dogs

Oh the bun-anity!

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My neighborhood was Grand Central Station for bunnies this morning.  I’d forgotten about that aspect of spring, so when I took the dogs for a run this morning (for the first time in more than two months, I think), I wasn’t prepared for their reaction.  Nearly got my arms yanked off.  Over and over and over again.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.  Very much.  I asked for the day off a couple of weeks ago, just because (and also because I thought I’d need the escape since I was convinced I would be less than a month from unemployment by this week), and earlier this week I thought about not taking the day off and just going to work anyway, but then my boss reminded me that this was meant to be an easy week for us trainers (to give us a break from all the stressful traveling) and I don’t have anything to do, so why not take it?  I saw her point.  So now I have plans for tomorrow.  Plans to run, to get a mani/pedi, to get my very first ever massage, and to buy a new suitcase.  Almost in that order.  I need a new suitcase…do I?  Well, yeah, I do.  The one I’ve been using (big, rectangular, purple, on wheels) is coming apart at the seams.  I have another rolling bag, but it’s more of a rolling duffel and I have to travel with some stuff for work that wouldn’t fit very well in that.  I could borrow John’s (and I will if I don’t find something pretty easily tomorrow), but eventually, I’ll need one of my own.  I’m putting too much thought into this.

Hamburgers tonight!

It’s finally over

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Okay, we finished Lost.  The whole thing was worth it for Sun/Jin and Sawyer/Juliet.  I cried at both.  We also saw the new Robin Hood movie today (stupid, but fun).  And we started catching up on Glee.  Lots of TV today.  But that’s not all we did.  We mowed, weeded, mulched, and pruned, and after that, we went to Borders.  Busy day.

I gave the dogs a little bit of leftover turkey from my sandwich (Wegman’s sub – SO good), and they’re drooling at (and on) my heels now.  They’re not letting me out of their sight in case I have more goodies in my pockets.  Smart dogs.

Plants and animals

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Because my boss can be pretty cool sometimes, I didn’t have to go to work today.  I had a long long list of things I could/should do, and I had great plans to do them.  And then I didn’t.  Well, I did a few of them.  Actually, I did nine out of nineteen, and to be fair to me, some of those things were meant for later in the weekend.  Okay, I did plenty today.  But I didn’t run and I didn’t go to the grocery store and I kept my out-of-the-house errands to a minimum because Roxy had a “welcome home” seizure last night before midnight and another one this morning, shortly before noon.  She’s fine now, but somewhat groggy (we’re under instructions to give her extra medicine after seizures to help prevent clusters – clearly didn’t work last night – and that makes her woozy), so I thought it would be best if I stayed close to home.

One of the few errands I did run today took me to Home Depot.  John needed grass seed, and while I was there, I bought a rosemary plant and an oregano plant ’cause MY FACE POTS WERE DELIVERED!  Yay!  And I already have a basil plant, so I’ll put all three into my new pots and put them…somewhere…to grow.  The deck, maybe?  I could put them on a plant stand on the front porch (if I had a plant stand.  I think I just added that to my shopping list for the weekend.).  I definitely can’t put them anywhere in the yard.  The rabbits will get them.  Like they’ve already eaten the three (maybe it was four) black-eyed susan plants that came back this year.  I need plants rabbits don’t like.

Home is just a pit stop

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I’m home, but only for two days.  Almost exactly.  And I’ve spent the afternoon so far trying not to melt into a puddle of tears.  I’m SO tired, so completely worn out, that it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open.  (And, of course, I don’t want to go away again!  Not so soon, not at all…)  I made it to Wegman’s, but really only to pick up easy stuff for dinner tonight.  I need to start laundry so I’ll have clean clothes to repack for Sunday, but that sounds like too much work right now.  The dogs seemed pretty happy to see me.  Riley actually jumped up on me, front paws on my shoulders, the better to stick his nose in my face.  Apparently, I wasn’t leaning down to say hello fast enough.  Roxy, with her cute little red bandage from where the vet stuck the IV needle, has been following me around the house and settling on the floor near my feet whenever I stop.  I’d take a picture, but that would take effort.

