At last 200

I think it's appropriate that my 200th post is to be about moving into my new home in Greensboro, NC.

The move has been stressful one. Money's short with all the housing and pet deposits and buying groceries, but it'll even itself back out eventually. Working at Subway...bleh! My first day was horrible because the bosses can be pretty nasty. They're immigrants and don't understand all of the American social structures yet, including how to talk to people constructively. I came home sobbing. There's also the major fact that Stuart and I have started our long distance relationship again. It's been hard on both of us, especially me with not much to do throughout the day while he's constantly busy now with two jobs. I hate that we're back in this situation with no end in sight as he continues to work in Raleigh and I continue my college career.
Thankfully, the house is everything I had hoped for and more! We've only had a few minor glitches with the house itself, including an infestation of ants. They're not so bad though. It's great living with Joe and Anna. We get along real well. It's like we were never apart for those two years. It's like high school but without all of the drama of anyone else. We've settled into adult living quite well and have had few issues with each other. I feel much more at ease than I ever did at my Cullowhee apartment. Not knowing Kayla or CC before, it always felt forced for the most part. Like I was obligated to have conversations with them sometimes if we were in the same room. CC was better about keeping a relaxed atmosphere about the place, but once he left after graduation, there was such a tension in the apartment. Stuart's absence didn't help. I was always worried, tense, and stressed beyond my limit.

Anna and Fleetwood

Now in Greensboro, even with Stuart gone, living is easier. I feel like I don't have to watch out for my stuff because it's in good hands. I don't feel like I have to guard the house either because there aren't any ex boyfriends stalking around and now there's a rather large chocolate Labrador retriever guarding the place. He's not the best guard dog to be sure, but it's better than nothing.
The cats, Sparta and Mac, have finally settled in... I hope. Mac hasn't been neutered yet so there's a bit of twisted "love" going on now that they're not literally at each other's throats. There's already been some blood, including mine. I hope that either soon Mac will get to the vet or he'll calm down from chasing his newfound love interest around the house and just give Sparta some peace. I lock Sparta up in my room at night just so he can get a break from Mac's relentless persistence to hump him. It's quite disturbing and I worry for my cat's state of mind.

Sparta's handiwork

Overall, the move was stressful for everyone, but I think as things are settling in it's only going to get easier. Sure, there will be some temper flares in the future, but I imagine it ending well as Joe, Anna, and my personalities have always meshed well together. I wouldn't be living with them if I knew it was going to be precarious living situation based on how we interacted with each other in high school. We're different now, of course, but I think we're better people. We've gained a lot in the past two years going to college. We're not ignorant high school seniors anymore...!

Sparta settling in

27. Marley and Me

Book 27: Marley & Me by John Grogan (A)

Grogan and Marley

This is the second time I've read this delightful book, but this time I read its pages out loud to Stuart before we went to sleep nearly every night. Stuart and I desperately want a dog! However, a dog is a huge responsibility compared to a small hamster that lives in a cage and an independent cat. Add to the fact that Stuart's apartment doesn't allow pets and we soon won't be living in the same city again... getting a dog wouldn't be enjoyable or a shared experience.So, I decided to read this book about a loveable, wild, catastrophic, unpredictable Labrador retriever named Marley to let us know what we'll be getting into in the future.
The last three chapters were heartbreaking. Just like Enzo in The Art of Racing in the Rain, Marley passes away to doggy heaven. It is a long drawn out process from the common lab trait of hip dysplasia and the inability to let go for the family. Stuart and/or I cried every night until the end of the book when Marley has been put to rest between two cherry trees in Pennsylvania and the family moves on to a life without the dog. The most heartbreaking of all is when the three Grogan kids say their goodbye with letters and pictures to put into Marley's grave. I had trouble reading through that part!

