ch-ch-ch-changes

Dreams last night: One neutral, one bad. The neutral one came second. I was living at the Pittsburgh house but instead of being fancy it was REALLY REALLY fancy. There was the same uncomfortable tension between roommate X and I, but this time it was against a whole lot of people and not just me, because a lot of friends from Boston -- both highschool friends and punk friends -- also lived there, and Soupie lived there, and the dog. It was like some sort of weird huge fancy community clubhouse or something. I remember a lot of gold fixtures in the bathroom, a lot of people in the glorious bathroom putting on eye make-up, and i was yelled at again for some bullshit and somebody, maybe kris or kyle the girl, sticking up for me, and the dog being awesome.



In the bad dream, I was living in New York again. But I was living by myself, in this weird apartment in a row house. The dream was very disjointed, or maybe my memory is disjointed, but the main drag of it was that it was cold So cold. So could people were dying, and the homeless were breaking into people's houses just to get warm. The cold wasn't like a weather factor, it was an epidemic. Everyone looked ghostly, hollow. I had to leave my apartment for something, and I got accosted, and when I finally got back to my apartment it was in shambles, the cold had gotten to it and collapsed the wood, and the little bit of shelter left was overrun by crazies and the dead. So I was homeless and miserable, and looking hollow and ghostly myself, and then the dog jumped on me and I woke up.



Speaking of which, we have started getting the dog to sleep on a pillow next to the bed, on the floor, rather than in the crate. He sees it as a fairly comforting compromise, and doesn't fight it nearly as much as he fights the crate. He's also completely housebroken. I want to start letting him loose in the house while we are gone, trying it for a bit at a time. When we did it before he was great, I think he messed up once and we never did it again. But lately on walks he's been good. Even in my house, with Zoe who he loves but also who he torments, and who he's tormented by, he's stopped going after her toys so much, and when I tell him to drop it, he does. He hangs out in my room with me all day and it's no big deal as long as we play a little bit and I take him for a walk at some point. He's also learned Stay, finally, and is starting to pick up on Down. On walks, he doesn't really bark or pull when he passes dogs anymore, which was a huge thing with him for a while, one of the really frustrating aspects of taking him for walks, in parks or whatever. I think he's ready. We talked about it last night. How maybe he's just too late for the crate, since we adopted him at a pretty old age to be teaching him puppy skills like "your crate is your home."



Evan's birthday is on Thursday, and yesterday (Sunday) we had a family party for him at his mom's house. It was a real nice time, I like his family a lot and they've really opened their arms to me as a member of the family, which is comforting when my own family is so far away and spread out at the moment. I wrote him a card that he seemed to like a lot, and a book on eating right to cure ailments. Something he'd mentioned a few times being interested in learning about, but would never actually buy for himself. Which is what gifts are all about. That's what my mother always told me, and what I never wanted to believe, but it's true. We stopped by Soupie's new shop on the way. It looks great. Reminds me a bit of TRM and Bicycle Habitat. Well lit, clean, but still with a bike shop feel, rather than a department store feel. They also carry some real nice bikes, and a good number of not so great bikes that are still pretty cool and marketable. And they carry Patagonia clothes, not Nike. Really, it's just a change, and I'm glad it's a good one. I think it will be a good experience.



I guess that's it. The semester's winding down, and I'll be glad when things are over and done with. We slept in on Sunday for the first time in I can't remember how long. Months. Vacation will be greatly welcomed.