Quicky update:
I counted my shoes last weekend when I was going through my stuff to donate/sell. Take a guess... no, way more. I had 115 pairs of shoes. I have a problem. I got rid of 42 pairs. (That includes flip-flops, not like it matters.) If popularity was measured in shoes, I'd be the flippin' queen. I'm selling a lot of stuff at this local consignment shop. Maybe I'll make some easy cash. Not like I'm getting my money back, but it's better than giving/throwing it all away.

My name is Tay, and I'm a shoe-a-holic.

I'll try and give a short re-cap of my Chicago trip last week. Since I'm at work and someone might narc on me... gotta be sneaky.

Left ass-early last Tuesday, like 5:30am. My friend Amanda drove; got MickeyD's to wake up. Got there about 10:30 central time. Went to the Science and Industry Museum; it was the shiz-nit. They had a CSI exhibit that was hella cool. Was going to go to Shedd's Aquarium, but the stupid presidential debate was going on. So, we went to Michigan Ave and got Jamba Juice (awesome smoothies, best ever) and shopped until dark. Found some good stuff at H&M and Filene's Basement. Drove back to the hotel area and had pizza at the local shaddy bar. Our hotel was in Des Plaines, IL - location of the first McDonald's. And that was another useless fact...

Wednesday, woke up at 8am, went to Shedd's Aquarium... awesome. I could stare at those jellyfish for hours (mental note: need jellyfish aquarium at home). Then went to the planetarium, which was kinda lame and finished off at the Natural History museum for about an hour... saw the largest T-Rex fossil named Sue. Then it started raining like mad, so we drove to a mall. Oogled some designer stuff, ate at the Cheesecake factory and back to hotel to crash.

Thursday, we slept in. Had to go to 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk training from noon until 5. (I'm not walking, just volunteering) We found a great seafood place for dinner (Shedd's made Amanda crave seafood, weird) Then back to the hotel. Kinda short day.

Friday, up and atom at 3:30. Ouch. Had to be at the 3-Day by 4am to set-up. Opening Ceremonies started at 6:30. Then we had to take everything to the campsite and set-up again. The ladies we worked with were quite flaky. I hate dumb people. It's bad to say, especially at a fundraising event. All we had to do was pour water and make gatorade... it's not that hard. They had to make it all complicated. Whatever, it's not rocket science. It also took this long to get sick of my travelmate. She got on my nerves. Stating the obvious about everything gets annoying... as well as talking about her wedding every chance she got. LAME. She's still my friend, but after spending every minute with someone for 6 days straight,... you know.

Saturday was more of the same. We did get some down time in the afternoon and a chance to shower. The campsite had some good shower stations, but the port-o-potties were smelly. Felt weird not to flush. Went to bed at 10:30pm and was awaken by wind, rain, and lightning at 3am Sunday morning. Had to runaway from camp inside the local community college building nearby for an hour and wait out the storm. Cuz everything was wet, we just stayed up.

Sunday, after around 4 hours sleep, lasted forever. We got our crap done about 8:30am and left for MI. Got back about 5pm after the longest car ride. Had to throw my stuff in the wash for fear of mildew. Took a nap. Woke up, ate, and went back to bed. Long ass week. Still tired.

Okay, so some stupid person at work told my boss that I'm spending time chatting with friends online. I guess LJ is a chat site. *Retard* Anyways, now I have to look over my shoulder. I don't know how often I can update. I'll be spending all my time looking for the narc that taddled on me. OOoooo, I'm spending 5 minutes of company time typing crap. What a crock.

4th update:
Drove up to the fam's house after work on Tuesday. Got caught in Tool concert traffic, which was hell. So many cars filled with tattooed, shaved headed, smoking hicks. Got home about 8:30 with the doggie. Was really tired cuz the doggie has been getting me up early to go potty. Better than going on the carpet.
Slept in a little on Wednesday. Gave the Sasha doggie a bath, now she smells like coconut, roses, and dog. I guess that's better then just dog. Watched my guy cousins build my grandma an extension on the deck in the backyard. Ate burgers, chips, brownies and cobbler.... Mmmmm... Listened to my grandma tell stories about her parents and brothers & sisters. Drove home around 8:30 so the dog wouldn't get scared around neighborhood fireworks. Got to bed around 11:30 cuz I had to go to work today. Overall okay day.

