14 things

Okay - I'm doing something called a meme? I got off a friend's blog - it looked fun so I'm doing it. It has 13 things in it. So why is my title 14 things? Well - because I had something else I wanted to say today too. Do you ever get surprised or stunned when you see how shallow some people are? There is someone in my world in whom I have seen a certain level of shallowness before - but today she said something revealing another level of shallowness that just really surprised me. There's not much you can do about that. We all have our moments where we are incredibly shallow, not a one of us is perfect. Okay - maybe Mother Teresa was, but we're not talking about her. This one just kind of hit me - made me go Wow.
Anyway - on to 13 other things ...
1. Who was your FIRST date with?
~ Well - I had a blind date in college for a school dance, otherwise - get this - I was something like 22 and it was someone I met through the Young Dems!
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
~ occasionally
3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
~ A beer - don't recall the brand
4. What was your FIRST car?
~ Let's see - the first one that was mainly mine was a 1972 Chevy Impala - yellow. That thing was a tank. The first one I bought myself was a Camaro. MISTAKE! That car had serious design flaws.
5. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
~ Sister John Joseph, SSND
6. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
~ Ireland.
7. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them?
~ Claire. No.
8. Who was your FIRST kiss?~ I really don't remember! Couldn't have been all that good a kiss!9. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
~Besides turning off the alarm? Went upstairs and read my e-mail.
10. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
~ ELO
11. FIRST foreign country you went to?
~ Canada
12. When was your FIRST detention?
~ I’ve never gotten a detention
13. What was the FIRST state you lived in?
~ Connecticut.

Who to vote for?

Crap! I don't know who I to vote for in the primary next week or November. I like Hillary Clinton, but I don't really care for the idea that 2 families will have controlled the White House for the past twenty years if she wins. Barack Obama is okay, but I just don't feel he has the experience yet. He's been a Senator for 3 years. I would have been happier if he had waited another 4 years or so to run. I guess he felt he needed to get in there while he's a hot property. In another 4 years, he may not have been. I like John Edwards, but he doesn't seem to be getting anywhere and I hear he may be dropping out. I was seriously considering him as a viable alternative to Hillary and Barack. BTW - I'm a Dem.
As for the Republicans - can't stand Giuliani - didn't see why he was considered viable in the first place. I like McCain - but he's so old. I'm having a hard time getting past that - but he may be who I end up voting for - and I have very rarely voted for a Republican. I mean like - twice in the nearly 30 years I have been voting! I've very rarely found one I felt deserved my vote. Anyway - I digress. Mitt Romney is plastic, phony, and just plain nauseating.
I guess, in the end, next week I will be voting for Hillary Clinton. I may vote for McCain in the fall though.

Random Thoughts

• I am habitually late for work. It's just 10 minutes or so - but I just can't seem to get here on time. Today was worse than normal. I went to start drying my hair and looked at the clock and it was already the time by which I should be leaving the house. Oh well.
• I arrived at work and the elevator was on the ground floor, door open, waiting for me. I don't usually take the elevator unless I'm carrying a lot of stuff - but this morning, it seemed like it was waiting for me.
• When I wear a thong to work, I usually keep a pair of panties in my briefcase, just in case. You never know when the feeling of having floss up your butt will get to be too much.
• It's very sweet when you are laying in bed watching TV and the dog curls up next to you and rests his head on your shoulder. It's not so sweet when you go to brush your teeth and come back to find he's just flopped his body into your spot in the bed.
• Lately Boomer has taken to finding pieces of paper laying around and chewing them. What's up with that!
• Boomer doesn't like it when the landing zone (aka where he likes to poop) is full of poops. We must do poop pickup more frequently.
• The library in the town I work for is the best library in the state, if not the country, if not the world. And the library cult members - I mean staff and board - tell you that every chance they get.
• I'm kind of tired of hearing about Tom Brady's ankle. Yeah, it may have an impact on his ability to push off when passing, but it's just not as big as if he broke his throwing arm.
• Go Giants!

A little sad today

It was two years ago today that I lost my baby. It's a sad day. I'm much better than I was last year, but I think I will always be a little sad on the anniversary. I loved my baby so much - had such great hopes. I'll never know if it was a little boy or girl - but I always thought it was going to be a little boy. I'm very lucky. I have a wonderful husband and a mostly wonderful dog, but still, I lost something precious two years ago. So, I'm a little sad today.

I love my dog, but...

