Diggin a hole

I have had a hard time writing here lately because I have not been happy. I could be happy. I probably should be happy. But I am not happy. And I hate always being the Debbie Downer.

Adding to the melancholy, this week has decided to be my late-breaking Friday the 13th of 2008.

Monday morning one of our employees returned to our car, which she uses for work and which was parked on the street, to find out that we had been victims of a hit and run and the whole front alignment was wrecked. They hit the tire (turned away from the curb, as YD instructs, to prevent it from rolling back should it come out of gear), which caused the wheels to do a pigeon-toed kind of thing. Not drivable. Now we are waiting for it to be fixed, but the appraiser still hasn't seen it yet because yesterday was a holiday here in our fair land.

This morning I awoke to find that my dog was paralyzed. Just half of her. The left half. But she could still feel pain, just had no strength or movement. So, every time I tried to help lift her, she would nip at me or yelp or both. I managed to rig a sling using a towel, but she didn't like that, and, being only one person, I couldn't both lead her forward AND support her with the sling. I also spoke with vet and the pain meds dosage she takes for her arthritis already is the max dosage she can have for the day, so there was no relief I could give her there. She couldn't get up from wherever she was, and every time I went to do laundry or to the bathroom she would panic that I had left her and would start yelping bloody murder. Oh, and did I mention that she is also deaf? Ya, so I couldn't even call out to reassure her.

Right now she is doing much better - she can get up without help and walk around, although we're discouraging that. The vet thinks it was either some rare spinal condition or a slipped disc. I have already decided that there are no more surgeries in Gabby's future, so neither are treatable with anything but rest and pain meds. So, SB and I have to carry her in the sling up and down the stairs to take her out to avoid further injury.

Add this to my already dismal mood, and I pretty much want to crawl into a hole right now. I am very glad that she is better, but know that there will probably be much more of this in our near future because she is not a pup anymore. Right now she is laying in the hall whining and yelping because SB has taken Charlie for a walk. She can't hear me whistling at her, so I best be getting up and letting her know she's not alone.

Did I ever tell you about that time....

When I'm pretty sure I saw Johnny Depp? I actually had to just google his name to make sure I spelled it correctly, so that can tell you how much of a superfan I am, but nonetheless...

When we were in Paris, we had a pretty fantastic day when we just wandered around the Marais area and the area around Les Halles and Pompidou. Near Les Halles, there is this actually pretty ghetto carousel (comparing it to the one near the Eiffel Tower), and while walking past there pretty much as fast as I could to avoid all the children, I'm pretty sure I saw Johnny Depp.

As most people know, JD lives in Paris with his wife and little girl, but I figured the chances of seeing anyone famous during our visit was slim to none (we missed Lindsey Lohan (sp?) by this much as she was in Paris while we were at Versailles). Anyway, I was trying to follow SB through this weird park area trying to find the Pied du Cochon, when I saw this really cute little girl and her maybe dad who looked kinda like Johnny Depp. In the split second that it took me to walk by them I thought a) I would be a total tool to ask for a photo since I'm not even sure it's him and I totally don't have time to stop and take a better look because I will lose SB and b) that guy looks exactly like Johnny Depp except his hair is kinda weird and he is wearing weird sunglasses.

I kinda forgot about it, until last week I was watching the MTV Movie awards and he was there, and he had EXACTLY the same hair as the guy I saw in the park, although it looked freshly died a darker color.

This would lead me to conclude: I practically made out with Johnny Depp in a park in Paris.

Just asking for a bloody nose

I watched the most bizarre show last night - I am still trying to wrap my brain around it.

The show was on TLC and was called The Running of the Brides. It was basically a show about the annual bridal gown sale at Filene's Basement. Filene's is a store similar to our Winner's, where brand name labels are sold at super-reduced prices. The gowns they were selling were designer gowns, for example one Amsale was regular priced $3000 and sold for $500.

Okay, so people want a bargain. Totally understandable, and so I see the original motivation.

The brides start strategizing way ahead of time, and they organize "teams" - one of the teams featured had between ten and fifteen people, but most brides went in with 5 or six close friends and family. In spite of the advanced planning, no one really has an original strategy, they all basically do this:

a)get there early to get a good spot in line
b) when they let you inside, bride grabs an area that will be the team's territory
c) team members grab as many dresses as possible and bring them back to the territory (all of the dresses had been removed from the racks within less than two minutes - literally - this time I am not exaggerating)
d) team members are then delegated as things like dressers, protectors, barterers. Some team members were wearing bike helmets, and everyone wore their hair pulled back just in case the elbowing and hair pulling got out of hand

The bride strips down to the least amount of clothes she feels comfortable in (most had on tanktops and biker shorts, but some were in bra and panties) and the dressers pop the dresses on them one after the other. They decide very quickly whether it's yes, maybe, or no. Yesses and maybes are kept aside, and noes are sent out with the barterers to trade with other teams. Protectors have to make sure no one is sneaking in and stealing any of the "yes" or "maybe" dresses, or worse any of the dresses that haven't been tried on yet. All of the women featured in the show had not only tried on about 50 dresses each in less than two hours, but had also chosen "the dress" in that time.

Am I nuts? Nothing about this is appealing to me, except maybe the discount part. Being half naked in public. Sorting through stacks and stacks of satin and tulle and giving each dress about one minute of consideration. Plus, one of the teams had flown in from Jacksonville, Florida (the sale was in Boston. That eliminates the entire "bargain" aspect of the entire exercise!

I want my dress-buying experience to be relaxed. I want a large, roomy dressing room and I want people to bring dresses to me. I want lots of choice, but I don't want to try on a hundred different things. I want the sales person to know what they are doing and be able to intuit what I am looking for after just a few tries. I want people I care about with me and I don't don't don't want to feel rushed.

Is that crazy?

Oh, and I want the dress I finally choose to be on sale. Please.