Shiloh is a about 2 year old, they think, black labrador retriever and chow mix.  He was rescued from Tehachapi where we have been told he was the town dog.  We have driven through Tehachapi, we stopped and had lunch there on one of our driving trips to Las Vegas.  We really liked that area its beautiful country in the mountains and is high desert.  We are not sure much of the rest of his history although we have tried to guess where some of his funny habits might have come from.  He is a gorgeous dog.  I don’t think he looks much like a chow although his face is rounder than a labs and he does have the Kulesza family eye brow anxienty wrinkle to match his mommy’s (note I am mommy and Elliott is daddy, in case that wasn’t obvious).  From what we have heard a woman in Tehachapi was worried about him, I presume because of him living on the streets and perhaps the danger of cars so he was sent to the pound, they shipped him up here and a lady we were communicating with about adopting a dog recommended him to us.

We met him first to see if we thought he would be a good fit.  He was being boarded by a sweet lady who lives in Petaluma about 45 miles north of us.  There were lots of other dogs there.  When we arrived many of them started barking, Shiloh on the other hand never made a peep.  He ran around a little crazy like for a few minutes seemingly taunting the other dogs that he was out and we took him for a walk so we could see his temperament away from the other barking boarders.  We walked him for quite a bit.  Talked about it at length and decided he was great.  At one point I asked him to “sit” which he didn’t do and I decided we would have our work cut out for us.  We told the lady we needed to get our things in order and we would pick him up in a few days which we did.

We bought him a crate, a pretty nice plush bed, food, bowls, treats and toys.  We were prepared for the investment.  When we picked him up we knew he didn’t like cars to the three of us, the nice land, Elliott and I all coaxed him into the car.  He immediately started drooling profusely and  I felt regret well up as I pictured our concrete floors sloppy with drool from this dog we had just adopted, what did we do.  It turns out he only drools in the car, thank goodness.  More on the car later.

He was great when we got him home.  He was a little tentative about the stairs, actually I think he still is but he has gotten used to them.  We took him for several walks and we started mentally logging his ones and twos so we would know when he needed to go on walks.  They say dogs should go out within 30 mins of feeding and we feed him twice morning and night.  We also take him for an afternoon potty break as well which seems to work well.

I think the first day he checked out his crate all on his own.  We were really surprised.  So after a few times of him going in it we closed the door like we read on the internet.  He didn’t care, no whining.  So then after another few more times we closed the door and left the house with him locked in it.  They say not to make a big deal about leaving or coming home so we didn’t we just walked out nonchalantly like no big deal as our hearts broke when we got outside, we didn’t want him to feel unloved.  Amazingly this worked with no whining and no problems.  The first few nights he slept in the crate for some of the night.  Then a few nights after he first joined us he was up in the middle of the night, walking around, upstairs, downstairs, making a big raucous, it was awful.  Ever since then he sleeps in the crate with the door closed!  That has worked pretty well.  So now if we both need or want to leave we point in the crate and say “kennel”.  He goes in somewhat unexcitelyd.  We say “good boy!” and then we go like its no big deal.

Interestingly it turns out he does know “sit”.  Which he will do for a treat, or if you hold a ball long enough during a fetching session, for his food, or when instructed although it sometimes takes two or three times.  He has learned to sit when we put his leash on.  Sometimes he will sit waiting to cross the street at a red light.  We make him sit when he goes crazy trying to chase birds and squirrels, so today when Elliott was trying to calm him down with out even a request for a sit he sat anyway, which elicited another “good boy!”

We have had only two accidents in the house, only number 1, and both preceded by obvious signs requesting to go out and we just didn’t react fast enough.

He goes well on walks and doesn’t mark every bush along the way which is good although lately he has been more into marking his territory which we are not a big fan of.  We work hard to always walk him by some good grassy areas.  We do live in a downtown area although there are still quite a few landscaped areas and a neighborhood park.  Although sometimes we will take him for a walk that includes a destination for us, perhaps a coffee shop or grocery store.  This has resulted in a few so far sidewalk poopings.  This has been an unfortunate experience each time.  The first time it happened he did it right in front of the Courtyard Marriott and the bellman standing at the door.  Elliott and I apologized and explained this had ever happened before.  We continued walking, we made a couple stops and then on the way back home as we passed the Marriott Elliott was preparing to joke with the same bellman that we had brought our dog back and then he did it again, pooped on the sidewalk in front of the Marriott, double embarrassing.  We do not respond to this behavior with our common “good boy!” although what are going to do with a dog who lives in downtown, if he has to go, he has to go.  Fortunately I think his stomach is now calmed down, used to his food and walking schedule so I think those instances will be less common.

