. I don't know but I need to figure it out soon!

I had a great phone conversation the other day. It's hard to find people that can actually hold a decent conversation so it was definitely a treat. I'm looking forward to more of them...

D

thoughts....

A few things to report:

Guess who's Border Collie got soaked to the bone yesterday...on purpose?!

Yup! My little Tweak, the only Border Collie in the world to hate water, did it all on her own. Yesterday was a hot day, so I started filling the kiddie pool for the dogs. Tweak came over to the hose and took a drink out of it. I started making the same sounds I make when I play with her and she responded in a typical BC way - she chased it.

I was so excited!! I put my thumb on the opening to create pressure and she chased that. After 5 minutes she was doing 0-60 flat chasing a spray of water and getting *soaked* doing it. Yay!

I won't say she likes water as she still wouldn't go near the kiddie pool, even with the hose, but that's a hell of a lot of more than she's ever done.

Millie likes to swim but she's not so keen to just jump in like she used to do with lakes. I picked her up and brought her into the pool so she could swim for a bit. Of course I had her even while she was swimming.

Tweak seemed a little interested, she was coming to the edge with her tail wagging while Millie was in the pool. I showed Millie where the stairs were and got out with her. Tweak came over and let me pick her up so I slowly got into the pool. By the puncture marks in my shoulder from her grabbing on to me, I'd guess she was less than thrilled.

But, maybe she was fine since the hose thing happened the next day. I don't know, nor do I care, as long as I have a way to cool her off in the summer.

I was up early this morning so I took Tweak and Millie for a walk down to Dunkin Donuts. It's only 4 blocks away - about 15 minutes each way. I thought it would be good to give her some exercise before it got really hot, get used to walking longer distances on a leash, and get used to walking on a concrete. She was a bucking bronco for the first 3 minutes. She hit the end of the leash about 50 times before she figured out it wasn't in her best interest to do so. You wouldn't have known I've worked on heel with her by that. Oh, she also thought cars speeding past her were very cool things to chase. *That* was quickly nipped in the bud.

I was hoping she would just mimic Millie, who's awesome on a walk, and by the 1/2 way point, she did. We had a great walk on the way back - the proof being that I didn't spill a drop of my iced coffee.

I've seen TV ads for the new show The Two Coreys. I'm already ridiculously sick of reality TV and can't wait for the trend to change. I can understand why people would try to rejuvenate their careers that way. I don't fault them for doing it, but I think it's having the opposite effect on me. I don't want to hear about these people whining about how hard their lives are. The only thing I'm learning from these shows is that their reality is far, far different than mine, their priorities are so skewed they're almost unrecognizable, and that I've never seen more spoiled and shallow people.

If that's what money and fame does to you, they can keep it. I want nothing to do with having that kind of lifestyle. I don't think that would happen to me if I came into billions now, but who can say? I like who I am. It's taken lots of negative and positive experiences for me to end up this way. I'm not willing to trade my life as it is today for anything.

That's my musing for the day, for what it's worth.

In other news, I'm seriously debating on going to Binbrook Canada with NET next weekend. I'm heading to NJ the weekend after it so I'm not sure if I can get the time off, if I can afford it, etc. I think I've talked my brother into staying here, even though he has stuff to do. It's like he thinks that when he dog sits, he needs to be here 24/7, which he doesn't. We'll see what happens.

I know, I'm crazy. But it's kind of fun.

D

Things to do before I die

It's kind of a morbid subject but oh well.

While I was driving to work today, a Lenny Kravitz song came on. I've always enjoyed his music and I started singing along. Listening to it made me think of my desire to learn to play a song of his on the drums. That's something I've always wanted - I don't care which song, I just want to be able to play one song of his on the drums before I die.

Now, there aren't many things I feel I need to do before I leave this existence for another. But that is one of them.

That got me to thinking, what else do I feel I *have* to do before I die? So, here's what I came up with.

1. Learn to play a Lenny Kravitz song on a drumset.
2. Visit my friends in Australia.
3. Sit in a Paris restaurant with my dog.
4. Get something published - a picture, story, whatever.

That's it. I'm not sure what it says about me that my list is so short and fairly uninteresting. That I've done everything I've wanted so far? That I don't have a good enough imagination? That I live a sheltered life?

Who knows. Perception is key and your perception of me is your own and nothing I want to influence.

I know that Life is good, for the most part. I understand the not-so-good is needed to make the good, good. I know that I'm content with who I am, what I do, and my life as it is today.

If nothing changed, I'd still have a really incredible life - even if I don't get to do the things I want before I die.

But if I do, life will be that much sweeter.

D

one more day...

I spent the night working on my final short story. My creative writing class ends tomorrow and while I'm kind of happy to be moving on (my attention span is pretty short), I'm also a little sad. I've had a chance to be more creative in this class and I like it. Who knew I'd be fair to decent at writing poems and stories?

I'm hoping I'll continue on my own. I'm hoping I'll write more than my blog. All I need is time. Ha!

But I'm tired now. My brain has gone on strike so I'm going to bed.

D