best story ever (involving dogs)

Part of our Southern Road Trip was to Asheville, NC to visit Jay's sister. One night we went to the Rocket Club. The group was me, Jay, Jay's sister, her boyfriend, her roommate (who from here on shall all have clever nicknames), the bartender, and a Weimaraner named Creepy Drifter. Since we were the only patrons of the bar, and the bar was dog-friendly, Sister convinced Boyfriend to go get her and Roommate's dogs, an Rhodesian Ridgeback named Femi, and a Corgi / Beagle mix named Lily. (I've not included an AKC link for Lily, but picture a baying sausage).

Now I'm all for non-purebreed dogs, but Lily was clearly the more uncouth of the group. While the 2 bigger dogs gracefully ran around chasing each other, Lily waddled behind. The big dogs could prance around on the stage, while Lily could barely make it up the stairs.


She was having fun though, and to prove that she was no regular mutt, within 5 minutes of entering the club Lily proceeded to take a massive doggy-poo on the floor. You could see the other dogs turn their noses up at her in disgust. The mess was quickly cleaned up, but the smell lingered. In fact, a coupla other people tried to come into the bar for some drinks, but nobody stuck around long. Would you have?

Just for illustrative purposes, here's a picture of Lily (not taken at the club).


Stinky pile aside, it was a good night. Our own private bar, with dogs. Fun times.

migraine!

Migraines are one of those things that when you say you have one, you get 2 kinds of sympathy: the kind from a fellow migraine sufferer or the kind from those who have never experienced such joy. The following story should evoke both.

I'm relatively lucky when it comes to migraines. Conditions have to be just right wrong for me to get one; I have to have low blood sugar and I have to be in a grocery store. If I've eaten well and recently, grocery stores are no problem. I'll stay there all day, laughing at people with fake tans and horrid pink sweat pants. However, sometimes I get overwhelmed by the bright lights, the smells, and, the myriad of noises make me kinda want to die. This happened last night.

I could feel it coming on and started opening my eyes less and less. By the time we were done checking out, my eyes were fully closed and I was leaning on Jason like a blind woman. I had my big fuzzy hood wrapped around me, but I was noticing weird smells in there that I don't normally notice. Damn you migraines, making my Super Smell Power even more sensitive!

When we got home, I knew I needed to eat, but I couldn't bring myself to cook yummy yummy pasta, due to that whole "smelling" thing. Normally I love the smell of garlic, but last night it was a bit too pungent. I lay down on the couch with my sweatshirt over my head. That wasn't enough of a cave, so I moved into the dark dark bedroom. After a few minutes of absolute stillness, the cat came in and jumped on the bed next to me. He purred while I pet him, which gave me cause to ponder that a cat purr may be the only migraine-suitable noise out there. Then the dog came in, and yes, he is noisy and smelly, but he was also concerned. He looked at me with his black lab ears up and his tail wagging, then positioned himself so I could pet him too.

As I lie there, an animal being pet on each side of me, the adorableness of the situation struck me. Both animals knew something was wrong and so sought me out to comfort me, and it worked. I went back into the living room grinning, and I told Jason all about it. My headache *had* gone down a bit, partly from the ibuprofen, but I think mostly due to the warm fuzzies.



ps - I've made yet another necklace. You should go look at it and buy it.
Have you subscribed to that feed, btw? Then you'll always be in the 'no...

story of mushy roses

Inspired by a post on Hola, Isabel, and the fact that it's Valentine's Day so some people are in to it, here is a story about roses. It's not my first bouquet of roses ever, but it was the first bouquet given to me by my Jason.

Everyone knew it was coming. Something had been a little off in my life lately, and rather* than ask me about it directly, the xbf decided to read this here very blog to find out what was up. It just so happened that the entry he read mentioned that I was on the phone with Jason for a few hours while waiting for a concert to start. (A concert which, not coincidentally, xbf had refused to go to with me so I was there by myself.) I knew full well what I was doing when I wrote about it, but I didn't really expect it to be the catalyst.

As a result of the ensuing discussion, I was up all night. The few hours I spent "asleep" were not restful at all. Then, fun of all funs, I got to go to work in the morning. I got to greet customers and appear bubbly and all around cheery. Yeah, that didn't happen. This was also the start of my work deciding I needed to switch stores. So I took a long lunch and went to the other store for a split shift. On the way there, I called Jay. He was audibly disappointed when I told him I wasn't going to be at work until 5, as originally planned. "I hate to ruin the surprise, but you're getting flowers delivered there." He knew I wouldn't be having the bestest day, so he did what he could from 700 miles away.