Doggie update:
Doggie has made some good improvements since the last frantic update. She goes up and down the stairs now, still needs a little help sometimes. I got her some doggie stairs for my bed and she uses them if I show her. I also got her a kong... a little rubber toy that holds treats. She likes that. Only thing is, now she's hopping on one leg in the back. My mom looked at it and we think she's got a little cut on one of her pads on her foot and doesn't want to walk on it. She looks like the little retard dog, hopping along when she has to go outside. I hope people don't think I beat her. She chews her feet all the time. She's going to the vet this Tuesday to get fixed, so if she's still hopping by then, maybe they can fix it. I tried to get the appointment for Wednesday so I could drop her off at my mom's on Tuesday night and go to the bar, but the vet didn't have any openings. Darn.

So many folks took today off work that it's dead. I'm so bored already. Intern Stephanie is doing my work, so I've got nothin. Damn you intern Stephanie! I'll have to start calling random people to stay awake. Everyone in my group is gone today, except my boss. Damnit. I have to save my vaca time for August when I go to Chicago, or else I would've taken today off too. I guess I'm not as cool as everyone else. *sniff, sniff*

Anything going on Sunday or Monday night? One of those days I need to bring the dog to my mom's.

Well, I've survived the first weekend with my doggie, Sasha. She's a pretty good dog for being a stray from the humane society. She's still sick and coughing a lot. Her favorite thing is to shake her head and blow snot everywhere. Yum. I thought she was doing good with not going potty in the house, but last night I found a mystery wet spot. Hard to see with dark carpet. I left her alone for about 6 hrs on Saturday night cuz I had to go to a wedding reception. I let her out 3 times that day before I left at 4:30 and Rick let her out when he came back from work at 10ish. I thought she could hold it; that wasn't a long time. But, she's still new to my place. She's still really pathetic and sad looking. I feel bad when I have to leave her... it makes me sad and I want to cry. Rick doesn't have to work today, so she's with him right now... probably sleeping in my bed and getting doggie hair and snot everywhere. But, she hasn't destroyed anything and seems to like people and doesn't bark.
I felt really overwhelmed yesterday with this whole owning a pet thing. I was alone all day with the dog and didn't go out. I felt bad leaving her, so I just stayed in, even though it was nice out. Talked to my mom for an hour on the phone, called my friend Amanda and she was going to stop by, but then she ditched me. Sasha's not used to being on a leash for a long time, so her walks only last between 5-20 minutes. I was hoping she could go on long walks with me, maybe in a few months. I hardly ate anything yesterday and cried a few times. I must be going through post-canine depression. I thought this dog would make me happy, but right now, I just worry about her all the time and it makes me sad. Maybe when she's not sick anymore, I'll feel better.

I have some questions for anyone that has or did own a dog:
1. Is a harness a good idea for walking? Better than a regular leash?
2. Sasha's afraid to walk down my stairs. Any ideas on how to teach her to walk down the stairs? She'll walk up them by herself.
3. Because she's afraid to walk down the stairs, how can I help her let me know she has to go potty? When she was at my mom's, she just stood by the outside door, but you have to go down the stairs to get to my door. I thought about leaving the leash somewhere so she can stand by that, but I don't know if that works.
4. Is it really important to feed her once a day, or can a leave food in her dish all day, but not refill it all the time?
5. She can't jump on my bed cuz it's too tall. Is buying some doggie stairs a good idea? I saw some advertised on tv and it looked okay; made from foam or something.
6. When will it be a good time to start taking her places... like other friend's houses that have dogs. She rides in the car okay.

I hope I feel happy soon about this dog. She's really nice and likes people. I'll be up for bar night next week on July 3rd. I'm bringing the dog with me and dropping her off at my mom's house beforehand. On the 4th, my mom and grandma are having some family over, so that will be a good test for Sasha. I can see how she is with lots of people.

If anyone can help me with cooping with a new dog or answer any of my questions, it would make me feel a ton better.

This userpic is the best I could do at work. This is my doggie. Say "hi" to LJ doggie!

Dog story time:
Last Friday, I took the day off work to go to an animal shelter in Macomb to get a dog. They were more concerned with the paper work and rules of my condo then the dog. They didn't even let me look at the dog outside of the cage. Screw them. So on Saturday, I drove to the Flint Humane Society on Dort Hwy. It was awesome. So clean and nice... very impressed. Found a nice beagle to adopt. They let me play with the dog outside in a fenced in area and a volunteer spent a lot of time with me to answer questions. Only one problem... dog tested positive for heartworm. Because it was sick, they lowered the adoption fee (which made it free; you would get the money back after the dog was fixed). I loved the dog so much, I decided to take it even though it had heartworm.
Today, my mom picked up the dog from the Humane Society and took it to the vet to get treatment. The vet did a blood test to see how serious the heartworm was. There was no heartworm. The dog was completely healthy. The vet called the HS and complained to them about their testing methods. If the dog wasn't adopted my me, they probably would've put it to sleep. Who else would take a sick dog? Yes, I'm that crazy. So, I've got a healthy, free dog. She's waiting for me at my mom's house. Holla! She's so cute, I can't wait to go get her. I have to wait until Thursday night when I get outta work.
Peace.
Doggie love.

