Looking on the Bright Side

The day was going smoothly, so I should have guessed something like this would happen. I was only home from school for a few minutes when it was time to pick Sam up from football practice and hurry him to piano lessons. The dogs looked at me with pleading eyes, begging me not to put them back in their cages, so I let them ride along.

While driving to piano lessons, Pearl stood in my lap, and I realized with horror that she had a huge, shiny, purple lump on her rear end. Being a dog without much hair and no tail, it was alarming looking and unmistakable that something was horribly wrong. Some sort of infection had obviously taken over her backside and somehow I had neglected to notice. Thoughts ping-ponged around in my brain....how long had THAT been there?...looks awfully painful, poor dog... I must be a bad pet owner to have a pet suffering from a hideous growth like that and not even realize it....it's 5:30, and the vet clinic is surely closed....what am I gonna do if that thing BLOWS??

With shaking hands, I dialed the clinic's number and nearly cried with relief when they answered. They were open late tonight (proof to any non-believer that there is a God) and I could come right over.

By the grimaces on the office staff's face, I knew it was a bad abscess. The doctor got her haz-mat suit and several gauze pads for the "procedure". Yes, it involved pain and blood, but Pearl was a good little patient. I was brave too and didn't keel over, I'm proud to report.

$83.00 later, I left the vet's office with antibiotics, prednisone, and a towel wrapped around Pearl's still-oozing backside. Somehow I made it back to pick up Sam from piano lessons before he even had a chance to know anything had happened.

Tonight I am counting my blessings. Thankful the vet was open and available to help us, thankful that awful thing didn't rupture in my bed while she was sleeping with me, and thankful for feminine products that double as emergency doggie-diapers. No matter what kind of day a person has had...no matter how bad a person's life gets, one can look on the bright side if they don't have a ruptured abscess on their rear-end.

Confessions of a Bag Lady

I think I've become a bit of a bag lady this summer. My efforts to be organized and keep things simple led me to brilliantly decide I needed a different bag for every activity in my life. I visualized myself being amazingly organized and prepared for any event on my busy calendar, grabbing a bag and punctually dashing out of the house at a moment's notice. It hasn't worked out exactly as expected, but I think the system has promise.

First, I have a baseball bag, a cute little tote with a sports print that I keep all the handy essentials for traveling to ball games. From bug repellant to m&ms, sun screen and an extra sweatshirt, that bag stayed packed and ready for life at the ballpark.

Next, I need my church bag. It carries my bible, hard candy, water bottle, pens, and other necessary items. Right now it probably also has about 3 months worth of old church bulletins in it.

I also need my school bag. The problem is, school work this summer varies between grad school classes and teaching summer school to little ones. Repacking this tote bag each time I left the house seemed a bit too straightforward and logical so I needed to add another bag to my collection. My dad picked up on the fact that I was becoming a bag lady and he has an abundance of freebie tote bags from continuing ed conferences, so he offered me a couple of blue DMACC bags. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so it made perfect sense to me to use both of them.

Life as a bag lady has it's ups and downs, though. I have run out of door handles to hang all the bags I need. Remembering which dark blue bag has my flash drive in the bottom causes me some frantic last minute searches. The bag of m&ms I discretely reach for during a long Viterbo class sometimes eludes me because it's actually in the baseball bag. There have also been some close calls when I'm headed to my educational research class and grab the bag that contains picture books and phonics games. It appears that my system has a few glitches, but with a little refining, I can be really organized and prepared. Last night I was browsing online at some cool Kavu tote bags. I think having one of those might be just exactly what I need....