dog park

My dog is a nervous wreck. I am convinced she has some psychological issues. Perhaps the years of being raised in a Jewish home are finally taking their toll, because her neuroses are definitely getting the better of her. Her reaction to the dishwasher being turned on is much like the reaction one would have when being confronted by a 10 foot great white shark while enjoying a swim at dusk. Shock. Panic. Perhaps a little bit of disbelief and a hint of hysteria. She will stop whatever the hell it is she is doing and make a mad dash for the closest exit she can find. Now the problem with that is to our little dog, the wooden flooring might as well be an ice-rink, and in her mad-dashing around she frequently falls on her face after a cartoon-like attempt to stop running on the spot. This is traumatic for the poor dog, as you can imagine.

Once we reach the panic-stricken animal, we find she exhibits typical signs of shock - her heart banging against her rib-cage, gasping for breath etc... Now if this problem were confined to a noisy dishwasher we could probably handle that. But every unexpected sound has this dog sprinting around the room like rat on Redbull, and the first few times I was very sympathetic and tried to console the pup like I would a good friend. Now I just think she's plain nuts.

brainstorm

Well it's 12am on Sunday eve, and apparently that is my best blogging time because here I am again after a weekend that is prototypical of the last few years of my life (oh yes, some self-reflection!)

On Friday I went out with people from work, who bought an amount of alcohol possible of anaesthetizing a small elephant and proceeded to drink it all in a fairly unceremonious fashion. At some point early on I stopped myself from over-committing to the celebrations, memories of over-indulgences at similar parties in the past perhaps looming large. So while I sobered up, everyone around me became increasingly happy, and while I was enjoying myself and on "my game", I couldn't help but feel like an outsider looking in. It's hard to explain but I felt as if I was more of an observer than a participant.

When an attractive girl arrived with a girlfriend of mine, it appeared to be a turning point. Upon looking at my watch however I realized I had 20 minutes until I had to leave to catch the last bus home...my exit plan and a reason to not commit myself to the festivities (conscious or unconscious who knows?) After resolving to make an effort, I made the approach and in a fairly smooth way (looking back on it I am impressed with myself) introduced myself and after a few minutes had started a fun conversation. It was going so well in fact that I was thinking of ditching the bus and cabbing it home - until her friend on the other side of the room yelled for her to join. Which she politely did. Instead of staying and pursuing, I looked at my watch, said my goodbyes and made a mad dash for the bus. I took the easy way out, the safe route...and regretted it in the dark of the bus, watching TV on my iPod as the city lights faded behind me.

Well. It seems like a fairly dark post, but it isn't. I am optimistic and hopeful - and taking control.
To a fantastic week, remember to savour the good moments and learn from the bad.

Cheers.


P.S. Here's my next great line : If Life's a highway, then it's time to take your feet off the brake and put this fucker into overdrive.

Update.

OK, well the aforementioned mega-blog will just have to wait, because as usual it is late Sunday night and I have been stuck doing things that I've been putting off all weekend - fun stuff like paying bills and doing laundry. I've figured out that I would really love a personal assistant to do all this shit for me. Clean my room, balance my cheque book, pay my parking tickets, fetch me a chai-latte, fix my computer, do my shopping, laundry etc... All those tasks that stretch the length of my procrastinations.

So let's catch up. The past few weeks, like the past few months really, have been a bit of a blur. Work has been stressful as I've been on a bit of a cold streak. In a company that has "what did you do for me yesterday" as a motto, this is certainly not good news. As my boss says (quite often) "shit rolls downhill". Usually these sayings are based in truth (i.e. birds of a feather flock together), but when was the last time you actually saw shit rolling downhill...seriously. But he means it to say "I am getting shat on from above, so now I will shit on you, and you have to go shit on your team." Motivational speaking at it's lucid and energizing best.

As of last week, the cold streak is over, which means my bank account is patting me on the back for a job well done, and I will not get the "shit rolls downhill" speech for at least another week. Yeah!

Downloaded a trio of songs that I have now played to death on my iPod - I loved them, now I am bored of them. That is the curse of the catchy song. Anyhow here they are: Kanye West - Stronger; Timbaland - The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson); Akon - I wanna love you.

Now for the inspirational part of this blog: whenever you are stuck in a situation where fear holds you back, just think "what would I do if I wasn't afraid?" And then do that. Fear is mostly irrational, conquer it.

Anyhow this blog will have to be contd... later. Have a phenomenal week.

Catch up post coming soon

I have neglected this blog for a while, so I am going to write a mega-blog over the weekend as a sort of catch-up session. I have been pumping out this blog for over a year and a half now, so I think that a little break is warranted, a refresh, a reload. So that's coming soon. Stay tuned.

Watch

I wrote about this Letterman episode in one of my very first blogs...thank goodness for youtube because here it is.

Take a look at the first and second segments if you can - it's fantastic television.