Sometmes, there's just nothing you can do

This all actually happened Monday, but I didn't want to write about it then.


I thought of writing posts twice today. My first would have been titled: Day One of My Captivity. As you can see, it didn't end up that way.

I had yet another adult milestone today. I went downtown to serve my jury duty. I'll post more about that at a later time. The good news from that part of the day was that I got to have lunch with Pants and we were dismissed two hours early.

And now the bad parts of the day.

Over lunch, Pants told me that we have to get a new car. The old car, the one that belches of black smoke, needed a new spark plug and would never recover from its recent illness.

After jury duty, I called Pants and we decided to meet up at his parents' house in Edmond to return the car they'd been letting us borrow until ours was fixed. Having a game plan, I called my mom to chat with her and fill her in on the day's events.

Here's where, if you're a dog lover or someone who doesn't like to hear about animals hurt, you'll want to stop reading. Seriously.



Alright, I gave you an out, so don't say I didn't warn you.





I was driving up Sante Fe, when something to my left caught my eye. I turned just in time to see a large, white, shepard mix leap from behind a bush on the side of the road in front of a car going the opposite direction.

Midsentence I screamed "OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!" I'm sure my mother thought I'd been in a car wreck. I applaud her for not instantly saying "WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?"

I looked back to see the dog roll back and forth between the side of the car and the curb like a rag doll and come to a stop laying against the curb in the street.

I was almost hyperventilating at this point. My mom told me to pull over and take a deep breath. I had no idea what to do. Was the lady who hit the dog going to stop? Did anyone else see that? Do you bother calling 911 for an injured dog?

I decided to drive back by and see if the dog was moving. I turned around in a parking lot and did a drive by. So not moving. But I couldn't stand it if it was laying there hurt and I didn't do anything about it so I pulled into the nearest neighborhood and parked.

I called my vet who suggested I call animal control. I called the Edmond Animal Control and they were very nice and said that I was actually still in OKC, so I'd need to call their animal control.

I called the Oklahoma City Animal Control ... and got no answer. I called again. No answer.

So, armed with my cell phone and an umbrella (you don't touch an injured dog you don't know, it could bite because it's anxious or hurt) I made my way out to the accident site.

Somehow, the dog was now laying up on the sidewalk. No one else was in sight. I still don't know if the dog managed to crawl up on the sidewalk or if someone passing by moved it.

It was laying on its side, eye's wide open and still wet, mouth slightly ajar. There was a puddle beside it that confused me because it wasn't blood ... then I realized that the dog had voided its bowels. Not good.

I finish doing my unprofessional evaluation in time to look up to see a woman walking toward me. She was wearing sunglasses and a fancy tank top.

I said something about looking for a collar and tag and she nodded. I leaned down and hesitated. Cars were flying by about two feet from my head. The dog still looked so alive. What if I got hit bending over, what if the dog turned around and bit me as I touched it?

I got in my fireworks pose (sitting on my heels, ready to run) and reached out. The long white fur was so soft and still warm. I almost threw up then.

The heat coming from the dog really bothered me. I didn't want to touch it anymore, but I kept thinking about the family that would surely miss this dog that night. I wanted to call if there was a tag.

I pulled the purple collar around its neck all the way around. No tag. Who bothers to put a collar on a dog without a tag? Seriously? Maybe the dog had chewed the tag off. Maybe it was a new collar or the family had just moved and hadn't gotten one with a current address on it.

I look at the lady and she starts telling me, in a very teary voice, how she never saw the dog and she slammed on her brakes and ....

I stop her and tell her that I saw the whole thing. There was nothing she could have done. That dog saw something on the other side of the road and jumped right in front of her. It didn't think, just acted on impulse. There's no way she could have seen it. I feel good to be able to tell her this. It's what I'd want to hear and it's the truth.

