A Wandering Mind

THIS IS NOT A DRESS!

This is a shirt...it needs to be worn with PANTS...not bare legs...and NOT those damn leggings/tights.

If you think this is a dress and you are wearing it without pants, you may be mistaken for a streetwalker.  Nobody should be wearing something this short...with heels...in the afternoon...at the used record store.

Get a hold of yourself!

I think I have a problem.  I am not to blame, the fault lies with the after Christmas/end of season sales.  I've recently been bombarded with really cute, REALLY cheap shoes.  I think I have bought more shoes in the last 2.5 months than in the last year. But man, they are adorable!

Want to see?

 

$11.00

 

$13.00

 

$20 These aren't my exact pair but they are similar.  Mine aren't patent leather and the strap is thinner.

 

 

$13.  These are mystery shoes.  I tried to find them online so I could have the fancy picture with the white background but they don't exist anywhere.  Not even on the Laura Ashley site.  Strange.

 

See!  I told you it wasn't my fault.

This year I have contributed to saving the earth by:

1.) Requesting two extra recycle bins from my waste management company so I can recycle MORE.

2.) At my new job they drink alot of canned soda and bottled water.  Before I got there they had no recycling but now I collect it all and bring it home to put in my extra recycle bin (see number 1.)

 

I recently got back in touch with a friend of mine from college.  Mary and I had lost touch but not for any particular reason so it wasn't hard to just pick back up where we left off.  Mary has always been adventurous and uninhibited and I always admired that about her, so when she told me that she had a "new secret hobby" and that if I dared I could show up at a given address tonight at 7:30 and prepare to be entertained.

Who could  resist such a dare?

So I dragged my friend Jacqui along and to the clandestine location, where we paid $5 at the door and stepped into a dance studio with an eastern theme.  And ladies in twirly skirts with chimes and scarves.

Mary's super secret hobby was belly dancing.  And seriously those ladies can shake it.  It's like their bodies were divided into sections that could move together or separately.  I thought it was pretty cool, especially since all the dancers were so comfortable in their skin and looked better with more meat on their bones.

Of course, it totally tempted me to come home and stand in front of the mirror and see if I could move my body in separate but equal parts.

 

 

This morning I had to my cat Biggie to sleep.  He was an old cat and he was in poor physical condition but I'm really going to miss him...and his cuddles and forehead kisses.

Two weeks ago I received a phone call while at work from some stranger saying that he had my husky.  He said that Jonah came walking up to him and started kissing him but "the other dog" ran away.  The other dog in question? Ruby, my goofy yet scary looking 85 pound German Shepard who NEVER runs away.  You know what else she doesn't do?  Approach strangers.  So when faced with the decision to do one or the other, she decided to high-tail it out of there and go on the lam. She was surprisingly good at it.  Stealthy like a fucking ninja. 

 

 

Did I mention she didn't have a collar on because we had brushed her the day before?

I immediately called Jay and he went and got Jonah and then spent the next two hours trying to find Ruby but she had disappeared.  Throughout that day several of our friends and family members came over and drove around trying to find her but nobody even caught sight of her.  When I got home I drove around until dark with no luck.  I was devastated that night when I had to go to sleep with her not home.  I was scared because if she wondered far enough in any direction, she would run into very busy streets.

The next day we put up signs all over the neighborhood.  Jay said that a lady saw her in our yard but the lady didn't realize this was our house (but she had seen the signs and knew Ruby was lost) and when she tried to approach Ruby, Ruby growled and ran away.  At 5pm a lady called me and told me that on the first night she was missing, Ruby had wondered into the parking lot of a small area business and that the owners had closed the fence when they left so that Ruby wouldn't wonder away and get hit. They had left her food and water, unfortunately, she had wondered away from there the following morning.

I went over to that business to see if she had wondered back over there but she hadn't.  I was so freaked out and starting to wonder if I would ever find her.  Right then my phone rang and it was Jay's best friend Jason, telling me he had found her hiding behind a shed in the neighbor's yard.  She had hurt her leg and had a cut on her toe but she was home safe and sound.

When I walked into the house, she rolled over so I could rub her belly and she started to whine/doggie cry.  Awww.  Her collar is now firmly around her neck.

 

 

Last Sunday some of my family stopped by and wanted Jay and I to go shopping with them.  We only went because they promised I could do this...

 

 

 

 

And then Jay got to do this...

 

And we also got hang out with the coolest baby brother in all the land...

 

Two weekends ago I was able to talk my two nieces into spending the night at my house.  It was the first time that they would honor me with their presence for this type of event.  We went to the park, ate delicious salads at Tumbleweed, went to the video store, ate ice cream and tried to watch said videos but ended up wrestling with Jay instead.  Then I learned why you don't sleep in the same bed as a 6 and 3 year old.  Because you are inevitable going to wake up with a foot to the face and while this foot may be small, it still will not feel good.

Here are some photos of us at the park.  I somehow managed to look like I had 3 chins in these photos.  I'm very talented that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because I'm trying to look at the sunny side of life...

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged.  Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself."

Lucille Ball