"off!" - woman at the dog park

Here is what I have to say to certain dog owners. Well, just to one who goes to the same dog park I do:

Please train your dog. If he does not listen to you, it is your job to train him. If he jumps up on every single other person there, it's your job to train him not to. If he barks at all the other dogs, growls in their face, and snaps at two of them, he might need some different socialization before coming to the regular dog park.

Please, Ms. Dog Owner, Train your dog!

just in case you need to be reminded about the achievement gap:

I would like to point out that of the UW's 5,000 incoming freshmen, 131 are black.

This is 2.6% of the class.

"I didn't tell her it was me until after we were married." - grandpa

Grandpa was telling me how he would walk Grandma home from work and try and think of ways to prolong the walk so he could spend more time with her.

They courted for 6 months, and then got married.

He sent his mother a letter saying he'd met the girl he wanted to marry, and she sent him back a telegram saying "Come home. Immediately."

Somewhere in that 6 months of time, he started writing her love letters, using the pseudonym "Jean-Pierre." He said she'd get riled up whenever she got one, wondering who in the heck this Jean-Pierre guy was.

He didn't tell her it was him all along until after they got married.

He said he thought she would be mad, and he wanted to make sure she married him first.

raise your right hand...do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth....

My grandmother gave me her mother's engagement ring on my 16th birthday.

I put it away and told myself I'd take it out and wear it on my right hand when I was 25.

Well, 25 came and went, and the other day when I was visiting Gramps, I decided I'd put it on. I was overwhelmed with school approaching and life happening and feeling a bit off in general. Feeling like there was too much to do and needing to just slow down and breathe and pay attention to what was trying to be told if I'd just open my ears to listen.

I'd just read about Jen Crusie adopting 2 new dogs, and I wanted that, all of a sudden - a house in the middle of nowhere, with 5 dogs and a barn cat, a big garden with squash and eggplant and sunflowers that grow taller than my dad, and lots of kids running all over the place, enough for a baseball team at least.

And I was sad about Gramps - he's getting slower and slower and his mind is still here, but his body's wearing out fast. I hope he at least makes it to Dale and Princess Consuela's wedding.

Anyway, the ring felt right sitting there, and I thought, damn, I'm gonna wear this ring.

Various stories have made the rounds about my great-grandmother. She married young, a fellow Swedish immigrant. While in love with him at first, she rejected him in the end....she moved in with my grandparents and lived with them until she died. My mom once found great-grandma smoking in her closet. For real. She adored my father, his sisters still talk about how he was her favorite. When I was born, she cradled my head and declared my ears were lovely. And she told my mom about some things that happened in her life that aren't really my story to tell here, but suffice to say the woman was honest.

I want to be that kind of honest, the kind that tells the truth regardless of the consequences. But I don't want to wait til the end of my life to tell it, I want to tell it now.

So I haven't fallen prey to the Women of the World, Raise your Right Hand ad campaign, and I don't think diamonds are the way to go, but I'm wearing this ring in my great-grandmother's memory. I do believe she's gonna help me get through school the next two years. And that's the truth I see tonight.

"Why does everyone want to date HER?" - Lily

Preface to this story:

Veronica = Cool, funny, sweet, and pretty cute.

Jackie = Anal, angular, obnoxiously high voice, impossible to please.

Now that you've met the characters, here we go.


A while ago, Veronica and Logan were hanging out a lot, and they decided not to date, but Veronica still liked him a little bit. Not a lot, not the kind of liking where your heart beats and you can't breathe and you don't know what to say sort of liking, more along the lines of, you're a good friend and I wish you were the kind of friend who wanted to touch me all the time sort of liking. Which in the long run might be better than the first kind, now that I think about it.

Anyway, a while after that, Veronica and Wallace were hanging out a lot, and then Wallace told Veronica he wanted to date Jackie.

Veronica was sad and disappointed, because she liked Wallace.

Then she moved on. And Wallace and Jackie didn't date forever.

Well, turns out now Logan likes Jackie.

Seriously, what is with her? She is SO not as cool as Veronica.