We are working to know the right way to train him, we are in pursuit of a dog training class although we haven’t managed to get it scheduled yet.  Meanwhile the most entertaining part has been Elliott’s attempt to use the right voice.  So far he has adapted an angry voice which somehow doesn’t come out nearly as naturally as mine does.  And he has also learned that sometimes a good high pitched voice is needed to inspire excitement and motivation so Elliott tries to mimic my tone which is really entertaining.

During our first weekend we did take him for a pretty good hike.  It ended up being about 6 miles, not very hilly, although a little hot.  A little more than halfway through our lazy dog started to lay down in the shade and not continue on.  We gave him lots of water, he continued to pee (so no dehydration at least I think) but he was acting like he couldn’t go another step.  He would lay down and drink the water and we would dig in and make us drag him if we asked him to come.  It was painfully awful.  Elliott’s friend Brad was there.  We stopped often to let him cool down and drink water until we realized that at that pace we would never get back.  So eventually we learned we had to run through the shaded areas with him saying “come on Shiloh, come on Shiloh, good boy, come on…” it was awful.  If it was his first day at boot camp I think he would have been kicked out. Apparently he is not a big hiker, we are going to have to work on that and his endurance.

The other issue has been the car.  He hates the car.  Early on we tried to teach him that the car went to fun places like the dog park.  But leaving the dog park we would lay down in the parking lot and not get near the back of the car.  We would have to lift up his front paws and put them in the car and then lift up his rear legs to boost him into the car.  It was embarrassing and ridiculous.  The pinnacle though was when we took him for a ride too close to having had dinner and he threw up twice in the car including once on his bed.  I didn’t know what to do.  I was by myself and it was the night of the “Oakland riots” so I didn’t want to stop so I kept driving, he stood up hovering over his throw up the entire way home.  Since then we are now on a slow progression plan to learn that the car is a good place to get him over his anxiety of the car.

Ok last story, 4th of July.  Elliott went to see the fireworks in the city with his friend.  I fed Shiloh and took him for kind of  late after dinner walk.  We went down a couple of blocks and someone set off a load firework of some sort, Shiloh bolted, the leash pulled tight and tried to run I don’t know where.  I calmed him down and he stopped running.  I realized I would need to get him home and it was good because he had already done his business.  We turned the corner to go home and another firework nearby went off.  That was it, Shiloh attempted to sprint the entire way home.  I restrained as best I could in my flip flops although he pulled me basically the entire way home, he turned the corner to our street and then sniffed every entrance door and I had to coax him onward to our door.  I opened the door, he ran upstairs and laid down behind the loft wall for the rest of the night.  I consoled him as best I could but it was really one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

Ok final final story, this one is from tonight.  We bought him a long leash so we could work on training and its nice because we can take him to the park and he can run around and we don’t have to worry about him running into the street.  Also we determined that he loves the soccer ball so he will chase after the ball, pick it up in his mouth and its hilarious.  So tonight we were playing with him when he had to do a number 2.  Elliott picked it up, handed the leash to me and said I will be right back I am going to throw this away.  Elliott proceeded to run across the park.  Shortly thereafter Shiloh took off in a dead sprint after Elliott with me holding the leash.  I knew he would reach the end of the leash so I yelled at him Shiloh and before I knew what happened he reached the end of the leash and I became air born, I hit the ground and then slid another few inches.  The shear momentum of his 60 pounds was amazing.  I rolled over on my back and tried to catch my breath.  Both Elliott and Shiloh ran to my assistance.  Elliott, smartly controlled his laughter and I think was surprised to see me so shook up.  I wasn’t really hurt although I do think I will have a few bruises I was more a mix of startled and embarrassed.  Later when I could laugh about it Elliott got a good chuckle out about it and he told me that Shiloh and an equally violent reaction on his end of the leash.  Elliott said I should have started running or let go of the leash, all great ideas I agree.  I think Shiloh forgave me and hopefully he learned not to do that, although I highly doubt it.

