Thoughts

I've said it before and I will say it again.  Daylight savings is like a kick in the gut.  I hate it so much.  Now my sleep is going to be really out of whack making it even harder for me to get it back on track.  Plus I'd rather have the sun up earlier when I'm getting up rather than it being up in the evening.  Why must we meddle with things we don't understand!  Isn't time one of those things us humans shouldn't be messing with?

Got a lot of good work done at the house.  Should be ready for move in next week.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I had hoped this weekend but the sanding and polishing the floors took longer than we thought.  Every project seems to.  After that I am just going to move in and continue to do small projects around the house.  I just so badly want to live there even if that means I'm still doing small projects while living here.  Honestly I don't think the house will ever be 100% done.

Happy birthday to Astrid, my partner in all things dog.  Just to let you know, I saw your comment on my last post and you're never too old to reach your potential.  You are an inspiration.

I got a second interview for Best Friends.  It is another phone interview on the 20th, which seems forever away.  The first interview was with the general HR person I guess and then she passed the information on to the Dogtown managers.  They contacted me by email last week to set up this second phone interview.  I have no idea what to expect but I think if this one goes well they'll invite me out for two weeks to do a trial period.  The thought of that requires me to do a lot of deep breathing to keep myself calm.

Angie did an announcement about it at the training apprentice meeting on Friday.  Man I'm going to feel horrible if I do end up leaving.  The people in that program are such a huge part of me feeling like I've made a place for myself.  For a long time I felt like I didn't have any connections to anyone until I joined that program and really let myself over to it.  I admire and love so many of the people I've met through the training program.  For the first time since high school I feel like I have people in my life that really know and care for me.  It means a lot to me and I don't contemplate leaving that lightly.

Plus, Angie has given so much to this program and found so many of us apprentices sticking around for more than six months and more than a year because of what she gives.  I have never found anything as rewarding as this and believe me I spent years looking.  Before I met Angie and started this program, being a dog trainer was just this silly little dream that no one really believed I'd really pursue.  But it was something I wanted so badly and something that gives real meaning to my life.  Without finding Lucky Dog University I wouldn't have gotten to do it and see my dream realized.  I am working to turn it into a career thanks to what I have learned and the path I've found.  I can't imagine leaving it all.

I guess we'll have to see what shakes out.  No one ever really knows where the path they are on is going to lead.  Which is terrifying but I think that we should strive to see it as exciting opportunity more than terrifying.

It's time to get my third tattoo I think.  I've wanted it for over a year I just haven't gotten around to scheduling an appointment for it.  I want "Not all those who wander are lost" (from Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien) on the side of my right foot.  I know it will hurt like the dickens but I really really want it.  I really never believed that tattoos are addicting but I guess they are because I have at least two more I want, including this one.  Then after that I really should be done because I'll have run out of really good places to put them.  Which is a shame.  My mother will be happy though.

In other news, I am all set to get my second certification through the CCPDT.  This one is the Knowledge and Skills certification so I have to upload a video of me actually training a dog.  I'm excited about that except for the fact that it was a nightmare getting myself signed up for it.

A while back my email was hacked and I lost a lot of emails I had been holding on to.  Course I didn't know what I had lost and what I hadn't.  So the cut off for signing up for this certification was March 2nd.  Come February 25th I went looking for the email they had sent me with my first certification in order to get the password to confirm I was eligible.  No email.  So I got to the website to request another one.  They say call this number and email this email.  So I call the number and leave a message and send an email.  No response.  The next day I call again.  No response... this goes on all week until I'm finally getting pissed off and contact the CCPDT directly.  No answer.  No call back.  Nothing.  I try this for a week and the deadline goes past and I still haven't heard back from anyone.  I was so mad.

Finally I heard back on March 4th with an email saying, sorry but the deadline has passed and we can't help you.  If I wasn't pissed before I certainly was then.  I went all they way to the president of the CCPDT about it because I shouldn't have to be punished for very poor customer service.  Keep in mind this is not the first problem I've had with them.  They wouldn't update my address for a while and had me in CT at one point.  Just stupid stuff like that.

They did put it right though so I'm all set to go for the KSA.  Astrid is also ready to go for it though she had a much easier time of getting set up.  She's the good one, haha.  So we're going to meet at some point this week and figure out how to do it.  We have three things to train with a dog and an owner then one thing to train a dog alone.  Should be lots of fun and hopefully we both get certified.

Anyway, I think that's about long enough.  I should probably pretend like I'm doing work even though it is so uninteresting.