Good episode

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I just watched the “Brown Betty” episode of Fringe.  There was a detective story (noir, but with a few touches of futuristic technology – cool combination), singing, and Peter and Olivia almost/kinda falling in love, all in the guise of a story told to a little girl…I think I really like Joshua Jackson.

John stayed home with Roxy today.  No seizures.  She napped the day away.  I wish I could be home.  But it’s Wednesday night already (isn’t it?  I can’t tell.), and I only have one more work day to go.

Forgive me, Internet, for quitting now.  I haven’t been sleeping well in this hotel bed (I think I hate the pillows – too squishy), I haven’t gone for a run in I don’t know how many days, and I’m really tired.

What to do?

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John left Roxy with the vet for observation today, and she had another couple of seizures this afternoon.  When I last talked to John, he was racing out of the office to get there before the doctor left so he could talk to her about Roxy.  I just finished putting together a list with dates and details of all the seizures she’s had in the last year and a half.  It’s a long list.  John is more and more convinced that Riley isn’t being a nice doggie when he goes after her neck with his teeth (or “holds her down with the only tools he has at his disposal so she won’t hurt herself.”  However you like to look at it).  He might be trying to kill the demon that’s taken over his darling Roxy.  I’m waiting by the phone for John to call, either from the vet or when he gets home.  And I’m hungry, so I’m going to eat while I wait.  Nothing particularly entertaining is coming to mind, so I’ll just go away and fret.  And eat.

Update: John is home with both dogs, and Roxy’s doing okay for now.  John has extra medicine and instructions on what to do if she has more seizures in the next couple of days.  He’s going to try to work from home tomorrow so he can keep an eye on her.  I feel better after talking to him (and after eating), and then I went to The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks and couldn’t stop giggling.  On to Passive Aggressive Notes for more giggling.  Hire taller staff!

And here: this sounds like a huge undertaking, but it would probably end up being the only cookbook anyone who isn’t already a brilliant chef would ever use again.  Too bad no one is working on it.

It might be the happiest place in Georgia

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I would still call DisneyWorld the happiest place on earth (me and fifteen trillion of my closest friends), but I think the Coke museum in Atlanta (now The World of Coca-Cola) is the happiest place in Georgia.  (Ask me again after I go to the aquarium.)  I love Coke.  Me and Coke are buddies.  We like to hang out.

My class got out a little earlier than expected, so I headed out of the windowless training room on the 9th floor (windowless, yes, but NOT in a basement – big improvement) hoping to go for a run.  I got off the elevator to cloudy skies, but I was still hopeful.  Cloudy just means it’ll be cooler without the sun beating down on me.   Then I got outside.  Raining.  Hard.  Annoyed.  (Me, not the rain, although who knows?)  Then I had a brilliant idea.  I’m in Atlanta, it’s only 4pm, it’s raining, and I’m mere blocks away from a shrine to the only soft drink worthy of the name.  So I went – by myself – and joined a tour group and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours looking at all the Coke stuff, watching the videos, watching a ton of Coke commercials, and tasting many (not nearly all) of the really disgusting Coke products they manage to sell around the world.  On my way out (funneled, of course, through the gift shop, where I showed admirable restraint and did NOT buy myself a t-shirt), they handed me a Coke.  🙂

In sadder news, Roxy had a seizure this morning.  John said it was a cluster seizure, and she was in the middle of it when he came back in from his morning run.  Riley had done his holding her down thing, there was hair everywhere, and he’d slobbered all over her neck.  (No blood.)  John talked to our vet this afternoon, and she apparently jumped to the conclusion that the new medicine isn’t working and that Roxy needs an MRI (costs at least $1000 according to her (the vet, not Roxy)).  I’m not sure why she (the vet) went there so quickly, though.  Roxy’s only been on the new meds for a month and off the old meds for only three weeks, and in that time she’s had basically two episodes.  That sounds pretty promising to me.  So we’re going to ignore the vet for the time being.  (That’s a strange phrase.  Time being.  I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I don’t think I’ve ever written it down.  Looks too weird.)

