thefourthvine | Miscellaneous: Still Trapped. In a Hotel Room. With Dogs.

I have learned many important lessons in the last week and a half, and I want to share just a few of them with you. True, they probably won't ever actually be useful to you. Frankly, you should probably plan your life so that they're not. But I'm damned well going to share them anyway.

You can totally use complimentary hotel toiletries to wash a dog. Your dog's coat will be silky-soft, full-bodied, and shiny afterward, and you will briefly consider sending an unsolicited testimonial to the manufacturer. Do not do this. It's just hotel-room psychosis setting in.
Bathing a dog in a hotel bathroom is not the most fun you will ever have. It's not the most fun the dog will ever have, either. (Tip: be on the other side of the shower curtain from the dog at ALL TIMES. Particularly when you, after having lured her there under false pretenses and with many treats, show her the magical sky fountain. And most especially when you turn the magical sky fountain off. It is entirely possible to keep a firm hold on a collar through two layers of shower curtain, and if you know what's good for you, that's what you'll do.)
Spending any significant amount of time with a dog who is covered in another dog's urine is even less fun than bathing her will eventually be.
And if you want to experience a near total absence of fun, try being stuck in a small area with:
1. A dog who is covered in another dog's urine, but is determined not to let this stand in the way of her social life.
2. The dog who peed on the first dog and is thus undergoing a serious metaphysical crisis ("Do I exist? Does urine exist? WILL DINNER EXIST?"), with attendant digestive distress.
3. A book called Why People Believe Weird Things.
4. A Mormon insurance salesman (okay, "executive") who is not getting good cell phone reception and apparently can't sustain continued existence without talking to someone at all times.
Trust me when I tell you that every potential topic of conversation in this situation is both uncomfortable and inevitable.
Any conversational gambit that begins, "So, you seem like a smart girl, you like books and stuff [the "stuff" apparently being "deranged dogs," as that was the other thing it was obvious I liked, so be advised: if you want to find a smart girl, look in the dog training section of your local bookstore], so maybe you can tell me..." is bound to end badly. Avoid it. Feign death if you have to.
But that conversational gambit (and all other ones, including, "What are you reading?" "So, why do people believe weird things?" "What's a fallacy?" "What kind of weird things, exactly?" "What religion are you?" "Are you married?" "Does your husband have life insurance?") is far preferable to, "So what's all this wet stuff on your dog's side?" Especially after the urine-covered dog has made exceptionally friendly (not to say utterly unstoppable) overtures to your new insurance-executive friend, and he has taken them with remarkably good grace.
There is a time and a place for putting the Barnum Effect to work for you, and that time and place is when you find yourself giving relationship advice to a Mormon insurance executive.

So, that's how my life has been lately. (Specifically, yesterday. I mean, I did some other stuff, but somehow it pales in comparison to that fun-filled hour.) How are you? I'm pretty much missing out on fandom and my friends list, what with the trapped in a hotel room with dogs effect, so please let me know of any new stories or life events or vids or, you know, whole fandoms that have passed me by.

Seriously. Recommend something to me. I need things to distract me from my plan to strangle my dogs.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Being trapped in a hotel room with my dog is just about the scariest thing I can imagine. I'm still having flashbacks from the time I decided I could trust her enough to take her off leash near a river. There were muddy paw print streaks on my walls for about a week before they got cleaned off. (We also ended up taking a shower together because I didn't want to deal with removing everything from the bathtub bathroom so we used the shower with a door. That was traumatic for both of us.)

On the distraction front - how about pictures (http://raisintorte.livejournal.com/266322.html) of a dog that isn't trapped with you?

Being trapped in a hotel room with my dog is just about the scariest thing I can imagine.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. Except that I'm living the dream.

Really, there's no amount of chocolate sufficient to remedy this.

I'm still having flashbacks from the time I decided I could trust her enough to take her off leash near a river.

Oh, man. I - yeah. I can totally envision how that would go with my dogs. I fear the state police would end up involved. Also possibly psychiatric authorities. And Best Beloved saying, in disbelieving tones, "You let them off the leash? Oh, honey, you need help."

On the distraction front - how about pictures of a dog that isn't trapped with you?

Oh my god, she is ADORABLE. *swoons* (Wait, the cute is how they put you off your guard. Must. Not. Succumb. But - so cute! *swoons anyway*)

Oh, man. I - yeah. I can totally envision how that would go with my dogs. I fear the state police would end up involved.

I thought I was going to have to go in after her. She swam half way across the river. Thankfully there were two other dogs in there with her and she followed them out. Now we only go to the dog park that up on a hill, far, far way from water.

Oh my god, she is ADORABLE. *swoons* (Wait, the cute is how they put you off your guard. Must. Not. Succumb. But - so cute! *swoons anyway*)

Thank you! It totally is. Those eyes talked me into letting her off the leash. :-)

If you scroll past the random family pictures, there are some really cute pictures of my mom's golden at the bottom of this post. (http://raisintorte.livejournal.com/269624.html) (my niece is pretty cute too.) :-)

Miscellaneous: Still Trapped. In a Hotel Room. With Dogs.

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