hard

pete died last night. i thought he was looking better this past week after getting a refill on his meds but the day before yesterday he stopped eating and started looking pretty bad. gareth and i arrived home from work at the same time in the pouring rain. i was glad i wasn't alone when i discovered him. at least he had a very peaceful look on his face. lying on the floor of his tank with his hands almost in prayer position on the side of his face. at least he's not suffering anymore. i thought that was the hardest part watching him in pain. but i was pretty torn up last night. i'm bringing his body back home today to bury in the yard with all my past pets. that was a lousy way to end thanksgiving day. dinner at my sister's house was pretty great though. i brought a non-tofu tofurkey (no meat or soy... not entirely sure what it was made of) and made vegetarian stuffing for the first time. it had been years since i'd had stuffing and it was awesome. my mom's cousin made lots of veggie dishes too and they were wonderful (sweet potatoes with cranberries... green beans with pine nuts...mmm). i brought home lots of leftovers. including half a pecan pie from my parents. my favorite. i saw the most ironic site on the driveway to their house. a flock of turkeys. put a pretty big smile on my face. so it turns out that sore wrist i've had might be carpal tunnel. my mom had it and ended up needing surgery a few years back. it's gotten worse over the past week. working definitly makes it worse. it might even be the cause of it. i'd been wrapping up my wrist all week but on wednesday i was there by myself all morning with a non-stop line of customers and i couldn't work fast enough with a wrap on. so by today it's hurting pretty bad. i got a wrist guard last night like mom suggested but it really seemed to make things worse. i guess a doctor is my next step here. so many ups and downs in life. it's hard to hang on on this roller coaster.

balance

i'm trying not to be entirely negative about our new manager but i have a few complaints. first he completly changed my schedule this week and didn't tell me at all. he ended up having to change it again on monday once he found out we had inventory this week. that's my second complaint. the store has been an absolutely horrible mess partly due to inventory this week. on the positive side. first he got most of the rest of the christmas makeover done while i was gone. i don't think i could put up another holiday themed thing at our store. i did get the little christmas tree on the left for my home though. second i did get off the morning of thanksgiving. we're having our dinner at two so i'll at least get a few hours with my family. gareth has to work a double so he has christmas off. i don't know what's going to happen on christmas but another morning off would be good for me. the third positive thing was that i got to take pictures of the horses on one of the days i had off this week. gareth had to see the new twilight movie this week. another midnight viewing i did not attend. we've been busy playing the new super mario brothers on wii. the only game i actually enjoy playing. haven't gotten too far but that means more to play later. not today though. it's time to go to work. with a sore wrist. that's three.

off

so the sun finally decided to show itself yesterday for the first time all week. the last day i had of my week off. the rain had cancelled my photo taking plans. but that gave me time to finish my florida album. i went out to louisa to catch up on my sunshine yesterday. got some good pictures. found out my sister got another dog. pete's still holding on here. my parents came and visited everyone here over the weekend. my niece made it to states cheerleading and they were at vcu so they stopped by to say hi. we were having a movie marathon that day. we watched all of the lord of the rings movies. it took about fourteen hours. they were good and i'm glad i finally saw them but i'm also glad i won't have to do that again. gareth went to see the 2012 midnight opening on friday. i thought it might be too intense to see on the big screen. instead i got to watch three of my five free rentals this week. my sister's keeper, angels and demons and the it's always sunny in philadelphia christmas special. none were spectacular. but all in all it was an alright week. better than having to work. i go back tonight and find out how the new manager's been doing on his first week. i hope he's been doing well and i can keep unstressed a little while longer. here's to hoping.

antics

i just got back from the vets. pete's foot swelled up and i finally decided to take him in. turns out he has pneumonia. i thought he was just in bad shape from his foot. i feel so bad for not taking him in earlier. i got antibiotics to try and heal both things but it may be too late. i cried when i heard the assistant briefing the vet on the situation and say "it's looking pretty bad." the vet had a rat growing up that lived four years. i hope pete recovers and still has many years to come. i took budd outside yesterday for the first time since it started getting cold this season. it was nice and sunny out and she seemed to enjoy romping around the yard. i put her in the dry tank we set up for laying eggs after and she'd been in there all night. she started scratching at the walls this morning so now she's back in her aquarium. we'll cross our fingers for more eggs now. that routine seemed to work before. you'd think one of my pets wouldn't be high maintenance right now but kitt's joined in the antics. she had a peeing spree the other day. the first one at this place. both gareth and i were in the "pet's room" the other day. me working on my computer and him waiting for his to come (he just bought a macbook). we watched kitt go in and out of her litter box about a dozen times in the hour or so we were sitting there. noted that it was strange and maybe she wasn't feeling well. then i went to the bathroom and kitt followed. she squatted right in front of me and started peeing. i yelled and threw her out. we thought maybe she just didn't like us being in "her" room so we left but i found a few more spots throughout the day where she'd gone. i haven't seen any since though so hopefully that was a one time thing. i'm back in the room on my computers now though. she seems to be at peace drinking some water. or maybe she's reloading. gareth's old computer died on him (hence the huge upgrade) and i lucked out getting his old flatscreen monitor for my photo editing desktop. i think i'll spend the day working on my florida pictures until i have to go to work. the only day i go in this week. we actually got a manager and i finally got the rest of my paid time off. woohoo. i went out this past weekend and helped set up the new barn in short pump. i took some pictures. hopefully i'll be taking a lot of horses this week.

excited

i ended up going out last week just as the lady was leaving. she'd gone out early since it was getting dark earlier and hadn't informed me in time. at least i got to hang out with the horses and give them some carrots before driving the half hour plus home. i went out tonight on time and got to help for the first time. it was kind of intimidating. i guess i hadn't informed them that i hadn't been around horses in some time. so when they started telling me things to do like i knew how to do them i was a bit worried. but i was able to step up and do what needed to be done. there's a new barn opening up near short pump soon so i'll probably start going out there. should be a bit closer for me. i'm excited. i've started taking more pictures this week. i hadn't used my little camera in some time. they want me to go out to all the barns and take pics of all the horses for the rescue. i have been informed of a new manager finally coming next week so i should finally be getting some of that paid time off i've been expecting. of course this comes after this week's rediculous christmas makeover. i shouldn't be so surprised but it actually took a month for us to get a new manager. blah. we're going to see the midnight opening of men who stare at goats tonight. should be good. hope i can stay awake until then.