McLinky!

i heard about this and am so excited. it's McLinky...just another way to find some great blogs!

My blog is just about my life....aptly titled "just me". i completely realize that things may not be as exciting as others on this page, and to be honest, they are not supposed to be. i don't make up things to write, but just do as they come to mind. i've met some of my best friends while doing this and look forward to making more. i'm 34, living in Colorado in a house, that i had built two years ago with my husband. we have fun, we have fun lives, although chaotic at times, but we always make sure that things are going well with us. i usually live by the glass half full motto, am fully into believing that my thoughts can overcome anything caused by my genetics. i'm half japanese, half irish, and for the most part, am used to people asking "what are you?" i think that stereotypes are there for a reason, i hate watermelon, and we have pet toads. that's about it

he WAS as good as i thought

you know how sometimes you think, "maybe i was just biased? they couldn't have been THAT awesome." I do that a lot. not with people that i have lost, but with my dog. i think i do it because i think that logically, it sounds silly that a dog was that cool.

i was in 7th grade, and was all icky and teenagery. o.k., it probably wasn't that bad, but it felt like it. i was having a great time, doing the stuff i always did for the summer, volleyball, playing with friends, just starting a new jr. high school. out of the blue, i was driving down Hwy 119 with my grandma in her cadillac (picture...little japanese woman that is likely looking through the steering wheel to see and she is starting to lecture me). she says, "you need a dog, you are an only child, you MUST be lonely (i wasn't) and i've decided you need a dog. I don't care what your parents think"

so there it was.

i went home to let my parents know the fate that had been dealt to us, because of course they couldn't say no....my grandma had made it o.k.

oh, minor detail...my mom being deathly allergic to dogs and all.

we found a breed that she could deal with, or at least not have her lungs swell up and go into convulsion at, and that was a shih tzu. i will admit, at the time, i didn't think about what KIND of dog i wanted....just that i wanted one.

we left to go look at 5 or 6 different breeders in the area...and their dogs. i did not know this, but my dad threatened my mom's life if she DARE make a peep about how cute they were because by GOD, we are "just lookign and not coming home with one of those things". of course, this many years later, i don't remember a thing about the first 5 places. but the 6th place was different. we got out of the car, started to the yard, and the lady opened the door and what seemed like 10 puppies, freshly bathed, came running out onto the lawn.

then, i remember my dad looking at my mom like, "DUH" and he said the three words that changed everything, "Write a check"

i named him cooper, it seemed like fate. i think i liked a guy with that last name in jr. high and i think when we were driving past a real estate sign on the way home, i think someone had that last name too. (sigh)

i thought he was so great....but even more so, my dad thought he was great. this dog got through my dad's hard exterior and made him outwardly show afffection to this ball of fur who, in his own cat-like ways, made you aware that you were loving him on HIS terms...not your own.

he was here for 17 years. when we had to put him down, i stayed in the room. when we were leaving the room afterwards, i didn't see, but my dad cut some of his fur off to keep. he joked that he was going to tie fly fishing flies with it, but he didn't...he kept it somewhere.

the other day, this man who had done work on the house through the years came over to work on the "newer" house that my parents have been in for a little while. i was thinking to myself, "i wonder if he misses cooper?" cooper followed him around the house relentlessly. he would have for sure gone home with him if given the chance. it was how we knew that people were good...he was a great judge of character.

he was painting the woodwork around the door and stopped, wiped his eyes...i was watching him out the corner of my eyes. he said, "man, i sure do miss him"

he didn't say who....he didn't need to.

i was just minding my own business....

i was on my bike inside on the trainer last night, flipping through from time to time and seeing what was on the tv. i had it on (two very worthy contenders) "America's got Talent" and "Clean House: the messiest home in America" See, it was even 4th of July, USA theme based. anyway,
i was flipping back and forth, because i thought that neither was so good that they would hold my attention for more than 2 minutes at a time.

i ended up seeing one of the more disturbing shows that i've seen last night. there was a woman and her daughter that were on the show of Clean House. the daughter had written in, basically saying in a nutshell that she had lived her whole life in a filthy, cluttered home and she was done living this way. she had, in fact, moved out of her home, only to have to move in a few years later, because she had "spent all her money"

Clean house came to the rescue, by claiming them the "messiest house in america" for the year and got to work. if you are unfamiliar with the show, they take a home, make a huge garage sale, then redo the home. at some point, they typically have a "moment" where it is realized that the reason why they "gave up" is because aunt prissy died and it made them just not care anymore about anything, so they decided (um, o.k.) to live in filth. no, all kidding aside, it usually does point out the psychology behind what they are doing, and hopefully get them to find other ways to deal with their problems (read: neurosis), so that they can break the cycle.

problem: this quite overweight woman didn't think she had one...a problem, that is. she continually refused to admit that the fact that she had no working water in her home, or that she had no visible wall space because things were piled so high, could possibly be out of the realm of what "normal" people do. She had over 200 jackets, most with tags on, that she said were all old. After many issues (the daughter stomping off and peeling out in a car when the host of the show was trying to talk to her, and then saying that she did nothing wrong), they actually made it to the reveal day, where they were showing them their "new" working house. It was nice...i mean, really nice. The cast spent $100,000 fixing the house, that was filled with rats, molding things from the washer flooding the space (the owner decided to let things sit in there til the water dried out...then left the items in the space).

the homeowner, during the reveal was moved almost to tears. it was amazing. but then she realized that some box with her purses was gone. she freaked....and left.

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i can't believe how entitled people are...

this is exciting

300th post

i was waiting and not posting anything on here til i had something exciting to say....but then i found myself waiting a lot and giving myself anxiety. just kidding.

i just decided that the 300 post is in and of itself....a pretty exciting deal. it actually is more than that, because i've been doing this for about 5 years now.

so, most of all, more than anything, i'm feeling most thankful that i've gotten to read and know about other people...

5 years ago, i never would have thought that meeting people and sharing stories with people that are even in other countries, was possible.

my life is not a constant source of excitement, but all in all, it's a pretty good life..i like it.

so happy 300th blog to my blog!

Best in Show

We went to a dog show today. if you have seen "Best in Show" the movie, i would have to say that in being incredibly funny and unbelievable, it is also...incredibly true. i always say that there are stereotypes and as hard as it is to handle, they are typically true to some extent. never have i been more convinced of this, as i am when i go to dog shows. this guy above is a baby bull terrier.

this dog was a smooth fox terrier. i don't know what the purple jacket indicated, but this guy won almost everytime he showed a dog

a horse...oh, i mean, an irish wolfhound. we were talking to an owner of one, when he wife came running up, screaming at him, telling him to get his show on the road and he didn't have TIME to talk to people that were not involved in the actual business of showing. yeah

chesapeake bay retriever

this guy was my favorite of the day. he wasn't a show dog...but look at that face. he is a "barkless" dog, a Basenji.

this one had nothing to do with the dog, but i had to take a picture of this lady behind my friend. she reminded me of "coffee talk" from SNL, she had her sunglass lenses flipped up on this shot. she was so cute.

some leftover california