Creativity-- Tick Tock!

I'm working on getting into a creativity schedule. It sounds a little silly-- because isn't creativity spontaneous? Eh, as a teacher of gifted children (and as a graduate of the "gifted" program), I tend to think giftedness and creativity are both nature and nurture. You CAN create beautiful things out of nothing, but it's a lot easier to create beautiful things with fancy-schmancy art supplies, computers, and journals. Creativity is also a state of mind. I see pictures in the clouds. (And Colorado has an abundance of beautiful clouds!) I listen for unusual sounds and think in lyrics all the time. In working with children, I speak up about beauty around us-- in a sunset, in the set up of a plate, in the humor of a tv show-- to encourage creativity there too. Eh, who knows.

So, I have many, many posts trapped in my brain and scribbled in a journal plus many pictures in my camera and my phone to share. What's the hold up? Energy! Creativity! Cleaning up! Going to work!

This day has started fairly productively-- but it also started above 60 degrees (I walked the dog in a tank top, pj pants, and flip flops!), but it's been so blustery and windy, my dog keeps barking at all the sounds it's making in the corridor of our apartments-- to set that apart now, it's below freezing and raining-- which means, it will be snowing in about 3, 2, 1...yup. I see snowflakes out the window. 

I know I moved to a state that has cold winters from one that has one or two snows a decade, but it's still instilled in me that snow= snow day. Stay inside. It's dangerous out there! There's a part of me that wants to just keep this cup of mint tea going all day and watch Buffy on Hulu. Le sigh. My little munchkin will be disappointed in the car line if I don't make it. :)

So some creative things on tap-- some recipes of yummy foods I've made lately, some hiking recaps with gorgeous pictures, more painting, more fiverr orders that I'm delivering (woo-hoo!), and concert reviews. I'm going to the Colorado Writer's Workshop on Friday and I can't wait to see what types of things I will learn to help guide me on a publication journey. We went to see The Airborne Toxic Event at the Ogden Theater in Denver over the weekend and it was incredible. I loved the theater and the whole evening. This is the second concert we went to where they were filming the music video that night. Chris nudged me at one point because I was so into the show that I didn't notice the camera man filming over our shoulders! We are going to see another one of my lyrical favorites tonight-- Bastille. Definitely looking forward to this. 

Some of my favorite lyrics have beautiful imagery and symbolism to history, gods, and pop culture. I wonder where these guys were in some of my younger years-- I could have used these words:

When all of your flaws and all of my flaws when they have been exhumed,  you'll see that we need them to be who we are, without them, we'd be doomed

If you close your eyes, does it ever feel like nothing's changed at all? How am I going to be an optimist about this?

I don't want to hear about the bad blood anymore. I don't want to hear you talk about it anymore. It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?

Do you understand...the future's in our hands and we'll never be the same again.

Icarus is flying too close to the sun... Living beyond your years, acting out all their fears, you feel it in your chest...Icarus is flying to an early grave.

Are you going to age...with grace? without mistakes? with a path to trace? Are you going to age with grace?

Oh I feel overjoyed when you listen to my words, I see them sinking in, crawling under your skin; words are all we have, we will be talking, what is there to gain? I feel overjoyed when you listen to my words. 

And last but  not least, their Sesame Street-like take on learning vowels: Ay-ay oh Ay oh. 

So, thanks for listening to my words. I hope to have some put together a little more coherently soon. Stay strong, my friends. Shine. 

Adventures of Scrappy Pete: Vet follow-up

On Monday, Petey and I went to the vet and the vet/surgeon did another exam and blood work for her surgery to remove the Mast Cell Tumor from her front right paw. Unfortunately, in just a week, the tumor appeared to have spread from just the digit (her toe) to the paw (a dog's version of the hand). Due to the aggressive nature of these tumors, the vet requested that we wait a bit, put her on prednisone and a high dose of antihistamine to help stop the cells, shrink the tumor, and increase the chances of a successful surgery. She'll have to lose her toe, but dogs re-acclimate to changes like that far better than humans do. For example, both Petey and my sister's pup Duchess have had teeth removed due to decay...those pups eat and destroy toys like nothing could slow them down.

