dogbreath

Hi there. I haven't been blogging much lately mainly for doggy reasons. For several days I could not figure out how to merely be in my living room--either my dog friend was barking piteously at me from the kitchen or eating all the furniture and electrical cords in sight and peeing on the wood floors. Thanks to SWT, problem solved. The right kind of chewy combined with the removal of a Petmate Pet Porter from the bedroom to the living room were a dream come true. Happy, contained pup=happy, relaxed me. Also, Lulu is sweet and funny, but also naughty and exhausting, especially for poor-me-never-had-a-dog-before. She came from a farm to the "city", and I, from a completely human-centered world to dogland. We're both of us a little dazed, I think.

To be fair, she hasn't peed on the floor in three days--and I take about 95% of the responsibility for those incidents. We have a rhythm going now, though. And she can sit and heel and lie down on command when she feels like it, which is pretty amazing for a wee three-month-old, or so I in my ignorance believe.

One last doggy reason why I haven't posted much is because all I've been doing is work, dog-walking, and dog-shopping. I don't want this to become luludotdotdot, though I am sure she will have her proper place of honor. Work has been overwhelming--actually being a lawyer, giving people legal advice--is a complicated and intimidating business. Mostly my method is guess-and-check, as it always has been. Tra-la for the scientific method. So anyhow, the upshot is I've been quite tired every day, too tired to think up clever bits for my reading public. I'll try to get back on that horse. Now that I can actually sit in some measure of peace in my living room, there may be hope yet.

I got called a "shyster" for the first time a few days ago. Not that I minded in that instance, it wasn't meanly intended, but it is weird suddenly to be a member of a group that literally anyone feels comfortable denigrating, and directly to my face to boot. A shyster is, according to the merriam-webster online dictionary, "a person who is professionally unscrupulous especially in the practice of law or politics: PETTIFOGGER". A pettifogger is a "lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable"; or "one given to quibbling over trifles." (same source.) Pretty harsh, especially considering I have barely had any time, as a newly minted lawyer, to be petty, underhanded, disreputable, unscrupulous, or quibbling. It's not all bad, though, I should say. I received a very kind "good for you!" from a random young woman I met in a coffee shop a few weeks ago, when I told her, rather embarrassedly, that I was an attorney. (I was embarrassed because I wasn't used to the title, not because such a thing is embarrassing.)

anyway, this might be boring and I'm tired (at 9:30). I'm out.
. . .