Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since my last post. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long. Some of you may know, or may be able to tell by reading previous posts, that I had previously used this blog primarily for sports related topics. I have decided upon my return to open it up to any and everything I feel to be relevant.
I have been married for just about 6 months now (Time Flies) and there have been a lot of adventures, changes, and learning experiences in my life in that span. Our married life began with a fantastic honeymoon in San Diego. We had an awesome room at a hotel right off of mission bay, a fantastic restaurant to eat breakfast at every morning (the Blue Pearl, really, just the breakfast was fantastic. Everything else...eh), got to go to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, a Padres game (Which was won on a walk-off hit by my boy Orlando Hudson, formerly an Arizona Diamondback, we refer to him as O-Dawg), El Indio, Seaport Village, and found a really cool place to go horseback riding. But soon the trip was over and we returned home to reality. I had to go back to the job that I used to love, but now absolutely hated, and we had to move all of Tracie's stuff into my (now our) apartment. This went by rather smoothly and we adjusted to married life really well. Everything was going great. For the most part, we would have one day off together during the week and we would sleep in and enjoy the day together....then we got the dog.
Tracie had been asking (bugging) me since long before we were married to get a dog. I kept telling her that we could once we were married, as long as she would take it out. Well crap, now we're married and the topic had arisen, yet again. I changed my stance, trying to tell her to wait until we got a house with a yard, and that worked for a bit. Then came a day, one of those days we both had off and got a whole bunch of errands done and for some reason we found ourselves near downtown or the south side of town or somewhere near there and yes I know this is a run on sentence but I'm kind of doing this for dramatic effect or something like that.....anyway, we were somewhere near the south side of town (Which is where the OKC Animal Shelter is) and Tracie brought up the idea of going there to look at dogs. Having run out of excuses (that Tracie would accept) to not get a dog, I agreed, knowing full well that I would not cave and it would be a waste of time, but it made her think I was caving and perception is 9/10's of the law.
So we're looking at the dogs and there are some cute dogs and some docile dogs and this and that, but I'm not budging about getting a dog. Even after we left the first room to go to the puppy room, I'm not budging, but I don't let her know this (until now, I guess). We move on to the third room and see a couple more cool dogs...and then the one. A little lab mix puppy that is only 6 weeks old and he is the cutest dog in the world. His spots would suggest that he is mixed with some kind of bird dog (pointer). 6 weeks old and he is the calmest dog in there, probably because he was scared, but calm nonetheless. His previous owner had abandoned him because he "made too much noise", which was a little concerning, but I couldn't say no to his face. One of the staff members let us take him out of his cage to hold him and play with him, it was obvious he was a little scared, but he remained calm and warmed up to us quickly. That's it...I'M SOLD! I CAVED! I CANNOT BELIEVE I CAVED! So we ended up getting him, but he wasn't ready that day, so I had to come back a couple of days later and pick him up.
Tracie was at work when I got him and she wanted me to bring him straight to her work (she works for a vet, so naturally, it was ok). He was really good in the car at first, but then he jumped into the back seat and started chewing on stuff. Suddenly, a not so pleasant aroma was in the air. Dammit! My un-named dog just pooped in my back seat! GRRR!!! I will never forgive Tracie for making go to the stupid animal shelter (yes I did). I get him to the vet, Tracie cleans up the poop, then I left him there with her. That night we were working on coming up with a name and finally decided on Beamer, mainly because he was constantly beaming with a smile. Unfortunately, a couple days after we adopted him, he became very sick. Our worst nightmare was coming true, Beamer had Parvo. We were left with a very tough decision, we could take him back to the shelter, where he would be euthanized, and get a healthy dog, or we could pay for the treatments that he may or may not live through. Not having the heart to give up on him, we decided to treat him, and he flew through flying colors. We got to take him home, but it seemed he had developed a case of kennel cough. After a couple more days, the cough worsened to the point that we took him to the emergency vet late one night. There, an even worse nightmare. The vet (who we later find out is a complete idiot) told us that didn't think it was kennel cough, but rather Distemper, a disease even more deadly than Parvo. This cannot be happening. But again, we stuck with him. After looking up the symptoms of Distemper, most of which Beamer did not have, we went into a state of denial, and rightfully so, because days later, the cough was gone, and Beamer was just fine, and he is still just fine. Only problem is that when Beamer wants to get up (6:30 am if we're lucky), he wants to get up. So I no longer get to sleep in on my days off.
