Home: Part I

I like how things happen in life that make you appreciate what you previously took for granted. I’m not saying I hate St. Kitts — I’m just saying that I never realized how easy and convenient things can be here in the U.S.. I never realized how much I missed my car, Mr. Honda, either. I was really hating on him towards the end, but driving around today made me realize how much I’d give to have him on the island instead of the P.O.S. that I’m driving now. I have trust issues… as of right now, the island car and I, haven’t quite bonded yet.

Ever since I’ve gotten home, I’ve managed to eat 2 home cooked meals in 7 days. Do I feel gross? YES. But, am I happy? YES. There is going to be some working out once I get back on the rock, but for now, I am reveling in the fact that I missed eating out at fast food chains THAT much and am fulfilling the greatly missed activity. Mmmmm, McDonald’s! Eating what you want when you want it is a feeling that’s hard to beat. I still have much eating to do before I leave… I will have to be rolled back to the island, for sure.

Did lots of shopping already… getting ready for second semester – got more highlighters, apparently one semester was too much for my favorite highlighter. Trying new tactics of note taking and hoping that this time my plan for organization will stick and help me in the end. I was pretty peeved after getting grades… it’s not that I did poorly, because I didn’t, but I didn’t do SUPER FANTASTIC. And of course, it was due to finals — I felt like I put in so much work throughout just to have the end bring me down, that kind of sucks… and duh, I knew it was a cumulative final, but still… was the work in the middle for nothing? It also looks like I will be doing some wheedling with my professors when I get back!

I’ve been trying to just sit around and spend time with the dogs since I know I’ll be leaving them behind again… in fact, I left them behind to go to Northern VA and it turns out my little dog, Oscar, has probably found his permanent home here. For those who don’t know Oscar’s story — he was having major allergy symptoms and he’s definitely neurotic. I left him with my mom when I went to school with tons of shampoos, cyclosporine, holistic dog food, clothing and booties. He used to eat his little paws raw and constantly attacked the imaginary swarm of flies around his head. Well, he’s no longer on cyclosporine or his crazy shampooing regimen. Although, he still bites the flies, I’d say that he’s doing pretty good here as the solitary dog! I personally believe that living with the big dogs stressed him out or gave him anxiety, or something. It makes me feel better about having had to disperse my dogs and leaving the country — they all look great without me! Here I thought I was the magic maker when it came to owning my pets, lol.

I did go out and buy a Peticure for my mom, however. This was my one complaint — Oscar is so spoiled that she lets his nails grow out longer than I like because “he doesn’t like it.” He doesn’t like clippers and he doesn’t like the dremel, but he dislikes the dremel less than the clippers and I just couldn’t forsee my mom using a real dremel tool from Home Depot. In fact, the Peticure isn’t that different from a real dremel tool at all BUT it does have that shavings catcher which is just priceless as long as you don’t turn it upside down and spill it all over yourself. I did do that once. If you’ve never used a dremel on your dog’s toe nails before, this product is actually a good way to start… it’s fairly low speed and you have the plastic “safety” that you put your dog’s toenail through so you’re not going too far, but as long as you know the general rules of dremeling, you don’t really need to buy the specific product unless you REALLY want that shavings catcher, which I do really love.

Things I want to share about dremeling:

1. Don’t grind for too long; I normally do a billion little ‘zips’ on one nail and this grinds down and shapes at the same time. And obviously, don’t do it for too long because it’ll get hot and hurt your dog. Think of acrylic nails, same concept.
2. Sometimes it helps if you grind all of the nails a bunch of times rather than just working on one nail at a time… this has helped me when working with a dog that got really fussy when you would stay on the one nail.
3. Standing or laying? My one dog would rather lay flat out on his side to be dremeled than any other position… my other dog would rather be standing on a grooming table and be dremeled like how you would pick a horse’s hooves. Littler dogs can be easily done while being held in your lap.
4. If your dog doesn’t mind, I’ve found that it’s quicker to clip the tips then grind all the edges for a smooth finish.

Obviously, you should work with your dog on getting used to the dremel with lots of treats and praise before any crazy manipulations. Usually, it’s not an enjoyable activity but it is definitely a highly tolerable one so don’t give up if they don’t like it the first time!

Anyway… where was I? I’m still in Northern VA for 2 more days and then I’m back to the burg. I can already tell this break was too too short!