2000:  Martha Doesn't Live Here
2001:  Where Have All the Flowers Gone
2002:  Peace on Earth Good Will Toward Men
2003:  An Old Waddle Family
2004:  A Charlie Brown Christmas
2005:  We. Are. Fam-i-ly

My 2006 Holiday Letter

IN MY OPINION
"Weight of Memory"

Books Read in 2006
(Updated 12/8
"Tender at the Bone")

Currently Reading: 
"The Cat Who Could Read Backwards"
"Dog is My Co-Pilot"

ON BEING AN IDIOT

12 December 2006

In the spirit of the season of giving, I now give you, for your enjoyment, a couple of examples of what a complete idiot I am.

Let's start with A Christmas Carol.  Loved the show, but the problem was that there are several roles which are double-cast and no indication of who played which role for that particular performance.  I looked for the PR person after the show, but never did find her.  I remembered how impressed I was with her the last time because by the time I got home, I already had an e-mail from her saying who had played the roles for the opening night performance, but not so this time.  I wrote to my editor and told him the review would be late and then I wrote to the PR person and asked her if she could identify the performers for me. 

Many theatre companies either put their publicity photos on line so newspapers can download the ones they want, or they e-mail them directly to the newspaper.  This one gives CDs with the photos on them, and in my rush to get into the theatre, I shoved it into my purse.

So this morning I go to get things together, looking for a message from the PR person.  My editor asks if there are photos, I tell him Walt will deliver them, I go to get the CD and it's not there.  It has disappeared.  After much anguish, swearing, and kicking myself, I wrote to the editor the PR woman confessing that I have lost the CD and asking PR if she can just e-mail the pix to the editor.

After I send the e-mail off, Walt walks in holding the CD in his hand.  Apparently I had stuck it in the pages of the book that was in my purse and in looking for the CD, I had removed the book, so it never occurred to me to look there.

I wrote to both Editor and PR and told them the pictures had been found, and reminded PR that I was still waiting for clarification of the roles.  Walt went off to work with the CD to deliver en route and within 5 minutes, I had an e-mail from PR telling me that the opening night cast was in a document on the CD.

So I had to write back to PR and request the information yet again, admitting that I am a total airhead.

In the meantime, today was the day to get puppies from the animal shelter in Sacramento, a job I had volunteered to do.  Ashley had written the day before saying she would send me directions to get there and also let me know where to take the puppies I was not keeping after I got them.

In the morning the e-mail I was waiting for came.  It said:

I will try very hard to be at my desk for any calls if you have trouble.

When you get to the shelter call Lori [number]
They are closed today but she is there.

How very odd.  I wrote back and said:

I will have fewer problems if you tell me where I'm going!!!!!!!! You were going to give me directions to the shelter and you were going to tell me where the puppies are going to be delivered.

She sent back this message:

As soon as I hear from Kim I will let you know. Lori is at the shelter from 8 to 5.

This was just crazy.  Ashley is very organized.  We had a back and forth of messages about six times and every time I got more frantic, I started WRITING IN CAPITALS and adding lots of !!!!!!!!!!!s.  She'd answer the message with another nonsequitur.

Finally Kim arrived with formula and equipment for the puppies and I expressed my total frustration with Ashley and how I couldn't understand why she couldn't answer a couple of simple questions.  She got on her cell phone to call Ashley, who said she couldn't understand why I didn't get the directions because she'd sent them three times.

I couldn't understand how I could get ten messages from her and not get the one I was waiting for.  Kim got the information from her over the phone and then started telling me how to find the Animal Shelter building.  She asked if we could go into Mapquest so she could show me more clearly.

We came in here and I showed her the 10 messages from Ashley.  

"Just pull up that one," Kim directed, and I did.

"See!" I started to say.  And we both saw...

"What's that at the bottom?" she asked (indicating the point where I have drawn the arrow).  That's when I realized that at the TOP of the message was this:

And, of course, when I "clicked here to download pictures," this is what started to appear.

I felt like a total idiot.  I'd been writing Ashley and thinking she wasn't answering my questions (of course she's here in Davis, we both have cell phones, and neither one of us thought to actually SPEAK to the other), and she had done it in the very first message.

After that, I was somewhat uncomfortable taking control of an instrument of death onto the freeway, but I did actually manage to get to Sacramento without killing myself or anybody else, I actually found the Shelter and I picked up 8 puppies (one had already died). 

It is an interesting, and kind of sad thing wandering around an Animal Shelter.  I'm used to Petco and the cages there on Saturdays, with dogs all hoping for homes,  but the Yolo SPCA is a no-kill organization, so you know all those dogs are going home to some home at the end of the day

But as the women went to a back room somewhere to put the puppies in the carrier I'd brought, I found myself standing by the door to the "euthanasia room," and looking at a row of cages, all of which held hopeful or frightened (or both) dogs.  I wondered how many of these dogs would find homes and how many would end their days in the euthanasia room.  I could never work at a shelter like that.  I know that euthanasia of homeless dogs is probably a necessity, but I just couldn't take that lovely white dog who looks so much like Latte and take him to the euthanasia room.  I just couldn't.

But I didn't have time to dwell on the sad part of the job there, the puppies had arrived, bundled up in the bedding I'd brought.  They showed me the runt, who is having difficulty eating so I knew which one to look for.  I dropped 3 of the puppies, including the runt, off with Mara, who works in a vet's office, and is probably best situated to deal with the puppy's problems (he has had to be tube fed).

I brought the rest home and called Megan to let her know that she could pick up her puppies here.  In the meantime I had to completely rearrange the family room so that I could plug in a heating pad.  These guys are teeny.

Megan took her two puppies and I have 3 left.  The shelter told me they were very difficult to feed, but all three of them latched onto my finger like they'd been doing it forever and actually ate better than I expected them to. 

It appears that I have two boys and a girl.  One of them has a very red nose, so the puppies have now been named Rudolph (I suspect that will very quickly become "Rudy"), Dasher and Dancer (Dancer will be the girl).

Rudolph the red-nosed puppy

Puppies for Christmas after all.  Lizzie is thrilled that "Lizzie-TV" is back up and running again. 

Sheila is rolling her eyes and glaring at me.
 

Featured Holidailies Entry:  Doofus in a Pear Tree by Wicked Jaw. (Makes me think of Lizzie and our upcoming tree trimming)

I'm borrowing Jim's idea and putting in here an brief intro for folks who might wander in from Holidailies. I'm a 63 year old woman in California who works as a faux theatre critic for the local paper and do transcription for a psychiatrist at home.  I bottlefeed orphan puppies for the SPCA and post a lot of video of them on line.  Walt and I have been married for 41+ years.  We have 2 unruly dogs of our own, Sheila and Lizzie, and three living adult children, Jeri, Ned and Tom, each of whom has a partner/spouse (Phil, Marta and Laurel, respectively).  I've been writing this journal daily since March of 2000 and have posted nearly 2,500 entries.  Anything else you want to know can be found in "100 Things About Me."

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Dancer (L) and Rudolph (R)
(like squirrels in a nutshell)

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