Returning…

Look for me again where once you found me.

Grooming Ani

Every two months or so, I take Anakin to the groomer. He’s a shih-tzu, which means his hair can get out of control if he’s not taken care of properly. Generally, by the time I get him to the groomer he’s already looking like a mop and infiltrated with tangles because he won’t let me get near him with a brush. So, I take him to the groomer and get him a nice little “teddy bear” cut, pay the $25 and take him home. The teddy bear cut is longer hair on his head and his tail, shaved close everywhere else. It’s really not that complicated.

About 6 months ago, our regular groomer, to whom I had been taking Anakin for two years, moved away. Not only did he move away, he did so without telling us! I was not happy. Ani is my baby, he’s my child (so to speak) and I can’t just take him to any old person. Chris (the former groomer) was always awesome with Ani and Ani loved him! I always trusted Chris to be good with Anakin and take good care of him for the hour or so he had him every 6-8 weeks. When Chris moved away, sadly, I was forced to take my baby to a groomer I didn’t know. She worked for the vet, as Chris had, so I trusted her and she did a good job. Then, the next time I called to make an appointment the vet told me they were no longer doing grooming! What?!

We live in a relative small town, but everyone has animals. I looked around for another groomer and ended up taking him to a place in town called Polished Pets. The first time I took him to this woman everything was fine. I didn’t care for the way she handled him, she took him from me and put him in a kennel. She handled him a little roughly, but overall she did a good job. I didn’t particularly like her overall manner with people, but you don’t have to be good with people to be good with dogs. I’m not good with people and I adore Anakin!

Yesterday, I took him back to this woman at Polished Pets and this time she had an assistant. The woman was equally bad with people, she all but ripped Anakin from my arms and stuffed him roughly into a kennel. I should have known right then that it wasn’t going to go well. They told me to come back at 1pm that he’d be done. Hubby and I did some running around, had lunch, and got around to get him about 1:30pm. When we got there, we had several issues.

First, the woman tried to give me the wrong damn dog! Can you believe that. She had a brown and white shih-tzu FEMALE in a kennel in the corner, looking very cute, and she tried to tell me that that little dog was Anakin! No, the dog she was working with when we got there was Anakin. Ani looked excited to see us, wagging his tail and fidgeting around, and his collar was laying on the table next to where she was standing. She still tried to tell me the other dog was Anakin as if I wouldn’t know my own dog! She even tried to argue with me telling me that Ani was some other dog. WTF?! First, Anakin is a boy and the dog in the kennel in the corner was very obviously a female. Second, the dog in the kennel was about five pounds lighter than Anakin! No, no, NO! I finally got it through her head that the dog she was working on was MY dog. I cannot believe I paid this woman $25 and then she tried to give me the wrong freaking dog.

Second problem, she gave him the wrong cut. He’s cut short all over, which I expressly told her NOT to do. The dog in the kennel in the corner had the cut Ani was supposed to have. She got the mixed up and butchered my babies hair. How hard is it to keep them straight? Clearly, for her, very hard.

Third, Anakin has a cut on his head and a razor burn on his leg. She cut his hair too short and cut his head!! I am incensed. The woman has to be the most unprofessional groomer in ten counties. She hurt him and that hurts me.

All in all, this has been a bad week for my little guy. How could she think I wouldn’t know my baby? How could she not be more careful with the scissors? How could she, after screwing it up, look me in my face and say, “I’ll be $25.” I paid and left, but I was NOT happy. Now, I wish I hadn’t paid her at all. I mean, if I’d gotten a bad haircut I’d probably have been less than apt to pay for it, so why pay for Ani’s when she screwed it up AND hurt him?!

I am going to be looking for a new groomer. Sadly, there aren’t many choices here. 15k people doesn’t make for a ton of business for groomers. Some of the vets might have groomers, but none that I’ve called previously. I’m going to call my vet back and tell them about the unpleasant experience I had with Polished Pets so that they won’t recommend that atrocious woman to any other pet owners. I’m also going to see if my vet has a groomer yet. If I can’t find one in town, I may take him to one of the little towns around here, like Hico or Dublin. I cannot have a my baby going to a groomer that doesn’t treat him well.

I have to go… time for class. Hope everyone is having a better week than I am so far.

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!!  Independence day has to be one of my favorite holidays because of what it signifies.  I really think many of us take for granted our freedoms and hard work and bloodshed to secure them.  So, for me today, it’s a day to remember the revolutionaries and their vision.

My favorite part of the 4th, however, happens after dark.  I love the fireworks display!  My family used to go see the fireworks every year when we were growing up.  They were okay displays, enough to satisfy my youthful curiosity with a wonderment I have never forgotten.  When I moved to Texas, in 1999, one of the first things hubby and I really did together that I recall with perfect clarity was to go to Cameron Park Suspension Bridge in downtown, Waco and see the fireworks display –I moved to Waco in late June.  Cameron park is a fantastic setting, the bridge suspended over the Bosque river.  People on their boats line the river, there are vendors with all sorts of goodies and snacks, with hundreds of people sprawled out in every direction, vying for squares of green, green grass beside at the river’s side.  The bridge is actually my favorite place in Waco and on the fourth, when it’s crawling with people, it actually sways.  We found ourselves a pretty stretch of lawn around about dusk and waited, watching the people.  A local band, playing on the other bank, they were playing “Back in the USSR” by the Beatles, which made me laugh just a little at how inappropriate the song seemed to be.  Yet there were people bobbing their heads to the tune and eating their sno cones in the dying days heat.

