Long time, no see

I've been MIA for a little while now, but nothing too interesting has been going on. I've just been working a ton but harvest is finally winding down and I'm getting a little more time to myself. This last weekend was my birthday so I went to Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline with Courtney, here's a picture of Mumford & Sons (who were amazing):


Now I have a week day off (always a bad sign for employment, that means things are REALLY winding down), and I'm getting some much-needed down time in. Took Daisy to the park today:

A Sunmaid Daisin, if you will.

Lately, I've been working constantly and Grammy gets really worried if I go get beers after work or something and calls me and leaves these inane messages. Here a transcription of a message I got last night:

"Hillary, if you get this message tonight, it's almost 9 o'clock now. Um. If you get it tonight, give me a call. Sometime. 'Cause I'm kinda worried... where you are. Or if you got kidnapped. I'll talk to you later."

That's pretty much everything going on over on this end. Hope you all are well and in case you were concerned, I have not been kidnapped.

My Kwanzaa

Here's how Daisy and I spent our December 26th. I'm gonna miss her a ton while I'm in Australia - so all of you Bay Area folk: if you're ever driving through Petaluma you should swing by Grammy's and make sure they're both still doing all right.

Jitters

I leave for Australia in two weeks and I'm starting to get a little bit nervous since I'm going to be essentially in the middle of nowhere surrounded by people I have either never met or only met during a brief interview in a foreign (luckily, english-speaking) country.

While studying abroad in Spain a few years ago, I had a great time but missed out on a lot of aspects of American life/culture (see: Tila Tequila). I was also abroad with other UC students who were all my age and in the same boat. Very little was expected of me. I'm now going to be expected to do work and will be the sole Californian probably in the Yarra Valley.

However, Joe Cocker and INXS are going to be performing at the winery where I am working, so worst-case scenario I get to see some music played by some people who used to be famous!

I'm also very nervous about leaving Daisy with my grandmother un-supervised since recently the dog seems to be incapable of convincing Grammy to let her out so she can go to the bathroom. Additionally, I told Grammy to assert herself as the alpha - if she says "come" and is ignored, she is supposed to grab the dog and bring her over to where she initially made the command. Instead, this happens:

Grammy: Daisy, come.
Daisy: (stares blankly - doesn't move)
Me: Now go grab her. Assert yourself as the alpha.
Grammy: Daisy, look! (holds up treat)
Daisy: (perks up - still doesn't move)
Me: Don't reward bad behavior. That is a bribe.
Grammy: (walks over to Daisy, gives her treat, pets her) What a good girl. Best-us puppus.

I'm going to come back to the house after Australia to find it overrun by dogs and Grammy nowhere to be found.

Daisy and the Fly

Cafe Dog

I've been taking Daisy with me to the local café every morning to accompany me while I read. I think we have this really adorable companionship going on and like to think that onlookers who see us are jealous of how cute my puppy is and how much spare time I seem to have based on how long I spend in the café on my kindle.

This morning, we were walking to the coffee shop and Daisy started to do this really cute rolling-over and I initially thought it was so adorable I was going to vomit, then I realized she was rolling in another dog's shit.

So, we went to the café and she was being really misbehaved and still had some poop remnants on her ear that I couldn't get off with napkins and after that we had to go home and she needed a bath (obviously) which she hates and so it's been a pretty rocky day.

Tomorrow will be better.

[F]un-employment

As of Friday, I am now unemployed and back in relax-mode for the first time since Spain. As part of my relax-mode, I have to come up with trivial activities for myself to fill up my day and avoid spending the whole day in bed eating donuts and watching reality television. If I give into the donuts to early on in relax-mode, I start to enter depressed-mode and then eventually stop getting out of bed all together.

So, as part of my new schedule, I go to Bikram Yoga every morning (for those of you unfamiliar with Bikram, it is yoga in a sauna with lots of hairy and unattractive people, but it takes a couple hours all together and is one of the least expensive hobbies I could come up with - oh, and I enjoy it). This morning at Bikram, the Yogi (I think that's what they are called) who was leading the class was telling us about how a friend of hers came up with switching around the phrase "Don't just sit there - Do something!" to "Don't just do something - Sit there!" Initially, I assumed that she had just smoked too much pot and there was nothing behind what she was saying, but she briefly explained herself and there's actually some wisdom to that statement.

The idea is that people tend to say harsh things they don't mean or make erroneous decisions when they impulsively react to a situation instead of taking the time to sit and think out what their approach to a given situation will be. I started thinking about how often I have made a neutral situation worse by doing something just for the sake of doing something and decided that my mantra for my unemployment spurt (this one, at least) will be to just sit there rather than doing something just for the sake of having something to do. So, even though I have all these trivial activities lined up, I am only really partaking in things I enjoy (e.g. wine tasting, Bikram, dog training classes with Daisy) rather than doing things just for the sake of filling my day. And I'm trying to perfect my art of not doing something and just sitting there.

Although this is the first week day I have free (and I had a job interview today so I don't know if that even counts as having a free day), it is going very well so far.

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Here's me being a ridiculously embarrassing dog owner, trying to dress my pet up for Halloween.

One Sick Puppy

Today, I had to give my mom a ride from Petaluma to Novato because she needed to drop a car off at the mechanic. She and I decided to grab lunch beforehand and got a call from Grammy saying that Daisy threw up. My mom told her we would be home in twenty minutes, then immediately hung up the phone and said "God, she's so annoying. How does she have friends?"

After taking my mom to Novato, Daisy threw up again several hours later. Grammy decided she needed to call the free clinic where we get the dog's shots to figure out what is wrong with her. I'm now sitting in my room listening to Grammy have a thirty minute phone call with the clinic receptionist about how Daisy "threw up big."

The Kong

Grammy and I went to Petco today to get Daisy some puppy shampoo since she smells and ended up getting her a new toy. We decided to get her a Kong to combine her two favorite things: food and toys.

Grammy keeps referring to the kong as "the bong." She doesn't realize she's saying the wrong name.

Daisy

Grammy and I adopted a puppy this weekend. Her name is Daisy and she's a 3 1/2 month old Lab/Border Collie mix. She's soooo relaxed and really sweet.