So, I had to wait because there is a drug interaction between the steroid and the pain medicine she'd been on-- but now she's on the steroid and we'll give it a few days and try the surgery then. If the tumor has lots of tendrils, and those get damaged during surgery, it releases the extra mast cells and histamines into her body. The extra histamines damage the organs and the mast cells increase the likelihood that the cancer will pop up somewhere in her body-- likely in an inner organ that is inoperable, not a subcutaneous location that is (relatively) easy to remove. We don't want that. We want a clean tumor removal.

In other news, the steroid makes Petey PEE like crazy! At 3:30 this morning, she woke me up to go pee and so I grabbed shoes and my coat and stumbled out. My apartment has outside doors that lock automatically. How do you say, I grabbed the wrong *$(*#^%(* keys. So, 3:30, no foot traffic around my apartment, snow on the ground, dog on a leash...and no way to return to my apartment. No cell phone in hand either, because, gosh, that would be silly.

PT Bella thought this was a weird adventure...but she seemed okay. I noticed one of my neighbors (I hadn't met him yet) had a window that was cracked open slightly. The light from the TV was also glowing through the blinds, so I hoped that maybe he was up watching a movie. I knocked on the window (with a great deal of embarrassment and trepidation!) and hissed, "hey! I live down the hall and I'm locked out. Are you awake?" He was about the nicest-- was like, "I thought I was dreaming and heard knocking. No worries, dear, stuff like that happens!"

I think Petey and I owe him a beer or 6.

Also, since Tuesday was a crazy snow day in Atlanta...I came across this buzzfeed. I'm so proud of my Southern-ATL brethren and sistren who helped out stranded motorists in such an awful time of need. My thoughts have been with all the teachers, principals, bus drivers, students (and their parents) who had to make hard decisions about keeping kids in schools, or had to endure keeping them on buses. I don't say this with smugness as I now live in Denver where there's snow, but Atlanta drivers aren't prepared for such things....but I truly wish decision-makers had listened to the weather forecast and understood that....water freezes into ICE below 32 F. Thanks to my friends and family who helped their "neighbors" with food, blankets, support, first aid...it takes my breath away to see and hear news stories about all the people who helped others. Seriously, ATL, you doin' us proud.

powered by

Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Starting a School

Disclaimer: The title above is a joke, not an actual school. I feel like I should clarify, since I work in education and starting an actual school is an incredibly exhausting and expensive undertaking. Well, for Petey Bella, her school is exhausting for her, but not terribly expensive for me. Take a tour of some of the students of "Bella's School for the Blind."

Story time with the lower school

As I mentioned previously, Petey Bella has several names-- Bella is one of them. She didn't have the easiest start in life, being starved and bred for dog-fighting, so she didn't have good nutrition or medical care. With that rough start, it has led to dental problems. Nothing major, but she doesn't have the strongest teeth, so she's had a few removed when they were cleaning them from the gingivitis and decay.
Why does all that matter? Well, she doesn't like hard, crunchy toys that hurt her teeth. What she does love? Soft stuffed toys. Dog toys with squeakers and  stuffed animals with eyes and cotton batting are the ABSOLUTE BEST.

Recruits she personally selected from the thrift store bag

As soon as Miss PT Bella, or should I say, Headmistress Bella,  gets a hold of a soft toy, she chomps down on it and finds out if it has a squeaker, button nose, or button eyes. As soon as she ascertains her plan of attack, she goes to work, using her teeth, nose, and paws to roll around, tear up, and de-eye, de-nose, or de-squeaker the toys. If the batting has to come out so it is completely disemboweled, so be it. I learned that although Beanie Babies have great eyes to tear out, the little bean pellets are not worth cleaning up. No more beanie toys for Pete.