It got late before I realized it, and I haven’t eaten dinner yet, so I’m out of here.

Updated to add Roxy’s second set of seizures for the day.  Three this time.  John may be leaving her with the vet for observation tomorrow, since he can’t stay home with her.

Puppies make everything better

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Check out this adorable picture.  Roxy used to ask to be picked up when she was a puppy, and I miss that a little.  It’s probably just as well she got too big (and grew out of it – thank goodness.  I don’t need a 55-pound dog asking to be picked up.), or I’d carry her everywhere and she’d be fatter than ever.

Today is the last day of class (for this week).  It sort of feels like summer’s coming, like it’s the end of the school year.  Everyone’s getting a little antsy, but more relaxed at the same time, so it’s kinda fun.  And yet, it’s only the end for them.  Not so much for me.  I’m here again tomorrow, and then I start a new class next week.  Same thing, different day.  They go back to work, so I guess it’s not really all that great for them, either.  I’m trying to enjoy the day, and mostly I’m able to, but then I remember how many more times I have do it.

And then I look at adorable pictures of puppies, and I’m ready to pick back up after lunch.  🙂  (Too cutesy?  Too bad.)

You can never have too many guitars

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“Zannah, why haven’t you gotten me a Les Paul?”

“Clearly, I don’t love you enough.”

We watch a lot of TV.  Not as many movies, but we’ve seen a few lately.  We watched Broadcast News last weekend.  Both of us confused it with Network (another one we haven’t seen), and we didn’t figure out that we were thinking of an entirely different movie until Broadcast News was over.  Where was the rant?  Oh, right.  Wrong movie.  We watched Some Kind of Wonderful tonight, but I was a little disappointed by it.  I’m not sure what I was expecting.

List for this weekend:

  • Run
  • Clean
  • Groceries
  • Swing by the office to drop this week’s evaluations off and make some copies (Yes, I peeked, and yes, they were nice to me again.  🙂  Thankfully.)
  • Make sure Jess is okay after Chuck gets on the plane (he’ll be gone for three months)
  • CATCH UP WITH MY BLOG FRIENDS
  • Library (to get a new book to listen to during my commute)
  • Bank

Roxy (who’s doing well, thanks for asking) just gave me a look that said she wished we’d just go to bed already.  Don’t we know we’re keeping her up?

*Edited to add the last two items on my list.  I remembered them this morning.

I’m gonna make it this time

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I may have mentioned before how much I don’t like the hours I’m keeping for work.  And how I have to get up at 5am and by the time I get home (about 6:30 today), there’s barely time for me to eat dinner and say hi to John before I need to get to bed again.  And I’ve been shooting for being in bed by 9.  Hasn’t happened in several weeks, but I keep trying.  I can tell it’s getting bad when the only thought in my head when I get up in the morning is “how long before I can go back to bed” and my favorite daydream involves a nap.  Tonight is my best shot at making the 9pm goal yet.

All of that is my way of saying this is going to be short.  Two things:

  1. Roxy had another seizure last night.  Still just one, no clusters, but her recovery time was back to about 45 minutes, and there was no sign of the hyper dog.  She’s fine now, and she was fine before we went back to bed.  I was half expecting this sort of thing to happen, since we are taking her off of a pretty potent medication and moving her to a new one.  Of course, the late night seizures two nights in a row aren’t helping me sleep.  I got about 5 hours last night.  But this particular item was not about me.  🙂  Roxy’s fine for now.  I’m keeping the vet updated.
  2. This one is about me.  Mostly.  And I’m going to be a big dork and not at all cool about this.  You ready?  Jenny, The Bloggess herself, COMMENTED ON MY SITE!  For real!  Go look at yesterday’s post.  Of course, all of a sudden I felt this incredible pressure to be funny in my reply to her comment.  I failed miserably (I’m not funny on command), but I tried really hard.  Anyway, how cool is that?

