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House-Sitting Journal
Day 2, June 24th


02:36  I woke up, realized it was dark, reminded myself where I was and snuggled up next to Gray.  He elbowed me in the cheekbone.  (I have cheekbones?)  I yelled at him and he woke up.  I fell asleep as he continued to rub my cheek and apologize.


08:47 Woke up, looked at the clock, muttered about the bed under my breath, went to pee.


08:50 Woke up on the toilet, stumbled back into the bedroom.  Stepped on the dog, woke Gray up, woke up the other four dogs in the living room.


08:56 After calming everyone down, we all went back to sleep.


09:12 Woke up to the sound of the dog quartet in the living room.  Got up, let them all outside to pee in the back yard.  Went back to sleep.


09:46 Dogs barking outside of the bedroom window woke me up again.  I poked Gray in the side.  Nothing.  I yelled at him, but was drowned out by his snoring.  Yelled again.  Grabbed his shoulders and shook him, yelling “WAKE UP, HONEY!”


09:48 Gray woke up.  I told him to go feed the dogs.  Sandwiched my head between two pillows.  Fell asleep.


10:30 Woke up and decided to stop fighting fate.  Let dogs back out for their post-breakfast-pee-and-poop.


11:30 Grabbed my pocketbook and keys, grumbled about ‘living in a zoo’.  Told Gray I was going home to get some things.  Left.


12:07  Packed up toiletries, clothes, some food, a couple of books.


12:53  Drove through Sonic and got lunch.  Munched on tater tots on the way back to S&Ds.  Mood started improving.


13:12  Got back, walked in with food.  All dogs were inside, mood lowers.


The rest of the day was spent avoiding the dogs, and trying to start studying for my Intro to Poli Sci and Interpersonal Comm. finals that I had today.  I finally said, “Screw it!” and went to bed.  I woke up at 04:30 this morning to study while everyone and everything was asleep.


Did I mention there is a train here that passes every fifteen minutes?


*pulls out another clump of hair*


previous post: Intro, Day1

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Annoying Trick of the Day


Go put your Christmas lights up this afternoon.


Play Christmas music and encourage the neighborhood kids to sing carols.  If anyone complains that it’s June and not December, reply with, “Every day should be Christmas in your heart.”


If you do this, take pictures and post them.

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House-Sitting Journal
Day 1, June 24th


12:15  Gray and I got to Shane & Deanna’s house.  We introduced Moe and Maxie to Sabbath and Candy.  They greeted Harry with open paws.


12:18  Moe was separated from the others.  She did not like Candy at all, as they both thought they were dominant females.  Moe was cranky for the rest of the day.  She growled at Candy and Sabbath whenever they walked by.  Of course Sabbath, being the little ding-a-ling that she is, kept trying to go say hi to Moe.


14:36  After talking to S&D and getting needed info (vet name, # and directions, feeding instructions, trash day info, etc.) Gray drove them to Raleigh to catch their flight.


14:38  I let the puppies out after Sabbath tried getting friendly with Moe.  Moe, not in a meet-n-greet kind of mood, snapped at her and scared the shit out of me.


16:00  After Moe and I watched a marathon of SpongeBob SquarePants, we took a nap.


17:30ish  Gray got back and took over doggie patrol.  I went out to pick up our dinner.  I had been craving a Spicy Chicken sandwich, so I ran out to find the nearest Wendy’s.


18:24  I returned with Wendy’s.  The closest one was 12.5 miles away.  My air conditioner doesn’t work.  I was sweaty, hungry and highly irritated.  All of the puppies were inside.


18:25  Maxie got her comrades tossed outside after he slurped my elbow and made me drop my fries.


18:55  Gray and I watched Executive Decision.


20:00  We watched The Replacements on Cinemax.


22:00  Southpark: The 162 Shits Episode

22:35  We decided to go to sleep.  Moe had to go into our room to avoid more fighting.


22:36  The sodomy board was discovered.


22:37  I got up to pee and went to the master bathroom.


22:38  I realized there was no toilet-paper in there.


22:39  I yelled at Gray.


22:40  I yelled at Gray.


22:41  I got up and ran to the other bathroom to steal a roll.


22:42  The master commode started over-flowing.


22:43  I yelled at Gray.


22:44  I went to the bed to find a snoring Gray.  I woke him up and asked him to fix the toilet.


