Monday, May 8, 2017

Hey now, You're an All-Star!

Update 5/1 - 5/7

Hi Friend!

Have I mentioned that I have an obsessive compulsive dog?  I generally laugh it off as him living up to his name, Perseverance.  But then other times I watch him take a raw hide, that he would never chew on or consume, and carry it around or worse, place/hide and then just sit and stare at it like it is the most important thing in the world.  He'll do this instead of going outside to relieve himself or eat.   In order for me to get him to take care of his basic needs, I have to do a careful dance of reassurance and security and even then, he mostly keeps all his focus centered on this thing he doesn't want.  And before my mom says that this is because I'm a neurotic dog-mom, I JUST WANT HIM TO PEE IN THE MORNING!

Monday afternoon, Kelly and I spent our lunch our hanging out with Caitlyn Jenner.  She was at Microsoft giving a talk and promoting her new book (which we got signed copies of.)  Kelly was hella excited.  I thought it was a fun, interesting and different thing to do at lunch.  I was distracted trying to figure out where her accent was from so I did some research and not only was she born in the same hospital as I was, she went to the same high school that Mo and Stacey teach at!  But you know what?  That accent is not from Westchester. 

We had a couple of nice days this week, but the second day ended in a really big thunderstorm.  I used to think thunderstorms were pretty cool, but when you have three terrified pups in the house, it's not quite as fun.  No music or hugs were going to calm them down.  Casper and Nala were snuggled as close as they could be and Percy kept hiding under the bed and then running out to see if I was okay, then running back, all while shaking uncontrollably.  It was awful. 

On Friday, Chelsea, Ryan and I went over to main campus and checked out the (new to me) restaurant, The Boardwalk.  It felt like we were on the set of a teeny-bop movie.  Food was yummy, music was loud, company was a delight.  And we still had time to go over and help Chelsea choose glasses.  I'm sure she loved that when she put the first pair on, Ryan was all, "ugh No.  Take those off right now."

For Cinco de Mayo, the office had a little Margarita & Guacamole competition.  I don't like Guac, so I just went straight for the Margs.  After having 5 shots in a row, I headed back to work.  One was a delightful Marg, one was a sweet apple and spice combo, and then something that tasted like a side car or a Manhattan (which one of those has a cherry?).  There was also two that had food involved.  Like red hot spicy with a chicken nugget chaser and one that you poured the beverage over a hot pepper and piece of beef jerky and then drank it.  Suffice to say, my tummy hurt after all of that.

And because the day wasn't full enough, I met up with Becky and her friend Kristin for a pre-birthday dinner.  She was all of 2 minutes late so I started drinking without her.  As soon as Becky came in she told the waiter, "It's my birthday.  I brought my own cupcakes, but if you wanted to stick a candle in the pot pie I'm going to order and sing for me, that would be great.  Thanks."

Her friend has twins (it's actually a pretty incredible story because she was on a list for foster care / adoption and one day she got a call and she and her husband became parents of twins!) That was about a 2 years ago.  I think I was either complaining about my HOA and fences, or talking excitedly about Marymoor dog park but it was a good segue to her story. She was saying that it's hard to find a fully fenced in park area and even though she has found one or two she still gets stressed trying to keep track of two littles.  Sometimes she just throws her kids in a stroller and walks around with her dog at Marymoor.  One day, she was walking by the pet memorial area and noticed that it was completely fenced in so she put her dog a leash and then unleashed her children into the memorial area.  That's right, her favorite place to let her kids play is in the Pet Cemetery.   

Oatmeal came out with this article recently http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe and it was pretty insightful.  But in the beginning, in order to get through some of the haters, he was all "I don't care if you're a cat person, a dog person or a tarantula person.  Morning person or night owl, iPhone or Android, Coke or Pepsi." To which Becky commented, "I stopped reading when you didn't include windows phone." But no one responded to her.  Weird.

We headed to the only winery open after 8 after dinner and there was a guy with guitar singing.  Becky requested "Shiny" from Moana (which he had already played, and was shocked that he was getting a second request.)  And then Becky said, "Hey, it's my birthday.  If you won't play that, how about anything from the 90's.  A little Salt-N-Pepa? If you play Shoop, you don't even need to know the words, we'll sing.  Or how about Smash Mouth? All-Star?" And you know what?  He totally started singing, " Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me; I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed; She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb; In the shape of an "L" on her forehead." And so did we! Becky ended up writing him a check as a tip with, "Sorry for the chore" in the notes section. 

Saturday, I woke up and met Ryan at the park with all the pups.  It was really nice out. I really need to figure out where my cleaning person hid all of my sunglasses because it is about that time of the year (hopefully!)  Then I came home and finished writing 52 updates (all in one week!)  I felt like fireworks should have been going off the moment I hit send that's how accomplished I felt.  Thanks for everyone that believed in me, and "I told you I would/could do it!" to all those who thought I should just give up entirely or forget about the ones I missed and start over.  YAYAYAYAYAYAY!

Sunday morning I woke up to an email from Becky at 11:07 am saying that she had finished reading all of them and was she the first?  First?  Maybe the only!  Although, many of you have already told me you had started, or at the very least wrote to tell me how you were, which I appreciate greatly. 

Then I went to the park again, cleaned the house, did laundry, and generally did all the things I had neglected to do all week while I was writing.  Then I finished up the evening with Raymond playtesting a new game at the Bottle and Bull.  (Yes, it was fun. Yes, I won twice. Yes, I was obnoxious even when I was trying to be cool and kind.)


By the way, my dog walker helped me out twice this week and came to hang (literally I think she just chills and plays) with my pups so I didn't feel guilty about going out.  She is so awesome, and my social life might get better now that I know she'll help me out at night! Woot! 













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