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Puppuccinos
I have become quite the crazy dog person. Half my life I only liked cats and then after we had Holly I became a hardcore dog person. Maybe even too much so. I don’t let them eat off my plate or share my toothbrush or anything but I have been known to make quite a fool of myself talking and playing with my dogs. Saying they love me would be an understatement. They have become unhealthily attached to me and whine obnoxiously when I am gone. I love it. Payam hates it.
So this week my mom has come to visit. My dad is out of town on a job and I am taking care of my mom by keeping her on her diet while he is gone. Mom’s do 100% better on their diets when someone else cooks for them. You should try it. :P
With her came Spreckles! So I had three dogs to walk this morning. No problem! Bring it on, I say! It’s not like we haven’t been here before. Spreckles can be a prickly dog and has been known to bite (Ugh. I know.) but when she is with me and my dogs, she acts like just another pack member and is no problem.
Today I took all the dogs to Starbucks with me for Puppuccinos. Do you know what a Puppuccinos is? Check it, one two.
We have a new Starbucks in our neighborhood that is smack in the middle of my new-and-improved dog walking route. I don’t go to the fake lake anymore because there are just tooooo many people walking around it. I hated confronting people before the pandemic but now I hate it even more with the new mask-wearing social distancing rituals. This new route is on a busy road and it seems most dog walkers prefer a more scenic route. Road noises are not a problem for me because I put headphones in and listen to podcasts anyway.
The perk to this new walk is the new Starbucks. I wasn’t really a fan of Starbucks, preferring my own brew at home, BUT it can be enticing when you walk by it every day. I don’t go every day of course but about twice a week we pop in for a tall latte for me and Puppuccinos for the dogs. It took about two visits before the dogs learned that Starbucks is super fun and wonderful and we should go there all the time. Whisky is the worst. He pulls me like he’s pulling a 100 pound sled as soon as we get within eyesight. It’s kind of hilarious.
My dogs love Starbucks. I might miss taking lake photos but silly dogs lapping up whipped cream out of little paper cups is pretty fun too.
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Our stories.
I really don’t have anything to say today, not that that has ever stopped me from rambling… I’m good at filling up space. I’m good at small talk too. Who says that? Everyone usually says they hate small talk. I just think of it as using small talk to get to big talk. I never use small talk as a shield or fakery. I love being a journalist and I just start asking questions and before I know it there’s a story! Everyone has a story. Even me. Duh. Of course I have a story.I have a few big stories.
My first big story is that trip I went on with my family and my aunt’s family when I was sixteen and we drove across the country in a rented a 32-food RV called The Executive, which we soon renamed “The Execute,” and we broke down in every state. I’ve probably talked about that before. That was a big deal. It was traumatic. I think I might write a whole memoir about that trip someday.
Then there’s the fornication story and how I left my conservative religious background to be excommunicated twice over until I wised up and decided it just wasn’t for me anymore. I’m still living out that story. It’s a hard one.
Then there’s my divorce story and fleeing to the sticks in a rented U-haul truck, just me and Bug. That was a crazy Thelma and Louise story. And then the traumatic two years after that, living in poverty in a broken down mobile home that I loved so much. Oh, remember that huge backyard and the tomatoes? That was so awesome and yet so scary most of the time because I was so afraid of my neighbors. It taught me so much about poverty. But I escaped and I am so much stronger for it. Sometimes Bug and I talk about those years and I treasure our memories that only we two have.
Then of course there is my love story with Payam. That will always go down in my book as the summer sleeper hit that is still unfolding to this day.
Ho hum. I don’t really want to expand on those stories today. Someday.
Don’t you wish we could go on a long long walk and I could listen to your stories? Can you sum up one of your stories in three sentences in the comments? I know that’s a challenge. I’m curious though!
