There was a lot of sickness around my house last week. Both Bella and I had versions of a sinus infection which left us both very sick and feverish. Maybe you haven't met Bella. She's my black lab/border collie mix and she's the smartest most faithful dog in the world.
Bella is a quiet leader among my two dogs, always in charge and never saying a word. She's never been sick and she was really sick. Then there's Benjie.
Benjie decided to be nursemaid to both of us. When I got better he took care of Bella. He sat with her, he cleaned her face, he guarded her, and then.....he fell in love with her.
On the day I was sick with a 102 fever all day and sleeping, Benjie laid by my bed all day and barked if anyone came near me. Wow I thought he's such a good nurse.
The next day she did the same thing with Bella. Wow I thought this dog is really meant to be a nurse. He could be a rescue dog. He's so special. At that moment, my special little, child like, happy-go-lucky, I love you mommy puppy turned into well.......Hugh Hefner? Except his only love was Bella and at that point she was a magnet and getting to her was Benjie's obsession.
And there was nothing that was going to stand between him and a very sick Bella. We tried everything-spraying him with a water bottle when he barked, cried, or approached Bella. The result? A very wet and very angry Benjie.
Next I thought I had a great idea-I put Benjie on a leash! Doesn't that sound great? Yeah he chewed through that in about 30 seconds.
Next we tries separate rooms. This resulted in barking, scratching, crying, barking, growling, and biting-yes I'll admit I bite back.
Gone was my cute little dog replaced by this beast. At this moment if someone had offered me 25 dollars for Benjie, I would have paid them to take him. There were a few times I was sure Benjie was going to show up on one of those Sara McLaughlin commercials. I prayed to St. Francis to protect him from us.
Finally I told the Vet please neuter my dog before I do it myself....Well that's a story for another day....
In the meantime Bella started to get stronger and Benjie started to get calmer and then once in a while he would bring me a baby to play fetch with and I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Tonight as I write this Benjie is recovering from his 'procedure' and Bella is comfortably resting without someone sniffing her butt, or ear. (for reason's you'll learn another time-this process was confusing to Benjie-)
My idea of dog love was something like Lady and the Tramp, eating spaghetti and falling in love-this was more like The Wild Ones.
Recently I decided to stop watching news. No local news, no CNN, no Fox-just 10 minutes of Good Morning America a day. Nope couldn't take it. But that's a story for another day.
So I've taken to watching a lot of ESPN. I've always loved sports and sports news is a lot like reality TV with the drama of a soap opera. That's how I begin my day.
Recently there's been a lot of talk about the NFL draft. I'm not a big huge fan of college sports-I have very strong feelings about them I'll also save for another time. ESPN (What does that stand for anyway?) has been talking about them for months. I'd heard about Andrew Luck, I like his name, that he'd be wearing a horse shoe and that he was from Stanford because that means he's smart. He's a future quaterback star for sure.
But then they kept talking about someone else. I had never seen him, I didn't know what college he went to, what team he was going to , nothing, all I knew was he had the coolest name I had ever heard.
His name is RGIII. This got me to thinking-this is what I need-a cool nickname! When your initials are TP-well that won't work. While wine tasting this weekend after commenting that red wine left me with a fuzzy mouth-I was named fuzzy mouth.
None of those really work. PDiddy, Jlo, RGIII, what will mine be? I'm on the never ending look out for a great nickname. And no-commoner isn't a nickname it's a social position.
I'm the member of my family who waltzes in and out like those characters on the soap operas. You know, they live somewhere else and fly in for weddings, funerals, and sweeps week.
It was on one of these trips last August that I found out my cousin Pat had run the NYC marathon not once but like 4 times. I didn't even know my cousin Pat who is a retired NYC fireman with a stint in his heart was a runner! How did I miss that? He was so positive about the experience that before I left for the Cali I was convinced to enter the lottery to run the marathon a year from November-despite the factor I'd never really run over 5 miles.
So I went home and started on a serious running schedule, bought all the gadgets you've read about in previous blogs, and scheduled some 10ks. Entered the lottery in January and waited until this week.
I've done a lot in New York, I've lived in New York, I've raced my bike all over New York, I was married in New York, Went to school there and gave birth to all my children there and I know one thing. There's no reason that I can think of why any sane person would want to run 26.2 miles through the 5 boroughs of the city-unless they of course , were being chased by someone trying to steal their purse.
If I should get into this marathon-it's going to be something. I'll have to run all the time, I'll have to eat a lot of healthy food I think, I 'm going to have bad feet. I'm going to be tired and hungry. Woo Hoo I can't wait I hope I get to do this! (do you hear my sarcasm?)
But here I am -a few days a way from finding out if I will be one of thousands of insane people running away from nothing on a fall day in New York. Wed. at 9AM I'll know and if I make it I'll be happy I did and if I didn't I'll be -disappointed and relieved.
But you know what? I really want to get in and I'm going to be so sad if I don't get in that I will be forced to buy something on QVC to make me feel better.
I'll keep you posted!