That’s it for now.  I wanted to document some of our dog stories to date.  We are so happy we got a dog.  We have gotten a lot of great walking and playing in because of it and he really does lighten our day.

So I have spent a couple hours today researching the products they have available and we will definitely be visiting them to pick up some things.  Funny thing is we would have gone there today, however we were not able to get a hold of them.  They ask that you call ahead and in typical laid back hippie fashion they haven’t returned my message yet, I find that totally funny and ironic.  What will we be getting?  Chia seeds – I think I may use these in place of the Arbonne fiber we have been using in smoothies, they are also a good source of good fats.  Maca – a root that is great for energy and apparently better sex drive (oh my, yes I did write that in a blog I know my mother reads, hi mom, love you!).  Kale Chips – these are simply baked kale, a good treat for those who have given up starchy tubers like potatoes the more common chip component.  And lastly Elliott has requested Wizards Paste, which I believe is a chocolate type mixture with 12 or so “superfoods”.  When the hippies get around to calling us back we will go check out their store/house, purchase some of these items and work on bringing them into our diet.  I am pretty excited to try something new.

On another note, the jury is still out on whether or not coconut oil is “good” for you.  Some people say its a saturated fat so its not good, others say its one of natures best foods.  I tried it in my smoothie and liked it.  Then one night I was talking to our friends who are from India about it and she told me that she uses it in her hair.  She also shared a story that one time she went to someones house and they drizzled it on food, she thought that was disgusting.  Since I had tried it in food first I was thankful that it hadn’t been ruined for me and I then proceeded to try it as a beauty product.  I rubbed it on my skin area problems for several days before getting in the shower.  I think there is a small chance the residual on my hands made my face break out… although other than that it was soothing.  Then today I put it on my hair for a few hours.  I showered tonight and afraid it was going to be too greasy I shampoo’d twice, do you think that negates all the benefit?  So then I conditioned to try and get the benefit back.  I didn’t blow dry or do my hair and its still slightly damp so I can’t comment on if I think it was helpful or not, although it did feel fun.  I kind of want to take a bath in the stuff it feels so rich.

Lastly, my final hippie act for the day is researching how to make our own almond milk.  We go through so much of this stuff I thought it would be good to see if making it ourselves is an option.  I first compared the potential price savings and I don’t think the savings is so great as to be a motivator in itself.  However I do think that the amount of the containers we throw away would be greatly reduced and thereby I think worth it.  That is easy to say having not yet made it. It doesn’t look that hard though.  Some people blanch the almonds, others don’t.  I think I would skip the blanching.  I think I would soak them overnight though.  And then you blend in water and strain in cheese cloth.  Sounds pretty easy.  We just bought a bunch of almond milk today, including a case (that’s how much we use) so when we almost exhaust that supply I am going to try making a batch to see if I think it is a viable option rather than purchasing it.

Given my recent aversion to spandex, I am afraid I may soon be caught up in a raw food, hemp clothing, tree hugging movement and no longer be recognizable to my friends and family.  If that happens I am sorry.  I love you all.  Peace, love and gratitude, love your hippie sister, daughter and friend, teresa (aka raindancer)

I think Elliott thinks the penny should be abandoned by the government.  I think if soda machines at least excepted them that they would be good for something other than fountains.  I learned from someone not sure if was my parents or who that you shouldn’t throw away money, even if its a penny, I think it puts a hex on you based on your apparent frivolous nature.  So what should we do with our pennies?

This morning when I finally got out of bed and showered I went to put on my wedding ring and I realized I hadn’t cleaned it in probably months.  I soaked it, brushed it, and washed it off to expose its sparkle.  I had been too busy to do this pretty simple task.  I noticed it wasn’t shining anymore although I just didn’t even stop to remember I had the power to fix it.  My attitude had been closely tracking the condition of my ring.  I think I have finally emerged from my stupor.  What is my equivalent to soaking, brushing and a good wash you ask….

