Vomit Comet

That was an interesting evening. It wasn’t the guy from 9/11 there, so I didn’t go. Jen helped me with my gift shop order form and I got to tell her what I thought of this whole gift shop setup and how mad I was that the lady asked me what the person would look like. Hello? Blind! So then I asked to talk to Jen about the gift shop and how to get there to drop off the form. She took me into the library to look at the map. Now, keep in mind that this map is tall and I am not, so to see the whole thing I had to stand on a chair and this map is on the wall, so to the casual observer, it looks like I’m molesting the wall. Then Jen helped us find the braille freelance guide. It wasn’t in the library, it was in the Day room. So I swiped it and took it to Carmen and Sylvia’s room and Carmen, Sylvia, Jill, Amy and I sat down to read it because neither Carmen nor Sylvia nor Jill were braille readers and they weren’t computer literate. I still have it and I’m going to read more to them on the bus as we drive to San Francisco this morning. Yep, we’re going to Chestnut Street and taking city buses. Then this afternoon we do freelancing and somehow bus 2 which is my bus gets vet consultation. Oh, speaking of vet consultations, I found a mark on Trixie’s nose and asked about it and Jen went click click click and found the mark in her medical file and said it was some kind of pimple and it’s resolved. I asked about the lip-chewing and she said no worries, it’s all good, that’s just the way her lip rests. So anyway after the afternoon of chaos, we get to have *another* route, a night route. Eekers. We’re going to be exhausted. And I realized that with all the chaos that happened yesterday, I left my flash-reader and card in the lounge. Oh, Autumn and I talked things out and I think things are good now, I said I sure didn’t mean to say that she didn’t need to be here. I think we’re good now. We’ll see.

Oh yeah, Autumn made up a new word, anpissitate. One day she tried to say anticipate and that came out, so we started joking that anpissitating was when the dogs thought it was time to relieve. Snopping and anpissitating. Alrighty then.

I guess Dynamo’s not doing as well as we thought. He’s still having a hard time. And I get the sense that some people are having trouble or reservations about reporting how they’re feeling because they’re afraid they’ll get kicked out. That’s apparently why Meredeth walked back to the bus, because she was afraid they’d kick her out. I feel ill that people actually feel this way. They certainly don’t make me feel this way. Ok breakfast time.

Breakfast was funny. Craig asked for hot, hot, hot, hot coffee like he always does because he doesn’t like the coffee on the table. We were teasing him and said he’d better be careful or they’d put a little extra in his food, but Frank misunderstood me and thought I said they’ll put a little electrode in and then started talking about inhibiting thoughts in the frontal lobe or something, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. Then Craig asked Nita, one of the ladies who serves food, what he should say to a philipino girl to make her all warm and happy and Nita said, “Philipinas are nice. They’ll take care of you, clean for you, cook for you, but if you’re not nice to them, they’ll kick your butt.” We all just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Then we went to San Francisco and walked around Chestnut Street and she weaved and deaked me through all kinds of things, and tried to sniff a lot of stuff. I almost put the gental leader on her.

My knee really hurts today,I think I may visit the nurse…just ran after Trixie because she decided it would be a fine idea to chase down some chihuahuas. But she came to me. She’s a sweetheart.

I’m sad, but it had to happen. I went to the nurses and told them what happened and they told me I had to take the afternoon off to ice my knee. They even wanted me to reschedule the vet consultation, but I went anyway. I found out why she licks her belly. She had a couple skin infections. I got the official word that those little bumps around some of her other nipples are pseudo-nipples. She had a couple ear infections, a couple runny eye thingies going on, I think that was about it. So now I’m sitting here with my knee elevated, sad because I want to be out there, but whenever we have sudden stops and starts, I start to limp, so that’s no good. Stupid knee. This is really annoying because this was when things were getting really intense. And I was gonna go to Coldstone this afternoon god damn it! I read the whole freelance guide. Now I just have to decide what places I want to visit. God it sucks being out of commission, but they really want me to ice it. Should groom puppy.

That was a little scary. We heard that Sylvia got hoofed to the Urgent Care clinic because her blood pressure skyrocketed. We were afraid she’d get kicked out of the class, but they just gave her some blood pressure medication and that was the end of it. I know there’s fear that you’ll get hoofed, but this is just so weird. The nurse wanted me to go back for more ibuprofen but she appears to be nowhere to be found. She’s probably still with Sylvia.

Night route over. It went pretty well. Trixie-doodles did perfectly. I screwed up a little, but nothing huge. My knee was not pleased with me that I did the night route. Please stop hurting damn it! Please please please! I have to take the ice pack back to the exercise room. When will I have time to ice it tomorrow? Let’s plan this out. I wake up, shower and do all the jazz with the puppy. quarter to 7 I could ice it until 7. Then I could take it off, go to breakfast, come back and re-ice it until 8. Then screw icing until whenever we get back from San Fran. I could ice it again when I get back from afternoon goodness. I have to have it 15 minutes on, 45 minutes off. Catherine is a scary nurse. I can’t tell if she’s mad or patient half the time. She was so cross with me when I came in with the screwed up knee.

