Monday, March 2, 2009

It's the first of March

and at risk of sounding just like my dad where exactly did the time go?
Seriously.

I put in a fair amount of extra hours at the office in the last four weeks, but I did it to feel better about the several months before the new year where I did almost nothing. I'm not stupid enough to not get nervous in these economic times when work slows down, despite the corporate emails I keep getting telling me everything is fine. It makes me 'squishy' when work slows down like that.

I wrapped up my portion of the project at the end of the week two weeks ago, and headed north to Pennsylvania. My friend Molly lives just west of Harrisburg, PA and we share a common loss (brothers), a common love (german shepherds) and the same taste in stupid movies (The Pink Panther!) I have known Molly a long time, but until recently we were fairly distant. My friendship with her now,is so close, she feels like family. We spent a few days together and then I headed to Philadelphia to work with a well known, well respected dog trainer. Is it reasonable to think I'm going to drive to Philly to train dogs on a regular basis? No. Am I considering it? Yep. I've already spent a day re-figuring budgets and yeah it's crazy, but yeah, I might do it anyway. It would really help if I could just win the damn lottery though. Really. Not even the big jackpot is necessary, the little one will do. I'm just putting that out there in case the lottery gods are interested.

My favorite quote of the week in PA came from Molly who as she handed me several bowls of dog food to feed her boarding dogs reminded me to push the bowls 2-3 feet away from the chain link fencing. Why? (Well I'll tell you why, because if you leave the bowls close to the edge the chickens will stick their heads in through the fence holes and the dogs, they will bite their heads right off.

For the record, no chickens were beheaded on my watch.

I stayed in one of those cool studio apartment-hotel rooms in Philadelphia. I LOVE staying in hotels, as long as I have a comfortable bed a four cup coffee maker a microwave and a fridge, I'm all good.

We trained from 10 am til nearly 8pm at night, I'm not sure, but I may have been just as tired as my dog. I forced myself to stop the first night and buy groceries and bubble bath. Worth the stop. Hell yes.

I'd forgotten just how cold winter is. It's amazing what spending four winters in North Carolina can do to your memory. I owe a couple of friends a huge Thank You for pushing me to invest in a couple of "winter-wear" purchases. I would never have survived without their insistence on those purchases. For the girls out there in need of warm clothes, find CuddlDuds - you won't be sorry.

I've spent the whole day in my pajamas, and it's snowing outside in MARCH in North Carolina. As much as I want warmer weather, this year is already flying by and I won't be the one to wish it by any faster.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And you can keep the lovely snow, thank you. :)

Glad you're doing well. :)

kenju said...

I'm seldom without my cuddleduds now - even here.

Maria said...

I love that you're doing what makes you happy - everyone should!

Mojo said...

You weren't here to witness any of them, but NC has gotten some of its heaviest snows (The Great Blizzard of 2000 not one of them BTW) in late February and early March. And I even remember a freak 5-6 inch deposit on April 15th 1983.

But this we have today? this is much more typical. A half inch of snow on top of an inch of slush that'll be melted by noon with the remnants frozen hard overnight just as soon as we figure we're done. They reported 3 inches of snow at the airport, but I think they must have been measuring it as it fell and not accounting for meltage... 'cause there was nothing close to 3 inches anywhere I've been this morning.

Then again, maybe the weather geeks at the airport are all men. That could explain the confusion.

tiff said...

Mojo - you should have been roaming in the wilds of Wkae FOrest, because theres' still at least an inch on the colder surfaces, and that's after some signficant melting.

I do love the snow, and the day off of school that allows me to HAVE to hang at home. Woohoo!

Going to Philadelphia to train dogs? Doesn't sound crazy at all.

Her Roo-ness said...

think how beautiful that dog is running to you.

chicken heads.
yuck.

Anonymous said...

Were you in Mechanicsburg or Carlisle?
Cuddlduds may be nice but Woolrich is having their annual warehouse sale on 14 and 15 March. I'm going on Saturday.