First of all I said no to the ridiculous idea of spending 3-4 hours traveling to a 4 hour meeting today.  I should have gone, I was supposed to go, although it was not what I needed today.  So instead I vegged last night and this morning and I watched more episodes than I care to admit of Chuck.  This is my new favorite show.  I know pretty impressive for someone who doesn’t own a tv, problem is you don’t need a tv when you have a laptop and the internet.  So, I totally identify with Chuck.  Not that I am crazy smart covert spy fighting bad guys… although I do identify with this guy who feels like he used to have a normal life and now he has been thrown into a world with lots of risk, pressure and the absence of normalcy.  I know a little dramatic for my life of managing a 3 man office for an A&E firm, although I do day dream of the days in high school when I sold shoes in the mall and my biggest concern was hoping someone would also buy a second item, so my percentage of sales with multiple items would meet my target of 33%. 

I drank 2 americanos at Pete’s, only single shots so don’t be alarmed.  I read through the stack of four SF Business Times that had piled up on my desk and made notes of prospective clients and partners.  I laughed out loud when I read an article about how the economy has to be ok given the continued long lines at Starbucks and potential of caffeine filled Americans. 

And then amazingly even among my recent disillusionment I believe stumbled, this morning, or last night I can’t remember now, upon the answer to a question that I have been chewing on for awhile.  Probably almost 2 years ago in a Vistage working session I drew a timeline of the significant events in my life.  The purpose of the exercise was to understand things that have continued to show up in your life and to follow those signs.  Unfortunately I did not see any patterns that provided clarity about my journey to date.  Then more recently I took a survey for another Vistage meeting which unfortunately I then had to miss the meeting.  Although I had the opportunity to discuss my Predictive Index with the facilitator who proceeded to tell me about myself, my situation, and my general feelings of my dealings at work.  It was phenomenal given the survey did not seem to be enough to provide such understanding to a stranger.  Although he shared with me something that I didn’t know… he said my results showed that there was a disconnect between my capacity and my perception for where I am.  It’s a bit confusing although I understand that I either have or believe I have the capacity to be achieving at one level although my self-concept of where I am currently functioning is lower.  So I have been thinking about that, why do I feel like I could be doing more and still feel so stretched at the same time?  Then it came to… the pattern of my life story, the commonality in some of my favorite memories from my 29 years.  I am still working on the synthesis of my discovery although I think it will help me to shape my future.  Very exciting!

My day started out with my wonderful husband getting up and making me breakfast.  And not just my standard high fiber cereal and soy milk – no he made me french toast with berries and eggs.  I guess the pressure is on for his birthday now!

Then at work I was surprised by Reena who brought in a mini cake for the 3 of us to share and they sang happy birthday to me!  That was so sweet.

We ended our day with massages.  I have been there before and have had deep tissue massages where I felt the pain for weeks after.  So I let my guy know it was my birthday and my end goal was relaxation which he nailed.

Then in the evening I spoke to just about everyone in my family and received a birthday wish!  Friends, family, cake, massage – what else could a girl want?!

Lets see other updates, in the last few weeks we also saw 2 movies. 7 pounds – loved it, cried pretty good and didn’t know how it was going to end until the end, I am so gullible at movies I never detect where the movie is headed.  Then yesterday we saw Yes Man – loved it too.  Jim Carey is awesome although the movie only had a hint of his usual goofiness.  It had a great story to tell of being positive with a  little bit of a love story intertwined – a perfect Saturday afternoon treat.

Yesterday we got to see Stef and Don, had lunch with them in Walnut Creek at Maria Maria – a pretty decent Mexican restaurant and window shopped – that was a lot of fun.

Friday night we went line dancing with Jen and Kris – fun.  We learned the couples line dance the Wooden Nickel.  We thought we would be dancing with our guys the entire time, although it turns out the guys rotate, so we all got to sort of meet some other people, it was a fun time.  After the lesson they played music, we stayed danced a bit – it was another birthday celebration for me and I had a great time.

Otherwise things are pretty good.  We had beautiful weather yesterday and we are expecting it to stick around, life is good!

