Since today is our "family day", as in the day we celebrate the addition of one LJJ into our fambly, I just decided to take a walk down memory lane through the digital photo files from "july 2009". Sure, it was fun to see the now-choddler in all her babyness, but there were a couple photos in particular that really got the ol' emotions in a tizzy, and they were not baby-ey at all.
These two in particular:
These two in particular:
BB sitting next to me at a beach bar in Swakopmund, staring out at the ocean. We were drinking beers (LJJ's first ever bar) and relaxing after walking the beach that afternoon in the cold & wind. Probably wondering what the hell is going to happen to him now that there's a small 3 month old sitting not only just across the table from him, but right smack in the middle of our lives.
and:
Me & the boy having a moment, after playing hard in the dunes. That's a tough workout, fer realz. This is quintessential B. behaviour - I stop moving for a second and he's right there for a cuddle, ideally ON TOP of me somehow. He is such a lovey dovey hound.
I've been noticing the Bills getting seriously senior these past few months - his muzzle is all white and he doesn't get around like he used to - his old man arthritis gets pretty harsh during winter and he's always cold. It just makes me realize that someday there's going to be no more BillyBob, just like there is now no more Reggie - and that makes me so bloody sad it just chokes me up every time. Having the Bill with us in Namibia when we got LJJ - that whole trip, actually, makes him such a special member of the family, and all his other adventures (including his million brushes with death!) and the things he's lived through are also really major milestones of my life that he's been right along with me for.
The Bills is now officially my longest standing pup. The Reg will probably always be my No. 1 boy, but Billy is so close to my heart these days, it's ridiculous. The older he gets, the less he leaves my side. He comes to the office with me every day, insists on jumping into the car every time I do, and tries ever so hard to sneak onto the bed once we've fallen asleep to snuggle up against me and spend the few hours before I wake up, when then he jumps off again as if he was never there (b/c he knows he's not allowed). I've caught on to his little sneak-fest, but I can't bring myself to do anything about it because I just love him so much it kills me!
Anyhoo, life is precious and probably the most precious life in the world is that of a dog's, and sometimes my love for my hounds is a little extreme, but I can't help it. Especially with this one... my best buddy in the whole world, and the single living being on the planet who I always know loves me more than anything else. That's a mighty special and meaningful ball of emotion, when you think about it. My boy! My buddy! My Billy-o!
Labels: hounds, Meaningful
There is a sweet spot in the rut.
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 11 July 2011 at 7/11/2011 03:54:00 pm.
Wow, I'm back on the bloggy horse and with my new attitude adjustment, it seems that meaningful sh*t is just springing up all around me. Again, I cite attitude as the catalyst. You can't see the meaningful sh*t if you got a bad attitude. Jeez, like!
So this installment is about Fridays. Simple pleasures, the Fridays. The restless night owl in me is tempted in downer-times to bitch & moan about how lately (particularly post-evacuation of Doc & Mrs Doc) we seem to be in a solid rut of staying in on Friday nights and watching movies (or catching up on DVR stuff). However, you gotta see this as something of meaning in the following perspective:
1. Sleeping in is one of my favorite things in the world. The way we rock the stay-in-fridays is to stay up extremely late, which, at the end of a mammoth week (which all of them seem to be these days) combined with the bottle of wine, etc ("etc" to be further explained) means sleeping in til OMG, PAST 9, the next day. Blissful.
2. My valentine's present to the Mr. was a Martini Deck - i.e. a stack of cards with the How To's of every single martini in the universe. I figured it would be a good party trick for him, as well as a do-able challenge to become a martini-specific mixologist, and lo + behold he's a natural. Plus we were kinda martini-idiots and this has taught us a thing or two about what we like and don't like, with him at the controls. Every friday we try something different, and he is a champion martini master now. His best ones are the Metropolitan (pictured above) and the Smokey martini. This has now become such a highly anticipated part of my friday nights, that I get slightly annoyed if there's any talk of NOT having NO plans on the last day of the work week.
