My bro with his dog, my sister with Rusty and my mom back there with Fuzzy who is trying to keep up in her older age

Yesterday I went out to a beautiful house by the ocean that is filled with life in many forms. My purpose there? To meet a family of six: four four-legged friends, a winged family member and a two-legged individual. I’ll be doing some petsitting for them and wanted to meet everyone and make sure that it would be a good match. It absolutely was. I already feel like I fit in with the family, a second caretaker to help out as needed but also a new friend. I’m sure there were many reasons that it was the right match but what really resonated with me was the uncanny resemblance that the two dogs of the family bear to the two dogs that I left behind when I moved here to the city 6 years ago.

First, why I petsit

Rusty, my Little Man

I’ve probably mentioned here a few times that I petsit on occasion. (I know that on my crochet blog I’ve shared photos of Betty, the cockapoo I watch, when I’ve crocheted clothing for her during my stays at her house.) I petsit in part for extra cash but that’s not the main reason that I do it. The real reason is because I really miss having pets in my life. I grew up in a family that always had more than one furry friend in the house at a time. I carried on that tradition myself when I moved out of my parents’ home, taking our young puppy Fuzzy and a newborn pup Rusty to my new home across town.

When I moved to San Francisco, there was just no way that I could bring them along. They were used to having huge yards with lots of space to roam. It wouldn’t have been fair to put them into an apartment even if I could find an apartment that would take me, my roommate and the two dogs and still be affordable for me as a young freelancer. So they stayed behind with Mom and Dad and I visit a few times a year.

Fuzzy with her “I didn’t do anything” look

Moving here was the first time that I didn’t have pets to care for. It was sad and lonely in some ways and really liberating in other ways. I hadn’t realized how much care and attention pets need until I didn’t have them anymore. It provided a great opportunity to really focus on myself and my needs and that has been beneficial. Now that I’ve done that for awhile, I’d like the responsibility of a pet again. (What I really want is a Shiba Inu puppy, after having fallen in love with one my brother was petsitting a few years ago.) But the apartment I am in (which I love for many reasons) doesn’t allow pets so that’s going to have to wait until I move again.

And that’s why I petsit. I get to enjoy the joy and responsibility and companionship of a few good furry friends again. And having learned how much of a responsibility a pet is, I am also happy that I am able to give someone else the chance to get away and focus on themselves now and then while knowing that their pets are in good hands.

Now, about Rusty and Fuzzy

We had a lot of dogs in my childhood, including Playful who was our wonderful Australian Shepherd that we had for the entirety of my childhood. But Rusty and Fuzzy were special because they were mine, not the family’s. I didn’t realize until I had them what unique personalities pets have and what an interesting dynamic can develop between two pets in the same family. There had always been the five of us humans in the house plus a couple of dogs and some cats and some other creatures and I was a kid the entire time so I didn’t really see any relationships that might have developed. The dogs were our friends, but I didn’t really think about their personalities much. Rusty and Fuzzy changed that, in part because I was alone with the two of them and in part because they had such intense, defined, curious personalities.

Fuzzy as a puppy

Fuzzy was my smart dog (despite her silly name which I have to blame on being young when we named her). She’s a big black lab/ chow mix with cute white paws and an intelligence that was usually fascinating and sometimes annoying. Annoying like the time when I realized that the reason Rusty was so skinny was because Fuzzy had figured out how to drag his dish and hers to the same spot and surround them both with her arms so that he couldn’t eat. Annoying like the long period of time when I kept trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with her leg only to eventually realize that she was faking a limp to get sympathy and special treatment. I kid you not. She even did something similar recently, at fifteen years of age. My mom and sister took the family’s other dog for a walk and Fuzzy isn’t in any shape to go anymore so she moped around the house while they got ready, acting bedraggled and huffing and puffing and on the verge of death. Then while they were gone she managed to sneak into my sister’s backpack and steal some food that she found in there, happily munching away at it with no breathing problems in sight when they returned. That’s my dog.