I got my flash reader back. Woopsers for leaving it there but glad I got it back. Going to bed now.

I hate my body. I woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep. I listened to all the remaining lectures except for 2 just to try and get myself back to sleep, so I was awake for 2 or so hours. Arg.

What’s happening today? Let’s check the schedule again, because I can’t remember it from earlier. day room at 8 about escalators,obedience on campus, going to Northgate Mall to do escalators and grocery store. Afternoon we talk about problem-ssolving and then we do freelance. Mmm…coldstone creamery. What’s the food? fried eggs and english muffins for breakfast, some kind of veggy sandwich or chicken caesar for lunch, and dinner is beef stew or some turkey salad and lemon bars for dessert. Mmm. Five minutes until grub time.

We went to Safeway and they showed us how to do grocery shopping with the puppy. If you’re having someone pull the cart, you heel her and stuff. If you’re pulling the cart, you can work her. That could be interesting.

Then we went to the mall. I didn’t do the escalators because they say you have to do it once a week at least to keep it alive. But now I’m thinking I should have done it because if I get this job, I might have to do escalators if I have to go into Toronto and learn any subway stuff. So maybe I should do it. I don’t know. But I’m nervous and I’m afraid that’ll transfer to the dog. They say there’s always an alternative. I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. the retrains all say I should do it. Ug decisions. I just don’t want to get her little pawsy wawsies caught on the escalator teeth. I don’t want to get them cut.

She was awesome in the mall. She likes the movie theatre though. Hmmm I wonder why. Must smell good. We went up the stairs. She’s a real stealth sniffer. She can sniff and sometimes I don’t even feel it.

The afternoon was a whole different story. Oy yoy yoy. We went out to do freelancing which is where we all choose our own destinations, but I didn’t understand the way they put it. I didn’t know if the second group had to wait until the first group was all back or what. So we were all confused, and after the first group all left, we sent Frank out to the curb. We told him there should be someone stationed out there at the curb and to ask them if we’re all supposed to head out, then come back in and tell us what the plan is. Frank just went out and kept on truckin’;. Way to go messenger frank. So we all took off not sure if we were supposed to go or not. Autumn said, well why don’t we just start walking. I said Autumn, you can see more than me, so if you’re comfortable with that, then you go ahead. But in this town I don’t know, I’d like to know if there are instructors watching in case I cross a street wrong or try to cross a street that doesn’t continue, etc. I didn’t mean anything more than, I’m not comfortable with that because I don’t know this place uber well. Well Autumn decided to take it that I meant that she didn’t have a right to be here because she could see more than me or something. I don’t know. She asked me about it. I just said well dued you’re going to see more than me, so you probably would feel more comfortable just setting off.

Then I went on the walk, thinking it was over. I decided to do the basic route and then hit this bagel shop a few doors past the lounge just to see how hard it would be to get Trixie to pass the lounge. The basic route was going swimmingly until I got back to Fourth and e street. I crossed E, then I turned to cross Fourth and said forward. Just then, a left-turner came straight at us. Trixie backed away from the car like a little trooper, but then she turned 180 degrees and plopped me back at the down-curb. I knew it was wrong, but my choices were defy her in the street and potentially die, or land on the down-curb and sort it out later. I almost fell into E street as I tripped over a light post and then stood facing E and looking very upset. I dropped the handle and told her to sit and someone came. She said I shouldn’t have let her turn me around, but she said it’s ok now. She walked me across the street and then we made our left turn. Then I got to the bagel shop and could have cared less about the bagels. I couldn’t even get her in the door. She has real trouble with over here commands, the command to make her switch sides when the door opens toward her and to the left. Apparently they’ve only done it a couple times before. Huh?

I bought a bagel. Maybe I’ll eat it eventually.

I got back to the lounge and sat and tried to eat my bagel, but felt too sick to stomach it. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, the room fell silent the way it used to when we’d be talking about David. The only difference was David would hear about our problems with him and they would continue. Autumn had one problem with me, I thought we’d addressed it, and then she had to go and cry to the whole group. Ok, I don’t care if you’re tired. So am I. And if you don’t have the balls to come to me if you still have a problem, I don’t have time for you. Go ahead and pout. I’ll talk to you tonight about that silent spot in the lounge. you will hear about it. Hell the whole bus asked me what I said to Autumn. Right now she’s refusing to talk to me, and I’m writing here because we don’t have time to have a confrontation right now. But oy yoy yoy I’m pissed. She has no spine. I admit I won’t say anything to some people, but at least when I’ve talked to someone about something, I won’t then go and bitch at everyone else if they said I’m sorry. I said I didn’t mean to be mad. I just said look if you want to run wild through the streets of San Rafael, you go ahead because you can see better where you’re going and probably could save yourself some hastles without an instructor.

Ok it’s almost time for dinner. I hope I can eat.