The funny part about this is that sometimes she likes to hold on to the toy. I guess she plays favorites to some of her students.  There have been 3 in particular-- ones that had a sound chip inside. There was a woot monkey that would squeal when it flew through the air. She worried over that monkey--

Dog in a cat suit is actually her TA.

Lazy Miss Bella letting the TA teach class

carried it around, put it in her dog bed, or moved around my pillows til she made it a nest in my bed. When we'd pick it up to throw it, she would whine and tap dance around, trying to protect her baby! There was a blue bird with a chirpy chip and a broken Tasmanian devil-- same thing. Those guys kept their eyes and noses.

Mardi gras frog was a star pupil

We decided it's called "Bella's School for the Blind," because she collects all these misfit toys...and keep them in her dog bed. What can I say? It's much cheaper for me than any kongs, nylabones, or expensive toys. There are some rules: no students are accepted that are canine or human babies. It's too weird to have her chewing on babies or puppies. Cannibalism-- that's not in our mission statement. I came home one day with a gift for a baby shower that included a small soft bunny. I was confused that Bella wasn't downstairs with me,  when I realized, she'd gone "shopping" in the bag and tried to recruit a new student for school. I think my words were, "Bad Bella! That's for a baby! We don't take toys from babies!" Fortunately, we know how to pop some tags and the thrift store keeps us with ready and willing pupils to join the school body at Bella's School for the Blind.

Not all studying; there are field days too.

Happy pink monkey ready to learn

Headmistress checking why this line of kids is unsupervised.

powered by

Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Little help from my Friends

Good luck clover found on a walk with good dogs

Petey Bella has no trouble making friends. She is pretty intuitive about other dogs and usually takes the submissive role with them, even if they are smaller than her. Now, I've noticed that she doesn't like to meet other dogs while she's on a leash, and she does not like dog parks. I think it goes back to her life prior to being rescued...I think she was put in some terrible situations and so she goes all PTSD on the other dogs in the dog park. I digress...

When someone comes over to play, or she goes to someone else's house, she's just the coolest pup. I pet-sat for a family in Decatur, who I'd met through Sittercity.com. Their little poodle mix, Shadow, was a super fun, well-trained pup and he just loved Petey Bella and Leo (my boyfriend at the time's dog). The follow-up comment from Shadow's mom was, "Shadow didn't want to come home from Camp Adrienne!" Petey had great fun running and playing with my pal Christy's dogs Jazzy and Stumbles. Stumbles and Petey were too cute sharing stuffed toys. They'd each carry them around and set them on their dog beds and then borrow them back from the other.

Smiling pups on a ROAD TRIP!

Petey Bella gets along great with my mom's dog Siena. Siena is very alpha, but she and Petey have never had any disagreement. When I still lived in Atlanta, we called it doggie-sleepover and Siena would get to come over to my house to play! (Wow, that's totally a "Stuff White People Like" there.)

 I moved to Denver in July and didn't bring Pete with me because of the hectic nature of MOVING TO AN ENTIRELY NEW CITY 1500 MILES AWAY WITHOUT ANY MAJOR PLAN OTHER THAN A JOB CONTRACT scared me about bringing a dog with no apartment. Due to 3 major work travels, I didn't make it back to Atlanta to pick her up until December. 6 months without my pup? Torture for me! She and Siena got to play, fight over my mom, and snuggle.

Petey and Phoebe sit patiently for treats.

My mom had knee surgery, so Petey got to go visit with my friend Monica and her pups, German Pointers, Phoebe and Gabby. Petey has stayed with them several times-- and prior to Gabby, they had a very old dog named Tessie. PT Bella was super sweet and calm with her-- it's like she realized she needed to be patient with a geriatric friend. Speaking of those "kids," as Monica calls them, those dogs have a great backyard with a doggie door. It took Bella many many times of watching Phoebe zip in and out of the dog door before she would bother. She liked having someone open the door for her better, anyway.

