Service dog meetup at the Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show

Left to right: Bella, Kiyah, Baja, Rhydian, Juno, Kaline, Delphine, and Bruce.

This past weekend was another where I just did way too much. Every year the Golden Gate Kennel Club hosts an all-breed dog show for two days at the Cow Palace, and we go and wear ourselves out. I always meet up with Sonja, but this year at one point we had eight service dog teams together!

Saturday, Juno and Kaline both got to go, since Sonja's Chief was still recovering from a paw injury and wasn't supposed to walk a lot on concrete. Juno won't work for most people, but she adores Sonja and will work for her. She was absolutely delighted to be able to go. Especially since Sonja gave her french fries.

We hung out a lot with our new friends Lindsay and Bruce the Painted Doberman (lots of people wanted photos of the Doberman service dogs in training) and with Ashley and her insanely cute Shar Pei-shepherd mix, Delphine. Probably the most commonly asked question of the whole weekend was, “What kind of dog is that?” We also met Tiffany and Baja, a German shepherd; Hillary and Kiyah, a pit bull; Heather and Bella, an Ibizan hound who won Best of Breed on Sunday; and Clara and Rhydian, another German shepherd.

Kaline and Bruce

Saturday we got there early and left early, due to a Michigan-Stanford men's gymnastics meet in the evening. Kaline did pretty well, other than our usual bugaboo of pulling too hard in harness, and pulling at all on leash. Everyone was just in love with him. I don't know why I get all surprised by that, but I guess I assume I'm in love with him cause he's, you know, mine. (Not that I don't get freaking frustrated as hell with him several times a week ...) But yeah, he was very popular among the other handlers. I of course let them love on him when he was just chilling out. He was most pleased with his new fan club.

We watched the Dobermans show, and among them was a stunning, all-natural, eight-month-old male Doberman from Poland. It was his owner/handler's first time ever showing in conformation and it was just so sweet to see all the experienced handlers coming over before they went in the ring to try to help her prepare. Argo won some ribbons, being the only one in his age group. Such a sweet, cute boy. Makes me want a Polish Doberman, haha! He had a much thicker coat than Kaline and the other Dobermans—looked like it might actually help him keep warm. What a concept!

Argo!

We came home for a nap after our time at the show, and then headed to Stanford for the meet. It was insanely loud and crowded due to the Stanford Open being held that weekend (for young gymnasts). The nice “redcoats” made us a little disabled section between two of the bleachers where the dogs (Sonja and Chief came) were protected. Michigan won, rather miraculously, and we got to see all our friends. Had one annoying stranger totally butt in on a conversation I was having with my friend, complaining about how her husband is searching for a Doberman but all the breeders he's called are “sold out” and want the princely sum (being sarcastic here) of $1500-2000. UGH. But mostly it was great. Kaline was so exhausted from the dog show that he held his down perfectly the whole evening. His pre- and post-meet crowd work was pretty excellent.

Kaline at his first men's gym meet.

Sunday we went to the dog show a bit later, though not as much later as I thought given how tired I was Saturday. We visited the Lagottos, both of whom turned out to be closely related to Kaline's little boyfriend, Lupo. We again wandered with Lindsay, Sonja, and Ashley, shopping and watching the breed judging.

Lindsay and I are both Paco addicts. WIN.

All the cute.

Five of us—Ashley, Lindsay, Heather, Clara, and I—ended up at our dinner, which we did at Buca di Beppo in the city. It was interesting getting five service dogs/service dogs in training all under or next to the table, but the staff were quite nice and set us up in a less crowded area. It was very yummy, and definitely a lot of fun to hang out with people who just get it. By the time I got home, though, I was totally zonked! Waking up the next morning to a full schedule of four pack walks: Not the best thing ever. But the exposure and distraction work are great for Kaline, and it's always wonderful to meet up with other handlers.

Snuggles at dinner.

Michigan Trip, Day 6

19 August 2013

Our last Michigan day was another long one. Mom and I got up early to walk Kaline and do some errands. I ran him behind the hotel to take the edge off a bit. We walked from South U. across the Diag again in beautiful weather to State St. On the way back to the car we stopped at Ray's Red Hots, formerly Red Hot Lovers (a much better name in my opinion), so I could get a delicious red hot and waffle fries. Delicious. Kay again did great momentum pull.

