The Dog I Can't Stop Thinking About

Yesterday evening I got back from Disneyland with my Mom. It was a good trip, but as we were leaving for California last week something strange happened: A dog was sitting at the end of our street.  At first I thought it was a cat! (And I just got new glasses! :P ) But the little cream colored chihuahua was sitting dead center at the end of the road, watching us as we slowly approached, the dog's collar indicating it had a home.

When we reached the dog and stopped, it ran and hid in some bushes, peaking shyly to look at us.  I craned my neck to see it and the dog did the same before running off!  This dog running to the right, looking over it's shoulder, knowing we weren't following, and speeding out of sight.  We then turned left.

That sort of thing has never happened to me, which is why this event keeps running through my brain.  Did the dog want us to follow?  Was it in trouble? Lost? Did my Mom and I fail in not pursuing?

Or were we protected from an accident?  Driving through Utah on the I-15 tends to be pretty calm for the most part, but around Las Vegas and Primm the highway gets congested and drivers reckless.  There were a couple cars in particular that swerved within tight margins around people, ourselves included.  Then many, many miles down the road there was a crash involving these two cars and a family van. Could being slowed down by the dog, and therefore creating a chain of different events, allowed us to miss this crash?  

Oh, it's hard to say.  And in the end it could have simply been a coincidence.  Nothing special.  An ordinary moment at six in the morning... so ordinary it's the first time it's happened to me. :P

I don't know! I just hope the dog is okay and with their family. And I need to calm my overactive imagination. :\ But I am glad my Mom and I are safe, and I hope the cars involved in the accident are okay.

 

Sarah

 

An Olaf Cat!

(My brother holding Olaf at the Petco adoption center.)

I was going to write a really thoughtful blog post on why I'm not serving a mission, and what I learned in the process, but then this happened!

A Cat!  Technically a kitten, was adopted by my family and brought home.

He came pre-named Olaf.  A couple kids named him this at a shelter.  Though Olaf is young enough to be renamed, we decided to keep it because, you know, Olaf likes warm hugs, and that's adorable.

He's a Lynx Point, which is a combination of a Tabby and Siamese.  So far he's really tame and loves to be held, purring instantly, which is a good sign.  We'll see as he gets older!  I've found that the personality a cat has at an adoption place isn't always the personality they maintain, though I hope he maintains his calm nature!  That would be nice.  So far he's friendly and playful.

This will be fun :0)

(Heh, and I hope the furniture lasts . . .)

Barbie, The Muppets, and BYU

(Day 49 of the 365 day photo challenge 02-20-2012)

When the BYU barbie came out back in 1998, I didn't know it was so controversial, and that some people didn't like the skinny, skimpy doll posing as a BYU cheerleader.   At the time I was in High School, living in Porterville California, dreaming of attending the school, and surprised that the local Target had her in stock.  She was vying for a spot on the shelf with other notable schools.  Of course when I moved to Utah Valley about a decade ago, I had no clue how BYU was perceived, and the dynamics between all the schools here.  It was quite a shock.  

There are three top notch schools within 50 miles of each other: BYU Provo, Utah Valley University (which was Utah Valley State College when I moved here), and the University of Utah.  BYU and U of U have an extraordinarily loyal fan base here, and you're either a fan of one or the other; the football games between both school are a serious affair.  UVU/UVSC doesn't have a football team.  They have sports teams, but they pride themselves for focusing on academics, which is awesome.  I started attending UV, which I fell in love with, when I first moved here and was turned off whenever I visited BYU campus and had people tell me the school was nothing more then a continuation of High School.  And so I was quick to speak up and defend UV, and quickly lost all interest in attending BYU.  

Of course, thanks to my love of music, and knowing BYU had a more solid program back in 2004, I transferred, and I am proud to call it my alma mater.  It was harder adjusting to BYU then the other three schools I attended (Porterville College, College of the Sequoias, and UVSC), because there is an overachieving atmosphere of high stress at the Y, but I learned so much, and I'm glad I had those opportunities. 

The other item in the picture sitting next to Barbie is Animal from The Muppets.  My Dad had one just like it when I was a kid, and he would put the record of the first movie on the record player (I remember a life before CD players), and he would make Animal mouth the words.  I wanted my own, and so for my birthday last year he found one on ebay, and hid it in my closet a few months before my b-day, which I found within a month.  I was shocked when I found him.  Actually, I wondered if there was a chance my Dad's Muppet ended up in my closet by mistake, but it looked too clean to be his.  Running around the house I asked if anyone knew what was going on, and they were all clueless.  So in a panic I called my Dad, and he pretended at first that he didn't know what I was talking about, until he finally told me it was an early present. 

The first Muppet Movie will always be the best, with the Muppet Christmas Choral as an easy second.  I saw the new movie back when it came out last year, and as time has passed, I've grown less fond of it.  The new movie doesn't have the charm of the original, though I do appreciate the new film bringing the Muppet's back to the front of popular culture.          

Hope you're having a nice day!

Sarah