My Office Dog

This post is dedicated to Boomer, aka Buddy, who has been my devoted office dog since I started my business in 2007. I figure I owe him after all the hours he’s spent at my feet while I work. Although, lately, he’s been getting impatient and starts jabbing my elbow with his wet nose about 45 minutes into my work session. So we take a break for a few minutes and then we return for another session. I feel I have to be patient with him; after all, he’s spent the past 12 years of his life following me from room to room when I’m home, waiting for hours by the front door when I’m away, sitting up with me at night when I went through a long period of chronic insomnia, lying by my side when I was ill, and coming near to check on me when I cry.

And just so she doesn’t feel left out, below is Ember, aka Sweetums. She’s an adorable HSP (Highly Sensitive Pet) who mistakes the look of concentration I wear while I’m working to mean that I’m upset, and so runs out the back door as soon as I sit at my desk and stays on the patio just outside my window until I shut down my PC.

Experts say that owning a pet will reduce your stress, alleviate depression, and help you live longer. I think people can be divided into three groups–those that love animals, those that don’t love them, and those that are indifferent. If someone doesn’t love animals, or if they feel indifferent towards them, I’d never suggest to them that they get a pet to reduce their stress/improve their health. We’ve been through some pretty stressful times thanks to the dogs we”ve owned! Boomer and Ember are both former shelter dogs and came with, well, issues. We went through an especially trying time with Ember as she went through her terrible twos.  The word stressed doesn’t adequately describe how we felt when we came home and found she had torn the Lazyboy recliner apart. Or the time she destroyed one of the sofa cushions. Or her interior designer period, during which she systematically pulled the top layer of paint and paper off the sheetrock in our entryway. You get the picture.

We’d have several thousand more dollars in our savings if it hadn’t been for the furniture, walls, and carpets they destroyed and surgeries and meds they required.  However, things have calmed down tremendously since those days and now I don’t know what I’d do without these two precious family members.

If you’re considering getting a pet to improve your life, I’d make a couple of suggestions:

• Make sure you like animals. Petsit for a friend for a weekend.
• Know why you want to get a pet. What is the outcome you’d like to achieve, and how will you know when you’ve reached it? For example, I have a really strong need to feel needed. Having dogs made the transition to an empty nest much easier for me.
• Do your research. I’ve never owned a cat, but it’s my understanding that dogs are much more high-maintenance than other types of pets. What type of pet will suit you? How much time do you want to spend caring for your new furry or feathered friend?  And once you’ve decided that a dog might be the right addition to your family, research breeds so that you can be sure they’ll fit in with your family.

Owning dogs that are well-behaved and well cared for is not easy; it’s a lot of work. But every time I look at a pair of big brown eyes filled with a look of unconditional love, I realize it’s all been worth it.

My husband and I are taking a week of vacation next week to explore North Carolina. He’s been there a number of times and lists it as his first choice for retirement living; it will be my first visit there.

My husband is the type who hops out of bed at 5:15 a.m. every morning—yes, even on vacation—and is ready to see the sights by 6:30 a.m. Although I love sightseeing too, I figure it’s my vacation and if I want to sleep in a little, well, I’m entitled to do so.  The first few vacations we took when we first married have blurred into one confusing memory for me. Never having thought about what type of vacation suited me, I tried to keep up with him.  He has a photo of me sitting in a cafe in Las Vegas that he says is one of his favorites, but I can’t figure out why. I’m smiling, but ghostly pale and weary looking, with an expression in my eyes that is something like, “Somebody help me, please.” By the time that brief vacation ended, I was exhausted. Near tears during the entire flight home, I finally broke down in hysterics when we got to our car.

I realized after that trip that I just couldn’t do the vacations my husband likes to do. Now we carefully plan our vacations to suit both of us. We start out with an extremely ambitious list of what we’d both like to do and see, and then start crossing off the activities that we can do without, at least for that particular trip. While at our vacation destination, my husband still gets up at 5:15 every morning, but he dresses quietly and slips out to grab a cup of coffee and read the paper, and then goes for a walk. By the time he comes back to our room at 7, I’m up and getting ready at a relaxed pace for our day. We are both much happier campers!

When planning a vacation, think about the type of trip you’ll find most relaxing and enjoyable. And, if you’re traveling with others, be sure to compromise so that everyone has a good time.

We are experiencing an uncharacteristically cool, late August day today here in the Southwest.  Cloudy, rainy weather during monsoon season is not unusual, but a high temperature below 80 degrees certainly is.

I love days like this. I know it may sound strange, but I get awfully tired of day after day of sunshine, and I find the heat and hot sun of southwest summers oppressive. I was never meant to live in the desert. I miss being near water, and when the air contains more moisture than usual, I find myself feeling much happier and more relaxed. I find the gray sky and big, damp clouds to be calming and comforting.

As soon as I’m finished handling some tasks for a client, I plan to escape to the outdoors and take some time to appreciate this day, to breathe in the extra oxygen the air holds, and feel grateful for the change.

Be sure to take time today, even if it’s only a few minutes, to enjoy something that makes you feel alive.

I’d been thinking for weeks about what I’d write as my inaugural post for my Work-Life Balance blog, and then inspiration struck last night.

I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and animatedly discussing my new Web site with my husband. I was barely paying attention to the pot of pasta and boiling water I was lifting off the stove when I sloshed scalding water down my legs. It sounds worse than it was, but it certainly made me stop everything I was doing.

Multi-tasking has become a way of life for us, and women in particular are experts at it, but if you’re dividing your attention among two or more activities, you won’t be as successful at any of them as you’d be if you gave your full attention to each.

I made a promise to myself last night as I sat with cool washcloths on my legs that I’d try to remember to focus on one thing at a time–at the very least the tasks that could turn out to be dangerous!

How about you? Are you dividing your attention among too many things at once?