Petey and Duchess waiting on a bedtime story

Of course Petey gets along great with little Duchess, my sister's dog, and our family's first dog. My sister Emily and I were roommates for much of our twenties-- so Duchess and Petey were too. They would sleep with each one of us, but whichever of us went to work first-- the dog hightailed it out of our bedroom and beeline for the other bed-- to get snuggled in with her furry sister and other owner. Crafty pooches! My mom noticed it with Siena and Petey, and my sister and I noticed it with Duchess and Petey-- they like to lie down on the bed either symmetrically or identically. It's pretty sweet.

 My sister married this great guy who has a great dog, Abe-- he's a pretty similar build to Petey. He's a rescue lab-pit mix, and he's the most loyal, perfect dog. I don't usually like boy dogs, but Abraham is phenomenal. Petey, Abe, and Duchess have gotten to have some fun visits while my sister and her husband honeymooned and took other trips. Who doesn't love a good dog pile? :)

Abe and Pete, sleeping off some good laps

Siena and Pete, snuggle pups

Barely no room for da hoomans to sleep

Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Mast Cell Tumors :(

Boo Boo Paw

Uh oh. One of these things is NOT like the other. Her right big toe is all swollen and in pain.  Poor Petey Bella has to have surgery tomorrow-- diagnosis? A Mast Cell Tumor on her right front paw. WARNING: I'm going to put a picture of her swollen paw and it's kind of gross. Sorry in advance.
How did we get here? Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

2005: Petey Bella decided we were her "fur-ever" home. We got her spayed at this awesome, not much to look at, but wonderful vets inside office in Morrow, GA, the Lake Harbin Animal Hospital.
2005: Petey came pre-potty trained and super easy and was pretty much never sick or hurt. We fostered some puppies in 2006 and she was a nanny-- worrying over the puppies when they got too far from their mom and rolling them back with her nose.

2008: Petey stepped on some glass or something in the yard and had to have a dozen stitches/staples on her rear leg and wear the cone of shame. Since I could TELL her not to lick, she only wore the cone for about 20 minutes. The hardest part of that was paying the outrageous bill at the emergency vet in Decatur. I wasn't impressed with the experience, but the dog's okay, and that's what mattered.

2012: Noticed that a bump on her belly near her back leg had gotten mealy and swollen. The vet decided to put her under anesthesia and clean her teeth and to take it out while she was under. It turned out to be an evil, grade 2 Mast Cell Tumor. Boo, cancer. Doctors like to get "clean margins"-- varying from 3 cm

Amusing conversation with the pharmacist to get this

to 1 inch, depending on the area of the body, of clean tissue excised around these tumors. The vet was able to do this and the staples in the area around it looked so red and angry-- but a few weeks later, I could barely see the scar. Now, as her fur has regrown, the skin is flat and the incision is nearly invisible.  She needed to be on prednisone (a steroid) to help prevent recurrence, but for the first time, PT had accidents in the house because the medicine made her drink too much water and go all the time.  I knew the prognosis was worse if she wasn't on the steroid for at least 6 months, but after 3 weeks, she was miserable and sad every time I got home because she'd peed in the house and she knew better. In the interest of her happiness, I took her off the Rx.

If you use USPS to ship me, I can bark at mailman the whole time. 

2013: In July, shortly before I moved from Atlanta, 1500 miles to Denver, Pete got really sick. She couldn't walk right or go up and down the stairs; her breathing was labored, she was vomiting blood, and she had blood in her stool. I thought it was the end of her days. Turned out, she'd gotten a stomach bug and terribly dehydrated. My friend Abe cooked her rice and helped me take her to the vet. Once again, Dr. Rutter saved the day and got her fixed up.

July 2013: Because of the short notice of my move, Petey stayed with my mom and Siena in GA while I moved to Denver. Don't tell my family or friends, but I think she was the hardest "person" in my life to leave behind. Sorry guys.