Tomorrow is Friday.

A change in the pattern

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Roxy had a seizure last night, but it didn’t follow the pattern she’s established over the last few months.  We woke up to the sound of her convulsing at the bottom of the stairs.  I’d only been asleep for less than an hour (it was just about 11pm), but I guess it was a deep sleep already ’cause it took me WAY too long to figure out what was happening.  John got downstairs before me and was trying to get a pillow under her head.  The seizure lasted the usual amount of time (over 30 seconds, under a minute), and when it was over, she stayed on the floor, on her side, for a little bit (again as usual) but after only 3 or 4 minutes, definitely less than five, she got up.  That’s way quicker than usual, and instead of getting up and being completely out of it for another 20 minutes or more, she was almost completely herself.  Actually, she was herself and a little more.  She seemed a bit manic.  Over-excited.  Hyper, kind of.  But she answered to her name, she sat when I asked her to, she begged for treats…she was basically normal.  So after another ten minutes or so, we went back to bed.

Why is she different?  I can only assume it’s the change in her medication.  We started the zonisamide last Monday night (the 12th) and started giving her half of her usual phenobarbitol dose at the same time.  This past Monday (the 19th), we cut out the phenobarbitol altogether.  Hopefully, we’ll go back to infrequent seizures (or non-existent) on the new medication.  Hopefully.  Last night’s wasn’t a cluster seizure, either, and we’ll just have to see if she has any more today.

Look what we did!

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By we, of course, I mean mostly John.  After mowing the lawn (John), some light weeding (me), dog poop scooping (me), and then tying up a sagging bush (blame the three feet of snow that sat on top of it for a month) with neon yellow string (mostly John), John decided that today was the day to somehow attach these extra pieces of latticework (or trellis?  not sure what you’d call it) to the corner of the deck.  In the morning, we’ll have a little shade.  I haven’t figured out what to do about late afternoon.  I took pictures!  I forgot to take a before picture, but here’s one when we were two-thirds of the way done.

Actually, here’s a before picture, no trellis yet, with John hard at work doing…something.  On a ladder.

And here’s the finished product.  From the yard…

…and from the deck.

Since I had my camera out, I figured I’d take some pictures of the yard when it’s at its best.  And the dogs.  So here’s most of the backyard, with my flower bed in need of mulching.  Maybe next weekend.

Here’s the rose bush that’s trying to take over the deck.

Technically, that’s two rose bushes.  Here are few pictures of the dogs taking advantage of the shade.

It’s breezy and the wind chimes are…chiming, I guess, and we could hear them clearly if the windows were open, but did you see how high the pollen count was today?  My car is covered, and even though I was outside most of the day, there’s no way I’m letting clouds of pollen get into the house.

Most of the day got away from us, but all the chores are done (minus the grocery shopping) and John asked for two hours to himself so he can concentrate on his project for school before we settle in with dinner and maybe a movie.   He’ll have to spend much of tomorrow on his project, too, but at least he’ll have done something today, and he won’t have to worry about the lawn and stuff.  And tomorrow morning, we can catch up on the four hours of Lost we have saved on the DVR.  Hopefully, the rest of my weekend will include nothing more taxing than a morning run tomorrow, catching up on TV, lots of Internet time (I have to get my fix in on the weekends, now that I know what my weeks at work look like), a trip to Wegman’s (hardly a chore), and some play time outside with the dogs.  Maybe at the dog park.

For now, I need a shower.  And comfy clothes.  And I’m in for the night.  Oh, one more thing for tomorrow – set up a couple of lunch dates with a couple of friends.

I have priorities, really I do

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And they don’t include working after I get home on a Friday evening for several hours.  But I promised myself I wasn’t going to talk about that.  Instead, I’ll mention that Roxy got so excited about the pieces of lamb fat she was going to get that she repeatedly walked herself into the narrow dead end between the arm of the couch and the wall.  Head first.  She doesn’t like to back up, so she’d stand there, tongue out, tail wagging, with her nose just barely over the arm, until I nudged her backwards with my hand on her chest.  Like three times.