She looks at it again and asks if I think it's dead. I point to the puddle and say "Well, it looks like it ..." I'm about to say "voided its bowels" but realize that that sounds pretentious and opt for "went to the restroom" right as she finishes for me with "it peed."

She asks me what I think we should do. I tell her that I've called Edmond Animal Control and will keep calling the Oklahoma City Animal Control.

We're both staring at the dog, reluctant to leave it all alone, dead on the sidewalk in the bright sun. Neither of us knows what to do, so I reiterate my calling plan. I consider knocking on doors of nearby houses, but think I'd probably get the police called on me.

She says she saw a black dog running after she hit the white one, but it ran away from her when she tried to get near it to check its tag. I consider combing the neighborhoods for this new dog. The one that lived.

I made it back to the car before I started crying. Feeling useless, I call OKC again. And again. I don't know what they were doing that was so important, but I never got through to them.

Not knowing what else to do, I drove to my in-laws' house. And felt like throwing up for two hours. I cried all the way home.

When I got home, I hugged my dogs tight. They let me and even licked my face.

So, I was looking at my blog and realized it's been almost a year since my last post. Yeah.

Some thoughts:
-Where is time going this year? I can't believe it's almost November. I haven't even gotten my fall decorations down from the attic this year and for some reason, I'm not all that excited about doing so, which is odd considering this is my favorite season/time of the year. I realized yesterday that if I'm going to follow through with all of my plans to make most of my gifts for Christmas, I'd better get on it and fast. This time of year also brings the anxiety of not knowing if I'll get the days off around the holidays that I want. I don't usually know my work schedule for the next week until the Friday before, so it's extremely difficult to plan family events.

-I love Adobe Illustrator. It's mucho fun to play with.

-TV shows I dig watching right now: Chuck, The office ("Host the Dundees!"), Pushing Dasies, Reaper, Dirty Sexy Money and Buffy reruns.

-Favorite song to listen to while I work lately: Happiness is a warm gun

-Pants and I recently went to L.A. and Santa Barbara with friends. A good time was had by all. We spent 16 hours at Disneyland (in one day) and are all still speaking to one another. My only disappointment (and it's super minor) was that we didn't really see many celebrities. We did see (or walk by) Kevin McDonald, Rick Schroder and that kid from Freaks and Geeks. We just missed Bill Mahr at the Hollywood Hell House, which was incredibly funny. At the afterparty for that, we were talking to a guy who we later found out has won Emmys for the writing he's done for Arrested Development. When I told him my name, he likened it to a kind of pie. The weather was amazing and we drank more wine than when we went to Napa earlier this year. I guess I always assumed I'd visit California, it was just surprising to get to visit it twice in one year. Also, we sighted an old lady walking around Will Rogers World airport making birdcalls.

-I recently cut about 7 inches off the length of my hair. I love it! The only bad thing is that now that it's shorter I have to have it cut more often to keep it the same length. That's not awful, though. I really like my hairstylist. The last time I was there he kept calling his mom Trixie. I think her name was Nancy, she was standing right there laughing at him. I thought it was so neat that they have such a good relationship.

Have I given you enough, you greedy blog monster? Well, it will have to do for now because the dogs need to go outside.

ciao!

Dropping in

I looked out the back door window before letting the dogs out this morning. I saw a black spot near the fence and decided I should probably investigate before letting my little monsters loose to drag whatever it was up to the door or in the house.

It was a dead crow. It didn't look like it'd been gone for very long. It was glossy blue-black and about a foot or so long. It's little eyes were only just starting to turn a milky white.

I knew I couldn't leave it out there. My dogs, not sharing my feelings about all things dead, would gnaw on this bird, possibly breaking it up and carrying the pieces around before rolling around on what was left. This was not an option for me.

I looked to my neighbors' yards. Could I toss it over the fence without anyone seeing me? I quickly dashed this thought. All of our neighbors have dogs, who would react much the same way mine would, I'm sure. Also, I felt guilty about making this bird someone else's responsibility, or giving someone else the chance not to care about it. It fell out of the sky in my yard. It was here for me to deal with and I would.

