Bad blogger

Yeah, it's been spotty lately and it's about to get dead for a while. On Wednesday Mom and I head to Ann Arbor, and I'm not taking a computer. It's at least felt like I've been busy lately—in the sense that I don't have much energy when the day is done. Kaline has been trying everyone's patience, especially over the weekend, probably because he doesn't get as much exercise as he's accustomed to (yes, my bad. Definitely my bad). Even when Juno and he wrestle, I still end up in trouble because Juno makes very loud wounded-bear sounds during the play. (Kaline is a very quiet player.) Also we've been watching a lot of baseball. Can't believe my two favorite teams are going to face each other in the Fall Classic!

The dogs are real quiet right now because they both have pressed rawhide. I got Juno to "start" Kaline's new one, then ended up finding his rawhide stub under the couch and gave that to Juno as an exchange. Normally she is the tidy one, and Kaline isn't, but HOLY CRAP, she is making ten times the mess with that thing that Kaline does. It's really quite disgusting, but at least no one is bothering anyone. Mom came home, saw the white gooey mess, and declared she was totally nauseated.

We had ton of rain this morning, which was very unpleasant. I hate rain more than any other kind of weather, and that includes snow. (And yes, I know about snow, I lived in Michigan for five years.) Kaline saw it from the doorway and gave me a look like, "You must be joking. I am not going out in that." He was wearing Juno's Cozy Horse coat, and when he protested about going out in the wet, he looked like a wee horse bucking and rearing. He stoutly refused to pee in his favorite spot across the street, standing there pathetically with his little hocks knocking together unhappily. I put them in the car un-emptied, and Kaline stood back there whimpering in the most gut-wrenching way.

When we got to our first walk, the only one that was truly wet and miserable, Kaline did fine. Maybe it was the addition of his friends Teddy and Bentley? Teddy, who like Kaline lacks a proper coat and shivers at the slightest provocation, was pretty much as unhappy as Kaline to be outside. But I guess anything is more tolerable if you've got buddies who are as bummed as you are. They did look cute—I have so many raincoats left over from Angel, my first dog, that I can outfit my entire pack. I even have a raincoat that fits Jett, the Swissie (barely).

So yeah, today was all walking and training. Kaline's fave new client is wee Lupo, a three-month-old Lagotto Romagnolo. Lupo is this little fluffy guy who looks like a brown and white teddy bear. Kaline holds back a bit, but they still play pretty rough-and-tumble.

I'll admit, I am excited but a little apprehensive about the Michigan trip. Mom is incredibly possessive about it, and has never let me bring Juno on said trip. So she has to be my service human, the whole time, and while she is a lot better at that than my dad is (sorry, Dad), she still sometimes doesn't get stuff, like why I am not going to wander the mall alone while she has her nails done. My anxiety goes through the roof just thinking about the things about which she'll say, "But why can't you ... ? But two years ago, you did ... so why not now?" I am going to feel totally incomplete without Juno. I went through that earlier this year, when she was temporarily retired, and boy did it suck. Being without her makes me feel like a baby, having to be so dependent on another person. I hate asking help from people; I love asking Juno.

But the good stuff: We get to spend two days, instead of one, at the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, which is basically my favorite thing in the world. I used to be super hot on the old-car-museum part, but now Greenfield Village is my love. I think about it ALL THE TIME. And we get to do Hallowe'en Nights there on Friday (please, please, no rain). My big fear there is not so much an anxiety or panic attack, because it's very spread out and not likely to be crowded, and everyone is super laid-back and nice. I'm worried I'll have a fibro flareup and might have to use one of those scooters. Which likely won't happen but I worry about it anyway.

We also get to go to all my favorite restaurants, see my poetry professor who is a huge Tigers fan, have dinner with one of my former gymnasts who is now in med school at U of M, and oh yeah, watch the Tigers in the World Series in Michigan. That will be rather marvelous, I think. But that's another thing I can't do—I can't go out by myself at night to my favorite pub and watch the game, because it will be packed wall to wall and 1) a panic attack will inevitably ensue and 2) I will have no way to stop it quickly and will have to leave.

One thing I can, I hope, do on my own, will be visiting men's gym practice at the Newt Loken Training Center. Being in the gym is like being in a cocoon where nothing can get to you. I don't know too many of the guys anymore, and there's been a bit of remodeling, but it's still my place. When my mom called me to tell me that Angel had died, when I was a senior, I went to the gym as soon as I could, because that was the only place where I could feel anywhere approaching okay. I probably spent almost as much time there as I did in my dorm or apartment.

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this a bunch of complaints about the trip. It's going to be really awesome, I think. Just could be awesome-er with Juno, ya know?