John is in the office pretending he’s Brian May, and I’m pretending I have time to check some of my favorite sites before my eyes close.  We don’t have any plans this weekend (other than the usual light house cleaning, lawn mowing, grocery shopping, and something (I know there was something else I wanted to do, but did I write it down?  Say it with me.  No!)), so I hope to run and relax.  And relaxing had better include catching up with my favorite online people.  Also my new favorites, thanks to a recent thread at the Dooce Community and, of course, Spoke’s Blog Love series (first day here).

Before I go to bed, this is for Mom, Sandwich Stealer (not that one), Jess, and other people I could name but will not.  Today.  Just you wait.

I think the point of mentioning my priorities in the title was so I could say I still have mine, and I think they’re in the right order, but I need to work a lot harder at figuring out how to make them happen every day.  Or most days.  I feel a bit overwhelmed, and not by anything bad, but by not being able to make time for all those little things I like to do.  But I will.  I will figure it out.

Metro does not make my commute shorter

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With the nuclear summit going on in DC today and tomorrow, I decided to avoid the road closures and additional delays by taking the metro to work.  I drove to one of the western-most stations with a parking lot, left the car there, and took the train in.  It was kind of nice to let someone else be in charge of the actual driving, but since it added a half hour to my commute (each way), I don’t think I’ll be doing this regularly.  And today was a light traffic day, according to the news.  It seems everyone took the opportunity to work from home.  Wish I could have done that.  Kind of impossible with my job right now, though.

I got home around 6 and spent a very pleasant half-hour or so hanging out in the backyard with the dogs.  Riley actually fetched the ball.  Only three times, but still.  Then he decided that he’d be most comfortable stretched out on top of me, so I fought him for blanket space until I gave up and went inside.

I have no interesting thoughts tonight. Here’s what’s going through my mind (word for word, practically):

I’m SO tired.  Go to bed.  Why are you still up?  Don’t you have to get up early?  Again?  So go already.  Stop typing.  Why does the dining room look so clean?  Oh, John swept.  Man, that makes quite a difference.  I bet if I dusted it would look even better.  “Hey soul sister, ain’t that mister mister on the radio, stereo….” Ohmygod shut up already and go to bed.

We can thank Spokeit for putting the Train song in my head, although lately that hasn’t been hard.  I hear it everywhere, and while it seems like it’s in danger of being overplayed, I still like it.  But “shut up already and go to bed” is the part I’m going to listen to, so good night.

Busy weekend ahead

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Eventful, at least.

Okay, you got me, there’s only one event, but I have things to do!

I spent most of today finding out what I’ll need to be able to do everything this weekend.  I got shoe recommendations from my friends online and found stores that carry those brands, I talked to the vet about how to switch Roxy’s medication correctly so we (hopefully) avoid seizures, I picked up the new prescription from the vet, and I figured out how we’re going to get to DC and where I’ll watch the race with Erik and Margaret (who I’ll be emailing soon) and where we’ll meet up with John again for Sunday’s Cherry Blossom 10-miler.  So tomorrow, I’ll buy shoes, John will do homework, we’ll pick up Roxy’s new medication, and we’ll run down to DC to pick up John’s race packet.  Quick trip.  And we’ll drive, of course, not run.  That’s for Sunday.  And then, we’ll get up absurdly early Sunday morning (so I’m sleeping in tomorrow, but I will run at some point during the day), drive to the nearest metro stop, metro in to the race, have a late breakfast with our friends, and come back and finish our Sunday at home.  Hopefully being lazy.  And at some point, we’ll mow the lawn.  And maybe mulch a flower bed or two.  Or not.  That doesn’t sound very lazy.

Pardon me while I announce what is obvious by now.  John is running in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler Sunday morning, so anyone who reads this and is in the area is welcome to join me, help cheer on John, and then have something to eat.  I wish you were all nearby.