On a funny note, I taught Mike a new word. He’d never heard of Jonesing. I said that I bring Trixie out to relieve before feeding, but sometimes it feels like she’s just jonesin’ for food and doesn’t really do anything. He said what’s jonesin’? I said it was like if you just needed drugs or had a craving for something. He was like what? Ok? Jen finally laughed at him and told him she was surprised he didn’t know what jonesin’ was. he said he liked me because I laughed at all his jokes.

Alright I’m in a bit of a better mood. I think I’m going to get Trixie’s bone and put it away. Then after dinner there’s an optional lecture on development or PR or whatever, and I’d skip it except I hear it’s the dude who was in the World Trade Centre with his woofer on 9/11 and his woofer got him out. So I just have to meet this guy. Then I need to visit Jen and ask her to fill out the gift shop form, fix it anyway. I want to ask Jen then about this rough spot I found on Trixie’s nose and this weird thing I found on the left side of her mouth. It looks like she’s perpetually chewing on her mouth. It’s probably nothing, but I’m gonna ask anyway. Then relieve and resolve this shit with Autumn. Relieve, resolve, retire to bed. Wish there was an r word for slip into a sleep coma until tomorrow morning at 5:45. Anybody got any ideas?

I think that’s the first meal I haven’t been a fan of. Beef Stew, meh. I think it’s less because of the beef stew and more because of the way I’m feeling.

I had a scary moment. I walked into the dining room and heard “Smash!” Then I heard Frank yell something in spanish. So I thought he broke his mug or something. So I froze cause I didn’t want Trixie to step in glass. But it was all good, it was in the kitchen.

I have just under 20 minutes before I should water the puppy and then go down and meet that guy who made it out of the World Trade Centre because of his woofer. Should I go bug Jen about that form and ask her about Trixie’s nose and lips now? I think she was on the phone and helping Meredeth with Sedgey. Poor Sedgey now has an ear infection so needs his ears done with a cream twice a day. Meredeth grumbles but isn’t really outwardly upset. I think it’s eating her up though now that I saw her come back to the bus with a blown out knee and not say a word.

Speaking of knees that hurt, mine does. Ever since I had that crazy crossing thing happen, I walk funny and I have to go slower. It’s not uber painful, just enough to make me limp.

Monday again. I fell asleep quickly last night. I woke up this morning and went to feed and relieve, and relieve she did! She pooped and when I tried to pick up the poop, I missed some! Arg! Then she pooped again! Note to self, always grab 2 bags.

Breakfast is waffles, fruit and yogourt, lunch is some kind of shrimp pasta, mmm, and dinner is ribs! Double mmm!

Today is going to be busy. This morning we go to the Albert building, some kind of business zone, and do stairs and elevators and stuff. Then this afternoon it’s City Hall. More building work. And this morning, half of us have to do obedience in the kennels! That is going to be hell! High collar corrections, here we come. Then we have a lecture tonight. Plus gotta clean ears. so much to do. This week is gonna be long.

Breakfast was good, waffles and fruit and yogourt and fruit. Then we went from the bus to the Albert building which wasn’t far and then we did stairs and the elevator. Stairs was easy. the elevator, my silly babe found the stairs instead of the elevators. Then we got to do a freelance route! How cool! 3 of us went to the coffee shop down at the corner of Fourth and B once you cross B. my little bum was sniffy. Note to self: when taking Trixie into restaurants, use gental leader.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention her crappy beginning of obedience in the kennels. We went into the kennels and she was just nuts, looking this way and that way. I had to give her two high collars and the gental leader. Then she shaped up. Then she sat and lay and stayed and heeled. I was glad to get out of the kennels.

So then we came back after the freelance route and she peed and all, but we met some puppy distraction and ho boy. But we got through it.

I’m a little upset. Carmen says that Sylvia was sitting beside Autumn when I got the news about the resume and she said Autumn looked jealous. I remember she didn’t say anything. I don’t know what to believe. Whatever, it’s two weeks and all of this is over.

Why do I always feel so fat after lunch? I do, without fail.

Man you have to be so careful at the gift shop. They tried to charge Autumn regular price for the items rather than student price. So watch your receipts. I don’t think they meant to, I just think they’re not very competent. The people who work there don’t even know who the trainers are and it seemed too much for them to take a note and wait for the order form to come in and change something. Ug slight annoyance.

So relieving, then to City hall, then I assume more freelancing, then come home and collapse after relieving and feeding and watering and all that jolly good joy. then dinner and a lecture about dealing with guide dog in community, and then relieve and fall down. Must remember to clean her ears tonight, and I’ve still gotta run her in the paddock. Man I’ll miss that paddock when I get home. To just let her loose in there and not worry about a thing. And I still have to groom her later. I guess that’s when I’ll clean her ears.

The afternoon was fun. We did our first tandom walk. Adam, who I forgot to mention subs in for Mike on Mondays, went out with Carmen and I. The way it works is one of us leads and when we get to the corner the leader reads the traffic, and when we get to the other side the other person leads so no dog just dumbly follows. It’s pretty cool.

