This is a scene in the shoe store when the cowboys in my family were trying on tennis shoes.
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She is probably the closest thing to perfection when it comes to honesty. When she's happy to see me, me and everyone in a two-block radius knows it. She simply cannot contain herself. That's when she jumps her highest, barks her loudest, claws her hardest, wiggles her mostest.
When's the last time you and I allowed ourselves the freedom to be silly with excitement over seeing someone? Even someone you just saw 15 minutes ago. Even someone you know you'll see again in another, um, say, 15 minutes.
She knows when she's wrong and she tries to fix it as soon as possible. In her head, she knows when I say "bliven" (stay) she's supposed to stay until I release her. But sometimes her heart tells her differently and when she gets up to edge closer to me, she catches herself midstep and backs up to where she started. Or...she knows when I open the back of my car, she stays in it until I release her. Recently I opened it and she never stopped to think. Just went to jump down. Somewhere between the door opening and when her front paws hit the ground, she remembered. And tried to back herself back UP into the car but the force of gravity wouldn't let her. As soon as her back feet hit the ground, you've never seen a dog turn around and jump back IN a vehicle quicker.
When do I try to make a wrong right, as if it were my second nature? Or the knowledge that a hasty wrong act would bring displeasure/hurt to the people around me?
She loves unconditionally and that includes just about everyone she's ever met! She loves people. And you know it. When she meets people, she has a tendency to scare them to death. All they see is a wolf-looking 60 pound animal hurdling towards them. All she sees is another face to lick, a hand to pet her, a friend.
Are you and I blatantly passionate about people? Do people see us coming and brace themselves for our onslaught of love?
When I ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, she tells me. It cracks me up. Sometimes she really (really!) doesn't want to listen to me and when I ask her to sit or lay down or stay - she'll bark-argue with me the whole time she's carrying out her act. And it's this annoyed "I can't believe you just made me do that" bark.
How often do I pretend to like something I really hate just because I don't want to rock the boat? How often am I true to how I really feel about a situation? Oh yeah, and how often do I whine about the things I have to do? :)
There are a few things in this life she goes absolutely insane over: me, tennis balls, the opportunity to jump in a lake, riding in the car anywhere with me.
She reminds me all the time to enjoy (no, be absolutely crazy) over the simple things.
When she's tired, she carries her tennis ball to a shady spot and lays down. Then looks at me with her tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth.
I like to push myself to the point of exhaustion in every way possible. Maybe I just need to find the nearest shady spot and take a nap.
In all her honesty, she loves Micah, as evidenced by the picture above. You'd never know that mere minutes before I took that picture, the below video was shot:
See what I mean?
She's honest. I always know where I stand with her, whether she's having a good day or a bad day, whether she's happy or sad, angry or neutral, hungry, thirsty, bored, tired.
For all the things I've taught her, I'm glad for all the things she's taught me.
You guessed it. It's true. There are no working radio stations here. But that's okay because that means I'm home safely (no accidents, no tickets, no driving in the wrong direction) and that means I get to sleep in my own bed (JOY!)
I do miss my friends tonight, my community of family in a West Kentucky town that suits me.
I spent a portion of my trip home devising early retirement-to-there plans.
My eyes are intently watching where we were going and the control that indicated our altitude. While the pilot snapped the 'proof' pictures, I gave myself a headache (not really) trying to maintain our altitude of 6,500'. And not turn too violently to the left or the right.
6,400.
6,300.
6,200.
I think around the 6,100' mark I started panicking because I couldn't remember in which direction to manipulate the joystick to gain altitude. This would be a serious problem in my piloting skills - not remembering at critical times what I'm supposed to do.
"I don't remember how to get us back up," I said. Thankfully, he did.
Here's the runWay and you'll be glad to know that at this point, I was no longer in control.
Today there were a lot of factors leading up to my exploration.
1) I hadn't slept hardly at all the night before, which, you know, is a problem I have
2) I had a full tank of gas that was loudly calling my name
3) I needed miles of road to think and listen to music
4) I wanted to spend time with my dogs (call me crazy)
So I headed to a quaint West Texas town and a Prada "store" a friend told me about - CDs playing and the dogs riding in the back. And of course, thoughts racing.
Today I thought a lot about contrasts. I'm going to Kentucky unexpectedly this weekend to attend the funeral of one of my best friend's father-in-law. He died very suddenly of a heart attack yesterday. I will also be visiting and staying with my best friend who just had her first baby last week.
I will be celebrating life in two very different forms.
I drove through a lot of desert today and passed a lot of things traditional in the West Texas sand. Windmills, cows, fences, railroad tracks and ranch gates such as this one.