John walked in the door just a couple of minutes ago, almost too tired to hug me hello, so I’ve started the rice and I have to go stir up my stir-fry.  He needs to eat well and get plenty of sleep for the next couple of days.  That should happen every day, for both of us, but you all know how hard it is to make that happen.  We’re better about the eating well.  Not so good about the sleep.

I want a new drug

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My prediction about not getting a full night’s sleep last night came true, unfortunately.  Around 11pm, John nudged me awake because he heard Roxy start convulsing downstairs.  We rushed down there in time to get her seizure pillow (an old (and now disgusting) throw pillow) under her head.  John went to get stuff to clean up after her, and I sat down on the floor next to her to keep her head on the pillow and keep her flailing legs from driving her into a wall.  The seizure ended after 20 or 30 seconds, but her breathing was still really heavy (expected) and her legs still made occasional twitching motions, like she was trying to swim (she was on her side).  Within just a few seconds (maybe 10 or 15), she started convulsing again.  In only about 20 minutes, this happened again and again until she’d had a total of four, maybe five individual seizures, with those twitches and tremors in between each one.  At the start of the fourth one (or fifth – I couldn’t count that high last night), I left John with her and dashed upstairs to find my jeans and shoes.  If she can’t stop, the emergency vet is the only place to go.  After that last one, though, while I was on the phone with the emergency vet, she stopped.  We weren’t sure it was over, but after ten minutes or so, she got up and started her recovery routine (wander around the house and bump into things until she comes out of it).  The emergency vet suggested we bring her in, of course, but when I tried to get them to tell me what they could do, they couldn’t really say.  If she was convulsing and unable to stop, they could inject her with anti-seizure drugs, but only in that circumstance.  Otherwise, they’d just watch her and then call a neurologist in the morning.  We decided, since the seizures had stopped for the moment, that we could just watch her overnight and drop her at our normal vet in the morning(WAY more affordable) for observation during the day.  Which is what we did, and I’m glad, since she didn’t have any more seizures, I felt comfortable having her where I know they know her, and it only cost $23 for the day instead of the hundreds the emergency vet always charges.  Short story (too late, I know): she’s fine for now.  We did finally do a little more research into the cost of switching her medication to zonisamide, and here’s where Costco totally made my day.  Our vet had heard that Costco sold zonisamide for less money than other pharmacies (like CVS), so I finally called today.  We have several near us, so I picked one and called.  We’ll need 500 mg a day for Roxy (they come in 100mg capsules), so a month’s supply is 150 capsules.  The guy at the Costco pharmacy looked it up and told me it would cost about $30.  For 150 capsules.  My jaw dropped and the guy had to ask me if I was still there.  I voiced my disbelief (So formal.  🙂  I said, “Really?”), and he said that if we’re Costco members, it would only cost $27.  That was the first I’d heard that I don’t have to be a Costco member to use the pharmacy, but let’s not get sidetracked here.  I hung up the phone with the Costco guy and called CVS.  Maybe the medication came way down in price or something.  I asked CVS to price the same dosage, same number of capsules, and that pharmacist told me that 150 capsules of the generic brand would be $289.  To actually get the brand name, it would cost over $400. Seems a little unreal, right?  So I called a different Costco pharmacy.  The woman at this one got the same $30 price as the first Costco pharmacist, but agreed with me that it didn’t sound right.  She double- and triple-checked it, though, and came up with $30 as the price for 150 100mg capsules of zonisamide.  Roxy’s medication change just became affordable.  So now we have to figure how best to wean her off the phenobarbitol without an increase in the number, frequency, and intensity of her seizures.  But yay for Costco!

Also, yay for Curiosity!  Check out her award-winning stick-people drawings (here and here).  While I’m at it (finding good stuff online), I went through Steps 1 through 5 just reading this post. Of course, then there’s this.  Twisted and hilarious.

And now I really need to find something light to eat.  I’ve gone past really hungry and back into who needs food territory, but that doesn’t mean I should not eat at all.

