31 July 2011

Fresh!






Fresh back from a seven-day vacation with my extended family in Marquette, Michigan. Feels great to be back home, but I'm already missing my people and the beach. Big love and hugs to my awesome family!

18 July 2011

A Tale of Two Dogs

So let me tell you about how a tale of two dogs....as you may have read, I had a dog sitting gig last week.

I was responsible for two dogs while staying at my client's home, about five minutes from my own house. The gig lasted only for two nights beginning Thursday after work. I was done by about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Mixed feeling pretty much sums up the experience. Going for a walk with them on Thursday night was decent enough, although one dog is a good walker, the other one would just stop and lay down mid walk, making forward momentum difficult to maintain. Playing ball with the dogs in the back yard was fun on Friday evening. We all had fun, but I don't know if all of it was enough to make me want to dog sit on the regular.

Here's the deal. I don't have my own dog or dogs because I'm gone, out and about and what not a lot and that fact alone would mean serious alone time for a dog or me cutting back on my out of the house activities. On Thursday night when I knew the dogs had been in the house all day, I felt like it wasn't really right to leave them again since it was my job to watch them. Same deal Friday night. It might be different once I got to know the dogs and what they could handle or if they were my own dogs and I knew what they were capable of. But this time, not so much. I felt a bit tied to the house.

Bottom line, I'm a single lady who likes to be out and about doing things, often at the spur of the moment. Being responsible for someone else's dogs while they're out and about doing things (granted this situation involves travel for work) seems a little off in my book.

I talked to my client while she was en route from her work trip and when she asked how things were going and if I'd be able to watch the dogs at the beginning of August, I told her what I had been thinking. She was understanding, which was cool. I may end up doing a couple short gigs to see if anything changes, but I probably won't be putting dog sitter on my resume as a permanent side gig.

I'm glad I've given it a try and am open to seeing if things change, since you never know how things are going to work. Some things work, some don't and some take a little bit to figure out.

16 July 2011

Sprinkles of Random

A friend from work is getting married this weekend. Tons of people from work will be there. The vibe at work Friday afternoon has been something reminiscent of pre-prom. People are talking about what they're wearing (it's an outdoor evening wedding, so there's some figuring to be done, especially for the guys!) It's going to be fun.

*****

I started my dog sitting gig last night after work. I will give you a full report after the gig is up. Meanwhile though, can we talk about TV? I have not had cable or been around cable TV in years. I had the TV on last night and am completely disgusted by what's on TV these days. It a wasteland of trash. Yes, I realize it was probably a bunch of crap programming when I last watched TV on the regular, but I think after not watching it I'm way more sensitive to it. Like my TV lungs pinked back up. MTV has some show about girls who look for older men who will buy them things. The title involves something about a sugar daddy. My thoughts on this: 1. It's sick that there's a show about this. 2. It's sick that there are people who actually do this. That is all.

*****

I'm entertaining the idea of getting new glasses. I've had my same frames, which I LOVE and are so me, for about three years. Maybe it's been four. Man time really does fly, doesn't it?! I found my current frames in Marquette of all places. They're Jean LaFont (super-fancy) and since I'll be visiting Marquette again soon, I'll look at the same place to see what's new. There's also a new place in Grand Rapids called Sight that I want to check out. I've also been looking at a few online sites Warby Parker and Zenni.

*****
My post title reminds me of cupcakes. I believe there will be cupcakes at this wedding. I'm also way late in getting to try out a cupcake or two from Bartertown/Roc's Cakes. I've heard good things!



10 July 2011

Running Dogs

The clock in my living room decides to slow down about every six months (I'm thinking a battery should last longer than that, but that's another story) and being that it's Sunday night, I'm wishing the 8:15 p.m. that it currently reads was true! The weekend went too quickly as is customary. If you're a regular, you saw what my Friday night consisted of. Here are a few tidbits from the rest of my weekend:

Running. Saturdays are supposed to be rest days now with long runs taking place on Sundays. I had some miles I had to catch up on since I did not run on Thursday night since my entire town was in chaos and I could not peel myself away from the police scanner, streaming news, Twitter and Facebook. It was probably safer that I did not run that night. So sad and tragic, I still can't believe it happened. Back to running, I did a quick three miles on Saturday morning and then met up with Running Buddy A for nine miles this morning at the the crack of 7:00 a.m. so we could beat the heat. Have I mentioned the heat? Brutal for the last few days.

More running. I got to talk running with two new people on Saturday. I love that I can say, I'm a runner and instantly have something to talk about with other runners! We're definitely a big club, us crazy runners. I'm in the market for new shoes as the miles are creeping up on my current pair - Brooks Adrenaline ASR 6 - my third pair of the same shoe. They discontinued the style, so I have to find a suitable replacement. I think I have my choice narrowed down (if you click the link you'll see it's sort of an obvious choice), but I was a bit of a sad panda when I realized my current ASR 6s would be my last. None to be had, even in Internet land.

Dogs. I met up with my new client and her dogs on Saturday. Did I tell you I'm a dog sitter? My first gig is this week and I'm so psyched about being able to spend some time with my new little Westie friends. Seems like it's going to be a great arrangement. I have wanted a dog since having to put the Wolf down, but have always felt too guilty about my schedule and a dog spending too much time alone and/or in a crate. This dog sitting gig is like rent-a-dog, but I'm the one getting paid! I hope it works out as well as I've made it out to in my mind!

More Dogs. Running Buddy A has a Beagle Mix named Mae and I met her, her daughter and the Beagle at the dog park in town earlier this evening. We were having a good time chatting and watching all the dogs run and play. Beagle Mix Mae is a runner (A's always telling me about her latest escape) so I was telling the story about how my mom's dog wriggled under the fence at the dog park once and went for a run. Just as we're talking about it, someone is calling out, "the beagle just got out!" The mere power of suggestion must have wafted through the air and to her ears. She wasn't going to be out done by my mom's dog and she wasn't. She gave us quite the time trying to catch her.

Somewhat of a dog. I watched The Time Traveler's Wife on DVD tonight. I tweeted this earlier, but, must re-iterate for the blog, as is always the case, the book was MUCH better than the movie. Had it not been for Eric Bana and his handsome good looks, I would have shut it down.

Dog tired. And now, since I've been up since 6:00 a.m. and have had a busy day, it's time to call an end to this weekend. Depending on when you're reading this, goodnight, good morning or good day!

09 July 2011

Friday Night Photo Walk


After getting in a quick run, I took a little walk downtown last night and captured just a few images from all the sights and goings-on near the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) and Rosa Parks Circle. It was such a lovely summer night with a butoh dance performance on the steps of the GRAM, bubbles, beautiful sunlight and jazz wafting though the air.






What did your Friday night bring? Whatever you do today, enjoy it and make sure you look for the beauty all around you.