Up Dawg

 

This has been the longest stretch I have been home all year and Mac is just coming to the understanding that I can be trusted not to leave the house while he goes to get a bone from my mom (that's how we soften the blow during a road trip, he gets a bone while I slip out the door and if by chance our eyes do meet, I simply explain "I am going to church" because he knows that never lasts more than a few hours).  He has stopped following me every time I get up, well most times, at least he has stopped trying to come into the shower with me.  

It is nice to be loved so much.  Even if Mac does not love perfectly,  he does try.  Like the other day when he wanted to show me he cared for me by plopping his golden retriever body down on my lap while I was working on my laptop.  Apparently dogs don't understand that paws and keyboards do not mix.  All he wanted was to sit on me to make sure I did not escape again.  I don't know what happens when I leave town, but it must be too horrible to talk about because for as close as we are, Mac has never opened up about it.  I do know that Mac is smarter than I was at 10.  For one thing he has avoided going to the doctor for almost a year now.  Of course when I was 10 I didn't bite (stopped that at 9).  He also knows when to disappear when my mom decides its time to clean his ears, give him a bath or tries to get him to do math homework...again, something I would have killed to figure out at 10.

Palm Sunday - The Path of Waiting

Passion is a kind of waiting - waiting for what other people are  going to do. Jesus went to Jerusalem to announce the good news to the  people of that city. And Jesus knew that he was going to put a choice  before them: Will you be my disciple, or will you be my executioner?  There is no middle ground here. Jesus went to Jerusalem to put people in  a situation where they had to say "Yes" or "No". That is the  great  drama of Jesus' passion: he had to wait for their response. What would  they do? Betray him or follow him? In a way, his agony is not simply the  agony of approaching death. It is also the agony of being out of  control and of having to wait. It is the agony of a God who depends on  us to decide how to live out the divine presence among us. It is the  agony of the God who, in a very mysterious way, allows us to decide how  God will be God. Here we glimpse the mystery of God's incarnation. God became human not only to act among us but also to be the recipient of  our responses.
. . . And that is the mystery of Jesus' love. Jesus in his passion  is the one who waits for our response. Precisely in that waiting the  intensity of his love and God's is revealed to us.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

Baby Bear, Not a Song, But an Experience...

Nightline

For some reason, I could not fall asleep last night.  Even though I was planning on waking up at 5:45am to walk and was tired from the day, something kept me up.  For one thing there was a squirrel outside my window, yes a squirrel, that found out it could chirp and was trying out it's lungs all night long.  Second factor was a obese yellow lab with a snoring problem.  After tossing and turning I finally turned on the TV and found Nightline.  There was a story about people preparing for Doomsday.  Apparently, people are taking stock of world events and coming to the understanding that anywhere from a week to a few years out, it's gonna hit the fan and the world is just going to explode. 
I am not convinced. 
Not only am I not convinced but I don't care. 
Here is why.
Since the history of the world, things have been exploding, shifting, flooding and shaking.  I'm sure the dinosaurs had an inkling that something was up one day when they saw the stegosaurus' who attended the Fundamentalist church' shoes there and they were nowhere to be found (awesome dinosaur rapture joke).
 There has always been wars, political leaders who were bullies, governments who have oppressed people, poverty, hang nails, and the list goes on.
What adds to the current frenzy is I suppose nuclear war, radiation spills and twitter.
The same bad stuff is still happening but now it glows in the dark and we hear about it at the speed of sound.
So why am I not concerned? Well, for one thing, I figure, realistically I have a good 60 or so years left in me and with 34 already out of the way, I can totally do what I already did twice again until I meet Jesus...if the world explodes and I meet Him sooner, I just won't have to fill out my tax form next year, big deal!

Another reason I am not concerned about the end of the world is that I now realize that I could go a lot of different ways before Doomsday happens.  I almost died twice yesterday, once while tripping over the dog while holding a sharp object and then again while thinking too hard while trying to do math in my head.  So really, Doomsday would be an easy out compared to the trouble I find myself in without even leaving my house.

The Nightline piece said when a major disaster happens in the USA stores will be out of food within hours and most people will only have a three day supply of food in their house. Three days was also the time limit until Anarchy ensued.
I have about 3 days of food supply in the bottom of my purse alone, so that buys me a few days.  And I own a baseball bat, a headlamp and I have a rosary in my pocket so bring it on civil unrest.
Whatever happens, I'm ready, so if you are concerned, just call me, no wait, the phones will be dead, just come find me and I'll loan you a bat.

Humor Interview - Boston Public Radio

Bucket List check:Being interviewed & sounding like a grumpy comic on Boston Public Radio 

Humor Today’s world would be tough to handle without a little humor in our lives. This week, You Are Here reporters tackle the topic of humor in various lights such as standup comedy, political satire, hidden camera work, and commercialized comedy. They also take a look at what can happen when comedy goes a little too far. Interviews include Danny McBride, Lisa Lampanelli, Patton Oswalt, and more professional comedians and actors in the business.
Reporters: Kathryn Barnes, Alyssa Edes, Dillon Rand, Arjun Singh, Emily Files, Maria Spridigliozzi, Stefanie Guarino, and Benjamin Tan