a little blue…

This photo obviously isn’t me. It also wasn’t either of my dogs. It also, in my opinion, is not exactly where one should be walking their dog, especially not with a handbag like that. Either their car broke down and they are setting off, on foot- or its a sort of city-girl-in-the-country thing.

Completely irrelevant to the point of this post really, except that it is a photo of a girl and her dog. Yesterday I was walking Emma, (who is mostly my husband’s dog. Emma enjoys long walks, dog parks and abhors any type of love, faithfulness or affection, thus making her the anti-dog) when we heard the bellow of a young beagle from somewhere not too far away, but also not visible from our vantage point. Needless to say, my heart skipped a beat. I miss Knightley so much. I miss Paisley too, (for those of you who aren’t up on the dog talk, my dog of 6 years passed away from cancer last August. Her name was Paisley and she was the most loving, faithful and best dog ever. It took me until March to be able to get a new dog. His name was Knightley. Unbeknownst to us, he had kidney failure from birth and so at our 3 month anniversary of being his family, we got the news that he was suffering neurological damage and was dying so we had to euthanize him. He was four months and one week old. It was terrible.) I already wasn’t having a great day. Fibromyalgia crash and burn day likely triggered by the life-cocktail of heavy humidity over the weekend and stress from a few family extended situations.

I simply came home, ate some carbs and laid on the couch, giving up on the day. I napped fitfully (WORST decision you can make with Fibromyalgia. Naps are of the devil, and yet…) and spent the rest of my Tuesday cycling through various forms of fire, ache, throb and stiffness. I had every fever symptom, to boot, minus the actual fever. It was delightful and I was beyond apologetic to Chw because the worst part of all of it will forever be the guilt that I’m not contributing. I finished my night with cereal for dinner and popcorn for snack. (yay Carbs!) Of course, I was awake until late in the night/early in the morning because of the devil nap from earlier.

Today is a new day, today is a new day, today is a new day…

We have this jar that sits by the door which we’ve titled Project Puppy. The plan is that by July of next year, that change jar will hold enough to adopt again. My heart can take it, I think. Until then I will be a little lonely at times and super lonely at others. I will imagine my bouncy little buddy (for the brief time he was bouncy, that is) at the most unexpected of times, and deal with our Emma, who maybe loves us in a super strange and un-doglike way. I will stow away my nickels and dimes within that jar and wait, seeing what lessons unfold from this season of life. Michigan is hard. Michigan is the only state I have lived in (of the five I’ve resided in as an adult) where it feels impossible to form close friendships. It was not like this when we lived here before, but most of those people also left the state and the rest- well, time changes things.

I remember having this conversation with a friend many years ago, when she said I just want to find a close friend who knows where the glasses in my kitchen cupboard are and she comes over and makes herself at home. I think of that often, her words haunting me a bit. I also wonder why there aren’t online “dating” sites for friendship but then realize it is probably because women can be awful and so that likely wouldn’t workout so well. These things have to develop organically, I suppose.

In the meantime, just so you know, my glasses are just to the right of my sink, but don’t drink that water, it’s pretty gross. There’s a cooler behind you, and that water is much better.