Adventures with Fina

Well, you all probably by now know I'm more of a cat person than a dog person. Most of this is because any dogs my family has had have not been well trained and have lots of annoying habits (not the dog's fault, but still annoying) mostly due to my parents. So, when Jon asked if I'd watch Fina for him while he's in DC, after immediately agreeing, I started to get a little scared. She's a big dog, a German Shepherd, and while I like her a lot, and she's quite well trained and has a very sweet nature, she's still a BIG, VERY STRONG dog.

Jon left yesterday. I went over to take Fina out after school. Having gone on walks with her and Jon before, I thought it would be fairly easy.

Was I ever wrong.

Ok, it actually wasn't that bad, but I felt like she walked me more than I walked her. What should have been about a 10 minute route according to Jon, took us about half an hour. As soon as we stepped out the door, three things happened that got me and Fina off on the wrong foot.
1. A guy on a bike rode by right in front of us (Fina lunged and took me with her, she hates bikes).
2. She tried to eat a plastic food container lid that was on the sidewalk (I got it away from her).
3. A surveyor was doing his surveying right in the middle of the sidewalk maybe 30 feet from the door. Fina was VERY interested in what he was doing and, took me with her.

I give Jon a lot of credit. He really makes walking her look extremely easy. I feel like she stopped and sniffed EVERYTHING which I don't really remember her doing when I've been out on walks with her and Jon. It's nice out, so tons of people are out, or they have their dogs in the yard which is a huge distraction for her. As the walk progressed yesterday, I think we got more used to each other, but for the first part of it I was thinking "OMG, what have I gotten myself into" and "I'm going to absoutely ruin all her training because I, apparently, can't even do something simple like walk a dog."

Today went much better, but I was the one that still got walked part of the route...I bet we'll have it down just in time for Jon to come home:)

She is sweet though and she was SO excited to see me when I went over this morning, though maybe she was just excited to see a person, it didn't matter that it was me...

So, it's been a bit of an adventure thus far. I don't mind doing it at all, but I really hope I don't screw up all the training Jon has done...

Listening to: The Electric Soft Parade, No Need to be Downhearted

Rough Day

Well, today was definitely not the day I'd expected it to be. At about 7:45am another teacher came into my office and said we all had to go upstairs to the multi-purpose room because a Virginia Tech threat had been found in the school. Apparently, some kid (now known to be a 17-year-old boy) wrote "virginia tech today" in one of the boys bathrooms this morning. I'll admit, when she said we had a threat, I felt a chill. What if it was for real? What if some kid brought an arsenal to school and was going to try and kill people? Very scary. We spent a good few hours in the MPR waiting to hear something further while at least six police cars pulled up out front of the school. There were detectives questioning kids, bags and lockers being searched and very little information given to the teachers. Ultimately, school was cancelled for the day and the police believe they have the kid that did it. Because he's 17, he'll be viewed as an adult for this. How stupid...the kid probably just ruined his life for something that was meant to be a prank. I just don't get it. You can't joke about shit like that, not in this day and age.

At the same time I feel sorry for the kid. I mean, there's the possibility that he really needs help and I suppose if this gets him some help before something horrible happens to him or he does something horrible to someone else... I don't know. All I know is that it was scary to think something could have happened at our school.

Tomorrow should be interesting. The police chief said they're certain it is safe to have classes tomorrow. I guess we have to believe him. I just wish tomorrow wasn't the anniversary of Columbine.

I'm so glad nothing actually happened. All along they believed it was just a prank, but I'd rather they treat it as a serious threat and have nothing happen than the other way around.

The school was hounded by the media after this happened too. Apparently the phone was ringing off the hook and I saw at least two helicopters (Fox News, go figure, and Channel 4) as well as a Channel 4 van outside of the school. I also heard it made the noon news on Channel 7. Guess we'll be on tonight too...

Yeah, not the day I was expecting.

Stay safe.