So as life is moving along with a cat (which we already had before we were married) and a dog, my job is getting to the point where I cannot stand being there anymore. I work around 60 or more hours a week and until 11pm or later 3-5 times a week. I can't stand it. I NEED OUT! So I begin searching for other jobs. Ok, I guess searching wouldn't be the correct word, more like keeping an eye out for job opportunities. I really don't want to be in retail anymore. I'm wanting something with stable hours. I tried looking for jobs at banks, but got no responses. Tried Avis and Enterprise (after renting a car in San Diego I thought it would be a cool and rewarding job), but no luck. I even noticed a billboard driving to work that said "Hertz is Hiring!" and applied for 3 or 4 different positions there, but I wasn't hearing anything back. Then out of the blue one day (about a month after I applied) I got a call from Hertz wanting to set up a job interview, all I had to do was take an online assessment. So I do that and they said they would call me back to set up an interview, well that took 2 more weeks, but I finally got the interview and the job and was able to get out of that hell hole before it got super busy for back to school. Only problem was that I had to sacrifice our annual vacation to Lake Tenkiller with Tracie's family. We were all bummed about this and despite me telling her she could still go, Tracie stayed home with me for that week, which until now, I never told her how much I appreciated this.
We have now cruised into the month of August and it's now birthday season (we have family birthdays on the 3rd (Tracie's sister), 9th (my sister), 13th (me), 18th (Tracie), 26th (nephew) and maybe another one or two in there). Then into September and our niece's 1st birthday, nephew's 3rd birthday, sister's wedding and brother in-law's birthday all within 15 days! The kids birthdays were great, we love getting to spend time with them (I always feel bummed that I don't get to spend as much time with my other nephews, though). Our nephew particularly loves to play with Beamer. Then we got to go to Salt Lake for my sister's wedding, where we got to stay in this amazing lodge condo at the bottom of a mountain resort! It was a really fun wedding (very unorthodox, but that's what made it so fun).
And now we're back to our normal lives. Beamer and Indie (the cat) keeping things interesting at home. Going through our daily routines. Having on and off moments, such as the cat eating Tracie's bagel, or me trying to step over Beamer, who is laying at the base of the bath tub, as I exit the shower, only for the towel that my foot is on to slide across the tile, and I grab the towel rack to keep my balance, and the towel rack breaking. It's moments like these that made me sit down, and restart this blog...and say to myself:
"So...This is Life?"
I have been married for just about 6 months now (Time Flies) and there have been a lot of adventures, changes, and learning experiences in my life in that span. Our married life began with a fantastic honeymoon in San Diego. We had an awesome room at a hotel right off of mission bay, a fantastic restaurant to eat breakfast at every morning (the Blue Pearl, really, just the breakfast was fantastic. Everything else...eh), got to go to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, a Padres game (Which was won on a walk-off hit by my boy Orlando Hudson, formerly an Arizona Diamondback, we refer to him as O-Dawg), El Indio, Seaport Village, and found a really cool place to go horseback riding. But soon the trip was over and we returned home to reality. I had to go back to the job that I used to love, but now absolutely hated, and we had to move all of Tracie's stuff into my (now our) apartment. This went by rather smoothly and we adjusted to married life really well. Everything was going great. For the most part, we would have one day off together during the week and we would sleep in and enjoy the day together....then we got the dog.
Tracie had been asking (bugging) me since long before we were married to get a dog. I kept telling her that we could once we were married, as long as she would take it out. Well crap, now we're married and the topic had arisen, yet again. I changed my stance, trying to tell her to wait until we got a house with a yard, and that worked for a bit. Then came a day, one of those days we both had off and got a whole bunch of errands done and for some reason we found ourselves near downtown or the south side of town or somewhere near there and yes I know this is a run on sentence but I'm kind of doing this for dramatic effect or something like that.....anyway, we were somewhere near the south side of town (Which is where the OKC Animal Shelter is) and Tracie brought up the idea of going there to look at dogs. Having run out of excuses (that Tracie would accept) to not get a dog, I agreed, knowing full well that I would not cave and it would be a waste of time, but it made her think I was caving and perception is 9/10's of the law.
So we're looking at the dogs and there are some cute dogs and some docile dogs and this and that, but I'm not budging about getting a dog. Even after we left the first room to go to the puppy room, I'm not budging, but I don't let her know this (until now, I guess). We move on to the third room and see a couple more cool dogs...and then the one. A little lab mix puppy that is only 6 weeks old and he is the cutest dog in the world. His spots would suggest that he is mixed with some kind of bird dog (pointer). 6 weeks old and he is the calmest dog in there, probably because he was scared, but calm nonetheless. His previous owner had abandoned him because he "made too much noise", which was a little concerning, but I couldn't say no to his face. One of the staff members let us take him out of his cage to hold him and play with him, it was obvious he was a little scared, but he remained calm and warmed up to us quickly. That's it...I'M SOLD! I CAVED! I CANNOT BELIEVE I CAVED! So we ended up getting him, but he wasn't ready that day, so I had to come back a couple of days later and pick him up.