Morning walk, stopping at my favorite restaurant, Charley's.

We got a courtesy driver to the airport (yay Hertz!) so we didn't have to do luggage unloading twice. There was really no line at security. Kaline got my hoodie off, refused the first shoe retrieve, then did the second one. Progress. He was the best yet at his pat-down, holding his stand very nicely. We really lucked out getting all dog-lovers on the pat-downs.

We went to Max and Erma's for a bite and Kay settled perfectly. When we boarded the plane he was fine, but he started to tremble when I sent him into our row. He stopped, then started again during takeoff. He sat up and all three of us were stroking him and making soothing sounds. As soon as we started cruising, he relaxed and went to sleep for most of the flight. Huge improvement! This one flight attendant kept coming by to just check on how Kaline was doing, how sweet. He did fine on the landing and did mostly nice, sometimes too hard, pulling through the airport. Super antsy on the car ride home, but I couldn't blame him. He went from being cooped up five hours in a plane to being really cooped up in the car.

Kay on the plane home.

When we got home, I was the first one to go in. Hendrik had dropped Juno off earlier, and her welcome home greetings are the best! She jumped, she wagged, she kissed, she leaned, she even whimpered in glee. I kissed and hugged and rubbed and made squeaky sounds. Brilliant. When I released her to go outside, she raced to Dad and “attacked”; then she realized Mom was in the back seat of my car and jumped into the cargo area, trying to vault into the back seat. She was not terribly thrilled to find Kaline in the back seat. “I thought you got rid of him!”

To wrap up, Kaline exceeded my expectations for this trip. I asked a lot of him, and he was fantastic. I am super proud of him, and especially glad that both my parents noticed and acknowledged how well he did. And to put the cherry on top: I finally wore Mom down, and Juno will be coming with me to Michigan in October! I cannot wait.

Michigan Trip, Day 2

15 August 2013

Our second day in the Mitten State, we got to sleep in. How delicious. When I finally got up, the first order of business was a walk for Kaline. Our hotel had a nice little walking path behind it, plus a pond, with geese, and this big grassy strip where I later let Kaline get all his running ya-yas out. That day we did a regular walk plus some basic obedience practice.

Morning walk.

Morning walk.

We met my mom's old college roommate and her husband for lunch at a place called Sava's. The first thing the waiter brought was a bowl of water for Kaline (I didn't ask for it) which my puppy happily lapped up. He was excellent through the meal, snoozing under my chair quietly. After lunch we exchanged the car at a nearby Hertz outpost and talked dogs with all the employees (haha).

Kaline the rock star at Sava's.

Next we went to the mall (our hotel was basically across the parking lot from Briarwood) where I worked a lot with Kaline on matching my pace—sudden stops and turns, changes of pace, etc. He did a nudge alert right before I went all fibro foggy. He pulled pretty well once that started but I was still only about half-functional. We came back to the hotel for a break after that.

Kaline at Briarwood Mall.

When we got up, Dad and I took Kaline in the back on his e-collar and just let him run himself out. He also wriggled hilariously on his back in the grass. He was just having so much fun.

Getting the ya-yas out.

 After the run, we went to State St. for some shopping and dinner. In Nickels Arcade, we saw a guy approaching with an Airedale, so I got Kaline out of the way and was keeping his attention on me. Once the Airedale saw Kay, it began lunging and basically screaming, trying to get to him. I shoved treats in Kaline's mouth and just waited for the guy to go away. But of course, when he got close, he goes, “Can he say hi?” I replied pretty sharply, “Absolutely not.” Probably offended him, but better than getting my dog hurt.

Other than that guy and one other, though, basically all the people I encountered in Michigan were politely curious about Kaline, rather than the intrusively curious folks you get in Northern California. It was really pleasant to be asked things about his training rather than about my personal medical information. And Kaline was a great Dober-ambassador, since a lot of people had never seen a Dobe SD before.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for Boneless Thursday, and actually saw another SD team! It was a Golden Retriever and a man in a wheelchair. I generally don't go up and talk to other teams I see unless it's a meetup, so I was just quietly happy they were there. Kaline was again excellent, the food was very tasty, and we got to see part of the Tigers game.

At B-Dubs, yum yum!!