After I dropped him off at the BART station I went by Subway for a meatball sandwhich dinner, alway a good back up plan and I went back to work.  I “worked” only a little.  Cleaned up the piles and moved paper around.  Then I went through some of emails that I tend to save up of things to do.  Like we want to go to a San Jose Earthquakes soccer game, so I had an email reminder in a folder, so I ordered tickets and deleted the email.  I had some SWE business to catch up on so I did that as well.

Soon the minutes faded into another and before I knew it, it was 9pm.  The lights flickered, the automatic building energy managements way of telling me they would be shutting off for good unless I called in with my secret code to override it.  I called in another hour of light but I am not sure if the system is on Colorado time or what but they shut off anyway.  Oh well, the building’s way of telling me to go home, which I did.

On the way I home with my bag of industry journals, business newspapers, and dishes from the office to wash at home (we don’t use paper plates anymore, its a green thing) I realized something.  It is a Friday night.  Elliott went to SF and I stayed at work because lets face it I don’t have anything else to do.

Now thats not totally fair.  I do have a very good friend not far away that if I were at all organized I could have made plans with.  Or I could have gone to the gym.  Read a book.  Gone to the mall.  Or any number of other things.  But I did realize driving home that I have no new friends here.  We have been here over a year, 392 days give or take.  I have met a few people in Vistage and have spent some time with a few of them outside of our meetings.  We have some great clients that we have spent some time with although mostly on a professional basis with.  I have met people through professional organizations but nothing has blossomed outside of committee meetings.  A year in and I have developed no new “serious” relationships.

I purposely use this awkward word ‘relationship’ because that is what it feels like.  I have been asked out by some women at different events to hang out another time, maybe with our spouces, and it is always weird.  These exchanges have also never panned out into an official date.  Not that I don’t take some of the blame.  I am at times horrible at social situations.  Especially lately, I get around people and I start jabbering away like an idiot who doesn’t have anyone to talk to at home.  Which isn’t fair I do have someone to talk to, but I think its nice to have multiple someone’s to talk to.

So, another year to give it a go.  My goal, 4 seperate new relationships.  Meaning if I meet a couple they only count as 1.  Ah rules, and you wonder why I have no friends!  But seriously, I am going to start asking people out, forcing myself in social situations and making an effort, which the friends that I do have can tell you I have never been very good at.  I am good at working.  And spending time with Elliott.  But I will expand that so that Friday nights can be celebrated with or without Elliott (Elliott you know what I mean without right…). 

 Some how between last night and this morning I decided I wanted to do a juice detox I read about in a magazine, I told Elliott I would be doing a weekend juice detox and we was pissed.  He went to Sacramento today for a boys golfing trip and he didn’t want me to experience a detox without him.  After considering his feelings for a few minutes I realized he was pissed because he didn’t want me to lose a pound unless he had the opportunity to lose a pound too.  When confronted with this analysis he admitted it was correct.  We went for a run before he had to leave for Sacramento.  While he showered I walked to the store for the first recipe, he wanted to have at least the first juice with me.  I am working from memory but the shopping list included: beets, spinach, kale, aloe vera gel, carrots, apple, orange… thats all I can remember now.  I asked Elliott if he thought it was an issue that we don’t have a juicer only a blender, as the two produce very different results.  He thought the blender would do fine for the juice diet.  I prepared the foods and placed them in the blender poured 2 giant 8 ounce glasses and smiled because the rule in our house is the person who blends doesn’t have to clean.  Oh and olive oil, how could I forget, the recipe included olive oil.  The juice/smoothie was horrible.  The only good part was watching Elliott’s gag reflex which was hilarious even though I was choking down the same strange juice/smoothie.  Elliott commented that he thought the kale smelled like he does after a run, I said I didn’t think it smelled that bad but it definitely tasted pretty bad.  Elliott eventually left for his trip and I was left to ponder my day.  I showered and made latter made myself a fruit juice, a nice break from the vegetable variety, much better.  I went to Whole Foods to purchase my lunch and dinner items, you have no idea how expensive it is to buy all of these veggies.  I came back home and made a celery, orange, lemon, kale… the rest I have put out of memory juice/smoothie and suprisingly it was even worse that the breakfast smoothie – horrible in fact.