3. Dinner. What else is there to say other than on fridays we normally put some effort into organising something delicious. Recently I've even been cajoled into making a dessert or two. Unheard of in our house. But fridays..... ah, fridays. This friday I made Missouri burgers, for example - something I would never dream of having during the week when i'm usually busy being my normal psychotic health nut freakish self. Good LAWD they was deee-vine. They are always so divine. And I only ever make them on fridays. Go figure. So much divineness it hurts my mouth!
Anyway, there's not much more to it than that. Just that. But I've realized it's a simple pleasure that I ought not take for granted because in it's own rite it is actually freakin' beautiful.
Labels: Meaningful
Ready for a comeback...
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 06 July 2011 at 7/06/2011 02:12:00 pm.
Well, here I go again (on my owwwwn....)
I don't know why it's been so hard to identify meaningful things in my life over the last month. Probably because I have not been in the most optimistic, positive frame of mind. No reason in particular, I like to think of it as just a brief trough in the sine curve of life. The blues. No outlet, no laughter therapy, no real inspiration or motivation to give a rat's ass. In these circumstances, you don't see the meaningful, because you've just got your damn eyes closed. Trust me, I'm now even MORE certain that happiness is a decision that you have to make and then push through the brick wall in order to get out of your rut. Ain't nobody else gonna fix your ass for you, and you're lucky if you even have anyone try and give you a hand to help you out.
However, I let myself wallow and now it's time to pull the socks up and get back on the horse and stop living like a Scandinavian... although the iceberg temps we've got going on here in G-city the last couple weeks don't help that. Friday was a real eye-opener, a real reality check in terms of defining meaningful and appreciating it. It kinda went like this:
So The Mr. and I haven't had a lot of time alone recently, what with No. 1 Babysitting Team Doc & Mrs Doc being permanently removed from our lives (still in mourning, probably one of the major bummers at play in all this). Jac & Mar are still ready and always willing to sit on the choddler whenever we ask, but I just hate exploiting their services too much, especially since I always have this guilty complex of reciprocity and sometimes I feel the payback more than I enjoy the service!
But nevermind that, the fact is, we had the day off LAST Friday (SSK holiday) and used it to take them up on their permanent-standing offer. Dumped LJJ at their place in the late morning, and took the motorcycles out for a beautiful ride. The winter is cold, but that time of day it's warm enough that you're not physically shaking by the time you've ridden 3 miles. So we motored on over to the new mall in town (woo hoo!! 10 shops!! 1 restaurant!) and did a lovely, leisurely Chinese lunch at the one restaurant. It was freakin' blissful, that's all I can think to say about it. I really miss spending time with him, especially since work has been so busy and a lot of free time has turned into work time over the past couple months. It's like, work work work and then collapse in a coma at home and wake up and do it all over again.
After lunch we strolled through the new grocery store there and rode back home. So bloody boring and simplistic, but totally worth it. Probably the best day I've had in 4 months. And totally meaningful. I don't know if it was the subconscious symbolism of the fact it was a weekday and we were totally work-free and unshackled to anything, or if it was just that we really enjoyed each other's company without anyone else around (usually if we're MINUS LJJ, that means we're PLUS other friends - not just alone). Throwing the motorcycle riding in was also euphoric, as I'm still enjoying that more and more and can't get enough. But riding together is also sensational. I just want to do it more and more and more and more. Addictive, indeed.
Anyway, I don't know if it'll ever happen again or if it was just the perfect day which can never be repeated - and I've still done a crap job of explaining WHY exactly it just felt so great. Hey, I dont even understand that myself. All I know is that I keep repeating the memory in my head and going over it and over it, whenever I feel like slipping back into the bummers. It also gave me the inspiration to suck it up and put my best food forward for the rest of the winter. It's freezing f*cking cold, dark as hell all the time, but there's stuff to get happy about. Like our trip to Zimbabwe in a week's time. And the big USA Holiday in September/October. But until then, I'll just use this "last friday memory" to keep me going.