He bit me today. He's normally a pretty good dog. Some of his antics can be annoying, but his behavior with people and other dogs is friendly and playful. He goes to the kennel and is in doggie daycare and plays all day long with other dogs and is fine. We have been in our home and other people's homes with other dogs and he is fine. The problem is when he's on his leash and sees another dog and the other dog starts barking at him. When that happens - he goes nuts and is hard to control. When A and I are walking him together, we can sometimes avoid the unpleasantness by distracting him - breaking the cycle. We do that sometimes with treats. Today on our walk, first dog to bark at him was in a yard. Boomer cried, but then nudged me as if to say "I'm being good, give me a treat." He was being very good, I told him so and gave him a treat. I thought we had done it, trained him to be good when other dogs barked at him in exchange for a reward. (Boomer is very food-motivated.) We were further in our walk, almost home when we see a dachsund on a leash. Dachsund starts barking. I try to distract Boomer with a treat. That does not work. I try grabbing the scruff of his neck he twists away and bites me. He didn't break skin, but I think that's only because I had a winter jacket on. He actually left a mark. I was so upset, I did something I should not have done, but I spanked him. I know that's not the way to train him, but I needed to get his attention and break his frenzy. It did work. I then told him how bad he was. I came home, called A and then cried. We are going to get him private lessons with the owner of the kennel we go use. We've been told he works wonders with dog aggression. I hope he can work his magic on Boomer. I love my dog, but I can't deal with this behavior.

Hope

Hope is a wonderful thing. Or is it? I recently read an article in the NY Times that referred to a study where they said that some times hope could be an obstacle to emotional recovery. I can see that. Every month, I hope that I will get pregnant. I can see how that hope has kept me from getting over the fact that I will probably remain childless. I would really like to move on and deal with that, be okay with that, but it's not a done deal - there is hope. So - as long as there is hope, I won't get over it. I don't think I should then. I am realistic. I know the odds are against me - but I don't think I could be happy long term if I felt that I didn't give it every possible chance. So, one day I will go through menopause and hope will be gone. I will then recover emotionally from my infertility- I hope.

What else do we hope for? I had actually been thinking about blogging about hope since I read this article. At the time, I was hoping the Giants would beat Green Bay - but I didn't know how realistic that was. My hopes were fulfilled. This time. Will they be fulfilled in just under two weeks? I hope that we beat the Patriots.

We hope for so much, in all aspects of our lives. Sometimes, all we can do is hope. Other times, we can give our hope a little support with actions. I can hope to lose weight but if that's all I'm doing - it's not likely. I can hope to get pregnant - but if I'm not having sex - well - not only will my husband be unhappy, there's no chance of pregnancy. It's not enough to hope when you can get out there and do something to make your hopes come true. You hope you get a better job soon? Well - get that resume out there and pound the pavement! You hope you lose weight by bikini season? Get on the treadmill, get off the chocolate doughnuts. I hope the Giants beat the Patriots, so I will wear my lucky Giants shirt, drink out of my lucky Giants glass and sit in my lucky "watch the Giants win" spot in the living room. Okay - so that stuff really won't help the Giants, but I'm superstitious so it will help me.

Hope is what tells us sometimes that tomorrow will be a better day than today, so we keep going. So yes, sometimes hope can be an obstacle to emotional recovery, but overall, life without hope just is impossible to imagine.

How 'bout them Giants!

I do so love my NY Football Giants! I do so hate the Dallas Cowboys. No victory is ever as sweet as one against the Cowboys, particularly when we're not supposed to win. Win we did yesterday! It was a great game. The defense just stepped up in the second half - did what they had to do. The secondary had been decimated. One of the dbacks had been on the practice squad earlier in the year. They held it together. The line got pressure on Romo. They virtually shut down TO and Crayton. It was great. I was so excited during the game, I was teaching the dog to high-five. Boomer's a quick study! So - the only disappointing thing? I don't know any Cowboy fans that I can call and razz! Of course - reason for that is - well - what can I say about the character of a Cowboy fan? I see it as a serious character flaw. Anyway - one more thing to say - this was my alternate title - Gotcha Popcorn Ready?

