Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

If you were wondering how Gertie's doing...

She's officially the size of a butterball turkey, a 14 pounder. About 12 pounds of that is cuteness and adorability, but those other two pounds of biting and crazy can sometimes outweigh the rest. But this is what a 4 month old puppy does, right?


Her biggest act of terrorism is definitely what she's done to the wicker love seat in the backyard. She's torn off the bottom part of it, but it's alright. Chelsey likes the way it looks now a little more.

Potty training is mostly successful. She has a few accidents a week, but nothing compared to most puppies I know. She's quickly approaching her 4 month birthday and she'll be getting spayed on October 1st. She's growing up so quick. I'm a little excited about it, to not have the chaos of a baby in the house, but I know I'll miss it once it's gone.

Chelsey and I are watching the MTV Video Music Awards right now, dissing on Kayne and loving on Taylor & Beyonce. The preview for Eminem's spng "We Made You" came on and Gertie started barking. Chelsey said, "That's right Gertie. It's a horrible song. It'll be over soon." Pretty classic.

So, I'm unemployed again. The temporary job, which I thought could make room for something more permanent, couldn't. Back to the couch once more, watching Maury. I am absolutely dreading the job search, but I'm trying to be positive and starting slow. I think applying for a job a day is reasonable. (I applied for 3 today.)

On top of job search, I'm taking an active interest in living better. Recently, things have just felt much more intense than usual. I have days where I'm just so excited about the options in front of me, it's overwhelming. And some days, I miss home so bad I can barely take it. Pretty sure that's just the reality sinking in. But something in that has made me want to get healthy. Chelsey got a bit of a scare when she got some blood work back this week, so her and I are starting a diet as recommended by her sister the nutritionist. I'm also getting back into the swing of exercising with taking Gertie for walks. She's starting to get excited about them, which is great motivation for me to do it. On top of that, I've been doing yoga in the mornings. I'm trying not to think about it in terms of weight loss, but it terms of wellness.

Hey, Jim Carroll died. If you love Rancid and the album ... And Out Come the Wolves you should be pretty sad.


On the east side of Oklahoma City, there are these huge towers. I'm not sure what they're for, probably radio, but they blink red all the way to the top at night. So instead of the Sandias, I get to use these as my guide. When I tell people back in New Mexico about them, they think it's sort of ugly and awful. But I don't know, I think I'm finding poetry in the symmetry.