You not ever leaving, momma.

December 2013: Finally made it back to Georgia! Petey and her mom are reunited! My friend Dan brought me home from the airport and his description of her reaction when I walked in was apt:
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!! YOU CAME BACK!!!!" It was a pretty intense happy dance and some first-rate snuggling when I finally hit the hay. As I sat on the couch and talked with my mom, she was sitting IN my lap.

On Christmas eve, I noticed her one toe was swollen and assumed a bug or spider had bitten her in the yard or she'd gotten a thorn or something in her paw. The day after Christmas, it wasn't any better, so my mom was taking her dog to the vet for a small procedure, so along Petey Bella went. The doctor wanted to treat it conservatively, as it didn't seem broken, but just badly swollen. She had 7 days of an anti-inflammatory, Carprofen. It helped, but the swelling wasn't completely gone. I continued treating her with Benadryl, which is an OTC anti-histamine, in case it was a spider bite and just needed longer to heal.

Her middle toe is so swollen.

2014: January 3, my friend Dan and I packed up my tiny new AWD car to drive from Atlanta to Denver with Petey in tow. The Midwest saw record lows, so we saw 0 and 1 degree with colder wind chill and snow that had frozen back over in St. Louis. I was very worried about the magnesium chloride and salt on the sidewalks when we had to go outside because she didn't like it on her paws at all. 

Her head in her paws

I continued with the Benadryl daily as we slowly made it across Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado in strong winds and snowy conditions. I showed pictures of her to one of my student's parents-- who's a vet-- and she recommended buffered aspirin and benadryl-- and further exam. My poor Petey's poor little paw was still swollen.

January 20, 2014: Over the weekend, Petey seemed more acclimated to the altitude and weather (it wasn't too cold), so she and I went for a short run/walk around the Hilltop neighborhood and to a park with a walking trail by Rose Medical Center. Monday morning was a holiday, and her paw was angry with the activity. It was swollen and red and she was wincing and sighing-- so I called around to get a vet recommendation, and ended up following Yelp advice and going with a nearby vet's office, called Park Hill.

Still loves a car ride, even if it's to the VET

I was very impressed with the Vet-- it was clean, the technicians, nurses, and the vet were friendly, professional, and concerned about details. I'd spoken with Dr. Rutter on the phone and he said that the next course of action was a needle aspiration-- to see what the fluid was inside her paw. The new vet, Dr. Turner took that action-- ascertained that her toe wasn't broken and it didn't seem to be infected (she had no fever). I really liked her "petside" manner-- she got on the floor with Petey, talked with her, and made her feel comfortable about the small procedure. We would have to wait to see what the histology said about the fluids, but since she'd already had a Mast Cell tumor, it was a possibility that it was another.

Dr. Turner also stated that she was a very good girl-- even though she was poking, prodding, and pinching her paw, she didn't get mad. That's my girl. She got a cool purple bandage and a laundry list of medications: Cephalexin- an antibiotic at my request- in case it was an infection, Rimadyl for pain and inflammation, Prilosec to help her stomach deal with the new medicines, and 60-70 mg of benadryl twice a day. This was much more than I'd been giving her-- but as MCT's are full of histamine, that if broken/degranulated, will attack the inner organs. That sounded bad.

Her swollen toe after shaving and aspiration. And her Bella-belly.

At least her bandage matches!

Unfortunately, the lab came back with the Mast cells present. As of Saturday night, the 25th, she's taking her medications, on a short leash-- to limit aggravating the tumor with exercise, and scheduled for surgery on Monday morning. The vet has called me, emailed me patient instructions, and been really thorough about her care. The doctor will remove the tumor and send it to the lab for pathological testing-- to see if it's graded a 1 (basically treatable and probably isolated to this spot), a 2 (not as good, possibly will/has spread), or a 3 (very aggressive, bad cancer). With luck, the tumor is young enough that it isn't wrapped up in too much of her toe. There's a possibility that they will have to amputate her toe-- which will impact her gait and our running habit. I'm thinking happy thoughts, reading about homeopathic/holistic recommendations for follow-up treatment, and snuggling a LOT with my snoring pup.