Rusty as a puppy

Rusty was my little cutie pie. He was adorable and lovable and fun. As he grew older, I called him my Little Man, because he got this regal older man look and yet somehow retained this little puppy attitude at the same time. I loved Rusty but there’s no nice way of putting it … he was dumb. Dopey is the word I usually use because he had these huge paws that he never quite grew into so he was a bit gangly. But not the brightest crayon in the box. Fuzzy would always figure out how to do things and he would always follow along after her, often not in the smartest way. Like how Fuzzy learned how to hook her paw’s nail into the screen door and open it so that she could come in and out from the front yard and Rusty eventually, after a long time, figured out that he could also get in that way but only by running full force into the door and butting it with his hard head so that it would spring open and he could dash in before it closed again. Ah, Rusty. It was a good thing, sometimes, that he was as dumb as he was. That dog could jump higher than any circus dog and if he had been any brighter then he might have figured out that if he moved up and over, instead of just up, he could easily jump the small fence that kept them in the yard. Luckily, he was never quite bright enough to get that idea and Fuzzy’s hip problems meant that she couldn’t do it to show him.

Oh Rusty. All of our girl dogs were spayed but Rusty was never neutered. He was forever trying to get into Fuzzy’s pants and she never let him. So he was super excited in his old age when my brother’s two girl dogs moved in for awhile. He immediately began trying to get some action. Sadly, my wonderful dumb little dog, did not know that the girl’s head is not what he was supposed to be aiming for.

The dynamic between them was always fun to see. Rusty brought out the fun side of Fuzzy. I don’t think that she would have been nearly so playful if it had just been me and her that moved out together, especially as she got older and the pain in her body got worse. But Rusty endlessly demanded that she play with him. And she did, until she’d get tired of his antics and warn him away and he’d get that “aw shucks” look and wander off until it was time to persistently return to get her attention again.

Rusty died last year, suddenly, without warning. I was shocked. Although in a way I’m kind of happy for him because if there’s any good way to go then it’s running around happily to the very moment when you suddenly aren’t anymore. I’ve been surprised that Fuzzy hasn’t succumbed to the same fate. As they got older, I always wondered how one would live without the other. She’s hanging in there, doing her own thing.

Old Memories, New Dogs

From the scrapbook: Fuzzy half-shaved after a surgery and Rusty ready to play

I think about Rusty and Fuzzy every now and then but I hadn’t thought about them this deeply until yesterday when I met these new dogs. They aren’t quite the same breed, but they are so similar to Rusty and Fuzzy in so many ways. The girl is a larger, black dog with white paws (like Fuzzy has) and hip problems (like Fuzzy has) and a loving face (like Fuzzy) and a smart mind (like Fuzzy). The boy is a smaller brown dog (like Rusty) with an adorable face that is half pup/ half old man (like Rusty) and this great lap dog attitude (like Rusty) but maybe not the smartest cupcake in the batch (aw, like Rusty). The boy could probably run and play endlessly but is held back a little bit by the girl’s handicaps; the girl benefits from pushing herself a little bit to keep up with the boy and get extra joy out of life.

Of course, there are differences between these dogs and my dogs, since each pet is unique and each set of animal dynamics is unique. Rusty was always my jealous dog. For all thirteen years of his life I couldn’t have a single moment with Fuzzy without Rusty coming in and sticking his nose in my face and his paw on my hand. I’ve only just met these new dogs so it’s hard to tell but I think if either of the two is jealous in this pair it’s the girl and it’s more because she sees the boy as “her baby” than because she needs the human attention desperately herself.

Fuzzy hogging a huge bone, circa 1999

And I’m sure that they have little quirks of their own that I’ll see as time goes on that are different from my dogs’ little quirks. Like how most people wouldn’t know that Fuzzy, my huge independent dog who rarely wanted me for much, would cower right on top of me in bed anytime there was a thunderstorm. It didn’t matter how old she got, how many storms she’d seen or how large of a space there was on the bed … she would run in, dig her way under the blanket and be right up on top of me until the storm ended. Recently we realized that her hearing is really going because there was a storm in Tucson and she didn’t notice.