Oh, before we went on our afternoon strolls, they told us all that our dogs were doing more diving for food and stuff like that and we all had to be more vigilant. Ouch. They told us that was normal because we doubted ourselves so we didn’t react quick enough. I didn’t think I’d go through that again, but I guess I did.

On our route down to City hall, my little bum stole some kibble off the sidewalk. I didn’t even feel it because we were just climing an up-curb so her head already felt like it was down. So arg! Other than that, she was good.

We’re having a rough day for illnesses. Sylvia felt ill and Meredeth blew out her knee on a walk. She deserves a medal for strength or bravery or something because instead of asking for the nursemobile to take her back, she limped back to the bus. That woman is awesome. I’d be crying for mamma.

I need to run Trixie in the grass paddock stil. I’m not completely confident about my way there, but I’m almost willing to try it. Come out at relieving circle doors, turn right, pass the dip that signals the doors to the retrain wing, keep going a ways and turn right, go a cross a bridge…and after that I get a little shaky. I know on the way there Trixie will make the perfect path, it’s just the way back that worries me. I have some time and I’m thinking about trying it, but she seemed really hot out there on the walk so I’m not sure if gallopping in a paddock is what she’s up for. Damn I don’t know what to do. They say they need this every day, and who am I to deprive her of doggy time?

We went to the paddock and she did a lot of sniffing but not much gallopping. That’s ok though since she can’t do a lot of sniffing elsewhere.

She’s all confused because I took her fleece away to wash it. She’s used to no fleece meaning food is on the way, but it certainly is not since she just got fed. Then I crossed her up even more because I took her dish, but only to wash it. Ha ha puppy, keepin’ you on your toes.

I have to write something down because it’s bugging the hell out of me. Bug bug bugging me! Ok, Autumn knows what she can and cannot eat. Nuts are among the things she cannot eat. Today, we get frozen bananas covered in chocolate. So it’s this big banana-half on a stick and it’s covered in chocolate and these lumpy rough things which I assume are nuts. I eat it and think, hmm I wonder if those are nuts. Hope Autumn notices. I talk to her after and ask were they nuts? I’m thinking she would have asked someone if they were nuts before merrily chomping it down. She says, “I don’t know, I wondered if they were nuts but then I thought oh they’re probably just crumbly chocolate things. You should have told me there were nuts in it.” I beg your pardon Miss Autumn? I’m supposed to tell you, a grown woman, what you should and should not eat before you use your own brain to determine whether or not you ask the question? I understand thinking that frozen bananas covered in chocolate wouldn’t have nuts in them, but as soon as you see them, you ask, or you decide that maybe this dessert isn’t for you and pass it up! You don’t just gobble it down and hope for the best. Fool! No more sympathy for her. Fool! Complete and utter fool!

Oh, something funny happened when I went to take the fleece down to the washer. I collided with Henry, his hands hitting me right at boob-level. The poor man. I think he was so embarrassed. Henry’s so meek and mild.

Alright, dinner, lecture, grooming and ear-cleaning, relieving, falling down go snore snore. Got it.

Ok that was kind of an intimidating lecture. I’m glad they do it, I mean I wasn’t prepared for the spotlight that was going to hit me when I got Babs, but they really point out all the things the public gets weird about and all the worst things your dog could end up doing. Then they showed this video that Hotels get about service animals and it was so threatening. It was like, “you have to let them in or they’ll sue. This was the funniest quote. “Service animals only go to the bathroom on command, so it is impossible that they’ll have an accident in your room.” Impossible? Ask the TD Canada Trust how impossible it is for a service animal to have an accident. It was my fault that Babs left a present in the bank, but it does happen. Accidents happen.

Her ears are clean. I’ll groom her in the morning because her fur still feels like flee goop. But her teeth are brushed and the fleece is washed. She’s probably upset that it doesn’t have her scent as strong, but whatever. Now crashing.

It’s Sunday again. Where is this inhuman energy coming from? My laundry is already in the dryer. The top right dryer sucks and we have to let the dorm staff know. The bottom right dryer never stops drying and the top right dryer doesn’t dry worth a damn.

Well, I got my clothes, but I’m missing a sock. Hopefully I find it before I leave. I decided to skip the massage thing,Autumn went so I’ll ask her how it was. I’ll groom her instead, and then I’ll go to the computers and then eat lunch and then I’ll go to Fisherman’s Warf which I don’t really care about, but oh well. I’ll get to know Jill real well I guess since we’re the only ones going. It’ll be weird to leave without the dog. We can’t take them off campus because our training’s not done, so the instructors will take them out to relieve.

Before I left for lunch, Autumn and I took our woofers to the paddock and Trixie got to go first this time.

Tired. Fisherman’s Warf was ok, but nothing special. I didn’t really give a crap about Fisherman’s Warf and apparently the only reason we ended up there was because Bernard thought it was a place to go fishing, And he didn’t even go with us. Two nice ladies picked us up and were pretty cool I must say. One wanted to find the ice cream place and kept saying “I smell ice cream!” They kept stopping to take pictures for Jill so she’d have lots on her disposable camera. They even took a picture of the Golden Gate bridge as we drove over it. I picked up a couple things, a t-shirt for myself, and Steve, I got you a little something, although now I’m afraid you’ll be mad that I got this. That’ll have you guessing for a while.

