I just got back from spending the weekend at my in-law’s house up in the Bay Area. When we arrived on Friday night, we were happily greeted by my mother and father-in-law. Lama was in heaven; he’s totally in love with my father-in-law, Bill. Bill plays with Lama, talks to him about the stock market, and even uses his fancy massage-therapy skills on him while they watch Mad Money together.
Saturday was an interesting day–Bill left for his 50th year high school reunion at around 9:00 in the morning, and he wouldn’t be back until the following day. My husband and his mother left for a family birthday party around 9:30 a.m., and then I left for a friend’s bridal shower at about 11:30 a.m. By the time I left, I could tell that Lama was uneasy about everyone leaving. I felt bad, but what can you do? Isn’t it true that dogs have no sense of time? Well, that’s what I was hoping…
I got home around 5:00 in the evening, and Lama was so happy to see me! He jumped all over me, and then we went for a nice walk. Around 6:00 p.m. my husband and his mom came home–Lama was even more excited that the family unit was coming back together! After a while, he didn’t seem so excited, and he just sat by the front window. We could all see it on his face, he was wondering, “Where is Bill?”
I tried to explain to him that Bill went to a party that was far away, so he was spending the night, but Lama didn’t seem to understand. After he got tired of waiting by the front of the house, he headed into Bill’s office where they usually check their stocks together. He slept in there for a bit before making the rounds back to the front of the house just to make sure he didn’t miss Bill’s arrival.
This morning we had to leave early, and Bill hadn’t yet returned home. Even now that we’re back home Lama continues to seem out of sorts. I wonder how long this is going to go on. My mother in-law suggested we tape a picture of Bill to the inside of Lama’s house to ease the longing. I may do that.
Now those of you who know me well, might know that I’m not the most adventurous type. I didn’t set foot on a plane until I was 23, and up until about 6 months ago, I still took a stuffed animal to bed. Well, hold on to your hats, because you’re not going to believe this! This last weekend, I rode the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway! For those of you who aren’t familiar, it’s basically this car contraption that can hold about 80 people, and it hangs by cables and climbs way the heck up the mountain.
Background:
I was in Palm Springs for a friend’s bachelorette party, and one of the things the girls were talking about doing was taking a ride on the “rotating aerial tram.” Now just hearing those words made my legs wobble. It’s not that I’m so afraid of barfing on the tram as I was of just losing my shit and freaking out mid-way up the mountain. I was also pretty afraid of barfing on the tram since I get pretty gnarly motion sickness. Did I mention my fear of barfing in a glass cage full of strangers?
But I digress…the time came that we were all heading over to the Tramway for the epic 2 1/2 mile ride up the mountains of Palm Springs. I thought to myself, “bitch, be cool, you can do this.” Then when we all had our tickets and were waiting to board, one of the girls asked me how I felt. I admitted that I was terrified. At first I thought this was a bo-bo thing to do as I didn’t want to be the lame-o that had to stay back or ruin it for everyone else. I then told the girls to just forget that I said that and pretend that it’s totally cool. Thank goodness they did just that.
Adventure:
As the tram took off, I thought, “hell, this isn’t so bad…and it will be nice to escape the 112 degree weather.” Then we passed the first tower. As the conductor said, “passing the tower causes the car to swing a bit.” Yeah, no shit. I started shaking pretty bad. Then I thought, “how many more towers can there be?” Turns out four…FOUR effing towers. I had a hard time taking pictures and pretending to smile due to my shaking. My friend took this nice picture for me as the ones I took came out blurry. You can see the cables and get an idea of how high this bad-boy went.
Accomplishment:
I’m so glad I went through with it, because once we were up there, it was so beautiful! The air was clean and cool–probably only in the mid 80s. I chased around a bee until I got a good picture of it, and we saw all sorts of nature. There was nature all up in that bitch.
Would I do it again? F-no…well, unless I was with a bunch of people who don’t know what a fraidy-cat I am…then yeah, I would probably do exactly what I did in this situation.
My dog, (Dalai) Lama, has been acting really strange lately. I swear he's up to something. I often find him sleeping under my desk. I wonder if he's goofing around online. I don't see anything strange in my browser's history, but I know he's messing about. He has shifty eyes. When I ask him what he's been up to, he usually just starts licking himself. I've got my eye on him.