I don't know why it's been so hard to identify meaningful things in my life over the last month. Probably because I have not been in the most optimistic, positive frame of mind. No reason in particular, I like to think of it as just a brief trough in the sine curve of life. The blues. No outlet, no laughter therapy, no real inspiration or motivation to give a rat's ass. In these circumstances, you don't see the meaningful, because you've just got your damn eyes closed. Trust me, I'm now even MORE certain that happiness is a decision that you have to make and then push through the brick wall in order to get out of your rut. Ain't nobody else gonna fix your ass for you, and you're lucky if you even have anyone try and give you a hand to help you out.
However, I let myself wallow and now it's time to pull the socks up and get back on the horse and stop living like a Scandinavian... although the iceberg temps we've got going on here in G-city the last couple weeks don't help that. Friday was a real eye-opener, a real reality check in terms of defining meaningful and appreciating it. It kinda went like this:
So The Mr. and I haven't had a lot of time alone recently, what with No. 1 Babysitting Team Doc & Mrs Doc being permanently removed from our lives (still in mourning, probably one of the major bummers at play in all this). Jac & Mar are still ready and always willing to sit on the choddler whenever we ask, but I just hate exploiting their services too much, especially since I always have this guilty complex of reciprocity and sometimes I feel the payback more than I enjoy the service!
But nevermind that, the fact is, we had the day off LAST Friday (SSK holiday) and used it to take them up on their permanent-standing offer. Dumped LJJ at their place in the late morning, and took the motorcycles out for a beautiful ride. The winter is cold, but that time of day it's warm enough that you're not physically shaking by the time you've ridden 3 miles. So we motored on over to the new mall in town (woo hoo!! 10 shops!! 1 restaurant!) and did a lovely, leisurely Chinese lunch at the one restaurant. It was freakin' blissful, that's all I can think to say about it. I really miss spending time with him, especially since work has been so busy and a lot of free time has turned into work time over the past couple months. It's like, work work work and then collapse in a coma at home and wake up and do it all over again.
After lunch we strolled through the new grocery store there and rode back home. So bloody boring and simplistic, but totally worth it. Probably the best day I've had in 4 months. And totally meaningful. I don't know if it was the subconscious symbolism of the fact it was a weekday and we were totally work-free and unshackled to anything, or if it was just that we really enjoyed each other's company without anyone else around (usually if we're MINUS LJJ, that means we're PLUS other friends - not just alone). Throwing the motorcycle riding in was also euphoric, as I'm still enjoying that more and more and can't get enough. But riding together is also sensational. I just want to do it more and more and more and more. Addictive, indeed.
Anyway, I don't know if it'll ever happen again or if it was just the perfect day which can never be repeated - and I've still done a crap job of explaining WHY exactly it just felt so great. Hey, I dont even understand that myself. All I know is that I keep repeating the memory in my head and going over it and over it, whenever I feel like slipping back into the bummers. It also gave me the inspiration to suck it up and put my best food forward for the rest of the winter. It's freezing f*cking cold, dark as hell all the time, but there's stuff to get happy about. Like our trip to Zimbabwe in a week's time. And the big USA Holiday in September/October. But until then, I'll just use this "last friday memory" to keep me going.
Labels: Meaningful
so this scene means a lot. The Mr. is working hard and learning fast, now that he's started "real" lessons with Cedric. He gets so frustrated though... I continually have to talk him down from the "I wanna quit" ladder. Truth is, he's just so brilliant and confident in everything he does that he's not used to NOT being perfect at something, like, NOW. IMMEDIAMENTE! So learning music for the first time is hard yakka for him and he gets flustered.
but I'm really proud of his efforts & I hope he keeps it up. he's got the kind of pitbull mentality and Dutch work etic that means he can be really good if he just keeps going.
but I'm really proud of his efforts & I hope he keeps it up. he's got the kind of pitbull mentality and Dutch work etic that means he can be really good if he just keeps going.
Labels: Meaningful
I keep mobile blogging and it keeps *not showing* !!!!
bitches!!!!
bitches!!!!