Dancing Deer Baked Goods

OMG - this stuff is good. A Chocoholic's delight! A dieter's nemesis! A vendor sent me some stuff from dancing deer last year. I was so disappointed before Christmas when I got a little wallet sized notepad with a calculator from said vendor. Then - Wednesday - I walk into my office and there it is. The box. OMG! Last year I got 2 packages each of Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Brownies. This year, I got those as well and a chocolate espresso cake. I am usually a kind considerate person and share such goodies with everyone in the office. Well - I wasn't 100% kind. I kept one package of the cookies and one of the brownies all for me. Okay - giving myself a little credit, I did bring the brownies home and they are on the counter for A to have one if he wants. Not that I told him or that they are somewhere he might notice them - but if he finds them, I will not deny my beloved a brownie. But would I rather he not see them? So that I can have them all to myself? YAH! Who you kidding! My name is Kate and I'm a chocoholic. These are not helping my diet. Not at all. But - I shouldn't be wasteful. These are baked goods and without preservatives, so they need to be eaten in a timely fashion. Cleaning my plate, so to speak.
And the boxes they came in are neat too.
Seriously, if you need to send a gift to a chocoholic, http://www.dancingdeer.com/ They're the bomb.

The Club I DON'T want to join

The club I don't want to join just got a new member. A firefighter was killed on the job last night in Brooklyn. I was watching ER when they did one of their news teasers. He and his wife had a 2 year old and she's pregnant. My greatest fear is seeing the department car pull up in front of my house. I always tell A that I love him when he goes to work - just in case it's the last time I get to say it. If I'm home when he's leaving or he'll be leaving before I get home, I make sure to kiss him goodbye, just in case.

Happiness is....

...a warm towel. Today anyway. When I got in the shower this morning, I draped my towel over the radiator, thinking maybe it would be nice if it was warmed up. It surely was. Now I want a towel warmer, but have no place for it. That will be on my list when we renovate the house. Until then, putting the towel on the radiator will have to do. I hope that's not a fire hazard.

....cuteness from my dog. Sometime last night, Boomer got a loop from an afghan wound around one of his dog tags. He came down from the 3rd floor to the 2nd with it trailing behind. He slept in his own bed most of the night with it attached to him. A and I had no idea until this morning when we got up and he came to stand by my side of the bed - and didn't leave - so I looked down at him (I'm fairly blind without glasses on) and I see his little problem. Poor baby.

I feel a little lost sometimes - basically every time I see someone has joined "the club" or re-upped. Knowing that I'll probably never have membership is disconcerting. I'm happy for those who got to join - more for some than others and - okay - downright pissed that some people got membership and I didn't. I want to handle my disappointment. I want to be okay with not joining. On New Year's Eve, a friend who joined "the club" after some difficulty told me she was afraid to talk to me about it because she didn't want to hurt me. That made me sad too - because I'm happy for her. Why am I happy for some, but not all? Too cosmic to figure out. At least right now. I have a cold coming on. A dentist visit coming up. And no husband at home tonight. At least I have a cute puppy. And I had a warm towel this morning.

ROAD TRIP!

A & I went on a road trip last week. The Boom Doggie went to doggie vacation. We're back. It was fun - not as fun as it would have been if UCONN had won - but, fun none the less. So - some thoughts, comments, memories...

• I added a new state to my list of states visited. Knock West Virginia off the list.
• Sometimes I would really like to tell my navigation system to shut the F*** up.
• Navigation systems should have an option for "scenic route".
• Western Virginia has some very lovely scenery. Lots of cows too.
• All Cracker Barrels look exactly alike.
• Cracker Barrels have good food. We ate at least 4 meals at Cracker Barrels on the way. The best was the Reuben in Carlisle, PA that was followed up with a warm fruit cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream.
• I need to start dieting again.
• The people we tailgate with are pretty cool.
• Charlotte was overrun with Husky fans last weekend. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing someone in blue and white.
• UCONN needs a new offensive coordinator. 4th and inches and you don't send your 6'4" QB on a sneak? You send a back starting 3 yards back to try and get it? 'Nuff said.
• UCONN Special Teams did a hell of a job. Good coaching Lyndon!
• I don't think bands are a big thing in the ACC. Either that or Wake Forest left 2/3 of their band home.
• UCONN's band is good and the kids have fun. Fans even stayed in the stands to cheer for our band.
• UCONN fans are awesome and loyal.
• Tailgating is fun even when you lose. Watching almost 40 year olds shotgunning beer is amusing.
• Country music is not as bad as I thought it would be. As a trade-off for A doing all the driving - well - I got the better of that deal for sure.
• NASCAR is growing on me. Seeing all the cars at the RCR museum was cool. Especially the wrecked cars.
• I think I could deal with a Carolina winter.
• I wish UCONN had won, but still, it was a great season. Next year I'm expecting big things.
• It was nice to get home and to go pick up the Boom Doggie. I miss that little face when I'm away.