i love you, hank

Hank was a gentle giant of a golden retriever that belonged to my friends Steve and Nicole. I just found out a few days ago that they had to put him down last week because he had been suffering from cancer. When I saw Steve on Sunday, I asked him what happened, and although it was painful to listen to the details, what caught me off guard was my response in hearing him talk about it. It was like someone turned on the sad-ometer inside of me because tears just started to pour out.

After a moment of silence, I asked: "So are you going to get another dog?"
Steve sort of shook his head and shrugged. "Hank wasn't just a dog - he was so much more than that..."
"Yeah...I know, I know..." I replied.

And I really understood what he meant. Even though I didn't get to see Hank as often as I would have liked, there was something really special about him that I loved so dearly. Every time I left the Fortunato villa, I would mildly curse myself for getting his unruly dog hair all over my sweaters and tshirts (believe me, people, it takes DAYS to get rid of his hair) - but it was SO worth it. Being able to wildly wrap my arms around him and lose my face in his slobbery dog kisses and endless amount of doghair brought me back to the most tender moments of my childhood (and there weren't a lot of those, so they were precious moments, indeed). You just knew that when you declared out loud, "I love you, Hank!" that he knew what you were saying and that he thoroughly enjoyed every moment of you loving on him.

Isn't this funny? It's funny to see the connections human beings make with these animals that can't even remember what they did five minutes ago. They just have this way of drawing out all kinds of emotions within you that maybe you never knew you were capable of feeling. Yet they love you unconditionally, follow you faithfully, and are fiercely loyal(at least the ones that i've known). Personally, I think these are lessons we as human beings all could learn. Maybe that's why they were put on this planet

I'll miss you, Hank.

sleeping with the enemy

UGH! there's a spider hiding somewhere in my bed!!! for the past three days now, i've woken up with a fresh bite somewhere on my body. this morning there was a nasty one on the upper right side of my back and it felt SORE. yucktastical.

now i must go to sleep and i am not looking forward to this unwelcome bed partner that i have unpleasantly discovered.

thank you if you've bothered to read this. i just had to get this off my chest.

beach hijinks

i don't know what it is lately, but i just want to point out the fact that in the past three weeks, the past three jobs i've been hired for have all involved 1) half-naked people, 2) people taking off their clothes and being nearly naked, 3) or nearly naked people being outdoors in nipple chilling temperatures being forced to frolic in nonheated water.

it's something that i just realized today while i was at work...again, with a bunch of nearly naked people running around at the beach. but wait, that's really not the reason why i'm blogging. while i was there, i was gazing out at the water noticing the occasional fin of a dolphin sweeping in and out of the water, when suddenly there was an entire pod of dolphins swimming near the shoreline! it was so amazing! i'd never seen so many fins sweeping in and out of the water before! there must have been almost a dozen. the most amazing part of it all was watching them SURF as the tide was coming to shore. dude, they were surfing! like, totally surfing, man! it was so awe-inspiring to watch... i will admit feeling a tinge of envy watching them do it. they all just looked so free, so truly carefree...