31 Days of Lessons Learned: If your dog is ripping a tennis ball apart, try harder to get it from him

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Nineteen

If your dog is ripping a tennis ball apart, try harder to get it from him

 

I was all ready to use today’s lesson post to talk about how good things happen when you’re nice to people.  I went out to dinner with my family, then ran a few errands…including getting my daughter’s Halloween costume.  She decided that this year, she wanted to be Batman.  I couldn’t be more proud.

All in all, it was a great night – until we got home.

Why?

Well, when we got home, we were greeted with lots of dog puke.

Let’s rewind a little bit.  Before we went out for our night on the town, I let my dogs out to go to the bathroom one last time.  Cooper found a tennis ball that was missing it’s green exterior (the dogs chewed that off weeks ago), and there was a little tear in the rubber.  Cooper pierced another part of the rubber and starting chewing on it.  The ball started breaking off in chunks, and since he could tell I was about to try to get it from him, he ran into the wet yard.  I wasn’t wearing shoes and I was on the phone with the cable company, so I let him win.  He came in after he was done chewing the rubber to smithereens.  He may have even flashed a “Cooper Rules” smile on his way in too.

As you can imagine, the puke was filled with little chunks of rubber.  Unfortunately for me, Cooper got some on himself as well, which meant he also had a bath.  While I cleaned up the puke mess, my wife cleaned up the bathroom area and the stairway.  All the while, Cooper was running around the house like a puppy…just like he always does after a bath.  I was glad to see he was so happy (and to see he was feeling better), but man do I wish I put forth more of an effort to get that tennis ball away from him.  Oh well, you live and learn, right?

So Fresh and So Clean Clean (if he wanted a bath, he could have just told me instead of getting puke all over himself)

Something to cheer about

I read my last blog over again and it kind of sounded like a “woe is me” thing.  I didn’t intend that at all, so I wanted to take a break from whining about writing to post about something else.

For those folks who know me, I’ve struggled with my weight for years.  I’d say the last time I really had things under control was my junior year of high school.  Since then I’ve been as high as 320 and as low as 240.  That’s an 80 pound spread.  I’m not happy about it (in fact, I’m pretty embarrassed about it to be honest), but it’s just the truth.  I’ve done just about everything diet-wise – Atkins, South Beach, vegetarianism, and Weight Watchers.  I’ve had plenty of excuses for the gains and plenty of success when I apply myself, but at the end of the day, I’ve been stuck in a cycle of yo-yo dieting.  I’ve finally decided to do something about it.  I’m going to do it the old-fashioned way with diet and exercise as I work to transform my life.  I’m back on Weight Watchers and it’s the most confident I’ve felt in years.  I’ve lost ten pounds in the last two weeks and can already feel the differences.  I’m walking faster, and even went for walks that were as long as five miles last week.  This is only the beginning and I can’t (and won’t) be stopped.  As I lose the weight, I’m also starting to chip away from my fat kid mentality.  That’s the hardest part for me so far, but dammit, by the end of 2012 I’ll weigh 175 pounds – which is a weight that I can’t remember when the last time I saw it was.

So, what’s different this time?  What’s going to stop my cycle of yo-yo dieting?

Lily Bug - the only motivation I need

My Brother-in-Law

We live in a time where reality stars are made famous for drinking and getting in fights at the Jersey Shore or being in high school and pregnant.  Seeing these people get scooped up from obscurity is enough to get you frustrated – at least enough to get me frustrated.  I know how hard I’ve worked to get to where I am – high school, good grades, college, more good grades, blah blah blah.  I know I shouldn’t feel entitled, but where’s my piece of the pie?

It’s with that attitude that I became bitter and even a bit cynical.  It was that bitterness and cynicism that caused me to stall my writing.  Well, there are other reasons as well (which I’ll get into in future blogs), but I was pretty angry to see people like Snooki and Lauren Conrad get book deals.  It really takes a lot out of me and I just get angry.

I need to really stop thinking about what I can’t control and I can’t control the media.  What I can control is writing.  I may not ever get published, but I’ll never get published if I don’t write.

Which brings me to my brother-in-law.  I have plenty of stories about my wife to tell when it comes to the support she offers me, but this post is about my brother-in-law.  If you know me, you’ll know I spend a fair amount of time on Facebook.  One would say that the time spent on Facebook could be better served writing, and that’s exactly what my brother-in-law thought.  On April 10th, he threw the gauntlet down and I accepted.  His challenge was to stay off Facebook until I finish a first draft.  I have accepted and I haven’t been on Facebook since.

These blogs are auto-posted on my Facebook account, so that’s why you’ve seen me lately.  Since Facebook allows commenting from e-mails, if you respond to these posts, I’ll see your comments.  My brother-in-law has allowed me to respond to the comments, so that is the only way you’ll see my on Facebook until the first draft is complete.

Okay…now back to the writing (and the blogging about writing – which, at this point, I’m doing a bit more of).