As a petsitter, I obviously won’t know nearly as much about these new pets as I knew about mine living with them day in and day out. But I can tell that they have these wonderful personalities and it will be so fun to learn more about them and watch them grow and get to be a small part of their lives. I look forward to it all.

(And by the way, the family also has a beautiful bird and two gorgeous cats. I won’t go into all that right now but let me say that I’ve never met a Burmese cat before and I am now sold on the idea that if I ever get a cat again it’s going to be a Burmese! Oh and the human in their family is wonderful and warm, too.)

1. Healthy eats
2. Ikebana display in Japantown
3. Won a cute crochet hat from a giveawy
4. Joined Virgin Air’s wine club
5. Hosted a huge blog giveaway
6. Easter at Dolores Park
7. Shopping in the Hiahgt
8. Birthday celebrations
9. Classic Car Show
10. My bro visited
11. California Academy of Sciences
12. Bagel sandwiches
13. Crochet pillow
14. Bought myself bright yellow flowers
15. Researched wearable art
16. Wore my new yellow dress a lot

Yesterday my brother and I were wandering around Union Square and stopping in to a few art galleries to see what was there. In one of them, Tangent, I became completely enamored with a painting of Venice that moved as you walked by it. I probably walked back and forth a hundred times watching it move. When you get up close you can see that there is a strange mathematically designed architectural shape that the painting is on top of and that’s what creates the ability for the painting to change perspective as you go by it or move in and out away from it.

I had my brother ask who the artist was because I loved it so much and the helpful guy at the gallery told us all about the artist, Patrick Hughes, who I’d never heard of before. Patrick Hughes is in his eighties and has been showing his work for over four decades. He is a UK artist whose work is only sold through three places right now including this gallery in San Francisco. He does large paintings and he also does lithographs. It turned out that there were several lithographs in the gallery, too, that we were able to take a look at.

One of the things that he’s well known for is his series of doors. There are several doors in a row against some type of background and as you walk from left to right the doors will open and close. It’s hard to explain this because it’s all about the way that the perspective of the piece tricks the mind into thinking that something is happening there that isn’t. When you get up close you can see the angles of the piece and how they make the different shapes that create this illusion but even when you know the trick of it your mind still sees it as though it’s moving. The guy at the gallery said he’s owned one Hughes painting for fourteen years and even though he knows it inside and out the painting still moves every time he looks at it and it never loses its magic because of it. I love the amazing skill that had to go into creating something like that but it’s that magic that really captures me.

The Venice painting was my favorite piece that we saw but a close runner up is a Picasso piece. Hughes created a visual of what looks like a museum installation with paintings on the walls and each of the paintings is a famous Picasso painting from various periods of his work. And the way that the walls of the “museum” are designed the piece moves back and forth as you walk by it. It’s stunning close up and still has that magic as you walk by. Apparently this piece developed from a series because artist Edward Hopper commented that Hughes was selling art and Hopper wasn’t so he said something about how Hughes should do a piece showing Hopper’s work in a museum setting and that’s what he did. That launched a whole style where he’s done that with the work of other artists like Picasso as well as Warhol.

I wish there was a way for me to show how amazing the artwork is. The gallery guy said that one of the reasons Hughes isn’t so well known to many people is precisely because you can’t capture the magic of the work in a photo so you have to see it in person to know how amazing he is. I’m so entranced by this guy now and want to learn everything about him. His website seems to have tons of information so I’m going to have to dig in when I get a free moment.

I’ve spent multiple days doing things to celebrate my birthday with the wonderful people in my life. It’s been very special and very fun.