For a minute I wondered if it was a bad omen. My mom thinks that ravens are my grandmother, visiting her in the physical world. Owls are my grandfather. That this bird had died in my yard, and it was the kind of bird my mom favors, didn't seem to bode well. Then it occured to me that maybe it was in my yard for that very reason. Of the people in the area, I alone would give it the dignity it deserved. I know it sounds like I was being awfully self-important, but I don't do well with dead things and was probably just steeling myself for what I knew I had to do.

I went to the garage and got out my big shovel. It hadn't done much good against the ice on the driveway, but I knew it was perfect for this task. Luckily, the it had rained all last night, so the ground was soft and easy to turn. I dug a hole about a foot wide and a foot and a half long.

Using the shovel, I tried to pick the bird up, but it kept slipping off so I ended up rolling it into its grave.

I felt bad as I pushed the dirt onto it's small, inky body. This being that had existed almost solely in the air was to spend the rest of time encased in earth. But the dirt was soft, and it smelled like rain. I said a prayer for it as I tamped down the dirt and hoped that, when the time came, someone would say a prayer for me, too.

The ears and eyes

When "The Family Stone" came out in theaters, I wasn't much interested. The promos for it looked silly so I figured I'd save my money. However, it came on InDemand the other night, so I decided to give it a whirl. I'm really glad I did. It was very sweet and funny. I was surprised, however, how sad it was, in parts. I cried, a bunch.

On the audio front, I bought Gwen Steffani's newest effort, "The Sweet Escape." I've loved everything else she's done and was excited to see that she had a new album out. However, I was very disapointed when I listened to it. It seems she's trying out all kinds of new sounds, most predominately more of a hiphop, rap feel, which I'm just not that into, or if I were, I wouldn't chose her as the delivery device. She still has a fabulous voice, that manages to shine through. So, I think that one will probably start to gather dust pretty quickly while I continue to listen to LAMB over and over.

Another CD I got was Corinne Bailey Rae's self-titled album. I saw her on, I think, Boston Legal, and wanted to check out the rest of her work. I LOVE this album! It's smooth and soft, but leaves you feeling mellow and jazzy. She's got a wonderful voice that is similar to Norah Jones, but not the same. It's very familiar, almost like Billie Holiday. I'm going to make a copy for my dad tonight.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

I just thought I'd tell everyone how cool it is to have friends. I'm just saying.

Pants and I went for a while with a few, handpicked friends for the first year or so that we were here. It was nice, and there were times of fun to be had, but for the most part we were newlyweds and any spare time that we had together was rare and precious and spent ... well that's really none of your business.

But for some reason (Actually I blame this phenomenon squarely on Pants and his affable personality) we've been branching out over the past year or so and getting invites to do all kinds of fun stuff with people we really like.

An example? This weekend we went bowling and then drinking with six friends, two from Tulsa, two from South Korea and two from OKC. This U.N. meeting went to Route 66 Bowl, which was super fun. After drinking some really bad, beer-flavored water we went to the Hi Lo bar. I'd never been, but I know I had fun.

A margarita after getting there (I was driving, so not so much with the drinking for me) I was watching our friends tell jokes, laugh, and run around the room with their pretend stinky fingers extended. (That really seemed to upset this suicidal-looking guy sitting by himself in the corner) and I realized that I was having a fantastic time.

We'd all gotten past that awkward first-meeting stage. Pants had already offended most of them and they came back anyways. We'd found out who believed in what and what video games we were most likely to suck at and were having that euphoric, relieved good time that comes when you've found people that you feel comfortable with and can do fun things with. It was odd, because much in the way a drunk girl wants to tell you how drunk she is, I wanted to tell everyone how much fun I was having and how cool it was that we were all friends. Of course, not wanting to freak out said people (you can never know exactly how much a drunk person will remember the next day) I just smiled and told a dirty joke.