So, if the spirit moves you, please think happy thoughts, say a prayer, what have you-- for my dog, the vet and nurses, and me. I really want my Petey Bella to see some of these hiking trails out here in the west. There's lots of good smells to smell.

And P.S....you know how I know I got a found a good vet? They sent a follow-up post card via SNAIL MAIL. Sending a handwritten note? I do that kind of thing too, y'all.

Sweet check up post card

powered by

Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Talented Explorer

Your pillow? No, it's mine.

My Petey Bella is pretty much the snuggliest, easiest, dog ever. She's happy with nearly any food (although eggs and yogurt are pretty awesome), she sleeps either curled up in a tiny (as tiny as a 65-pound giant can get) "Bella Ball," and she's good on walks, hikes, and runs. She knows her name, err, names-- she will answer to so many different ones. 

 She knows:

Her patented "Petey Head-Hug"

--sit
--lay down (yes, grammatically it's lie down, but whatever!)
--gentle (when accepting a treat. This is important for the treat-giver's fingers.)

--shake 
-- shake (I'm putting it twice because if you say it twice, she'll switch paws)
--hop down (good for making up the bed purposes)
--come here (good for snuggling in bed purposes)
--Petey Pee (she squats. I swear.)
-- Bella, go baf-room!-- she poops within 2 minutes. 
--Yoga dog. (It's probably called "bow," but I taught her yoga dog when she does a Downward dog stretch. It's adorbs!)

Didn't see nuffin' down der in de dirt, I swear.

She knows the words for upstairs, inside, outside, go, ride...probably more.We're working on "no bark" and speak. She doesn't speak on command, but she generally will yowl, whine, and stop barking at the mailman, strange sounds in the hallway, etc. after one "No bark!" That's a pretty darn good pup. 

She has kind of an Eeyore from Winne the Pooh personality. She jumps over little scares and army crawls away from things she doesn't like. She is nervous around vacuum cleaners and loud noises, and is not terribly alpha. Except when she's on a leash. Then she has no problem finding her proverbial tail, her vicious bark, and her strength to move mountains. Oh, and against cats. She HATES cats. Or rather she would LOVE a cat-- to chew on. I recently discovered she's not a huge fan of elevators-- but more on that later. 

She's blurry because she's running.

Have harness, will travel.

Forgot her shades, but remembered the SPF. 

Definitely the dog days of summer

Petey Bella is my adventure dog. She's easy to take in the car-- she gets terribly excited for the leash, even more excited for the harness or doggie seatbelt harness, and super easily enters a vehicle upon the phrase, "in you go!" We would go for runs in Decatur and Grant Park and long walks on the trails-- a favorite is around my friend's property by the Flint River in Hampton. I'd call her "Adventure Pete" and we'd go exploring. She's very careful to stay only a few yards ahead of me and would just smell and smell all the scents that nature offered. I'll see if I can embed a video of her "fording" a creek-- she's just so fun and cool. She's also great about just laying out with me-- the hot Georgia summers on a blanket in the grass with me catching some Vitamin D and her snapping at bugs and rolling around-- those are some relaxing days. 

I think I mentioned that she's an easy eater. She will sit quietly next to your chair while you're eating, and not really beg, but she's happy to lick your plate clean. I call it the "doggie pre-wash cycle." My coworker Robin offered once to save meat scraps for her, since I'm vegetarian and never have meat in the house. I assured her, she thinks that tofu is delicious, and that peanut butter is the cat's pajamas. She has been known to get her head a little stuck in a yogurt cup, and we even have a song to go through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. It sounds like Adele's "Rumor Has It," and goes "Chicken Nugget! Chicken Nugget! Petey wants a nugget in her bellllllly." Look at these awful pictures of my dog's terrible life:

Bruster's dog sundae

The yogurt...so sneaky!