After dinner there was yet more shopping and a stop at Insomnia Cookies on South U. And then, the obligatory Meijer run.

Shopping at the M Den. Yes, I bought this, I never put things in his mouth that aren't mine/I don't intend to buy.

Meijer is this store in Michigan (well, chain of stores) that has everything. I am not kidding. Everything. Food, clothes, hardware, pet supplies, you name it, they probably sell it. My parents used to take me on Meijer runs when they'd visit me at school, and we still do a run each trip. It is ridiculous. Somehow we always manage to fill up the cart with stuff. You wouldn't think we'd need groceries and such but apparently we do. Kaline did awesome, even though he was pretty tired.

Kaline and Faygo, the best pop ever. Many flavors, but Rock & Rye is by far the best. It's a Michigan thing.

Filling up the cart!

The Ear Saga of Woe

The Ear of Woe. Spot the injury—if you can!

Holy crap. Most exhausting, stressful week in quite some time.

After Kaline got the sutures in his ear, he had to be in a bandage, snood, and cone for three days. On day two, I noticed the snood's mesh starting to cut into the exposed underside of his ear, so back we went to have that off. The bandage and cone remained. Kaline, on sedatives, stayed mostly quiet and actually had a fairly good appetite. We got the poor little invalid some baby food to tempt his palate. Mom has been especially solicitous, even to the point of telling off her “girlfriend” Juno for barking at Kaline!

Sunday was day three, and we took Kaline back to the e-vet to have the bandage completely off. He was in the back an interminably long time. I heard the ominous sound of him being allowed to do a whole body shake. A long while after that, a vet (not the last one we had) came out to talk to us.

He had, indeed, busted his ear yet again. They'd glued it and were bandaging him again. I was extremely frustrated that they had allowed him to shake off as hard as he wanted right after the bandage came off. I was frustrated that they only wanted to leave the bandage on three days. (The reasoning for that—limiting the risk of other problems arising due to moisture in the ear—was explained to me by one of the excellent techs.) The vet just said we needed to be patient. Which was also frustrating, because I for one would've been happy to leave the bandage on for a week! (Before learning that that would be bad.)

Then came the kicker. The vet goes: “Well, he is a Doberman. You could always crop his ears.” Were I a cartoon character at that moment, my face would've turned bright red, smoke would've come out my ears, and my eyes would have zoomed about a foot out from my face. Kaline's cut is measured in millimeters. And somehow a solution to that would be cutting off most of his ears? Also, HELLO, you don't crop the ears of a fifteen-month-old dog. Twelve weeks old is considered late to do it. I was just furious and way overwhelmed with anxiety and worry. And I'd been stupid and left Juno home with Mom.

When Kaline finally came out, with a bandage that looked like a diaper on his head in addition to his cone, I immediately went to hug him because I was just so relieved to see him. Despite being sedated and probably in some pain or at least discomfort, Kaline immediately started deep pressure into my chest. I almost started sobbing right there. I couldn't believe he was trying to take care of me when he was the one all the bad things were happening to.

Diaper bandage and cone.

Everything just looked disastrous—we might have to cut off a piece of his ear (again, explained by the tech as to why that could be helpful/necessary—the techs are unfailingly excellent over there), the entire trip to Michigan could be off, Kaline was back in the cone and clearly not a happy camper.

Three more days of tense waiting commenced. The appetite stayed fairly good, amazingly, and somehow my family were all able to work our schedules so Kaline was almost never by himself. The sedatives were a really big help, because it stopped him wanting to shake so often and also meant that the 20-30 minutes of exercise he was allowed per day were enough. I shudder to think of an un-sedated Kaline forced to endure days with that little exercise!

Poor little invalid.

Yesterday, we headed to our regular vet to have the bandage off. I formulated a plan, we followed it exactly, and it worked!

When we went in, Noel carefully slid the cone off and cut the bandage off Kaline's head. He had a ring of adhesive residue around his neck and some irritation from the bandage on the front of his neck, but the ear looked pretty good. I kept a good hold on his collar, preventing him from shaking, and gently held his bad ear in a piece of gauze. Dr. Mihalek came in with the little plastic vials of glue and applied that while I held Kaline and his ear. Once it was dry, we let him go but I still didn't let him shake. Brilliant.