We stopped at a chocolate store and I got a piece of chocolate, it was ok. I’m supposed to try some kind of chocolate that I can’t even hope to spell. Something that starts with a G. It sounds like Gear-a-deli Square. Yep, I’m a loser and can’t spell it. Anybody had any? Is it any good?

God it was uber crowded. When we were in the souvenir shop, we were trying to get past some people and we bumped into a guy. Immediately he started yelling, “Did you just push me? Hey, that girl just pushed me!” I thought there was going to be a brawl in the souvenir shop among the mugs and shirts. Then the lady told me he was decked out in pink, from hair to shoes. Ok, wellcome to Than Franthithco.

It was really weird to leave Trixie for that much time. She was so happy to see me that it felt like she was going to rip her tiedown out of the wall. The two ladies saw her and thought she was so cool. Then we ran out to relieve after feeding and ran like mad to a presentation from the gift shop. It was kind of annoying because some things are only available online which is dumb because some people don’t do the net thing, and they didn’t have some of the stuff that I know they are supposed to have. What the hell? But they made sure to bring all the expensive clothing.

Then we had supper and after that I learned how to put flea goop on her back. Not too hard. I was expecting it to be messier. I just have to remember not to groom her for at least 24 hours.

I found my sock! Yea, lost is found!

Now Autumn’s being nice and reading me the freelance guide. The braille one we can’t find, but she printed out the one off the computer so that’s cool. I’m going to have to remember to start bringing money. I have to remember to pick up some stain-remover because they don’t have any here! I spilled hot chocolate on my shirt so if it didn’t come clean, I’ll need it.

People have been having rough encounters with poop. Jill accidentally knelt in some, Amy trailed Dynamo’s leash through, and Bernard gags when he picks it up. It’s really funny to hear a big black man gag. I’m so easily amused.

Think I’ll be snoring soon.

It’s Saturday! We’re really at the midpoint. This morning, we have obedience and relieve and then wait for the rest of us to get our mid-class interviews. Then it’s lunch and in the afternoon, we go over the schedule for next week and do a bus to lounge route. Now I’m excited about those. It’s pretty cool.

I’m so happy. My resume is sent off and not one, but 2 people were impressed with it. Yeah! I have a sporting chance at this job.

This morning has been pretty relaxed, which is pretty cool. Elizabeth, the head honcho of dormitory services, came by, took our orders and gave us a survey about the service, which was awesome, and the computers and what we use. I basically had my hand up for most of the computer stuff. Pretty cool.

Man, Carmen still plays the song. I’m going to hate that tune.

I finally had my mid-class conference thingy. They said I was doing fine. Trixie wouldn’t behave, but I got her to calm down eventually. I mentioned some screwy streets I have that I wanted some practice with. They were cool with that. It was actually pretty quick and painless.

Then Autumn and I took our puppies to the grass paddock. Since we can only go in one at a time, poor Trixie had to wait her turn. She’s funny. You can only get her going if you clap at her. And then, oh then.

Wow, I actually have time to think.

Man, the organ-player makes me feel like I’m at a funeral. Ok, gonna send emails now.

Well, that afternoon was a little, um, disconcerting. We walked from the bus to the lounge and I screwed up two crossings. One she wouldn’t cross and I was all screwed up in terms of alignment. Then when I had to turn, I got all turned around. Ug. Needed help both times. Then when we were going back to the bus, she was all weird and then we had trouble crossing a couple of streets and then she blew a down-curb! Raaar! Well I guess it’s meant to happen here.

I brought her out to relieve but all she’d do was pee. I fed her and something told me to bring her out again, and she pooped. I don’t know how the instructors sneak out without me noticing, but as soon as she dropped the present a voice from overhead said, “She went no. 2.”

Poor Sylvia. Estelle keeps pooping on route and if they can’t break her of it, she won’t make it as a guide. Poor woman. I don’t know what they’d do then, but it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

I got her all groomed up, and Autumn’s happy because she finally got Beauty to play with her tug ring. She threw it at her and then she started chasing it. Pretty cool. I wonder if Trixie will do the same. She’s on tiedown, she collapsed there.

I picked up her first dose of heartguard so we can protect Trixie-poo from heartworm. That’s tomorrow. Then we started watching Beethoven but we didn’t finish it before relieving. I’ll probably not see the end. Sniffle sniffle.

Collapsing now.