Baked on casserole? I can work with that.

Yes, she had special dog waffle and eggs.

Bull pizzle? Oh thank you just a tripe.

powered by

Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Introduction

The ever-classy Duchess

Siena's tough, but she's a lover.

Meet Stinks and Siena. Stinks, (as I nicknamed her because she always seems to have a lovely, ah-hem, stench, despite her stately attitudes) is our family's first dog. She came into our lives as a tiny puppy the neighbors couldn't handle and she was just the best first dog. She knows commands, she has personality, and she can tell the difference between "talk" and "speak." Her actual name is Duchess, but she answers to Puppy Girl, Il Duce, Stinky...Duchess is over 10 years old and adjusting nicely to being a big sister to my little sister's first human baby. Duchess is definitely the queen fur baby. Siena is our family's second dog. She came to us as a pit rescue who stole our hearts. She's the perfect brown of the sun-drenched bricks in Siena, Italy...and is a constant companion to my mom. She can climb trees and fences and she loves to roll in freshly-shampoo'd hair and dryer sheets. 

Same brindle coat, adorable mug.

About a year after our family rescued Siena and one of her pups...another rescue dog found us. She looked like Pete the Pup from the Lil Rascals and was all skin and bones. She made it a habit to jump into our cars (my sister, my brother, me) when we were leaving for work-- just to say good morning. 

Petey Bella's storybook Doppelgangar

We loved the cottage with scary heater

 We fell in love with her big, round, brown eyes. Pete the Pup was named Petey, but we didn't want her to have gender issues, so my aunt Janet called her Petey Bella. She gets called Pete, Petes, Petey Pants,  Pokey Big Puppy (because she's 65 pounds, but looks like the Little Golden Book Poky Little Puppy), Bella Boo...she had a prescription filled at a CVS of all places and when the pharmacy tech asked for her last name or ID, I was stumped.



The conversation with the pharmacy tech went something like, "Please confirm the patient's full name."
Me: "Pants? Her name is Petey Pants I think."
Pharmacist: "You don't know this patient's last name? Where's the ID?"
Me: "Um, she doesn't have her driver's license yet because none of her four feet can reach the pedals."
--stank eye from employee--
Me: "She's my dog. You're filling a prescription from a vet, not a doctor."
Pharmacist: "So we put the last name as dog."

Whoa-kay there.

Preppy Pete is ready to hang with the Denver hipsters

So we've had her since 2006, and she was probably a year old then. She had been bred and starved, so she was skin and bones, but had fetuses in her. Once she started to gain weight, she miscarried the pups, which made it easier to keep her because we didn't have to find families to adopt lots of puppies. I will never, ever understand why people want to make money off of animals and do so by hurting and starving them, but I am incredibly grateful that the people who did this to my Petey Bella did it nearby so she could find me to come live with. She's a really awesome dog. 

Oh hai! You're home! Been missin' you allllll the day!

Petey's always got head hugs for her momma

Dirty Thirty...Adult Acne Time

I turned thirty in May. In all the irony the the U.S. healthcare system and insurance has to offer, my Retin-A was cancelled due to my age. Apparently I'm too old for acne (my insurance would allow it if I were in the teen to young twenties bracket) and too young for wrinkles (it acts as a collagen booster for older women). There's a window here, ladies! We're not supposed to have acne or wrinkles, according to my insurance tables.

I wish someone from United Healthcare would call my pores.

I have blackheads on my nose, I have cystic acne around my chin, I have discoloration/rosacea on my cheekbones, I have scars from teenaged acne, and I have whiteheads and zits on my cheeks from where my phone transfers bacteria to my pores. Heavens, I don't know how I leave the house without a bag over my head or shellacking myself with buckets of stage makeup! It's like I have the plague!