Throughout the day I surfed the internet and read about juicing, detox, raw good diets, even learned about strange things like oil pulling.  Around 3pm I realized it had warmed up outside so I walked across the street with a blanket and magazines and partially watched a girls soccer game, it was really nice to get some sun.  Back at the house 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through my juice detox I aborted the mission and had a spoonful of cashew butter.  I then ate some chips and salsa and started to feel normal again.  I decided to walk to Safeway where I bought a greasy burrito from the deli counter and some bananas.  I then walked to Block Buster and rented the Devil Wears Prada.  Once home I ate the bean burrito and enjoyed every bite.  I still don’t feel quite right, the unfortunate part is now I am not sure if the smoothies or the burrito made me feel bad.  Oh well, I think I can nurse myself back to health with some hearty food tomorrow.  Oh I forgot to mention I also tried a dandelion root tea with lunch, it helps detox the liver or something.

One thing I wanted to mention is while at Safeway the cashiers were really playing up their donate to breast cancer program.  I donate each time I go to the store, I gave this morning when I bought the veggies.  Tonight though they were announcing each donation over the speaker system and crowds of cashiers were clapping and celebrating.  I thanked the cashier and said I thought they were doing a good thing.  He shared with me that the general manager is a breast cancer survivor.  I told him my mom is fighting it right now.  It took everything I had to not break down into tears right there.  A year ago I would have maybe given a dollar, and probably never thought twice.

So I didn’t make it through the weekend detox and for whatever reason today has been an emotional day for me, I guess that is what I get for reading mom’s blog first thing.  Tonight I am going to drown my tears with more toxic food, probably some cereal, and The Devil Wears Prada, spread out in the bed as Elliott will be back tomorrow.

It sucks that I couldn’t follow my gut on this one, because I really really wanted to go after this opportunity.   But the other information they sent me said it would require a huge time commitment with 3 week shoots in November, January, February… five months, three weeks off each from work, ya I can just imagine Pete’s reaction.  The funny thing is Pete and I just had a great talk about what we want to be when we grow up and I shared with him that what drives me is to do good, and here is an opportunity calling my name to do something good and I turn it down because of my work commitments.  So bye bye dream job (I am hamming it up here, I am really not that sad about it anymore, but figure for the blog a little dramatic flair is appreciated) for whatever reason now wasn’t the time for me to go after one of the opportunities of a life time.  I guess I already got a pretty great opportunity this year, hence moving here so I suppose that is fair.

On a truly positive note, we had a new employee start yesterday.  She is fabulous, smart and fun – who could ask for more.  She even took us up on going to lunch, better than our last employee.  I think she is a keeper.  She is from China.  Today she brought in a moon cake to share, from the Chinese Moon Festival last week.  Jon was down from our Reno office so the 4 of us split it for dessert – she knows how to buy me.

After dinner we walked into Joann’s having a conversation about what these capes were going to cost.  Elliott is supportive of SWE up to a point.  I told him it would be a dollar or two a cape, 20 capes, $40 max, he told me I was crazy – he was right.  I thought I could find some cheapo gold fabric that no one else wanted apparently gold is still in.  I did however find quite a few really cute options, one with stars and even one with flames!  One of the employees came over to assist as I was grasping a piece of the golden starred material over my shoulders trying to convince Elliott that this whole cape business could be cheap and easy.  She asked if we needed help, I explained simply that I needed material to make a few capes.  She eloquently asked did I want something that looked like a cape or something that just looked like fabric attached to my shoulders.  I explained that if it required sowing it wasn’t going to happen.  Using me for demonstration she showed Elliott how drapping the material at the top would dress up the rectangle of fabric and make it look like a more legit super hero accessory.  Fabulous.

She cut 20 (1) yard segments of the varied patterns as I shopped for pom poms, pipe dowels, ribbon and various admornments for the super capes.

Meanwhile Elliott found a pair of pants he wants to make in a magazine.  The pattern requires less than 2 yards of material so determined that if he could get someone to make the pants for him they would be rather inexpensive, which odd is an odd thing to excite the man who I struggle to get to look at the sale racks at Macy’s.  Furthermore, I not sure who that someone is who will be cutting and sowing the patters together, the closest I get to crafty is saving the extra buttons from my recent clothing purchases.

We finally left our childhood memory behind, $160 later… I hope the Super SWEsters appreciate their golden capes.