Introducing...

Deep within my soul, I yearn to be spontaneous. But everywhere else, I vacillate between obsessively planning things out and lazily letting things go as they will (NOT the same thing as being spontaneous in my opinion).
So yesterday, when Thomas sent me a message on gmail-chat from work about a posting he'd seen regarding an 11 week old black lab puppy who needed a home, I immediately thought "yes! A chance to be spontaneous! To be free spirited and whimsical!" Thomas and I had been talking about getting a dog for a few months, but we wanted to wait until the timing was better. Well, lo and behold, the timing never got better--our summer trip was pushed back a week further into July, school starts in August, etc. So I figured that the only way a dog was going to happen would be if it were a spontaneous, random and joy-filled moment (To some extent, I feel the same way about kids, by the way).
And yesterday was that moment! In the span of about 8 hours, we went from hypothetical dog people to actual dog people. We spent absurd amounts of money getting him shots, a crate, a toy and some food. We chose between the names Samson and Sullivan (the latter won out).
Now he is curled up next to my desk chair, dreaming the day away and putting out the delightful odor of SlightlySweatyDog.
And we couldn't be happier.*
*please remind me of this in a few months when cleaning up accidents and saying "NO!" has become less enjoyable and more overwhelming.

Charleston is pretty in the spring.

In which I ponder various things

Item #1:
Thomas never remembers his dreams, so when he woke up this morning and told me that he'd had some strange dreams, I was instantly curious. He then related a semi-coherent narrative, the essence of which was that he had dreamed about turning in his thesis late and then failing it.
Wait a minute...
I wrote a thesis, not Thomas! I instantly felt guilty that my stress over the last month(s) about this silly document had somehow translated into a series of stressful dreams for my poor husband. Moral of the story: when I get stressed and/or selfish (sometimes they seem to be one and the same), it affects Thomas, which is something that I should be conscious of since I'm sure that future situations (CHILDREN) will only exacerbate this tendency.

Item #2:
I am currently taking a boot camp class sent up through my church that consists of 4-5 women and an instructor. One woman this morning shared that her youngest child (of 4) is graduating from college in two weeks and that she is getting divorced after 25 years, leading to a progression of "do I still have value" type questions. Her purpose in telling us this was not to garner pity or emphasize what a strong woman she is, though obviously I do a) think she is strong and b) wish that the situation were different. Instead, she said that she is telling every young mom she sees to not completely forget about herself and her own interests while she is raising kids, b/c someday they will be grown and gone. She emphasized the importance of investing time in your husband, even when the kids are around and life is chaotic. While her advice is not directly applicable for me or my current situation, I appreciate the spirit it was given in and also imagine that she knows what she's talking about. It's food for thought, anyways, and I am going to try to remember to say a few prayers for her.

books and such

A spectacular Jeopardy question for the category, Great Works of Literature in Haiku. We keep a daily calendar of Jeopardy questions (in the can, of all places) which are alternately encouraging (hey! I do know something!) and discouraging (am I really that dumb?).

1931
Everybody Wang
Lung tonight and
The Buck stops here.

I didn't get the answer because I immediately started singing the song that brought to mind, but my brilliant husband did. We then proceeded to argue/have a spirited discussion about The Good Earth. Thomas claimed it as "the worst book ever," which I disagreed with since I just finished listening to a Jodi Picoult book called Vanishing Acts--truly, the Worst Book Ever. I actually found myself shouting at the characters as I drove.