23:47  I woke up and wondered where I was.  I reminded myself and went back to sleep.


previous post: Intro

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House-Sitting Journal
Intro


As I mentioned yesterday, Gray and I are house-sitting for our friends, Shane and Deanna.  This is proving to be a very interesting experience, so I thought I would share a bit about it.


The Friends
Shane and Deanna are a very sweet couple.  Deanna is my age, 24, and Shane is 29.  He is a Sgt. in the Army and Deanna is an upcoming senior at UNCP majoring in English and theater.  They are both from California.  They have been married for four years.  They are both into the theater and met Gray in the play he did in April, “Noises Off”.


Their House
It’s about 1100 sq.ft, counting the garage.  It has three bedrooms, two full baths, a kitchen, dining room, living room and the garage.  There is a fenced in side yard with a fire pit and a trampoline.  The backyard, adjacent to the side, is fenced in separately and is where the puppies run about.


Bedroom One: The Master has a huge bed in it.  The bed has a head and foot board, meaning that Gray (6’6″) and I (6’2″) get to sleep all scrunched up.  There is also some kind of board running up and down through the middle of the bed.  This means that I can’t sleep in my favorite spot at night and that if we snuggle, one of us gets to be sodomized by that board.  A 2×4 thong.  Yeah.


Bedroom Two: The Office has a teeny little day bed in it, a couple of bookshelves and a computer desk.  The computer is Gateway with a big ass monitor (drool) and a 56K connection (wretch!).  So I can see in great detail how slow I am going.


Bedroom Three: The Cat Room is home to S&D’s three cats.  They are really strange, even for cats.  The room has only three things in it: their food, their water and their littlerbox.  The boy cat has marked all over it and the entire room reeks of cat urine.  The cats are really temperamental and one of them bites you if you pet her wrong.  I plan on leaving them in their room most of the time.  They are little bitches to catch and return to their habitat when you do let them out.


The Pets
I have somewhat described the the cats.  S&D also have three dogs.  They are Sabbath, Candy and Harry.  We had to bring our dogs over, too.  We have Maxie and Moe.


Sabbath: One of the stupidest dogs I have ever met.  She is a tiny little rottweiller, the runt of her group.  Shane picked her out as a puppy and spoils her rotten.  Sabbath is about a year and a half old and hyper as hell.  She does not want to lay still and doesn’t obey commands.  (Sit?  What the hell is that?  Does that mean I should jump up and down?  Let me crawl in your lap!)


Candy: Candy is a mutt, rather skinny and very shy.  She was rescued from the pound by Deanna after she saw her on the news.  Candy’s left back hip was broken at a very young age and she is very cautious with it now.  She is a sensitive little dog and doesn’t eat unless you stand with her in the kitchen and pretend to wash dishes.  She gets whiny when S&D are out of town.  She obeys commands pretty well and is the dominant female.  She is about three or four years old.


Harry: Until a month ago, Harry was Gray’s dog.  We gave him to Shane because we are moving and needed to find him a good home.  Shane met him and honestly fell in love with him.  Harry is Maxie’s brother, from the same litter.  They are pure blooded rotts, first generation German.  They are five years old.  Harry is huge, about three feet tall, standing on all fours.  His head is bigger than mine.  Harry is pure muscle and is wonderfully obedient.  He understands sit, lay down, go outside, roll over, fetch and stay.  He looks really scary, but is a loveable thing.  He does drool excessively.  Big, long, strands of slobber hang off both sides of his mouth.  Harry is the only male and is not fixed.  He marked around S&Ds house after the first night, but hasn’t since.  He thinks Sabbath is his little sister.


Maxie: As I said, Maxie’s is Harry’s sister.  Where Harry has the brawn, Maxie has the gut.  She is shorter and smaller than Harry, but is more overweight.  She is also not nearly as attentive as Harry, and instead of drooling, she licks everyone.  She sleeps on her back with her paws dangling up above her.  She prefers to sleep on the couch, as well.  Maxie is going with Gray’s parents when we leave.  She is spoiled to the max.


