Holiday Card 2010

Joy Peace Love Holiday

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The Blue Hair Special

Lately, I've been on a quest to get Lucky to sleep in. I'm off for the summer, and wouldn't mind sleeping past 6 a.m. My husband, aka The Saint, is gracious enough to take her out at 6 a.m. before he heads to work, and I do the longer walk when I wake up. Today, we made it until 7:09 a.m. a small victory. We had breakfast with Matt Lauer and then ventured out for the morning walk. Somehow our timing was impeccable - although unplanned.

On our typical walks, she gets an average of 7 "cute dog" compliments. Not today. Nope, today was a different kind of morning. We broached them from afar. They were lined up with their walkers, canes, and shopping baskets. Each woman vying for a coveted spot in line. They were decked out in t-shirts covered in cats batting at balls of yarn, and orthopedics. Their permanents were prepped for this special trip. The "shoppers special" bus was chugging toward them as the ladies of the senior living building down our street gripped their walkers ready to elbow anyone who budged out of line.

I did my best. I could see it coming, yet nothing could have prepared our 4 month old puppy for the excitement that was to come. I tried to slow her down stopping to examine rose bushes and blooming irises. Nope. No good. She had also spied this blue hair special and knew exactly what it meant: love and adoration.

This line of lovely ladies was easily 15 deep, and took more than 15 minutes to load onto the bus. They cooed. They ogled. They loved. Lucky just sat and watched the bus pull away, and I knew her life would never be the same. She had fallen for the blue hairs.

Lucky + Little Lady = Love

Lucky met her first midget and LOVED her. Let me set the scene for you. It was a warm June day. June 3, 2010 to be exact. We were exiting the park, due to overstimulation, and as we were taking some back roads home, we saw her from afar. I knew this could only mean one thing: trouble! Lucky loves to jump. It's one of her less refined habits, but one we're aware of and working on. Thoughts rushed through my head of her toppling this fine woman down. She had met our three year old niece...same thing right? Wrong!

Lucky's adrenaline kicked in as we approached her. My fist tightened around the leash knowing this had some unknown potential for trouble. She dug in her feet and bounded toward this woman. Lucky lunged forward. The woman who was walking a mere four feet in front of us had no idea what was coming. She carried a small (of course!) bag of groceries, and Lucky could sniff out something delicious. While the woman had no idea that I was pulling and tugging Lucky away from her groceries...or so I thought. Maybe little people have good intuition. Maybe my dog's not that subtle. Regardless, the woman whipped around, right as Lucky was jumping up to grab her groceries. For this brief moment of potential chaos the stars aligned. Her hands wrapped around Lucky's little body and Lucky's tail wagged with joy.

As brief as they met, they parted ways, but it was a moment that will go down in the record books. Lucky's loves little people!

Lucky Does Techno

No, we didn't take her to a rave -- although Maizy the 8 week old Westie in training class "dances" on command -- but techno-logy! In fact, her love of techno has grown so much that we've had to remove all remote controls, phones, and electrical cords from her sight. I'll never forget our first night together. She had never been away from her litter mates, and the idea of being alone in a crate at night was too much (for me) to bear. Stupidly, we let her just lay down on a blanket beside the bed. I awoke to her at 3 a.m. chewing my laptop cord -- which was plugged into the wall at the time!

Well, Lucky has officially Skyped with two of our favorite long distance family members. Skyped, may be a loose term, as she really imitated a rag doll during most of our skyping. My sister "Aunt M" sent me a text that Lucky was dying to meet her so we made it happen! Low and behold, Lucky loves techno. She was basically begging us to let her on the computer again when we set a second Skype date with "Grandma S." There was no question in my mind that Lucky would love her, everyone loves Grandma S!

Two more family members are officially Lucky's friends. As if there was ever a doubt that it wouldn't be love at first sight! Thank goodness for Skype and Lucky's techno abilities. If you haven't tried it, Lucky would be happy to show you how. Or if you need a dog to show you how....

Lucky's First Hipster: Friend or Foe?

Lucky has had a lot of "firsts." Today she met her first hipster. This hipster happens to be a neighbor. About a year ago we first noticed that this "artist" has some unusual habits.

Although, I'm rarely irked, he irked me with his workout routine in our gym. He fakes it! He has a totally fake workout routine. Now, it may be obvious from his physique - lacking any muscular strength - but he faked it quite well in the gym! First, he pretends to run on the treadmill. He runs for about 30 seconds. Then, he acts winded and stretches, does a few (three tops) pushups, and waunders around the gym talking to friends. Put this routine on repeat and you have a fake 20 minute workout.

While his workout routine bothered me, I decided not to judge him solely on this. How shallow! Yet, the more I saw him out and about, the more I realized that this Audi driving dude does not work! (Fake gasp!) A true hipster, he must be living off a trust fund. His condo is in his parents' names and he occassionally shows up with paint splotches on him. Needless to say he's not familiar with an honest days work.

What does all of this have to do with Lucky? Well, despite living in a young neighborhood, she had never met a hipster...until today. Today, she saw him boarding his one-speed, wearing skinny jeans, and shaggy hair flowing in the wind, apparently she thought they had something in common. Maybe they do!

• Sleeping the days away? Check. 
• Mooching off someone else for food and shelter? Check.
• Both owners of "The Hipster Handbook"? Just kidding...Lucky doesn't need a book to tell her what's cool.

Well, all in all, Lucky decided that this hipster was a friend. While her "parents" may disagree, she once again does not discriminate against counterculture figures. 

What in the world...

You may be wondering who in the world has time to chronicle all of the friends her dog meets. I know, I thought it was an unusual question as well, but it is apparently on the minds of my friends and family. As a full-time teacher and grad student, I have had little free time during the past eleven months. However, I have my first puppy and my first break from students...and clearly don't know what to do with this much free time.

Here are the cast of characters:

• Main Character: 
• Lucky - 4 month old Golden Retriever Mix
• Supporting Roles: 
• Me - M
• My husband - G (who has yet to discover the time I've devoted to this instead of dog training...whoops!)
• Lucky's friends - without whom this blog could not exist.

This idea spawned on one of our LONG walks. I mean LONG in all caps because we have to stop on every block so our dog can stare up adoringly at strangers. She does this in hope that they will stop and pet her, which they unassumingly do. I've seen her stare down strangers from a block away. She stops. She sits. She starts wagging her tail. Then she waits. And waits. And waits. Meanwhile, I tug and grit my teeth and wonder how we will play this game when she's three times the size. UGH. 

All throughout these walks though we meet some of the most fabulous people in our neighborhood. Owning a dog is apparently like joining a social club that until recently I unaware of. Cars stop to say hi. Small children unknowingly submit their fingers to her licks. Adults try to guess what breed she is and make cute comments like, "Are you walking her or is she walking you?" Endearing, yes?