Woosh! What a rough start to the day. I woke up at midnight last night to weaping and sputtering of the words “I’m really sick. I think it was something in my food. I’m shaking. I’m throwing up. I can’t miss a day. I don’t want them to take her away!” Groggily, I thought she was talking to me, so I got up and came over to her bed. I told her they weren’t going to take her dog away. She just kept sobbing. I asked her if she wanted me to get the nurse. I heard, “yes.” Then I realized that the nurse was gone at 10. So I asked if she wanted me to phone an instructor. I heard, “I think so!” Then I heard extra things and realized she was on the phone to her mom. I called the instructors anyway and got Jen. She came over and got Autumn some pepto and some juice and filled up her mug with water. I never mentioned that we get to take home a travel mug. How cool is that? So anyway I tried to stay up with her for a while, but my body told me that I must sleep, and sleep I did. I woke up at 5:45 and had the usual shower. God damn it, the last couple of days the showerhead has been pelting me. I felt like Kramer in the elephant shower, you know when he felt his shower wasn’t strong enough so he bought the elephant washer? No matter what I did, it was coming at me strong. What a way to wake up.

So after I get ready and feed and relieve puppy, Autumn wakes up and says that she’s going to try and go to school, even though Jen told her not to worry about it and that they’re not going to take her dog away. These people are wonderful. If I can, I’m going to donate to the school. Just a little money to them every so often. I think every single one of the staff deserves an award. In fact, I’m going to ask someone if they can be nominated or something. They do so much for us. Anyway, she soon realizes that since she’s been up getting sick in various ways until 4 a.m., she’s too tired and weak.

So I go after feeding and relieving to the computer lab in a mad rush to fix my resume, and manage to butcher it something fierce. Craig was in the room and I’m freaking out. I said I’m going to freak out and he said “well if you do, let me know so I can leave the room.” He kept saying things look better after breakfast. I wouldn’t believe him. I eventually had to go and eat breakfast.

The main breakfast didn’t sound good, so I asked for oatmeal. I was so focused on the resume that I ate the oatmeal with a fork. Way to go, way to look like a total tool. After breakfast, I ran to Amy, Amy my hero, and asked her how you fix various formatting styles. She said, “Oh crap. I don’t know.” Then she said, “I’m going to tell Carmen that I’m not singing in the song anymore, and Al doesn’t want to play anymore because he needs to focus on the dog.” I immediately realized that if Al’s not playing, I’m not singing this thing. So we all backed out. It was really getting to be too much. I forgot to mention that when I woke up yesterday morning, the first thing I hear is “Twinks, we have to rewrite a line!” This is after I’d printed it out in three different sizes and was going to braille it. I held my breath and said, “You’re lucky I hadn’t manually brailled it, or I would kill you right now.” I hate the way she calls me scribe and says, “Rewrites have to happen sometimes, that’s the way it is.” Not here, not now, Carmen. You wanna rewrite it, do it yourself. She was slowly killing the joy of the song, and I didn’t want that. I asked Amy if she wanted me to go with her and tell her, and she told me to worry about my resume. I love all these people. I really do.

I ran to the computer and emailed Steve and asked him to send me some lessons I have at home on Microsoft Word, and Steve, my hero, did it! Thanks to him, I believe my resume is successfully tweaked. I’m going to have someone look at it, but I believe it’s ready to be seen.

We did obedience out on the graduation stage while they held food and a crazy large mastiff barked and ran around.

Then we relieved and loaded up, but before I had a chance to load up, I was whisked away for grounds orientation and an intro to…dum duh dum dum, the grass paddock!

Wow those paths are confusing. I’m going to have a peek at the map to keep them straight. She had fun in the paddock. I’m going to invest in a flexi-lead so I can watch that amount of joy. She came back and everything. What a doll.

Then I went to town, and we went into a little cafe, not Starbucks, but another one, and had some hot chocolate, which I managed to spill on my shirt, damn it! The little girl was a little angel, minus a couple slip-ups, especially the one where she tried to drink out of the gutter. We came back to the lounge and she lay quietly while I successfully fixed my resume and breathed a sigh of relief.

Did I mention Dynamo is much better? He seems to have gotten over his extreme need to pee. Poor Sedgey on the other hand may need surgery on his paw. they’re still soaking it, it had some kind of cyst.

So after the route, I came back to the dorm and quickly groomed my pooch and wiped off some toothpaste that I apparently got on her muzzle. Woops. Oh I forgot to mention that when the O and M lady was driving me to the lounge after my little play session in the grass paddock, silly little Trixie thought my lap would be a fine seat for her. Silly scoundrel.

After grooming, we went to lunch and lunch was delicious. Then I came back here and waited for Sue…Sullivan? to come and ask us what our shopping orders were. I didn’t have any, but Autumn did, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t sleep through the knock. Sue is hillarious about not showing her emotions through her voice but being smily and all that. Yesterday, when we were trying to get ready for pictures, I was trying to help Autum with the back of her dress. Just at this moment, Sue…Sullivan? was knocking at the door and we were laughing and then Autumn had to quickly cover up to answer the door and then she went and answered it and Sue…Sullivan? was all smiles, but spoke in her usual serious tones.

Then it was 1:30, and we found out that today was the day we pick up their poopies. Yea poopy pick-up practice. I felt bad because the bag dispenser was right outside the doors where you leave to go relieve, so I was reaching out to find it and inadvertently slugged Jen who was standing there supposed to be tapping it. Oops. I womped her a good one too.

