two dolla

a boyfriend from craig

This long. But it’s worth the read, if you haven’t heard about it already. It may be a chapter in my upcoming memoir, “My Secret Life in Santiago”.

Yesterday morning, Jenni sent me a link to an ad on craigslist, which just happened to be listed under the “Missed Connections” part of the site. I’ve looked at those ads before, and usually it’s the patient who loves her doctor:

Dave G. – ER Doctor at Fairview – w4m
Doc, what a shame we didn’t talk longer. I would love to be your patient any day.

or the girl in the black sweater who may have possibly found her soul mate in a Barnes & Noble over lunch today:

Minnetonka Barnes & Noble -lunch today. – w4m – 38
To the gorgeous guy that I saw at Barnes & Noble in Mtka. today. Are you single?
Girl in black sweater..

Can you see how they’re not really something I really become interested in for too long at a time?

The ad that Jenni sent, though, was even better:

you were cute with your ‘boot’ – m4w – 28
hobbling along in downtown minneapolis, hope you find this

Guess who was hobbling along in downtown Minneapolis Friday night with a ‘boot’? Yours truly.

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marley & me by john grogan

Another book I finished this summer? Marley & Me.

A first-time dog owner with a dog whose owner called him the World’s Worst Dog – does anyone see a resemblance here?

The cover of the book alone wouldn’t let me leave the book sitting there on the shelf of my local Barnes & Noble. For a fleeting moment, I thought about taking them all home, so each book would have a home. Yes, that’s how obsessed with dogs I’ve become since The Riley Arrival.

While scaring the shit out of a litter of puppies isn’t exactly how I came to pick my goofy dog as mine, it seemed to have work for author John Grogan. Besides, mine was the only one left – if I would have tried to scare him, he would have just sat and stared at me just as long as I wasn’t carrying the new floor lamp I bought that scaries the living hell out of him when I touch it to power it on and off.

With each chapter I read, the similiarities I found between Marley and Riley were… well, scary. The jumping, the chewing, the destruction, and the fierce loyalty – yeah, I had no problem visualizing and connecting with every experience mentioned. Any dog owner that hasn’t experienced at least one thing in this book must have a dog that was put together mechcanically. Separation anxiety, barrier frustration — been there, done that, if you’ll recall. Now, i’m beginning to think those were just fancy words for ‘desperately seeking every ounce of your attention’.

I started this book as I boarded a flight a couple of weeks ago and finished it up before landing in Newark, NJ. Except for the last chapter. I needed a break from the book before finishing the book, as I would imagine any dog-owner/dog-lover would.

When I found out John Grogan had a blog, I had to add it to my RSS reader. I was in hysterics today when I read about his new Golden Retriever’s run-in with Cesar Milan.

Read the blog and read the book; they’re both more than worth your time.