Moe: Moe is the dominant female.  She is a seven year old Chow & Akita mix.  She is somewhat skittish, but ballsy as hell, too.  She was rescued from the pound by Gray’s dad.  She was very abused as a puppy and as a result doesn’t like to be yelled at, approached by someone who is angry and she dislikes going outside during the day.  She would live outside at night if you would let her, though.  She sits and lays down when told to and I’ve got her to play fetch on occasion.  Moe’s full name, according to Gray’s dad, is Modine Gunch.  Poor thing.  Moe will be Gray’s and my dog when we move to the apartment.  Moe is a real sweetie and protects me all the time.  I let her nap on the couch with me.  (No … she’s not spoiled.  What makes ya say that?)


part one … coming soon

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Personal Update


Gray and I are house-sitting and dog-sitting for our friends, Shane & Deanna, until July 14th.  Of course, being the responsible eProp whore that I am, I will not let my real-life responsibilities interfere with my Xanga addiction.  The only difference is that being the nosey person that I am, I may have a few extra confessions for ya’ll.

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 PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

PING? PONG!

So, guess what Swirly’s been up to today?

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True Confession


I wet the bed regularly until I was eleven or twelve.


By regularly, I mean at least once a week. Then it happened maybe once a month until I was fifteen. It tapered off to once every six months until I was seventeen, now it’s once in a blue moon.


Why did this happen you ask? Nerves. I had pretty crappy home environments, as Swirly’s Time Line is starting to get into. I was a little worrywart as a kid and I stressed over everything. I felt solely responsible for making sure that my siblings were protected and I did have high expectations from my parents to uphold.


Why am I sharing this? No, I’m not running low on “Confessions”; I just want anyone else who had this happen to not feel as bad. This was something I was totally ashamed of until very recently. There is no reason to be ashamed of it. It’s not something that you do on purpose. It is an accident. It’s your body’s way of telling that something isn’t right. In my case, I was way too stressed. I’ve also found that the embarrassment factor of it loses its power if I share. It’s not such a deep, dark, haunting secret if I am willing to discuss it.


For all of the parents that read this blog, please keep this in mind if your children have this same thing happen to them. Yelling at them, teasing them or punishing them will only make things worse. They feel bad enough, as it is, trust me. It may be frustrating to you to deal with (laundry, mattress damage, etc.) but it something that if not handled well could still be affecting them into their twenties or thirties. It’s taken me 24 years to overcome.

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This was started as I was lying in bed at my friend Mitch’s house. (yes, “Print Shop Stories” Mitch.)  It was really chilly in there.  (It was really chilly everywhere.  I was snowed in there for almost a week.)  Mitch was nice enough to let me stay over and we both slept in his king size bed.  After he got up to go to work – the man is as stubborn as the day is long – I got really cold.  I noticed that I had chill bumps on my arms, which were wrapped around one of Mitch’s pillows, the same way that I had always wrapped my arms around the ex.


I started writing.  It turned into a song.  I even sang it at one point, but I know that you guys don’t want to bleed from the ears, so I won’t torture you.  Maybe I could get GudKarma to sing it or something.  Enjoy!


The Pillow Song


Lying here alone
Chill bumps on my arms
It’s getting kinda cold
Being here without your charms


Using a pillow
As a substitute for you


Your stunt double
Is covered in a sham
And a lonely little girl
Lies where I am


Using a pillow
As a substitute for you


I’m not supposed to
Miss you so much
But I find it’s true
Yeah, I miss your touch


Using a pillow
As a substitute for you


And the lumpy little pillow
Doesn’t compare to
The love and support
That I needed from you
But this little pillow
Won’t lie to me
The little pillow pillow
Won’t steal and cheat


Lying here tonight
This feeling is so new
But it’s kinda nice not worrying
About what you’re gonna do


Using a pillow
As a substitute for you


Yeah, lying here tonight
This feeling is so new
But I don’t have to worry about
What the pillow is gonna do


If I’m using a pillow
As a substitute for you


– jwc, 01.23.00

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The Caption Game
Part 2



Please leave your ideas for a caption for this picture in the comments section.  Feel free to submit as many as you can think of!  Have fun!


(Photo credit: Boris Vallejo, Red Scarf, 1985, Oil on canvas)
Click on image for a larger view.

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Art of the Day








Claude Monet
(1840 – 1926)
The Stroll (La Promenade, la femme à l’ombrelle), 1875
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington
click on image for larger version


Eleven years after he had painted his wife Camille and their son Jean at Argenteuil (above), Monet was enticed again by the same subject matter. His step daughter Suzanne Hoschedé posed for him until she was exhausted (below).



Claude Monet (1840 – 1926)
Essai de figure en plein air (vers la gauche), 1886
Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
click on image for larger version



“I’m working like never and at new attempts, figures in the open air as I understand them, made like landscapes. It is an old ream that still worries me and that I want to fulfill once and for all; but it is hard !” — Claude Monet