Here’s Katie with her birthday chew treat this evening. I’d have preferred pie, but she likes this!
Katie's birthday
Today is Katie’s 2nd birthday. Of course she’s asking for cake and presents. So I gave her one of her toys and played fetch for awhile. So far she seems satisfied. Right now she’s out in her kennel enjoying watching oak leaves fly by in the heavy winds. She also tried to catch a mouse, but it got away! 🙂 I guess that would have been the ultimate two year old birthday present! Happy birthday Katie girl!
Library funny
Yesterday afternoon I was working at the library. Though you wouldn’t think it takes a masters degree to do it, a large part of my job seems to be checking dvds in and out. Families come in and each member brings back the maximum, six, dvds and checks out another six. All the dvd cases lock, so as they get checked back in the cases get locked, and as they get checked out the cases get unlocked. I was having all sorts of trouble with the unlocking equipment at the station I was working yesterday. Torward the end of the shift a little boy, maybe 6 or 7 watched me struggle to unlock his dvds. As I finally got them all open he said “You’re not very good at that are you?” I laughed and said no I wasn’t very good at it. Then as he watched me scan them all onto his library card he added “But you’re very good at that!”
Kids. They make you smile.
Holidays at a retail store
Last night I worked at the bookstore from 5 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. How to describe it? Well, let’s just say that there was a full moon shining and there were many frustrated, tired, angry and confused people shopping. Seven hours of standing behind a cash register, smiling and asking if gift receipts are needed, is way too many. Though sometimes cute things happened. Like the mother who had children’s books hidden under her coat and who distracted the kids as she slid them silently to me to scan. I recognized them as Christmas gifts, scanned them and quietly double bagged them so the kids didn’t see. Or the ten year old who returned a book she had received as a gift and got a gift card in return, and who spent HOURS searching for just the perfect book to spend her new found wealth on. She bought a book as a Christmas gift for her brother rather than one for herself. Her gap-toothed grin said it all. But mostly there were frazzled grownups with stacks of stuff who had waited in one long line too many that day and were ready to take it out on someone. And the poor cashier is someone, isn’t she?
When I got home around 1 in the morning Katie was frantic for play. But my feet hurt, my head hurt, even my hair hurt, so we went to bed. This morning she and I are playing for a bit, before I head out to my other job. At the library today we are doing crafts with about 30 5-7 year old kids. And tomorrow I work at the bookstore again until 12:30 in the morning. I can barely stand all this holiday cheer!
6 Things I like, by Katie the sheltie
We were tagged by 4 Dog Craziness, thanks!
Six things I like, by Katie
1. Sleeping on a huge pile of pillows. The more pillows the better; after all I’m a PRINCESS!
2. Playing fetch with my little tennis ball…or my froggie..or my frisbee…or just about anything!
3. Eating. .. just about anything I can find. Especially freshly cooked chicken during school!
4. Barking at all the scary people, cars, birds, cats, other dogs, deer, horses or anything else out there on MY road!
5. Going for car rides. Anywhere except the vet. Well. Maybe the vet is OK, if I get treats.
6. Getting my picture taken, so everyone can see how BEAUTIFUL I am!
Living with a crazy princess
So Katie has become even more crazy. She has started to ask to go outside constantly, last night in the driving rain turned to sleet over and over again out we went. Each time I was thinking that her incessent whining and barking at me must mean she has to go out “RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE AND CAN’T HOLD IT A SECOND LONGER!” But when we get out there (I don’t have a fenced yard so we have to go out together) we end up wandering around the yard sniffing stuff. She seems especially interested in the #2 deposits of previous trips. So I am constantly saying “NO!” and pulling her away. This is new behavior for her, and it’s wearing on me. This morning after being outside in the freezing cold four times in a couple of hours, with no apparent reason I left her with my husband for the day and went shopping! When I got home he said “She’s crazy!” We can’t decide if it’s a reaction to me being gone a lot, to having less practice time, and thus less treats, or just less fun, so she’s bored.
