I am a mark!

Chris and I have been talking for a few months about adopting another dog while I'm at home until I go back to work "properly". It's the perfect time, since we're not really counting on another time in our lives when I'm not working a 40 per hour at week (at least). And goldens, while miraculous, wonderful dogs, are also bright, mischievous animals and require supervision for most of their lives, be it when they are puppies or when they're seniors.

I love my new non-corporate lifestyle, though it is starting to bore me sometimes during the day when I'm too restless to read and there's no tasks to do and I wander around the house, gravitating to the office to play Mafia Wars on Facebook.

Useless, I am. Just like Yoda would say.

So, with another golden, I will have my hands very full.

Our newest charge is coming tomorrow at 9AM, apparently. While officially we're "just" fostering, we'll be adopting her if she meshes with Dante. Dante is our first priority--we made a commitment to him about 5 years ago and we have to make sure he is OK with having a baby sister before we can officially adopt another golden retriever.




Ordinarily, the rescue organization restricts contact between adoptive and surrendering families, but they really trust this family. And this family really cares about where their dog gets placed, which tells me a lot of good things about the family. So tomorrow I will await to receive them, and keep my fingers crossed that my insane animal doesn't embarrass us.



Maybe while I disinfect his old kennel for her and pick up the yard tomorrow AM, my wonderful husband will walk Dante to wear him out? (Thank you Evan, for this idea!) Though, on his new vitamins, Dante is more energetic than ever.



Wow, 2 golden retrievers, if it works out. The testosterone/estrogen balance in the house will finally be balanced.

I am honestly a little stunned and nervous at the thought of another dog in our home.

To the left, this is a picture of one of Dante's "birthday" celebrations where he nabbed the cupcake from us--and you can see the crumbs flying.

We celebrate his birthday on the day we got him from GRRH, which is the day after my birthday, not-so-coincidentally.

Though--I did not buy the $600 Dyson Animal vacuum for nothing, after all. :)

I told Dante this may be his last day as an only child...stay tuned to see how this all works out and keep your fingers crossed for us!

Perks of being marginally employed.

First off...Let it be known that I take extreme offense at the people who call me "unemployed". I have agreed to be referred to as "marginally employed" in agreement with my friends still "left behind" at the company I left.

I am currently teaching group fitness classes (cycling, aerobics) at 3 different gyms at 6 different locations. Hardly unemployed. I left a high paying, easy, boring corporate job because it was sucking my soul out and made me so depressed that myself, my family, and my friends, quit recognizing me. I've always been cynical with a dark sense of humor, but this job honed that talent into scathing and unattractive sarcasm and disillusionment. So I quit. In a shit economy. And it was scary. But it was the right thing to do.

As to the perks...no, I don't sit on the couch eating bon-bons. (Admission--I did for the first week, substituting bon-bons for expensive cheeses and wine.) I have generated an even deeper bond with my golden retriever, Dante (read about his vacations here). We go for a drive every day and I've taught him new tricks. :)

I read almost obsessively, about a book every 2 days. I've tackled tasks that you can't get to when you're working full time, such as putting together honeymoon and wedding photo albums.

Honeymoon:

Wedding:

And while those sound trivial, when I was working non-marginally, those are those tasks that hang over your head. I cook more, and I clean a lot more (which, as a feminist, I hate to admit). But most importantly, the fog of depression and cynicism has lifted.

And I'm getting restless. I adore my free time, but I'm needing more, as I knew I would. I'm torn between re-entering the conventional workforce (cue retching sounds here) and going back to school. I adored university. I excelled. But my experience in research psychology was truly what booted me out of doing something like that. Research is crooked. And I don't know that I could be a clinical psychologist...your patients need you at all hours of the day. And I need boundaries. And student loans...I already pay $300 a month. Who needs more?

While I'm marginally employed, I want to use my time for charity. Caauses important to me include (other than saving beautiful golden retrievers' lives) include microfinance--where you loan very small amounts to people in third world countries to help their businesses. My wonderful mother in law turned me on to Kiva. I am a huge fan of public radio (jesus, that's cliche)--I love our local NPR affliate as well as the ultra-liberal Pacifica affiliate. They keep me company as I drive all over North Houston to teach aerobics classes. International women's rights is of huge importance to me as well.

Sometimes it occurs to me that myself and my husband are almost liberal cliches. Just read this site. Hits close to home.