Life Is Random, Enjoy It! » dogs

The Proposal

tra — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:38:09 +0000

So as most people who might possibly be reading this, I got engaged a couple weeks ago! Hooray!!! Now I know, people want to know the story, so here goes:

Let me first say, I HAD NO IDEA this was gonna happen. I already knew that this was the guy I wanted to marry, but I figured it was gonna be at some point in the future. I knew it was a big decision and a big commitment to move across the country with him, but I knew it was something I was ready to do. So we began our journey out of the state of California on April 1st, and ended our roadtrip here in Colorado on the 10th. It was on the 9th of April, 2010, that my dear took the giant leap and proposed.

On this particular day, we were going to pass through Arches National Park and I know I was very excited to see this National Park. As it turns out, although we got to see quite a few really cool arches, we couldn’t take a hike through the one area of the park that contained most of the more spectacular arches because dogs weren’t allowed on the trails. So, instead we decided to do a little off-roading down a gravel road within the park to, what we thought, might be a less visited arch, where we could “break the rules” and take the kids with us on a hike. Unfortunately, when we got there, there were quite a few other people there as well, so we didn’t get our hike.

As we left the park, the mister seemed a little dejected, and I thought it was because we couldn’t take the kids with us on a hike and they had been hanging out in the car for most of the day so far. Since our route was taking us alongside the Colorado River towards the border of Colorado and Utah, we figured we’d try to find ourselves a spot along the river to let the kids out of the car and run around some. Little did I know that he had other plans in mind! So we finally found ourselves a spot alongside the river (we had to climb through some bushes to get there, but at least we could see our car parked on the side of the road), and we let the kids loose. They started running up and down the riverbank, chasing sticks and just having a grand old time.

At this point, the mister turned to me and started to get all serious, so I thought something was wrong. He was like “so I figured, you know, that this a huge step that the four of us are making, and I wanted to make sure you know how much it means to me and how much you mean to me…”. I was slightly distracted at this point (and yes, I feel HORRIBLE about it), because I was trying to pay attention to what the brat was doing in the water. He then was like, “so I have a question for you…” at which point he reached into his pocket and started to drop to the ground. I immediately started paying attention and said something along the lines of “uh…what the hell are you doing?!” as I started to back away. He pulled the ring out of his pocket and asked if I would marry him. I think it took me a few to comprehend what was going on, but I eventually said absolutely positively YES! I eventually learned that he had wanted to propose to me at Arches, but since we couldn’t go on a hike, and it was pretty crowded, he was starting to sweat it (which was why I thought he was a lil dejected). He really started to panic when we couldn’t find a good, secluded spot along the river, but luckily it worked out for us.

As it turned out, he knew my aversion to jewelry, especially anything fancy, etc, and because he couldn’t find something he liked and thought I’d like from the traditional jewelry store, he decided that he’d only propose if he could find a ring he liked while we were on our roadtrip. And he thought that’d be pretty cool too since it would symbolize the journey we were taking. So he found himself a ring made by an Indian woman in Arizona. It contains turquoise, and onyx, along with some other stones that I don’t know what they are, as well as has three bears which symbolize strength and endurance. I LOVE IT! We might eventually opt for something more traditional when it comes to actually getting married, but in the meantime, this will do just fine for me.

So that was our story! Neither of us are in any rush to actually get married and/or plan the wedding, so it’ll probably be a minute before it actually happens (not till next year at the earliest I think), but at the same time, it’s kinda fun to say I’m engaged!!! Now if I can just get used to wearing a ring all the time…

Roadtrip Anyone?

tra — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:39:51 +0000

It’s hard to believe that the day of our moving is actually almost here. In fact, one week from today we will be hitting the road in what will be my longest and most eventful roadrip ever! And boy oh boy am I looking forward to it. Some days I think I’m a planner, and some days I don’t, but in this instance, I’ve definitely planned out exactly where we’re going to go and what we’re going to see. The only other, what I call a roadtrip, is when I moved from Seattle and drove down to California. It took us three days to do the drive, without very many sightseeing stops along the way. This time, however, we’re going to take our time, see whatever we can along the way, and even venture beyond the straight route to get there.

If we took the straight-shot, quickest way to get to our final destination of Denver, it would take us 21 hours to get there. We’ve decided, however, on the slightly roundabout way. We will be moving to Denver via the Yosemite National Park, Disneyland, Joshua Tree, the Mojave Desert, Route 66, the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, and the ever exciting Rocky Mountains! We’re turning a 21 hour drive into at least a 33 hour drive (not including random stops along the way of course!). This adventure of ours should make for some amazing pictures and crazy stories, and I can’t wait to share them!

In the meantime, let’s all hope the car makes it…

Street Poopers

tra — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:28:26 +0000

It amazes me everyday how filthy the streets of San Francisco really are. I don’t mean the rubbish flying around on the side of the road, or the homeless camped out under the freeways, because really, you can find that in almost any big city. I mean the poop I see everyday on the streets. Dog poop, people poop, you name it, I usually see it at least once a day. As a pedestrian in this city, I am grossed out by the fact that I can’t walk down the street without watching where I walk because of the minefield of poop on the streets. As a dog owner, however, I am outraged, especially by the dog poop that people carelessly leave every which way. Now, my dog, she poops a lot, probably more than any other dog I’ve ever met. I always have poop bags on hand, and I make sure to pick up her poop, even if it’s in some grassy/wooded area because really, you just never know who might end up traipsing through there. I have noticed, that as the weather has become more rainy, the existence of poop on the streets seems to have exponentially increased.

Take, for example, my last “step in poop” experience. It had been a fairly rainy week, and because of that, on the first somewhat clear day, we took the kids for a walk. Within the first five minutes, I stepped in poop in the building backyard. This backyard has TWO trash stations with complimentary poop bags, so there is no excuse for NOT picking up your dog’s poop!!! After unsuccessfully trying to remove the grossness from my shoe, we kept walking, and behind the baseball field, I stepped in poop AGAIN! Twice in a half an hour period! And once again, the area where I stepped in poop the second time, was full of complimentary poop bags! Two days later, I stepped in poop for a third time, this time on the way to work. I mean, okay, fine, it was raining outside, you want to hurry up and get back inside where it’s dry. But c’mon people, you’re already outside, it takes two seconds to pull out a poop bag (which, if you’re a dog owner, you SHOULD have on hand), and pick up the poop!!! It’s people like that, who make cities less dog-friendly. Granted, SF is still the most dog friendly place I’ve been to, but I’d imagine, if this trend continues, there will be more and more rules making the city less friendly to you and your 4-legged pal. Think about it…