Yay, Real Kaline™ is back!

We got home, and I gathered my supplies bought earlier in the day: wound cream, wound powder to stop bleeding, and liquid bandaid. All we needed was liquid bandaid. I applied it liberally to his ear and since then, it has held up beautifully! I've been watching Kay carefully, and he's always either on leash or on an e-collar so we can nip any shake in the bud. Nonetheless he's managed about three full-body shakes (mostly in the car) since yesterday afternoon, and his ear is still intact! Liquid bandaid, you are my hero. The trip to Michigan is back on, and boy, is it ever wonderful to see my puppy's beautiful face framed by his marvelous, silky ears again. I feel like I worked really hard to get those ears! I don't want anything bad to happen to them. Kaline is clearly so much happier out of the cone (shocking, I'm sure). I'm still a little on edge and checking his ear obsessively anytime he gets a good shake in, but I feel loads better.

In case they're reading: Big, big thanks to all my friends who supported me through all the stress and offered excellent advice. Especially everyone who said, “Just GLUE IT already!” Should've listened to you much earlier. And extra super special gratitude to Maura, Kaline's breeder, leader of the Glue It Already group, who is always there with super helpful advice and encouragement. 

Going to the fair, plus harness training

Lately we have been going to fairs and doing harness training with Kaline (what it says on the tin). Two weekends ago was the street fair in Menlo Park, where we live, and then last weekend was the street fair in Redwood City. Vendors at both were pretty disappointing, but it was definitely good for the pups.

I have discovered that while Kaline has no problem doing walks, or even trotting briskly, in shoes, he does not believe he should be asked to do what I think of as fine positioning work while wearing them. We're talking swinging into a block position or coming back to heel. He kinda freezes up and then you have to ... unfreeze him. Other than that, he was fantastic. We did a lot of going through crowds, and Kaline's sniffing was exceedingly minimal. Most of the time he didn't even turn his head at all. He mostly ignored the various other dogs around too. I won't get into a rant on those but let's just say a lot of people brought dogs who were not prepared to be in that situation, either in a physical or a mental sense.

Kaline at the street fair in Menlo Park.

People lost their marbles over Kaline and Juno's shoes. I enjoyed spreading the Gospel of Shoes to anyone who asked where they could get such awesome protection for their dogs' feet, but the pointing and squealing got tiresome very quickly. I told several adults curtly, “It's rude to point.” We met another Doberman, Duke, a month older than Kaline and significantly larger and goofier! So adorable. Kaline also worked on ignoring people petting him (I want to do a practice Public Access Test with him soon, just for shits and giggles).

The Redwood City fair had even worse vendors, was much smaller, and had great blues acts and freaking delicious barbecue. It wasn't that hot, but Kaline started doing the dance on the pavement so on went the shoes. We met up with Sonja, Chief, Hendrik, and their two friends from Germany, which was delightful. Later we all went to Crissy Field to let the dogs run about.

Kaline and Chief at the blues concert.

Kaline and Chief ignoring the delicious barbecue.

On to harness training. Kaline is going on the Michigan trip, due to the fact that all the people I know who normally would be able to take him cannot—and neither can a shit ton of people I don't know. Juno is going to have a delightful spa week with Sonja, Chief, and the “old ladies.” She's obviously much lower-maintenance than Kay and more importantly, can be trusted to be around Chief without a human hanging onto her front paws.

Obviously, going on the trip means Kaline's duties are going to expand, at least temporarily. He's not old enough to do counterbalance or brace work, but thankfully he is old enough to do what I need most in terms of mobility: momentum pull. Basically it's the same as when you see crazy dogs pulling like sled dogs in back-attaching harnesses, only Kaline will be paying attention, pulling at an appropriate level, and not going nuts. And instead of pulling on a leash he'll be pulling against a handle. Point is, doesn't hurt a young dog.

Our first session was really short and kind of feeling things out. I just took Kaline outside with the Petjoy harness on, and any time he made the floppy handle taut, I rewarded him. Then Juno decided to come participate, so I put her in a down stay by our house walkway and took Kaline away from her. Then I just let him walk back to her—he pulled beautifully and slowed to a stop right in front of her, so we started practicing a stop command too. Saying “easy” was not so good at first as a slow-down cue because that usually means he's about to be told to sit. We've worked on it since, and now he's just slowing down, and not turning to face me as much.