I went home and took a nap. I was awakened when my phone rang, the store telling me I had a delivery. I finished my nap and when it was time to go to the other store, I took the long way and stopped at the first store. When I walked in, all my coworkers immediately flocked around me asking who they were from, etc. I saw a giant glass vase, filled with baby's breath and a dozen red roses. The roses were about 3 feet tall. I mean they were huge. The card said "for my sunshine" (get it, desiRAY of sunshine!) and I still carry it around with me in my wallet.

I left them there til the next day, since there was no point in taking them to the other store. However, the next day was terribly windy, so I left them at work again. (Besides the fact that bringing them home would cause complications I wasn't ready to deal with yet.) But I did get to run downstairs continually to breathe in the fresh aroma of giant red roses. Everyone in the store was totally jealous, except for one guy who was convinced that Jay had gotten another girl pregnant. He just couldn't comprehend buying someone pretty flowers unless he had royally screwed up. Brightening someone's day? Unheard of. But they did brighten my day, and even though I never need roses, I can't say no to them.



ps - in the (almost) month that I've lived in MI, my Jason has gotten me roses one more time. I was unpacking while he was at work, and got overwhelmed by lots of things... including pictures of me and the xbf falling out and making me cry. I called him at work and told him that I was sitting on the floor crying and couldn't unpack any more, and when he came home, he had another dozen roses for me. They sat on top of the tv for a while, filling the house with sweet sweet smell.



* This is one of the reasons he is now qualified as the xbf.

'tis the season

Normally the customers at my store are regular and normal and don't irritate me even though *some* of them are idiots (which is bound to happen, and I accept that). But xmastime shopping brings out the loonies.

Phone rings:
person: Yeah, hi, how much is that laptop bag?
me: which one?
person: in the back, against the wall on the right.
me: yeah, that's where all the laptop bags are. Do you know which company makes it?
person: (to someone else not on the phone) Which company makes it?
(to me) I don't know.
me: ok. Um, what color is it?
person: (to someone else not on the phone) Is it black or brown?
(to me) It's brown.
me: Ok, that eliminates a few. Do you know what material it's made of?
person: (to someone else not on the phone) What's it made out of?
(to me) No.
me: ooookaaaay. Is it plain or does it have designs?
person: It has iron stitching.
me: I don't know what that means. I'm not sure which bag you're looking for. Can you give me any more details?
person: (to someone else not on the phone) What else?
(to me) It has iron stitching. It's right there.
me, glancing over my shoulder expecting to see someone on a cell phone: Maybe you should just come down here. We close at 9 tonight.

I don't know if they ever came in. Or why I couldn't talk to the person who had actually seen the bag.

Then later:
A guy walks in the store and makes a beeline for me at my post in the back.
me: Hi!
guy: Do you work here?
me: I sure do!
guy, looking around, confused: So uh... what do you sell here?
(I gesture around to the entire store)
guy: so, like, just stuff?
me: Yeah. Just stuff.

then later still:
I admit it. It was me. I was the annoying customer. Just because I had a "little" sushi accident at lunch that involved spilling soy sauce all over my pants, shoes, the counter, the floor, and somehow not the computer. I smelled like soy sauce for the rest of the day. I'm sure nobody else could smell it, but thanks to the super combo of Super Smell Power and paranoia, I kept trying to move throughout the crowded store to get away from the soy sauciness of myself. But at least I wasn't an idiot.

headaches = bad

I had the fruitlings of a migraine. It was still a headache when I tried remedying it with fruit, caffeine, chocolate, and finally, drugs. I thought it would stay at headache level. But then I had to go grocery shopping.

Bright lights? check.
Noisy everything? check.
Did I ever tell you that I hate cilantro? Well all I could smell in the produce department was cilantro.

So that was pretty neat when I couldn't see.

Then we decided to buy some plants for the house. Flower shops smell good. I am definitely pro-flower, and it turns out that flowers have the right odor combination of pleasant and not overwhelming to stave off a migraine or at least bring it back to manageable headache level. So I came home, new orange flowers in hand, and took a Simpsons-induced nap in a dark room.

Ah, life.