trains and sewing machines

FUCKING HELL!!!

Life with the new puppy is hard and tiring -- now I remember why I didn't get that puppy I loved at the pound. We don't get a lot of sleep because her bladder is the size of a walnut and she has to go out 2 or 3 times a night. Luckily we have a little porch so we just zip her out there and bring her back to bed.

But omg she is so cute. Sometimes she picks up a toy in her mouth and bounds around the house happily and it's so cute I can't even stand it. Surprisingly, she hasn't had very many accidents in the house. I think it's because Joel and I are so religious about her routine. Eat, go out. Wake up, go out. She's already walking pretty good on the leash, and there's a fenced in basketball court just behind our building where we can take off her leash and let her run around. That's how we wear her out so we can have a moment of peace.

Sometimes she comes when we call her, but not if there's something more interesting (aka off-limits) to chew on, like our playstation controllers. Joel and I have done a really good job puppy-proofing the house, but it's a full time job keeping her away from the stuff we can't put away, like the printer. One glimmer of hope is that she's totally comfortable going in her crate to hang out. We say "go in your house" and she trots right in and lays down. Then we can shut the door and go to bed. As soon as we think she's housebroken, we're going to graduate to things like sitting and staying, cause I'm pretty sure we need to like, give her treats to get her to do that stuff, and right now we can't be taking her outside everytime she has a bite of dog biscuit.

Sigh this morning after Joel took her out at 3am, he brought her back and she curled up and went to sleep between us with her head on my shoulder. Sleeping puppies omg precious. I swear it's like having a baby, but I love it.

The best Thanksgiving puppy ever!



Everyone say hello to Penelope June Supercomputer Beagle!!







Penny is an 8 week old purebred Beagle. These are crappy cellphone camera shots taken while driving her home from the breeders in Santa Fe. Yesterday, Cat, her fairy godmother, came over and took lots of pictures with a real camera, so expect more unsolicted puppy posting soon. Right now we are learning to come when we are called, and not poop on the floor!

If I have ever invited you to listen to this band in my car and "I like this" has ever crossed your mind, get your asses over HERE post haste to purchase the new album. This is going to the best one, okay? I can already tell. STOP READING START SHOPPING.

Also, this hoodie has TINY BIRDS ON IT.

I have applied for the Accounts Payable position at the Marriott. +$2/hour, no more 5:30 am shifts, no more weekends, no more cranky guests (just cranky companies who want payment), my own voicemail (jkfksdjfksdjfkjsdfkjflsdkfjdsl!!!!!!!!!!!!), no more uniforms, no more shitty coworkers. Everything looks good so far, I interview tomorrow, but not counting my chickens before they hatch, etc. Please pray/send good energy/think good thoughts about me this week while I go through the grueling interview process.

Contentment does not make for very interesting blog posts, which hopefully will excuse my infrequent and meaningless updates. If I was more patient I would say something here about the fight between being content or being a good writer, but I'm not. I'll just leave it up to you savagely intelligent people to understand me.

School is totally kicking my ass, but I'm struggling through it. I guess I'm just glad I decided to only take two classes this semester. What my writing class lacks in oh, any kind of valuable information, my literature analysis more than makes up for. I am drowning in the surplus. The professor really makes all the difference, though. I mean, ever since I was in um middle school (ahem), a really good teacher could make me care about any subject. It's how I learned about American History (ahem), Microbiology, and now things like POST-MODERNIST CRITICAL THEORY, the very mention of which used to induce vomiting.

It's not like I'm going to go around talking about it to look cool or anything but I guess it's been really nice to know what those words all mean. And, believe it or not, some of it has been really helpful when I think about how it applies to my writing. Gasp, the very idea! I mean, I've been learning a lot about how literature is interpreted by people who study it closely, and even if I don't agree with 90% of the theory, it's still been helpful in some ways to know how people react. I still completely stand by my "Why do you have to deconstruct everything, why can't you just read the story and enjoy it?!" perspective, but that attitude would have landed me a big fat F, so I've been forced to take the class out of the context of my life, and it's been good for me, I think.

In other news, work continues to suck the life out of me, but I'm resigned to it by now. Home life continues to be wonderful. We were this close to getting a puppy before my impulsiveness took a momentary backseat to my realism and I told Joel to drive away, drive away before I forget about paying for food and vet bills and torn up carpet and torn up underwear etc etc and how I don't really need a puppy in my life right now, but she was so cute. She was tiny and mellow and well behaved and sweet and she picked up a tennis ball in her mouth and carried it around. We were going to name her Weelee, or Peanut, or Pocket. I'm sure she got adopted like five seconds after I left because she was the most perfect puppy.

So my mom sent me a hefty check to pay for my semester of college, and like the responsible young adult that I am, I spent $100 of it on music! But I haven't done that in at least two years, so I think I was entitled. These days if I pay for anything I want (besides like, electricity and the internet) it's usually by means of some credit card or another. Which I rack up to about $200 tops before I panic and put them in the drawer until they're paid off. So it was nice to just go out and spend money I actually had without the accompanying anxiety attack. Here is what I bought!

Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Sigur Ros - Takk
David Gray - Life in Slow Motion
30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie (shut up)
Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang
Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel

I can't believe this. I had the most incredible day.

For the past few days I have been cursed withe The Viral Bronchitis. It has been most unpleasant. I have also been cursed with no insurance, and consequently had to shell out lots of money for a doctor appointment, only to find out I had VIRAL bronchitis and no antibiotic in existence was going to help me. I did, however, acquire a prescription for HYDROCODONE cough syrup to keep me from hacking up my lungs while trying to sleep. This, conversely, has been a real party. Not that I'm abusing it, but can you blame me for really enjoying that loopy dizzy sleepy comfy feeling only strong narcotics can deliver? Anyway, I slept for about 18 hours yesterday, and woke up miraculously cured! When I got home from work today I bounded into my home and said, "GET UP FOOLS, WE ARE GOING TO PURCHASE A SAW TODAY."

So I packed the boys into my car and the three of us embarked on a Harry Potter Trio style adventure wherein we encountered the strangest of all hardware folk, and some hardware puppies. The most notable hardware troll was a man who approached us as we were laboriously trying to bend the saw into an exaggerated S-shape. We were all "WTF DUDE?" and he was all, "I know what you are trying to do." and I was all "OMG SHOW ME HOW". He then proceded to tell us we were doomed and that we needed a SIX FOOT SAW. This sent us on a wild goose chase all over town and yielded no such saw. We ended up with a 2 1/4 foot saw and went home, depressed, to try to coax noises out of it.

I was very cranky, and I locked myself in my room with ski gloves, my bow, a screwdriver, and the internet. THEN I REALIZED WE HAD BEEN DOING IT ALL WRONG! Five minutes later my saw was making saw noises!!! I CAN DO IT. IT IS NOT THAT HARD!!!!

The most difficult part is that it requires a very strong left hand. My hand starts aching after like 45 seconds. I am so eager to play that I am really straining myself to keep knocking it with my screwdriver and hearing it wobble. It makes me SO HAPPY. I am totally committed and determined to learn to play this VERY DANGEROUS HAND TOOL well enough to play a saw solo in Provo, and then all will be right with the world. Just know that IT IS COMING. IT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE LIKELY THAT MY DREAM OF A SAW SOLO WILL COME TRUE.