Tracie was at work when I got him and she wanted me to bring him straight to her work (she works for a vet, so naturally, it was ok). He was really good in the car at first, but then he jumped into the back seat and started chewing on stuff. Suddenly, a not so pleasant aroma was in the air. Dammit! My un-named dog just pooped in my back seat! GRRR!!! I will never forgive Tracie for making go to the stupid animal shelter (yes I did). I get him to the vet, Tracie cleans up the poop, then I left him there with her. That night we were working on coming up with a name and finally decided on Beamer, mainly because he was constantly beaming with a smile. Unfortunately, a couple days after we adopted him, he became very sick. Our worst nightmare was coming true, Beamer had Parvo. We were left with a very tough decision, we could take him back to the shelter, where he would be euthanized, and get a healthy dog, or we could pay for the treatments that he may or may not live through. Not having the heart to give up on him, we decided to treat him, and he flew through flying colors. We got to take him home, but it seemed he had developed a case of kennel cough. After a couple more days, the cough worsened to the point that we took him to the emergency vet late one night. There, an even worse nightmare. The vet (who we later find out is a complete idiot) told us that didn't think it was kennel cough, but rather Distemper, a disease even more deadly than Parvo. This cannot be happening. But again, we stuck with him. After looking up the symptoms of Distemper, most of which Beamer did not have, we went into a state of denial, and rightfully so, because days later, the cough was gone, and Beamer was just fine, and he is still just fine. Only problem is that when Beamer wants to get up (6:30 am if we're lucky), he wants to get up. So I no longer get to sleep in on my days off.
So as life is moving along with a cat (which we already had before we were married) and a dog, my job is getting to the point where I cannot stand being there anymore. I work around 60 or more hours a week and until 11pm or later 3-5 times a week. I can't stand it. I NEED OUT! So I begin searching for other jobs. Ok, I guess searching wouldn't be the correct word, more like keeping an eye out for job opportunities. I really don't want to be in retail anymore. I'm wanting something with stable hours. I tried looking for jobs at banks, but got no responses. Tried Avis and Enterprise (after renting a car in San Diego I thought it would be a cool and rewarding job), but no luck. I even noticed a billboard driving to work that said "Hertz is Hiring!" and applied for 3 or 4 different positions there, but I wasn't hearing anything back. Then out of the blue one day (about a month after I applied) I got a call from Hertz wanting to set up a job interview, all I had to do was take an online assessment. So I do that and they said they would call me back to set up an interview, well that took 2 more weeks, but I finally got the interview and the job and was able to get out of that hell hole before it got super busy for back to school. Only problem was that I had to sacrifice our annual vacation to Lake Tenkiller with Tracie's family. We were all bummed about this and despite me telling her she could still go, Tracie stayed home with me for that week, which until now, I never told her how much I appreciated this.
We have now cruised into the month of August and it's now birthday season (we have family birthdays on the 3rd (Tracie's sister), 9th (my sister), 13th (me), 18th (Tracie), 26th (nephew) and maybe another one or two in there). Then into September and our niece's 1st birthday, nephew's 3rd birthday, sister's wedding and brother in-law's birthday all within 15 days! The kids birthdays were great, we love getting to spend time with them (I always feel bummed that I don't get to spend as much time with my other nephews, though). Our nephew particularly loves to play with Beamer. Then we got to go to Salt Lake for my sister's wedding, where we got to stay in this amazing lodge condo at the bottom of a mountain resort! It was a really fun wedding (very unorthodox, but that's what made it so fun).
And now we're back to our normal lives. Beamer and Indie (the cat) keeping things interesting at home. Going through our daily routines. Having on and off moments, such as the cat eating Tracie's bagel, or me trying to step over Beamer, who is laying at the base of the bath tub, as I exit the shower, only for the towel that my foot is on to slide across the tile, and I grab the towel rack to keep my balance, and the towel rack breaking. It's moments like these that made me sit down, and restart this blog...and say to myself:
"So...This is Life?"
What a GREAT write! I'm so glad you're back at it. I enjoyed every word and chuckled several times. Please don't wait another 2 years for your next post!
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