Embrace It

Today's chaos is brought to you by 'News'. Not the informative, six pm kind but the presentation a seven year old gives to his class once a week. The presentation that is heavily influenced by peer perception and incredibly important to get right. So when our young man mentioned that his friends hadn't met our dog before, of course I volunteered to bring our dog to News.

Take one step back and let me give you the background. In case you haven't seen my earlier posts You've Got to Laugh and Six Days and Counting... we are moving house. And getting a deck built (three months later than expected). Sounds like I need this extra task of taking a dog to school drop-off like a hole in the head, but keep in mind one question - when on a roller coaster do you 1) grip the safety rail till knuckles whiten, or 2) throw your hands in the air and embrace the stomach churning experience?

If only embracing the extra stress was that simple! Hang on a minute, I hear you say, it's just taking a dog to school, how hard can that be? Well, in the process of having this deck built, our side gate had to be removed, though we were promised a solution so our yard would remain fenced. What they didn't explain was this process would take three days (and counting). While packing our life into boxes and trying to keep track of clean uniforms (unsuccessfully), I have a dog that either keeps escaping or we have to renege on our 'dogs belong outside' rule and keep him in. For the last few days, in addition to everything else, I have been either wandering around outside looking for him or tripping over his 30kg frame that somehow always ends up right where I need to step. And trying not to grip the safety rail till my knuckles whiten.

Back to 'News'. Of course, in the excitement of his escapades, pooch had somehow lost his collar (I am tempted to put up Lost posters for it, but then I really will be put in a straight jacket). In searching for the usual missing socks, shoes and other school paraphernalia, I am also searching for a dog collar. Life never gets boring.

Creativity won the day and Miss Nearly-Fifteen worked out a way to use the lead as both collar and lead, so 'News' was saved. Master Seven's friends were able to meet and adore our dog who lapped up the attention (sorry, couldn't resist that one). Meanwhile, I'm off to throw my hands in the air ....and have a stiff drink.