Just kidding. It's not that serious. This is a first world problem. One that could probably be solved by Pro-active, but I am adamantly against anything that Jessica Simpson endorses. I digress.

I attempted microdermabrasian, but the esthetician insisted that a fruit acid (PCA) chemical peel would do wonders for my skin and I'd see amazing results. I saw no change except for my credit card statement.

A dear friend I've known for years (love you Amber!) suggested via social media that I look into the "Oil Cleansing Method" and to give it a shot. I love DIY and I love natural remedies, so this seemed worth the look-see.

I could probably credit all the different sites I read, but I know the main one was from Wellness Mama.com and plenty of connected sites. In a nutshell, I decided to order a couple of oils (jojoba and evening primrose on amazon) and while I waited on those, I would try something that I had in my kitchen already. (I also decided to avoid Castor Oil for ethical and skin-sensitivity issues. It is toxic to the workers who process it, so that's a good reason for me to avoid it-- um, it's also the same plant that makes ricin.)

Immediately on hand?
Sunflower, olive, coconut, and flax seed oils. (I mean, I have canola oil, but that's from a plant called rapeseed, and seriously, my face is jacked up enough.) You can mix in different essential oils and vitamin E to help balance, so I decided to use common sense and give it a go. Every site I read said that give it time (approximately a week) for your skin to get used to this concept and see any results. I'm on day 3, and so far so good.

My execution?

1. At night, mix a handful of flaxseed oil (it also has some flaxseeds ground in it, so it works as a scrub) with a couple of drops of tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is anti-bacterial and is in many natural acne remedies. I personally think it stinks.
2. Rub this stuff into my skin and leave it on for a few minutes. It's brown and a little abrasive, but in a smoothing way, due to the flaxseed. The tea tree oil is more astringent than emollient, but dry skin isn't too much of a problem for me in the summer.
3. Wring out a very hot washcloth so it is damp and set it on my face, allowing it to cool and steam open my pores. Repeat...then wipe off anything left.

Immediate Results? My skin felt soft, and the acne didn't seem any worse. The next morning, I noticed my nose felt damp, so I looked in the mirror and I saw the oil oozing from my blackheads on my nose. Gross, right? I know! But it also meant that the oil was leaving my body and my pores were tinier and tighter. Cool!

In the morning, I tried a slightly gentler approach--
1. A handful of coconut oil (it was liquid because it's over 80 degrees upstairs in my bathroom) with a few drops of tangerine essential oil. Both are organic, for what it's worth.
2. I repeated the steps from night time-- I massaged the oil mix in (the tangerine smell was happy and uplifting!) and allowed it to penetrate my skin for a few minutes. I repeated the steam washcloth and went about my day. (Side note on the citrus acid oil-- it had a seriously nostalgic feeling because my Grandma Marilyn always had a natural citrus air freshener in her powder room. The smell was overwhelmingly lovely to me. It also smells like the award-winning Burt's Bees orange cleanser, but I never liked that much when I used it...and it's been deceptively changed and discontinued on its website, but is available from other retailers. The new kind has other ingredients in it.)

I think when I have less time on my hands, I'll probably skip the steam washcloth and apply the oil before I hop in the shower-- but for now, that part feels pretty therapeutic!

Here's a picture of my cute snuggly dog. You can see my ugly acne cheek here.

In actuality, while I was listing off the dermatological "problem areas" of my face...I thought about the fact that I also have smile lines (both by my eyes and lips) from 30 years of laughing and smiling about life. I also have acne-camouflaging freckles,  which my brother and I share, but my sister and I do not. It's kind of cool to think about the genetics of physical traits-- I have my grandmother's big brown eyes while my mom got her father's baby blues.  My skin is pretty fair, but with the olive complexion of some Mediterranean relatives, I don't get sun burns easily and I do enjoy sitting in the sun! Plus, I mean, look at that snuggle-pup. She don't care about no adult acne.