Is that your dog?

It's a glorious day outside and you're sitting on the lawn in front of your house, wondering what there is to do, when two little dogs run past. You have two options: stay where you are, assume they'll get home safe, and continue on with your dull lives...or...get up and follow the dogs, because let's face it, you've got nothing better to do and you REEEAALLY want to play with the cute dogs. :) So, you quickly get up and follow them. You just barely get within reach and they scurry away. If you've dealt with dogs as much as we have, you can tell that the bigger blonde dog is a stray who is not used to people and the little gray poodle is just along for the ride. After spending waaaay too much of a Saturday afternoon chasing dogs around town, the blonde dog disappears but the poodle gets tired and sits down on the ramp leading up to a business and you snatch him right up. The poor little guy is tired so he just lays down in your arms. In walking back to campus, you see a woman on her front porch. You stop and ask if she's seen him before. She hasn't but goes into the house and brings out a Ziploc full of dogfood for him. You get back to the house...now what? You can't take him inside. Your RA will have your head on a platter for that one. So you sit outside for a few hours and enjoy the day and your new friend. It's getting a little late and you realize, you have to give him up. The only thing to do is take him out to the humane society on the other end of town. You get in your car with the passenger holding him on her lap, dog's head out the window. In driving thru town, of course one of the main roads is backed up and you sit waiting for traffic to continue. All of a sudden, the woman in the car to your right rolls down her window and says "Is that your dog?" *confused look on face. "umm...nooo". It just so happens the dog belongs to the sister of the woman in the car next to you. :D You pull off in a parking lot and pass your canine pal off to go home. You're def gonna miss the little guy. Lessons from this: get off your butt and have an adventure! And you never know where you might meet the person you were looking for. Thanks and love!

Stumpy

Just as in high school, college comes with a lot of projects. The variety of the projects ranges depending on your professor. Lindz came back from class one day with an assignment: wear a sock over her hand for 24 hours and write a paper about her experience. In explanation of this, the class was an English class in which they were reading a book about a man who had his hand amputated during the war. KTSue heard of this assignment and decided to keep her company. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong! The littlest things now seemed impossible. We get ready to leave for dinner and both put jackets on (it is October after all). Hold one side of the jacket with one hand and zip it up with the other...oh wait. Lindz and KTSue stand on the front lawn of the house for 5 solid minutes, each using their good hand to help the other zip their jacket up. The jackets did not get unzipped again until after we were safely back at the house after dinner. Homework that night turned into a fiasco. A friend asked us to edit his paper for him, due the next morning. In the process of this, we ended up having to retype the entire paper to help him get it done in time. Have you ever tried properly typing (ya know, the home row thing they mentioned in like junior high? yeah, that) with one hand? Doesn't work out so well. By the time we were a quarter of the way thru the paper, KTSue had ripped the sock off (wasn't her assignment anyway) and halfway thru the paper, Lindz looks at her "stump", yells "That's it Stumpy! Ya ru'ned it! I'm cuttin' ya off!", and follows suit. Lessons from this: some projects are not as simple as they seem, teamwork is key, and having a stump for a hand SUCKS! Thanks and love!

Furniture Fiascos

A dorm room comes with standard furniture: beds, desks, dresser, chairs, maybe a few extra pieces. The key to maximizing the space in your room is arrangement. Some schools are kind enough to leave a booklet of ideas. We weren't so lucky, so we got creative. This involved a lot of heavy lifting, a lot of cursing, and eventually a working room. A few pointers: be sure to have plenty of pins for the furniture before stacking, have a plan before executing, and most importantly...watch the fingers! Once you get everything situated, remember to use it with some intelligence. We had several incidents with the chairs in particular. UF has 2 types of desk chairs: those that can lean back (which we had freshman year) and those that can't lean. More than once, we would be leaning back, but thought we weren't. You can see where this is going...to the floor. One time in particular, a friend was kneeling on the chair with her knees going thru the back and she leaned too far. We had to pry her from the chair before she could get up. As an added note, it was not fun going from those chairs to the ones that don't lean, for the next year. :) Another key piece of advice: tables are not for sitting. Late one night, our RA was sitting on the table with her feet on the chair, sticking thru the back. The chair tips, she falls to the floor with her feet caught, there's a trip to the ER, and she spends the next week or so on crutches with a bruised foot. Needless to say, no one sat on the table after that. Thanks and love! Happy New Year everyone!