Doggie Day Care

Its Djo-Djo, again. Yes, picking up the slack once again. So, this morning I dropped my little drop of sunshine, Shelby, off at doggie day care, yes, folks, that’s right I pay $22.17 a day and drive 20 minutes out of my way (each way) approximately 3 times a week to make sure my little Shelby gets plenty of exercise and love while I am work. It gets worse, I dress little Shelby up for school... I mean day care, in cute little doggie t-shirts. (In my defense, her entire underside is white and those cute little t-shirts help keep her clean.) It gets better.... there are 2 guys that run the day care. They love asking me all sorts of personal questions as I drop Shelby off and pick her up. If I am dressed up they ask me if I am having a girl’s night or when Shelby missed a few days because I was in Vegas, they asked me who I went with, where I stayed, etc. Most recently, my parents loaned me my old Mercedes Benz (folks, lets be clear this is an old-school eighties mercedes) to use to take Shelby to and from day care. They asked all sorts of questions about the car, what my childhood was like, and concluded, “oh... you were one of THOSE girls.” Naturally, I completely disagreed w/ their assessment. I was nothing like THOSE girls—anyone who knows me, knows that. That’s my point, these guys think they know me, but they don’t. They just watch little Shelby when I am at work and she cant even talk about what I’m really like. Anywho, this morning, I show up post-daylight savings w/ no make-up wearing my husband’s sweat pants only to have them stare at me, give me a look, and say, “Shelby, I hardly recognized your mom today.” I think that extra $.17 I pay goes for the attitude.

Day Light Savings, How I Love Thee

As I marinate through the years, there is one thing that has become more dear to me than anything else, sunshine. I'll take it any way I can get it: directly, through rain clouds, in my house, outside, on vacation, at work (I heart you too, window cube), walking down the street, running, waiting for the bus, shopping on a Sunday. Well, you get the idea.

I first noticed my love for the sun when I was in my early teens. Trying to see how far back my memory would go (and trying to prove to my mother that we have indeed moved quite a bit), I conjured up my favorite memories. In all of these memories, there was one constant-- direct, unforgiving, and blinding sunshine. Later in life, when asked what my perfect day looked like, I began with the weather- and you guessed, sunshine was the star.

This past weekend, we all set our clocks one hour forward. Most are quick to gripe that we lose an hour of sleep but I beg to differ. Instead, I say we GAIN an hour of sun and there are few things more healthy than that. I found myself in my usual winter weekend postion, horizontal on my couch with remote in hand flipping mindlessly through reality television, with one small difference: I could not remove the ear-to-ear grin on my face caused by that big ball of fire in the sky.

Pleased with day light savings and myself, I celebrated by participating in my favorite activity: napping.