We did another session where I gave Kaline a target like I give Juno. BAD IDEA. Well, bad idea in the sense that I used Juno as the target. Kaline practically pulled my arm off in his frantic efforts to catch up to the Holy Grail of his big sister. He freaking hates it when he can see her pulling away from him and I make him keep heeling or whatever. Yeah, need to work on that. I took the harness off and just made him do very basic obedience with Juno far in front. Any time I asked him to sit, for like fifteen minutes, the word “sit” would elicit the most agonized shriek from my puppy. It was almost funny.

Our latest session went really nicely. I had gotten a lot of great suggestions on harness training from others with mobility SDs, and one of them was to take Kaline on a routine walk (i.e. he knows the exact path already) with the harness. So we did that, and mostly it went really well. Without the target, he did not pull nearly so hard. We worked on our various harness commands: forward, easy, stop, left, and right. For left and right, I'm making these huge ridiculous hand signals right now, exaggerations of the ones I do when we're heeling. Kaline got a break in the middle of the session to pee and sniff and all that; I had to hype him up about pulling afterward. Like Juno, he seems to like having a sidewalk to follow, and we were in a parking lot. So, I made a fool of myself, got Kaline all bouncy again, and off we went home. I was really pleased with his progress!

Juno has been busy as well. She came to a play with me and my bestie, Rachel, in Aptos. We did a walk along the beach, where a little girl saw Juno and said, “That dog is alllllllll princess!” Most adorable thing ever. I was stiff and in a lot of pain after the play ... something about the seats. Juno supported me carefully and slowly down the stairs, and in the lobby afterward. She's just the best.

Juno at the beach.

We're back!

Well, on one hand the trip was great. We went to the Henry Ford twice, my new camera behaved amazingly, we had lots of fun at the Farmer's Market, went to Charley's three times, etc. But the Tigers decided not to show up for the World Series against the Giants. And not having Juno sucked. I needed her for physical help several times, especially the first day we got there and I was hobbling around like an elderly person because I'd sat for so long on the plane. I also really needed her for keeping my anxiety in check—it was like every place we went into, I was constantly scanning, on high alert. For what? Dunno. My mom did her best to be a good service human but it's just not the same.

So unsurprisingly, I was incredibly glad to see the dogs when we arrived home Monday night. Dad pulled up outside baggage claim, where I was plastered against a pole so no one could/would sneak up behind me. I went out, got Juno, put on her little vest and strode back in. It was like flipping a switch. All trip, we were avoiding crowds as much as possible. Now with Juno, I waded in, and she blocked exactly where I needed her to without even being asked. I was complete again! I hugged her a bunch, even when she was working, and then in the car she and Kaline piled up against me in a little mound.

Kaline had a great time at Freddie's playing with her big black Lab, Rio. I assume it's Rio's fault that I observed Kaline lift his leg to mark for the first time today. Haha. We had training yesterday and my whiny children did pretty well. My dad apparently worked Kaline in class on Saturday and did really nicely with him, didn't screw him up! Freddie said he was way more conscientious with the pup than he normally is with Juno.

I was super pleased with Kaline's stand-stay yesterday—he'll do it for me with basically no problem, but yesterday I left him and let Freddie "examine" him. He moved his feet some, but he didn't sit, come to me, or go to Freddie, so I'll count that in the win column! Juno did awesome recalls, during which a busybody cop came to inform us of the leash rule in the park. Which we, as trainers, have town permission to "break," and which assholes break all the time with dogs who won't do a recall. And those people never get any consequences. I let Freddie talk, because I'm not good at being patient and polite with stupid authoritarian people.

Today most of the dogs (save Xena and Jett) had Hallowe'en flair to wear on the walks. Kaline wore his jack o' lantern sweater, Juno had a jack o' lantern bandanna, Gracie had a grinning pumpkin headband attached to her collar with duct tape, Max had a black and orange frilly collar, and Ellis had the sparkliest, most awesome bandanna with black, orange and white pumpkins, witches' hats, and skulls. YAY.

Juno, Gracie, Kaline and Ellis on Walk No. 1.

 

Jett, Xena, Kaline, Max and Juno on Walk No. 2.

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?