Updates and random blah-ing,
1. Verlander got a no-hitter last night. But I'm sick of hearing about it already. I'm happy for the guy, he's awesome and he deserves it. Cut, print. Go Tigers!
2. I rode my bike to work today, as in bicycle. I'm tired and I still have to make it home in 90 degree weather. I will be a sweat-pool of nastiness, but maybe I'll burn off the calories in my lunch.
3. Doggie alert - I went to the Macomb Humane society yesterday. They had some cute doggies. What caught my eye was a 1-yr old, male basset hound. He was really sweet. They had some cute boxer puppies, but they be big doggies later. I checked out the Macomb Animal Shelter too, but they didn't have any smaller dogs, just Lab mixes. A crap-ton if kittens; poor little kitties. I'm trying to get Ricky to come with me to meet the hound-dog and maybe go to the Oakland county animal shelter. I read the basset hounds are good indoor dogs and are calmer than other breeds. The internet said I'd have to be careful not to let the hound get fat cuz they like to sleep a lot. I hope he's still there on Saturday. (Puppies on the brain.)
4. Oh yeah, I was thinking of getting a dog.
5. Weighed myself on Sunday; lost another 2.5lbs. Sweet. More room for tacos. NO! be good... trying to resist the tacos... but they are calling me... Eat Me! No taco, I mustn't. Eat ME! NO! Stop it! AHHHHHH!
6. BNL Concert on Friday night at DTE. Doors at 7:00. Have no idea who's opening, but it should be cool. Must get to work early.
7. I'm selling some stuff on ebay. I've got a few watchers for my old PDA, so maybe that'll help pay for a doggie. Nobody seems to want my old mp3 player... where could I take old electronics if they don't sell?

I'll take advice about selling electronics and basset hounds/doggies.

I have to potty.

Tonight there will be a blue moon. Second full moon this month. If it's not too cloudy and a little water in the air, it might actually look blue. Look under the mushrooms... maybe a few smurfs will appear to welcome the stork. As everyone knows, a smurf is born on the night of a blue moon.
Let's practice our smurf vocab:

That was a smurffin' good time.
Smurf-erific!
You got knocked the smurf out!
They were out smurffin' all night.
I drank so much, I smurffed all over the car.
You were smurfing so much, you went cross-eyed.
Don't forget to shave your smurf.
Did I just smurf out loud.
Sorry officer, I was just smurffing.
If only everyone would just smurf a little more, this world would be a better place to smurf.

Last weekend went my way too fast. I had much to do, sort of.
Went to Great Lakes Crossing on Friday after work and met my friend Amanda. We ate chinese food and walked around. They have an H&M now, it's awesome. I found this great orange jersey dress and matching shoes at Payless. I'll wear it to the baby shower I have to go to in 2 weeks. The mommy-to-be's favorite color is orange. (Not that I care, it's just my excuse to wear it.) Then I had to drive to my Mom's house. Woke up at 5:45am on Saturday to go to the allergy doctor and get some drugs. Then drove back to my place. On the way back, I was bored and had some time to kill. I didn't want to fall back asleep cuz I had already done my hair and makeup. Went to JCPenney's around 9:30ish and they were having a huge "doorbuster" sale. Looked at all the jewelry on sale and found a pretty pearl necklace, earrings, and bracelet set for 85% off! I decided to buy it for my friend Amanda's wedding/shower gift. (I hope it's not dumb to get pearl's from Penney's. They're cultured, but they're still real.) Glad to get presents outta the way. Went home and got changed, drove to a wedding. It was small and nice. At the church, after the ceremony, they had a dessert reception in the basement with cake & ice cream. After that, went home to change and eat some real food. Later that evening, the couple had a house warming party with BBQ ribs and other yummy stuff. That was more fun then a stuffy reception, especially if you don't know their friends/family too well. I'd have to say that was one of the most relaxing and fun wedding day things I've been to.

Got some stuff done and spent some money and bought presents. I guess a fulfilling weekend. This is a 4 day week, so that's cool. Got a few softball games this week to play in, badly. The forecast for the long weekend looks to be pretty shitty. It might rain the whole time. Sucky.
Anything cool going on? I've got to go home on Sunday, but that's it.
Hey Bets- you're welcome to visit for the family shin-dig on Sunday if you're not busy and get some free food.