Dog Days of College

I have a few "half posts" that I would really like to share with yall, I'll post some of them I'm sure, but most of the things bouncing around in my head right now are never going to come to fruition and that makes me sad.

This first in a series of who knows how many will be about Twister.

Twister is my dog

my puppy

my baby

He was my birthday present when I turned 15.

A few years before this, Rip and I shared a dog named Bear. Bear had always had a problem jumping fences. He was too good at it. We had a 7 foot fence that he would leap over in order to meet us (and the rest of the elementary school) halfway home from school.

My stepdad had a coworker that was moving to Austin where he had a few acres. Let's call him Bob. Bob offered to take Bear off our hands, we had a baby on the way, we were moving where we only had a 4 foot fence, so Bear would jump much more often. Momma decided that Bear had to go.

Well that's what they told us at the time.

My stepdad took Bear to the Humane Society and told them about Bear, they took him and sent him to another family. Momma now says that she went in to check on him 3 days later and he was already adopted.

Still.

He was our dog.

So, when I got Twister a few years later, I made sure he was my dog. In my name.

Twister is a pure bred English Springer Spaniel. I got him for $35 out of the back of a pick-up truck. He is liver and white and completely adorable!!

My stepdad decided that when Twister turned a year old, that it was time for him to live outside, instead of in my room.

Twister contracted heart worms shortly after, my stepdad wanted to put him down, it was too expensive to fix him. Luckily Momma talked him into helping me save my dog's life. His part was completely financial of coarse.

When I moved in with Daddy, I couldn't bring Twister. Daddy lives in an apartment. Once again, my stepdad entered the picture. He wanted to get rid of Twister because I wouldn't be taking care of him anymore. Momma put her foot down, once again, and Twister remained a part of my family.

I went to college and he pulled the same stunt, only this time I had to find a place for him to live once I moved to Galveston. I asked everyone I knew, I searched for a good home for him that I knew, so once I figured out stuff down here, I could bring Twister down. I finally found a friend who would do it, Momma!

So Momma made my stepdad keep Twister.

When I got back to Galveston from Christmas Break, there were puppies everywhere! I went to talk to my manager and pay rent and she said that I could bring a dog here, so that weekend, 2 days later, I drove 5 hours home and 5 hours back to get my dog.

I'm sure yall have noticed the picture of him on my blog, that was taken 4 years ago when he was 3 months old. He is so happy to be here and I am so happy to have him, I'm pretty sure I couldn't go back to living without him now that I have him here!

Walking the Winding Path of Self Discovery

I'm still reading The Secret and it told me to make a list of things that I am grateful for and that seems like the type of thing I should put on here. It didn't give me a number, but I'm going to say that every person should be able to think of at least 10 things that they are grateful for so that's what I'm going to do!

1. I'm grateful I have my family. As much as Momma gets on my case, yells at me, or tries to fix my hair or clothes before I leave the house, I know that she does so much for me. She pushed me way to hard to get into college, but look where I am today, I love being here, I'm doing what I want to do, honestly, sometimes it's a bit surreal to me to think that one day *I* will get to touch an Orca Whale. That speaks to me. The only reason I've done as well as I have so far is all thanks to my mother! I'm grateful for my Dad, Steve. He was not a very big part of my life for awhile, but since he came back, I don't know what I would do without him. He is such an amazing source of information that I don't really want to know, but can't help but be curious about. I love hearing his stories about his dad, his mom, his childhood and everything since then. Yall think his blog is something, try living with him! He thinks of these stories and the way he tells them is, believe it or not, so much better than the way he writes it! Even Rip, who gets into all kinds of trouble all the time, I'm so glad I have him! He was my best friend for the first decade of my life. I still love him more than I know. Dr. Carrot-Top is such a special little boy. He makes you realize all the small things in life that truly matter. He asked my grandmother one day "Nana, What do you call the holes in your nose that boogers come out of?" Adorable.

2. I'm grateful for my friends. At any given moment, I can call five different girls or three different guys and they will talk to me, when I'm sad, when I'm happy, when I'm-so-bored-out-of-my-mind-that-if-I-don't-talk-to-
someone-this-instant-I'm-gonna-go-crazy.

I love my friends so much, and I'm so very grateful to have them. I'm not sure how sane I would be today if it wasn't for them.

3. I'm so happy I met Red. She wasn't supposed to be my rooommate. When she came to get her apartment, they changed them around and kicked another girl out of the room so that she could live there. I'm so grateful that they did. If I hadn't met Red I'm pretty sure that both of us would be in tiny little pieces on the kitchen floor somewhere right about now.

4. I'm grateful for music. I love music, it has given me and so many people I know so much happiness. From me and my friends sitting around listening to music, having it become a part of my life in band all the way to Mother of Invention's song that she wrote and sang and is now all over the web on youtube! Music helps people cheer up, breaks the ice, validates their emotions, helps with focus, and setting the mood. When you hear a song that was very important to you at a certain point in your life, you remember what was going on, you remember how you were feeling and some of the problems. We all have a soundtrack to our lives and I'm so thankful for that!

5. I'm thankful that I get to go home. I'm so lucky to be able to fly home for holidays! Some people don't get to do that. I take for granted everything my parents do for me and I'm oh so very thankful that they do, without my approval and sometimes to my distaste, my mom and dad take care of me, every day. Momma sent me a package in the mail with baked potatoes, these amazing chocolate lava volcano things and fillet mignon, all frozen and ready to cook because she "Wanted to make sure you, Red and Houston were well fed for our finals." I talked to Daddy while I was crying, wanting to come home, very upset about being alone, and he asks me for my friend's number so that I can have my flute, that they bought me, because it makes me happy to play it for him. This all seems like it's being grateful for my mom and dad, but I have to be grateful for them because everything I do leads back to something they have taught me.

It took me a few days to write this, but I think it's worth it, I didn't make my goal of 10 but these 5 will do quite nicely, maybe I'll come back and write 5 more, but I got stuck on how amazing my parents are, how most people's parents are. Even as teenagers we cry and whine and act like small children, we all do it, at more appropriate times than small children, but we do. I'm sure that every once in a while, even the most adult of grown-ups feels like throwing a temper tantrum. I'm so glad I have my mom and dad to let me cry over silly things sometimes.

I Love My Mother

My mom is a pirate. My dad used to be a pirate, but he found his happy thought.

If you have ever seen the movie Hook, you know what I’m talking about. For those of you that haven’t:

Pirates are those people who ‘Grew up’, they are ‘Grown ups’.

They lost their happy thought somewhere along the way and forgot how to fly.

I hope I never forget how to fly.

Most people don’t realize when they lose their happy thought, it just kind of happens.

You know my mother as X Mrs. Bulletholes, I’ll just call her Momma. Momma works. Momma works a lot. Momma tries very hard to be everything to her children and at work, but she can’t. It’s just not humanly possible. Her expectations of herself are going to lead to a nervous break down, and she’s already half there. When something goes wrong, she tries to micromanage everything so that it will all be o.k. in the end.

I don’t think she realizes that some things she thinks are going wrong are just taking the scenic route on the path through life.

Momma expects everyone around her to be perfect as well, I think. I was upset and told her that maybe I didn’t want to go to college, and she sent me to the counselor at school. Do all moms stress you out more than help sometimes?

Mine does.