So after relieving, we did our second bus to lounge! I was actually excited about this one! We got out at Bank of America and we had to sit there and wait our turn because the bus couldn’t park there. We did the staggered leaving thing and walked 5 blocks down to the lounge, and she did it flawlessly. We met our first completely rude, overbearing, clueless person. She was getting on the bus and the whole time was bellowing about how our dogs shouldn’t be out in the sun and that the lady in the green had to move her dog so she could get on the bus. We had no idea who the lady in the green was so we just had to move everyone down. I was the last one to go, since I was the final time-keeper. We got back, and I was never happier. Trixie, apparently, was exhausted.

She did one squirrely thing on the bus. I got up and she started skittering like mad. Then she refused to heel! It was like she was scared stiff of something. They said maybe I stepped on her, but I don’t think so. She’d tell me in a yipe if I stepped on her, she’s just that way. But twice, when leaving the bus, she started skittering! I really wondered what I’d done.

I got off the bus and managed to weave my way through the course. Now that I know that even if you hit the bumps with your heels it’s not too late to make your turns, it’s not so bad! We wooshed through and headed in to relieve. We’re back early because it’s mid-class interview times. I’m waiting for that now. My beast is fed. I’m going to write a cover letter to go with this resume, and before the night is out, it will be winding its way through cyberspace.

I had a minor breakdown when it was time to relieve. The instructors had been a bit cranky with me, and I took this as a sign that I wasn’t where I should be in my training. Audrey said nno, they’re just tired, that’s all.

One cute thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned: My puppy, when in harness, without tbeing taught to, will find *my* chair! She finds it every time and drops me on the right side of it. The first couple days she didn’t, but now she does. What a doll. I love this pooch more and more every day.

Oh, I met the infamous Bryan Francis today at lunch. It’s weird listening to a voice you’ve only heard on tape. He seems llike a sweet man.

So it’s almost supper time. Someone in the retrain class loves the organ. He made his song this morning fit the mealtime chimes.

Poor Autumn’s still laying in bed. I’m worried about her. I don’t quite know if she knew what she was in for.

I’m amazed at how well Carmen took the news that we’re not doing the song. I still want to talk to her and urge her to put the words in the program for the graduation because they’re cool words. There’s just no way we had patience for this level of rehearsal. It just wasn’t happening.

Holy shit Deborah just got her tags. I forgot she was leaving tomorrow. One week of training and then in-home training. Um, that’s when you know a person’s had a lot of dogs.

I wonder if anything else is going to happen today. It just feels like an eventful day.

Got my resume written and sent off! Then collapsed. It’s nice to hear two people say they liked my resume and “would hire me”.

Man a lot is happening today. Morning is lecture, then we’re going to town and we’re having…half of us get to have traffic checks and the other half work to a store. Then I assume more of us get to free run our dogs. Then it’s lunch, picture day, then we get a bus to the lounge route I think. Then it’s the dinner stuff and at some point we need to decide where we’re going and who is going. I also have to braille out those words at some point. Another week almost over. Food sounds good to me this morning. Some kind of cool muffins, cheeseburgers and fries, and for dinner, pepper steak. Mmm. I’m such a weirdo, writing about food.

Apparently I talked in my sleep last night. Autumn asked me this morning if I was on my phone. Um, nope. I lay down pretty early, Shortly after 9, and I wasn’t talking to anyone. Wonder what I said. She doesn’t know, but she said it sounded pretty coherent. Um, yikes. Well almost time to scarf a yummy breakfast.

Breakfast was good. We had our morning route where a car driven by someone we have affectionately nicknamed Paulo the Stalker chased us and showed us what it’s like when cars cut us off, come at us, chase us from behind and what our dog’s response would be. Mine was a beautiful little angel. I came back and we had lunch…what was it? Oh a cheeseburger. And pecan pie for dessert. I felt like such a whale.

After lunch, I put on the pants I’m going to wear to the graduation and a white shirt. Oh yeah did I mention this morning we had to strip our beds? So I come back to get dressed and there’s the new pile of linen. So I get into my picture outfit and we head down to the picture. The guy who takes the pictures is hillarious. he barks and whistles at the dogs until he gets their attention. it’s beautiful. It didn’t take long with my curious little woofer. So then we got a group picture, and I found out the coolest news! We can get them on CD! That means I can email them! Yea email pictures!

So after that’s all done, we run back, get changed, relieve woofers and head to…gulp…our first independent travel. I’m thrilled to bits that we’re doing it, but it’s still stressful the first time. As soon as they said that they’d be stationed along the way but we were travelling alone, I suddenly felt the immediate need to use the john. Tough beans for me. So they sent each of us off at 3-minute intervals. Wow was that ever cool! They gave us a preset route that would take us from where they parked the buses to the lounge. Finally, the lounge wasn’t a place to wait to go out! It was a destination! What a concept! I got there, and the only thing that went wrong was one up-curb getting blown. But that’s a hell of a better ratio than it’s been, so I’m happy. When we got to that broken sidewalk, and you could hear the loud phone from the tire shop, I was ecstatic. Evidently, so was Trixie. She picked up the pace about 3-fold and went for the door with all her might. Yeah! Success! I walked in and Carmen was there and a couple others. Finally, I could use the john!