Christmas morning 2008

It makes me think of all the time, effort, money, and love I have put in and given to Sparta. My mom found him under a car at a gas station late one night with the intention of giving him a warm place to sleep for the night. Instead, he became the newest and craziest pet of the family. As Piddy Paws continued to not use the litter box, I decided Sparta was the pet take with me to Cullowhee. Since then, he has been my constant companion. Though not nearly as loyal or as dependable as a dog, Sparta is one of a kind and I know he loves me as much as I love him. I hope at the end of his life I get a moment like this with him so I can say good bye:
"Tomorrow the house would be loud and boisterous and full of life again. For tonight, it was just us two, Marley and me. Lying there with him, his smelly breath in my face, I couldn't help thinking of our first night together all those years ago after I brought him home from the breeder, a tiny puppy whimpering for his mother. I remembered how I dragged his box into the bedroom and the way we had fallen asleep together, my arm dangling over the side of the bed to comfort him. Thirteen years later, here we were, still inseparable" (256).
A book that will move you, make you cry, make you laugh, and remember the little things in life. But most of all, Marley & Me will make you cherish and think of your pets in a whole new light!

Works Cited:

Grogan, John. Marley and Me. New York: HarperCollins 

Publishers, 2005. Print.

21. The Art of Racing in the Rain

Book 21: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (A++)

First of all.... GO OUT AND GET THIS BOOK NOW!!!!! IT IS AMAZING!!!
Now with that said, here's why:
Told from the viewpoint of a lab mix named Enzo, the reader watches the makings and times of Enzo's family. At the brink of his death, Enzo describes living among this family and how when he dies, he expects to turn into a man... his one true wish... based off a TV show he saw on Mongolia. Denny, his master, is a "minor league" race car driver looking for work. He has the amazing ability of racing a car while it's raining while everyone else crashes and burns. He acquires a wife, a beautiful woman named Eve. Together, they bring home a baby girl named Zoe, whom Enzo protects to the very end. Tragedy strikes, and Eve falls ill with a brain tumor. After her death, Eve's parents sue for custody of Zoe saying they have better means of providing for her. A three year battle ensues while being told through the eyes of an amazingly intellectual and intuitive dog.
I must say that the antagonist grandparents... I seriously want them to jump out of the pages of the book and appear before me just so I can punch them in the face!! Those rats!!! How dare they try to take a little girl away from her father!! It was sincerely heartbreaking to read about Zoe playing with her toys and repeating meaningless chants her grandparents had coached into her head to explain that everything "will be okay."
Enzo is a wonderful narrator full of spunk, sarcasm, humor, and sincerity. His one mission is life is to protect his family. His one dream is to become a man and use opposable thumbs.

When trying to prove that man's closest relative is the dog and not the monkey, he says, "Case-in-Point #2: The Werewolf
"The full moon rises. The fog clings to the lowest branches of the spruce trees. The man steps out of the darkest corner of the forest and finds himself transformed into... A monkey? I think not" (20)!
The book really demonstrates how when a dog's family goes through tragedy or stress, it affects the dog too. Just because they don't have a soul or the logical thinking of a human being doesn't mean they don't feel just as strongly as we do.
Here, Enzo explains pain when Eve begins experiencing the telling migraines of the brain tumor: "The intensity and arbitrary nature of Eve's affliction was far beyond Denny's grasp. The wailings, the dramatic screaming fits, the falling on the floor in fits of anguish. These are things that only dogs and women understand because we tap into the pain directly, we connect to pain directly from its source, and so it is at once brilliant and brutal and clear, like white hot metal spraying out of a fire hose, we can appreciate the aesthetic while taking the worst of it straight in the face. Men, on the other hand, are all filters and deflectors and timed release... They have no idea that the manifestation of their affliction... is merely a symptom, an indication of a systemic problem... Suppressing the symptom does nothing but force the true problem to express itself on a deeper level at some other time" (62-63).
The book was amazing, descriptive, heart-warming, and raw. And of course as with all animal novels, I cried at the end. You can always foresee the ending of a book with an animal as the main character. Like Marley & Me and Where the Red Fern Grows, the humans continue with their lives and the animals pass on. The same holds true with Enzo's life, yet this time the reader knew from Chapter 1 that Enzo was going to die as he knows it is time and Denny even schedules a non-round trip visit to the vet. Still what's amazing here is that while the dog dies, the story continues for just a chapter more........ Read it!!! You'll love it!!

Works Cited:

Stein, Garth. The Art of Racing in the Rain. 

New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Print.