When it grew dark enough, and there was a subtle summer breeze, the fireworks began.  The spectacular colors reflected in the green water of the Bosque and I remember being so awed.  I was speechless and in awe, the colorful blasts of light went on for what seemed like forever, the breeze blowing the smoke from the fireworks away, leaving only the colors in the clear black sky.  The fireworks display there in Waco is spectacular.  It beat any fireworks display I had ever seen, except perhaps for the one at the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, in Anahiem, CA.  Disney knows how to put on a show.  We went and saw the fireworks in Waco nearly every year during the five years I lived there.  There are days when I truly miss Waco.

When we moved to S’vill, I remember being disappointed that we’d no longer be able to make it out to Waco for the summer holiday.  No more ambient glow reflected in the pooling green river.  No more Beetles music, no more sno cones, no more suspension bridge.  We went to the park here in town, half-heartedly, missing Waco.  We were pleasantly surprised.  While the show here in town has no river to reflect upon, it’s the biggest fireworks display in our county and for several counties around us.  People come from all the little communities around S’vill to see the town’s fireworks show, which is actually quite good.  It’s not as quaint and disappointing as I thought it would be.  They really do a very good job!  For the last two years, however, for reasons beyond my control, we’ve not made it to the fireworks.  It only happens once a year and when we don’t make it, I always feel a little cheated.  This year, we’re going to the fireworks come hell or high water!

For me, the fireworks displays are more than just a showing of spectacular sparkling light.  They’re a reminder of revolutionaries and their struggle.  They’re a reminder to me of the story of the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.  He was so inspired when the smoke cleared and by dawns early light he could see the American Flag flying triumphantly over the fort that he pened a poem that became an intergral part of American history.  We had won the day and Key, a lawyer and amiture poet, commemorated the battle in the words of what became our national Anthem.  “The Star-Spangled Banner” was originally named “The Defense of Fort McHenry.”  The flag that flew that morning, in the early day, over the fort has come to be known as The Star-Spangled Banner Flag and is the prize possession of the Smithsonian Institute and on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C..  Some day, it’s my goal to go to Washington D.C. for the July 4th festivities and see The Star-Spangled Banner Flag in person.

To all of you, wherever you may be, Happy 4th of July.  Happy Independence Day!!

Enacting change

As I mentioned before, I’m attempting a lifestyle change!  Today is the 3rd day of my “diet” and I feel really good today.  The past two days have been more difficult, I’ve been very tired and headachy.  Today, I feel energetic for the first time since I began eating three meals and two snacks a day, drinking more water, getting more sleep, and going walking!  Today I’m fantastic!  I think the endorphins from the exercise are finally starting to feel like they belong in my brain, rather than like they’re intruders from outer space here to destroy me from the inside out.

So far, I’ve lost one pound, which doesn’t sound like much, but is a LOT to me!!  Dieting has never, ever been my thing.  Losing weight is not easy for me, I have no willpower and a very short memory.  In other words, I forget quite quickly why I wanted to do it to begin with.  Then, I proceed to step two, convincing myself and others that I, in fact, actually like how I look.  After that, it’s all down hill.  So, to have lost one pound, while nearly insignificant in the bigger picture, is a huge step forward in motivating me.  I am so thrilled!

All this lifestyle changing has kept me really busy the last few days, but I’ve been sleeping okay.  The first few days, though, I couldn’t sleep.  I laid down at 11:30pm and couldn’t fall asleep.  Then, when I did sleep, it was terribly uncomfortable, difficult sleep.  Last night, however, I slept really well and I didn’t go back to sleep –even though I wanted to– when my alarm went off this morning!  Yay for me!

I did have one very difficult day on Tuesday, when I was grocery shopping, which I will tell you about later.  It was so difficult for me, I need a whole entry to set the scene. lol.  But, I’ve gotten past temptation so far, one second, one minute, one hour at a time.  Go me!

My first goal is 14 lbs.  One down, 13 to go!!

Enabled

I wonder if it’s possible to be a self-enabler?  If so, that’s me.  I could talk myself into, and out of, any problem or want I could have.  Want a Snicker bar or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s?  Okay, no problem, it’s just one little sweet treat.  Don’t want to clean the house?  I can always do it tomorrow.  Ha.  I’m the worst.  I self soothe, I convince myself it’s okay, I promise myself tomorrow will be different.  Tomorrow is never different.  I’ve always been like this.

It occurred to me earlier, though, that my husband is, too.  He’s an enabler.  If I want a candy bar or a burger, all I have to do is say so and he’s more than happy to get me two.  If I want something, anything, he’s there to give it to me.  I used to smoke.  Not much, but I did, and then I quit.  Cold turkey, I just stopped doing it because I didn’t want to anymore.  Still, every time we go to the tobacco store here in town, he asks me if I want anything.  I know it’s at least partially his desire to see me happy.  If he could get me something, anything, no matter how small, he will.  It’s always been like that with us, but to some degree it’s unhealthy, too.

If I enable my naughtier habits, like chocolate, and so does he, who’s left to say that it might not be a great idea?  The answer, of course, is no one.  The problem is, he can’t say no, or tell me not to, out of fear that it might be taken wrong.  When I was much, much lighter than I am now, my ex told me that I needed to see a doctor or get counseling for my weight.  That really hurt. Yes, I was a little overweight, but not so severely that he should say something so mean.  It wasn’t a good approach, he called me fat without coming out and saying, “You’re fat.”  He was mean, Hubby’s not.  He can’t do that, he loves me the way I am, and it keeps him from helping me resist the urge to have what I want, when I want it.

He loves me the way I am.  God, all this talk about Snickers and I want one.  Someone save me from myself.