Listening to: Dido, Life for Rent

Burning a hole in my pocket

Guess what I just ordered? I just dropped an insane amount of money (courtesy of my tax refund, thank you US government) on a Canon 400D digital SLR, an 18-55mm lens, a 50mm f/1.8 autofocus lens, a Domke bag, another 1GB flash card and an extra battery.

I'm thrilled, though it was a little scary spending that much money... I think I may have it by Friday. How sweet would that be??

I can finally give Ben his camera back too:) Yay!

What a week & the end is nigh

As usual, I am utterly exhausted. Other than the cold I've managed to get, the exhaustion is actually ok. I've covered three shows in the last week and a half, I will probably get to see my photos used on promo material for Static, I've had the house to myself for almost three weeks and things are good.

So, last Saturday I covered Taste of Chaos. For those of you that don't know, TOC is a BIG deal in some circles. It's basically the Winter Warped Tour and the funny thing is, I'd thought about going last year but was too chicken to do it. This year not only did I get to go, my ticket was paid for by Victory Records, I had a media pass AND I got to meet and interview one of the bands. I have a number of students that are VERY jealous that I met three of the guys from Aiden :) It was a long night, but pretty fun. I took over 800 photos (I SWEAR I'll get your camera back to you Ben!!!) but by the end of the night I was so ready for The Used to take the stage so I could shoot their first three and go home.

The next night was Snow Patrol and a bit of a nightmare since Wrestlemania was going on at Comerica at the same time. Two hours after leaving A2 and a shady parking spot later, Elana and I made it to the State Theater. The show was ok and I got that "oooh, why does SHE get to have a camera in here? Oh, she's press" comment more than once from other audience members. SP was ok, I used to really like them ("Run" came along at a time when I was VERY wallowy about life) but now they don't impress me as much. Oh well. Drive home took at least an hour and a half, so I was a WRECK the next day at school. Damn Sunday night shows. Elana was complaining bitterly about how late it was but I had little sympathy since a) I was driving, b) she got into the show free b/c of my pass and c) welcome to my life.

Monday I discovered the tickle in my throat that I though might just be because of fatigue was really because I had gotten sick. I was a total baby about it, came home from work and slept from about 4pm until 10 when I decided to go to bed "for realz" and slept for another seven and a half hours. Still felt crummy most of the week but hung in there as best I could. Didn't hurt that we only had a three-day week because of Easter vacation.

Wednesday night was The Feeling at St. Andy's. My pass there was set up rather last minute by the band's PR firm and rather than have my tickets waiting for me at the box office, Fed-Ex'ed them to me. Except, I forgot they were being mailed and almost left A2 for the show without the tix. Luckily I remembered to go home and get the tix off the front step before heading out to Detroit. I liked the band a lot, way better than the headliner who reminded me too much of Dave Matthews. Drive home was a nightmare because the roads were so awful. I saw at least five cars in ditches and drove most of the way around 30 mph. fun fun.

My parents came home on Friday and so my much-loved freedom is at a bit of an end for the time being. However, I did get my tax-return and other than spending some of it on a shiny, new, beautiful digital SLR, I'm socking the rest of it away for getting an apartment this summer. Summer can't come soon enough.

I got to meet some more of Jon's siblings this weekend. It was pretty hilarous seeing them all together...I can just imagine what it's like when everyone is there. I do feel bad for giving Jon the cold I got (he says it probably wasn't me since everyone seems to be sick, but I'm blaming myself on this one), I know his weekend wasn't very fun with hacking his way through it :(

I'm loving vacation right now though. The chance to read books that aren't assigned for school! The chance to sleep late! Getting to wear jeans and black nailpolish every day! Taking a nap in the afternoon if I feel like it! Man...it's fantastic. Unfortunatley, I have a huge pile of papers to grade since grades are due the Monday we come back. Ugh...I HATE grading.

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print for the time being.
Peace out Starving Nachos

PS-will post photos from various shows sometime this week...I promise.