The good news is that to my surprise she was pretty good tonight in week 7 of advanced dog obedience. She even stayed down when I left the room during one exercise. So I guess any fairy tale about a princess that ends on a happy note is a good story. Right? Now I have to go. She wants to go out. Again.
Working working working…and a crazy sheltie
One of the unforeseen consequences of having and working two jobs is that Katie has turned into a wild thing. She was used to having me around all summer, and apparently she likes it that way. Well, that’s understandable; so did I. But now that I’m coming and going, away from the house for long hours at a time, she is turning into a demanding little girl when I finally walk in the door. Like in: “what’s up Mom? huh? huh? huh? hey, what’s to eat? hey! hey! hey! want to play with my ball? how about my frisbee, my doggie, my squirrel, either of my frogs? How about the tug toy. huh? huh? huh? poke poke…hey, I’m hungry, yes I know Dad fed me before he left, but do YOU know Dad fed me? Maybe not? Big eyes, whine…maybe we could play some more AND get a treat AND go outside all at the same time..huh? huh? huh? and by the way did you know that THERE ARE DEER SLEEPING IN OUR BACK YARD RIGHT THIS MINUTE! AND YOU HAVE TO GO LOOK RIGHHHHTTTT NOOOWW!!!! CRISIS ALERT!
So I can’t seem to get anything done at home in between working shifts except play with Katie. Which isn’t all bad you know, I just feel bad that the laundry and dishes and vacuuming aren’t done. Not to mention Christmas stuff. But really, Katie deserves an attentive Mom, right? We try to practice our dog obedience homework every day but last week in class she just looked at me like she’d never heard the word “DOWN!” before. She does it fine here…is too interested in looking for treats on the floor there. Oh well…class is almost over for the semester. I guess it’s just important that I can get her to DOWN! here at home.
During this crazy time I hope you and yours are remembering to spend quality time with your loved ones, people, dogs or whatever. Even without constant reminding.
20 minutes
Funny how twenty minutes standing in a hot shower is so much shorter than 20 minutes standing at a cashier station in a retail store late on a snowy night.
A mile in winter
As I was driving to work the other day I saw a sign in front of a store that something like “A mile driven is two in winter.” I don’t really know what that meant to the people in the landscaping establishment, but it struck a chord with me. Seems like many things are just twice as difficult this winter. The snow came sooner and is sticking around, it’s doubly cold here for this time of year. The economy is frightening, and most of our income is attached to General Motors which increases the fear factor. And of course I’m working two jobs, something I’ve never done before. It’s difficult to find a space where things feel normal, happy, comfortable. Frankly I miss being inside the safe, sheltered, and to be honest, slightly dilusional world of grad school. Cause the real world is pretty darn difficult right now. Each mile we cover, so far this winter, feels like we’ve just run two. Here’s hoping things begin to look up once we get to 2009.
Meanwhile…I’m off to work, I had the weekend off, but they called for backup help at the bookstore. Can’t wait to face all those friendly shoppers! Well. Some of them are friendly. But lots of them also look like they just ran two miles to make it the one mile into the store. If you know what I mean.
Ceramic Christmas trees revisited
When I was a teenager my mother owned a ceramics store where people came in and finished ceramic pieces. At this time of the year we’d be firing hundreds of Christmas trees in our kilns. Most of them were finished with assorted green glazes, some had a type of glaze on the ends of the boughs that resembled snow after they were fired. We did so many of them that I vowed I never wanted to see another ceramic Christmas tree. Ever. As it turned out my husband and I inherited one from his mother, and I put it out every year, smiling as I remember.
On my way home from work last night, driving slowly through driving snow I realized that almost all the huge pine trees along the roads were covered in great big wads of sticky snow. And they looked just like the ceramic trees of my youth! They were everywhere! Guess you just can’t escape your past. That’s OK. They’re beautiful and I didn’t have to load a kiln, or pack them in a box with shredded paper for our customers!
Katie and I wish all of you out there a very happy holiday, whether you have a ceramic Christmas tree or not!