Not as bad

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Today was not as bad as yesterday.  Different, certainly.  And I kind of forced it to be better.  The day still started too early, and I was still on my feet all day, but after I collapsed into a chair during our lunch break, my coworker brought my sandwich to me, unasked, so I could spend the entire break off my feet.  He’s a nice guy. I had already decided not to run today (SO hot outside), so that automatically freed up some time once I got home, but unfortunately, about an hour of it was taken up by work stuff that came up during my commute.  (It kinda sucks when your whole team is spread out across all four time zones.  We all rely on each other, and that means we have to be available when the guy in Seattle needs help (for example).)  I’d planned to take the dogs to the dog park, but by the time I was free to go, it was almost sunset (when the dog park closes).  So that was out.  I spent some time with them in the yard, but it’s not the same.  (For them.  It’s about the same for me.)  Anyway, I forced my day to be better by making sure I had time to myself (and I ordered Indian (my favorite) for dinner).  I thought I’d make it Internet time, but it turned into TV time instead.  I watched a couple of shows John has never been interested in.  He gave up on Flashforward after the third episode (I should have), and he never even started Cougar Town.  Stupid name, but I like the show.

I’m having DVR priority issues again.  Why does every show I want to see come on Tuesdays at 10?  We record Southland and The Good Wife every week, and we want to keep up with V, but it comes on at the same time.  So annoying.  We’ll have to resort to hulu.com for V, I guess.  (Yes, we watch a lot of TV.  Someday, I’ll list our shows by night they get recorded, which is a mostly meaningless piece of information to me.  I don’t care when it’s on.  I just want to make sure it gets recorded so we can watch it later.  The DVR is the greatest invention EVER.)

Anyway, it’s after nine and I need to head in the direction of bed.  Which reminds me…I’m expecting my sleep to be interrupted tonight.  John said Roxy had a seizure this morning before he left for work.  Normal length, and it was a cluster (one followed by another), and if she follows her pattern, she’s already a little overdue for the next one.   We’re still investigating switching her to a new medication.  We’re looking for other (cheaper) ways we can get it.

Oh, was that John’s car door?  He mentioned he might get out of class early tonight…

Yeah, not his car door.  A neighbor’s.  I’m tired and I need to go to bed, but I just started to browse through my regular sites and I miss having time to play on the Internet. Yes, I’ve said it before, and yes, I could have this evening if I’d skipped all the TV, but it’s too late now, and I’m tired.  So, Internet, I’m sorry I’m neglecting you.  Forgive me?

Lying to your kids and the dog park (not related)

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I went for a long run this morning – yeah, this morning.  It was awesome.  I don’t have to be downtown most Fridays, so I enjoyed sleeping until 6:30, running in the cool morning breeze, and watching the sun rise.  More like squinting ’cause the sun wasn’t high enough for the brim of my hat to block it.  But it was nice.  On my way back, while trudging up the hill to the house, I saw my across-the-street neighbors packing the trunk of their big SUV.  I asked (unnecessarily, ’cause duh) if they were going away for the weekend, or, after a glance at the overstuffed car, a year (like I can talk).  Mr. Neighbor, rather than half-shouting his response across the street like a normal person would, walked over to me and told me, in a low voice, that they’re taking the girls camping, but first, they’re going to surprise them with a day at King’s Dominion.  Now that is a very cool surprise.  And from the look on the teenager’s face as she put her stuff in the car, she’s going to be way happier about the day at the amusement park than the camping.

John got stuck in horrible traffic on his way home from work, so I took the dogs to the dog park around 6:30.  Riley had a wonderful time, as usual, and Roxy stuck to my heels like she was glued there, as usual.  I met a nice family who’d just adopted an adorable dog.  The dog is about a year and a half, a rescue, and the prettiest little thing.  She’s about Roxy’s size, black all over, with long, thick, golden retriever-ish fur.  They adopted her last Saturday and this was their first time with her at the dog park.  They (mother, grandmother, daughter, son) were all really nice.  I’d like to run into them again sometime.