A Day with My Best Friend

Titanic

I spent all of Thursday with my best friend. We went to the first showing of Titanic in 3D. I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before that I love basically every single movie in 3D. I love the way that different things pop out at you and appear in depth on the screen. I never tire of it. Of course Titanic is a cheesy silly movie but that’s kind of what’s wonderful about it and I loved it. Then we went and got lunch at:

And then we got drinks (Irish coffee for me) at:

Night on the Town

On my actual birthday night a group of us went out and got dinner at Le Colonial. It’s a beautiful French Vietnamese restaurant where we did a prix fixe menu. I got a soup of English peas, spearmint and lemon-pepper creme fraiche, chicken two ways for my entree and we all got warm apple beignet for dessert.

Then we went and saw a 1950s themed play at ATC called Maple and Vine. It was good although we missed the first bit of it because we were running late from dinner.

I have never been late to a play before. I’m almost never late for anything. But I was having such a good time having great conversation with my friends at dinner that I didn’t mind.

Then we went and got a drink at the Redwood Room

And after that three of us went dancing at Badlands in The Castro which I hadn’t been to in forever. I got picked up and thrown in the air, became part of a dance circle and enjoyed the theatricality of the people dancing at the club.

Day Outside

My ex and I have side-by-side birthdays. This is the first year in five years that we aren’t together but we’re trying to be friends and we decided to get together for our birthdays. We had a really nice time at a classic car show, got crab sandwiches at a place I love near me and hung out watching TV. It was lovely. After that I caught up on phone calls with my family.

I feel really lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. I have people I can talk to, people I can laugh with, people for hugs, people who are really sweet to me.

I’ve never actually done anything for Obscura Day but every year I think about it. Lots of things happen here in the Bay Area for this event so the options are varied. I’m not sure I’ll make it to anything this year either but I’m considering it.

What is Obscura Day?

“Obscura Day is an international celebration of unusual places. It is a day of expeditions, back room tours, & exploring hidden wonders in your own hometown.” In other words, it’s all about seeing a different side of some things in your area that you don’t always get to see. It allows you to be a tourist where you live which is something I try to do often here and is one of the things I love about San Francisco.

San Francisco Bay Area Obscura Day

Many of the 2012 events are already sold out but some of them are still open. Some of the options in the area include:

• After Dark Secret Tour of Alcatraz. This tour shows places that aren’t even shown on the late night tours. I actually think Alcatraz is a tourist attraction worth visiting.
• The Art Of Dark Scavenger Hunt at the De Young Museum. San Francisco has a surprising number of scavenger hunts in general.
• Play Old Pinball. There’s a great pinball museum in Alameda that’s fun anytime but for Obscura Day they’re opening up access to their oldest games. I recently played some old games like this at another pinball museum in Las Vegas.
• Zymoglyphic Museum Day. Frankly everything about going to this museum is unique!
• After Dark Under Old Sacramento. Okay, this one is kind of far from San Francisco but Old Town is kind of cute and it might be fun to explore the underground of it!

My morning routine these days isn’t quite what I want it to be. I used to wake up in the morning and do some edifying or inspiring reading. It’s been awhile since I’ve done that. I’ve gotten into a habit of turning on the TV first thing in the morning and catching up on whatever shows I missed from the night before. This morning it was Criminal Minds and American Idol.

While I’m watching, I catch up on my iPod games with friends. I play Words with Friends, which I’m good at but only win some of the time and I play Scramble with Friends, which I almost never get beat at. I keep the maximum number of games allowed going on both of those games at all times so I catch up with them all in the morning while the TV is on. And of course, I drink my first cup or two of coffee which is something I’ve done for as long as I remember.

It hasn’t been a bad routine. It suited me fine for awhile. I was really having some dragging energy healthwise and it was taking me time to get going in the morning. But lately I’ve had more energy. I’ve needed fewer naps. I’ve felt a little more upbeat. I attribute it to a combination of thyroid medication and iron supplements for anemia. Now that I’m starting to get more energy, I feel like I can start to have more productive or active mornings than I’ve had in awhile.