Oh, we made a new word, snop. It’s sniff and stop. So if the dog stops to sniff a bush, we joke that they snopped.

Three things she did today that were absolutely hillarious. First, she must know the meaning of “I forgot!” because when I was in the foyer and realized I had no kibble, I said, “I forgot!” and before I could heel her around, she made a complete U-turn. Trixie, are you learning English?

Second, I was trying to get her rug so I could put it back down post-feeding, and the empty dish fell almost on her head! But instead of being scared, she just sniffed, licked me and wagged her tail!

Third, I was playing with her and I lay down. She did two circles of me, must have thought I was dead, and ran away to her tiedown area. As soon as I got up, she came over wagging her tail like mad. It was cute. She actually asked if she could be put on tiedown now, she’s that exhausted. She went over there and lay down. Ok, as you wish.

Carmen is demanding a rehearsal. must go to that, but I’m not staying long, I don’t have the desire. Listen, Carmen, we don’t need to practice the song this much. Autumn’s like screw it, I don’t even want to sing it anymore. I didn’t stay long, then I went, large printed the words, got my resume, tweaked it and am going to have someone look at it. Everyone is so cheering for me. They’re so cute. My poor doggy was so tired that she didn’t even get excited when I brushed her teeth.

Craig is a strange flirt. He was talking about massages and the guy who comes around who you can pay for a massage if you want one. I made my usual comment about how it would weird me out if a stranger massaged me. He started asking me what if it was a tall, dark, handsome stranger? What if he was a tall, dark, handsome stranger who was special to you? I’m like um then he wouldn’t be a stranger would he? And then he started making random references to..well, the professional may be all booked up but if you want an amature…Eeewww. That’s disgusting.

I think that’s about it. As usual, I’m late for hitting the pilow. 9:30 is late now. Ok then.

It’s another Wednesday. Man where is time going? I hope we start picking up poop soon, I’d like to get it down. She’s back on the regular food, at least I hope she’s supposed to be, because I gave her the regular food this morning.

I got an email saying that someone was looking for a person to teach blind clients assistive technology, so I phoned about it and got this bitchy secretary that said the person I was looking for was away. She told me to email her. I hope I didn’t just blow that opportunity. It’s hard to make a business call before 7 in the morning your time, But I did it.

Arg they still haven’t changed the schedule! I rely on that thing! All I know is I’m supposed to bring the gental leader this morning and we’re going to a residential route, and this afternoon we’re booking the outing and ordering pictures. How big is a 4X6? Is that like picture frame size or what? And what’s a 5×7? I’m terrible at sizes. Oh well I’ll ask the instructors this morning what we’re doing.

This morning was a nice route. We were in this old neighbourhood where the sidewalk was all chewed up. A dog off leash just wouldn’t leave us alone. I think he wanted to play. It took a lot of scaring from Audrey to get him to leave. I guess Audrey and Jessica are apprentices. I didn’t realize that. Oh, and Tamara came back today! Yea!

Apparently we start picking up their…presents either tomorrow or Friday. Good. Lots of time to get it down. Apparently some of us get to take our puppies for a free run in the grass paddock.

I still have to email the technology lady. Ug. I’d like to do that now, but we’re supposed to hang tight here.

This afternoon, the vet will talk to us. Yea! And we do the basic route again. I have to remember to do obedience because I forgot to do it this morning.

Man I couldn’t decide what to eat for lunch. There was either a taco salad or wings and things. The blue cheese dip made me decide to have the taco salad. Mmm. Taco salad!

Salad was good, Frank and Craig were goofy. Then we did the basic route and I even did the longer block. Did obedience on it and everything and she did fine. I was approached by some freaky guy yelling “Hey dog, wanna have a crack at my stick?” Ug! Tamara’s like is that a comfortable pace for you? I said no, I’m trying to run from that man. Then, at an intersection of all places, this guy’s like “can I pet your dog a minute?” I’m like no. Yeah, pet my dog, I.E. distract her, right before I’m supposed to cross the street. That shows intelligence.

We had the vet talk this afternoon and talked about fleas and all that stuff. That vet doesn’t sound like a vet. He sounds like a farmer or something. Oh, Craig told us there was a competition on graduation day and I thought he was full of crap, but I found out he was not. Then we got back at a more reasonable time and did all the regular jazz.

Dinner was good, this weird tortilla that you have to roll this stuff up in.

Then I went and started printing stuff for this song. Carmen’s wonderful, but oy yoy yoy. This is a song, a joke, some fun. It does not need to be polished and perfect. She won’t stop playing the piano even though Al’s going to play the guitar. I can’t get the braille printer to work, so I’m going to have to manually braille them out. Thank god it’s only 3 copies. Fall down go boom. Have to do email and braille and one print over again cause she wants it in bold.