Oh, how I ache

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It was a beautiful spring today, all budding green trees and cherry blossoms, but by the time I got outside to enjoy it (and run), I was one big ache from standing all day.  I can handle the talking all day (not much of a stretch for me, plus I drink lots of water), but standing ALL DAY LONG in heels (even low ones) makes me ache all over.  The only shoes I want to be wearing for that long, while standing, are my running shoes, and I think even that would get achy (ache-y?) after a while.  So running this evening started out pretty rough.

The cops were out in force when I left work today.  All the way down Constitution Ave, they were ticketing cars parking along the curb.  (Parking there ends at 4pm for rush hour.)  I saw one woman dash across six lanes of traffic, in the middle of a block, to plead with the officer writing her a ticket.  For a second, I thought she had to be crazy to run across Constitution like that, with so many cars on the road, but then I realized rush hour is the best time to do it.  We were all basically parked.

I spent a few minutes during my run this evening playing with a neighbor’s dogs.  This neighbor lives at the opposite corner of the neighborhood from us, but I run by their house most days, and I’ve met their dogs a few times.  Vader is the sweetest black lab.  Adorably friendly, low energy, nice dog.  Their other dog is an energetic yellow lab named Xena, who was the most adorable puppy.  I know, they’re all adorable, but she really was.  So when I went by, Vader met me at the top of the fence.  He jumped up to reach me and licked every part of me he could reach (mostly my arms,  but a few swipes of his tongue got my neck).  Xena, though, proved herself to be the smartest dog I have ever met.  She had a tennis ball in her mouth, and when she jumped up and put her paws on the fence, I reached for it so I could throw it for her.  She pulled her head back and jumped on the fence, and then crouched down in the same spot, put the ball on the ground, and rolled it to me in between the slats in the picket fence.  I picked it up, threw it, she fetched, and on her way back, she jumped on the fence again (kinda bounced off it) like she was marking the spot, dropped down, and rolled the ball out to me again.  We did it over and over again until I decided I need to keep running.  So smart!

And that reminded me of the little girls I met last week when I was running with the dogs.  We were coming down the sidewalk towards a little girl and her dad, and when she saw Roxy and Riley, she ran behind a tree and told her dad she was scared.  I slowed to a walk and reeled the dogs in, but as we got closer, she crept forward.  I stopped and asked her if she wanted to meet them.  She looked at her dad, who said it was okay, and she came over.  She shied away from Riley (he’s way too big for little kids, even though he loves them (to EAT! (Except not really.  The eating part.  He does love them, and he’s pretty gentle.))) and went straight for Roxy.  Now, Roxy doesn’t care about people as a rule, but she doesn’t mind being petted by kids, so she just stands there.  Tolerating it.  She’s the perfect size, though, so kids always want to pet her.  It’s her destiny.  Or her doom.  Or, you know, just something she has to deal with.

Riley is dumb

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Riley has shown this behavior before (probably last spring), but I think he’s getting dumber.  I took them for a walk this evening and on our way back, he attacked a fake bunny.  A ceramic bunny that didn’t look real.  At all.  And when I pulled him away from it, he charged the one right next to it.  FAKE BUNNIES.  Come on.

Today improved dramatically.  Once I headed home for work, anyway.  This morning, I was late picking up my coworker, Gabriel (not his real name) , because it foggy.  And rainy.  And DARK.  And traffic was kinda bad.  Then I couldn’t find his apartment, again because of the dark.  And the fog.  And the rain.  But we got to DC in good time (I think the fog (and the rain (and the dark)) kept everyone home.  Or it’s spring break around here.) and had plenty of time to get ready.  The day went fine, nothing major to report, and I’m very happy to be home.  Although I did wonder why I was getting more congested as the day wore on, and then I remembered that I didn’t take my medicine this morning.  Any of it.  Because it sits next to my bed and it’s usually the first thing I do in the morning, but it was really early and very DARK.  And I was trying to be quiet and leave the lights off and get ready in the hallway so John could sleep.  I was gone before his alarm went off (at 6am).  Too early?  Yes.

Update: Post title changed because John felt “Riley’s an idiot” was too harsh.  🙂