I’d like to exercise in the mornings but I have to figure out how to make that work. The thing is, I can’t exercise until after I’ve eaten because I always always feel sick if I do. And I am not someone who can pop out of bed and eat breakfast immediately on most days. So there has to be some sort of morning ritual that allows me to wake up, have my coffee, ease into the day a bit then eat my breakfast and exercise. And I don’t know quite how doing all of that before getting started on work will work out realistically with a writing schedule.

But it’s something worth figuring out I think. So I’m getting on top of it, starting by turning off the TV now and at least doing a little personal blogging here before I move on to other things. That could be part of this new routine. We’ll see.

I’ve been given the opportunity to give a review of the website for Midland Display Products, a site that sells tools for people who do trade show displays. For full disclosure, I’m being paid for my review but the review itself is an honest one.

About Midland Display

Midlands Display has been in business for more than two decades selling products to help trade show sellers improve their displays. This is an important job. After all, without a good display, you’re never going to sell your items at trade shows no matter how good the items are. This company offers everything from table top displays to hanging banners. They also offer a free booth design service to help you create your own displays in different sizes.

5 Things I Love About This Site

1. They offer a “tip of the day”. It’s designed to give you ideas for improving your trade show displays. I think this is smart and helpful and isn’t common on sites like these so I love it.
2. They include a Pantone color chart on the site. This is a tool that a lot of people use when designing their displays so it’s nice that they offer it on site instead of requiring you to go look for one yourself.
3. It’s a fast and responsive site. There is a lot of information here about a lot of products and it’s tough to keep a big site like that working quickly so it’s nice that they do a good job here.
4. They offer a live chat feature through the site. I love the option to ask quick questions via online chat and appreciate that they offer this.
5. The search feature includes a max price option. It’s good to be able to sort through what’s on the site but is still within your budget.

If I Could Change The Site

I think the site is a good one but there are always things that can be improved on any site. Here’s what I’d change if I was hired to improve the site:

• A sort by price feature. The “max price” tool in the search area helps with this but I always like a good Amazon-style sort by high or low price feature.
• Pages that show recommended displays for different types of sellers. For example, something that shows the top sellers to craft vendors or the best displays for a consumer electronics business. What would be the best option for me in my niche? I’ll note that on their home page they do indicate this a bit. For example, they say that the Trade Show Truss is “a choice if looking for a modern, techy appearing trade show truss display.” But I’d love a more detailed showing of this.
• Some video of displays. I think video is a top feature on sites these days and I’d love to see 360 views of the displays in action.

What Qualifies Me To Do This Review

I thought you might want to know what makes me feel qualified to do this review. It’s a basic website review and I do look at a lot of websites so that’s a start. But honestly I’ve actually done a ton of writing about trade show displays and trade show apps in the past so I’ve looked at many sites like these and that’s why I felt qualified to give my two cents.

What do you think are the most useful tools for a trade show display?

1. I took Caltrain down to San Jose
2. Where we went to a sushi boats place (I love sushi boats)
3. And I got a cocktail with plum wine and Sprite
4. My sister picked me up from the airport in LA
5. And we got breakfast together
6. And walked around the houses near Santa Monca
7. My siblings and I went camping at the Channel Islands
8. I went looking around the mosaics and wall art in The Mission
9. I enjoyed an afternoon of reading magazines at a bookstore I like
10. I crocheted tons and tons of scrap granny squares
11. I did some thrifting, looking mostly for vintage crochet items
12. I walked over to a friend’s house and that too me past a great window display of white butterflies near Untion Square
13. My mom made a hat for Betty, my friend’s dog
14. I created a new reading corner for myself
15. I saw some mushrooms growing wild on a street near me
16. I made some artwork, still finishing up that piece
17. I ordered this amazing book called Art to Wear that has wearable artwork including fiber art from 60 artists.
18. Some friends and I went to the rum bar and got a drink called The Volcano that they set on fire for you
19. We also went out to dinner at Sauce where I got a pork chop and mashed potatoes which is one of my favorite meals that I rarely get
20. And the dessert they serve there was beautiful!