Continuing our mini-vacation, we met up with four friends Monday for an 8-year-old's dream. That's right. We drove go-karts. Except these people were serious about it. It's a huge track and they make you sign a waiver saying your heirs won't sue them if you go up in a ball of fire. Also, that you will pay for anything that breaks on the $6,000 karts. Yeah. So we had a great time until they let these jerks in. It was like six pissed-off guys all got dumped at the same time and decided to prove to each other who was really the MAN ... at the go-kart races.

So they let them race with our peace-loving group. They proceeded to push, bump and cajole in a way that's frowned upon by people outside of a boxing match. When those guys were leaving us alone, however, it ROCKED. I laughed for the entire first lap, it was so much fun. Also, don't want to brag, but I totally got second place out of six people.

Afterwards it was on to margaritas and Mexican food. I was surprised, and delighted, when the possibility of more bowling was brought up. So back to Route 66 bowl we went!

This time I sucked it up bad. I'd been playing pretty good for someone who never goes bowling and had broken 100 each of the last three time's I've played, but Monday I stunk. My arm hurt from using a too-heavy ball and I resigned myself to just knocking down a pin each time it was my turn. It didn't hurt that I'm not a pro bowler and have little skill, but I'm blaming the ball on this one -- that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My dissatisfaction with my ball and the lack of decent balls for women (man is that going to be misconstrued) led me to decide that I should try to buy a second-hand bowling ball that would fit. I don't know if you have noticed, but if you're a woman and you go to a public bowling place, it's almost impossible to find a ball that's light enough, but also has finger holes that are big enough. I'm not saying I have sausage fingers, but gimme a break. By the time I got done bowling it was like I had been working at my office computer for 12 hours. Carpel tunnel here I come. Also, I chipped my nail polish, which did not help matters.

On the up side, I did have a good time and it was nice to hang out with people who are "marathoners" like myself. My mom calls me a marathoner, because I don't want to do just one thing. I always try to get as much bang for my buck as possible. You don't meet just a ton of people who are willing to go for several events in the same day, so that was really nice. The margaritas, however, needed a lot more umph and less ice.

Pre-bedlam

We got to go to the Texas Tech/OSU game and had an awesome time. Here are pictures to prove it!


I was across the arena, but you can still make out Bobby Knight trying to pay off the refs.


These are not the fans you're looking for! I wondered if they gave a Jedi discount...


I wonder whose father he is? Did he lose the paternity suit and this was part of his punishment?


Who to vote for....


Pants' old duplex, and the famed "Vesta" stove that I guess they've changed into a lawn ornament.

I did it!

Had to write and brag. I weighed myself this morning and I finally did it. I broke the weight level that I've been at for a long time. I now weigh as much as I did four years ago!!! I've been feeling thinner around the waist and fingers, but haven't been able to see the difference in numbers, until today! I did it! Gold star sticker for me!

Happy Valentine's Day

Today I was helping my little brother look at apartments.

At one apartment complex we discussed rent with the manager, a lady in her late 50s, early 60s, well-dressed and very cheerful.

About five minutes into the conversation a man in his 30s walks in the front door and heads right to her holding a beautiful bouquet of roses. I watched while he smiled, handed them to her and then hugged her. I couldn't see a familial connection so I was trying to figure out if they were somehow seeing each other.

She laughed as she sat down and started to tear up. She looked up at us and explained that she had the best son-in-law in the world. She said that before dying a few years ago, her husband had secretly made her son-in-law promise to always get her roses on Valentine's Day from him.

She radiated happiness while she told us this. She then shook herself and got right back to explaining rates and electric bills, but before she could get through two sentences she'd started to tear up. She had to excuse herself for a minute, then she went back to business.

I thought this was probably one of the sweetest things I'd ever witnessed on Valentine's Day, or any other day for that matter.