Newer isn't always better.

This is my post office. Awesome, huh? I'm not a big fan of change, can't stand it in fact. I usually don't think that newer is better - every time "they" update my email or Facebook I mourn the old version. That's how I feel about my post office. This precious little building is actually a genuine, real-deal general store. It's in the town of McNeil Texas, population zero. The only thing in McNeil is this building and a plant where they excavate white lime. The store primarily serves the employees of the white lime plant. The employees even carry lines of credit! I'm telling you, it's the real-deal. The post office is just a tiny corner of the store with just one post-person. It even has the old brass post office boxes. The one employee loves her job there so we are never met with the surly post office employee, but a cheerful face who knows our names, asks about the family, the whole nine. It's like Cheers in a post office. "They" recently threatened to close the place down but after an uproar from the patrons of this little throw-back the word on the street is we get to keep our little gem. Whew! A brand-spankin'-new post office might do me in!

calgon take me away...

...to this brownstone on West 11th. Is that too specific? When Tom and I do our unrealistic dreaming of owning a place in the city it is always, always in the West Village. And truthfully I am even more picky than that, I want to be between 8th and Greenwich Ave. and between Horatio and Perry. It's a tiny pocket but I loooooove it so much. Anyway, I saw this place on our last trip so when I dream this is what I see in my imagination. Isn't it the cutest!?!? I guess it's not a typical brownstone with the wide steps up the front, but it'll do in a pinch!

randomness

The last couple of weeks have been off. I had a mean case of the flu which always messes me up for a good long while. I am a dreadful sick person. I am whiney and needy - I know, two qualities everyone loves! But this particular flu came with an extra helping of emotional ickies. There is the typical flu with the sore throat, head, body aches, nausea - but I swear this strain was accompanied by a heaping dose of depression. I would think it was just me but I had two friends that experienced the same thing! Weird, I know. But major bleck!

So, I have gotten behind on everything, blogging being fairly low on my urgency list. But at the same time I am missing it so I have a quick list of topics that have been running through my head that may or may not become full fledged posts in the near future...probably mostly NOT since they were conceived by a bogged down flu brain.

• how do you begin to catch up on 430 emails?
• the flu sucks.
• how do my dogs know when I am sick and there fore wake up a half hour early?
• my husband deserves a medal for putting up with me

On a completely unrelated note, go see The King's Speech. Tom and I went on my first day of beginning to feel normal again and it was soooooooo good! Go see it.

oh, and the photo has nothing to do with this post. It's just that my dogs are adorable and I can't help it.

That's all.

I have arrived!

It's official, I received my first really negative comment on my blog. My first instinct was to delete it. But then I thought, you know, I put it out there, I post personal stuff and people are bound to have their opinions. I can't really get mad about it and if I do maybe I shouldn't have this blog. Sometimes I read negative comments on other people's blogs and think "wow, that person was ballsy to say that", but think it goes with the territory of having a blog. But, with that said, just because I have a blog, just because anyone has a blog, does that give people the right to be super judgmental based on a relatively small amount of information?

So here's the comment in response to my post "home again home again":

OMG - you treated yourself to a vacation and left all those poor dogs at home to fend for themselves with your "assistant" only dropping in instead of having someone live with the dogs. How could you leave the Great Dane that is recovering from cancer. Shameful. I'm glad there are good dog owners around who care enough about their pets to sacrifice vacations to spend with their pets. Wow. I cried when I read about him on the floor unable to get up. He must have been so scared until he was found.

It kind of bugs me that I want to defend myself. I wish I was the type who could blow it off, think "this person doesn't know me", but I can't. So here goes. Yes, we went out of town and stayed with a friend's dog while she was on vacation. What I didn't put in my blog was how much I agonized over leaving, should we go, should we not. Will Preacher be okay? Is he too old for us to travel? I AGONIZED! In order to be okay with leaving town I had to have a plan. I knew by being in New York I had access to a flight home at nearly any time of day. That was comforting. I didn't hire a pet sitter who would come in for 30 minutes three times a day...it had to be people who the dogs know and are familiar with. There was a strict schedule of people in and out of the house, morning, noon, and night, so the dogs would not have to be alone for more that three hours at a time. I didn't mention all of this because truthfully, most people think I am nuts about how overboard I go with my dogs. But since it did come up, did you know...

that I call my vet to personally let him know that we are out of town and to make sure they have alternate phone numbers for emergencies?
that my parents live a little over a mile from me and come over several times a day?
that my mom came over and stayed for hours on her days off and worked in my studio so the dogs could hang out like any normal day?
that Brittany (my assistant) sat in the middle of the bed with the dogs while doing her homework and watching the Food Network in between her classes each day?
that my mom and dad watched American Idol with the dogs while having a a glass of wine?
that my dad made videos of the dogs cuddled up in my mom's lap and videos of Preacher walking around the house?
that I have my vet's personal cell phone number and I called him from New York to make sure everything was being done for Preacher?
that I had two extra people on call in case anything went wrong?
that I have a notebook with a photo of each dog, where they eat, sleep, their likes, dislikes, medications, nick names, etc?

I don't put all of that stuff in my blog because it's boring, it makes for the longest blog post ever, and it makes me sound like a nut!

I said the dogs had a rough week, I did say that. And I suppose it was rough compared to me being at home with them everyday, but they by no means were deprived or left to fend for themselves.

The fact that Preacher fell while we were gone was awful. Tom and I were sick with worry and both cried, stressed, vacillated between leaving and staying from minute to minute. As I type this I am more annoyed with myself than when I started. I shouldn't let this get to me. I think the only reason that it does is because my dogs are my life. You could insult just about anything about me, but insinuating that I am a bad dog parent is something I can't brush off.

I guess my point is this, think before you write. Do you really know enough about someone from a blog post to judge them?

Sold as a pair.

Seriously, sometimes I am so clever!