Boredom at its Finest

I spent the day painting again today. Someone was less then entertained.

Sidewalk Sounds

I sip quietly on my coffee, feet propped up on the coffee table, Orion snuggled next to me, close enough to get my shorts wet with his post-swim body. A voice floats up from the sidewalk. Orion bolts off the couch barking so enthusiastically his front feet are lifted from the floor.
"HEY! Orion, settle down!" I call after him, having not moved an inch. "It's nine AM. The whole neighborhood doesn't need to know when someone walks by our window."
He comes back and flops back down beside me.
A minute later, keys rattle below the sidewalk and he's off.
"Do you need me to mix up some anti-anxiety drops in your breakfast?" I ask him. "You have to learn to just settle down. You can't be that uptight my friend. Come on..." I pat the spot beside me.
He climbs back up, circles and plops down.
"Much better," I say, and take another sip of coffee.

Sleep In?

I accidentally posted this one on my musingsofmolly blog as oppose to Orion's where I had intended it:

I peel the paint covered tank over my head, precariously balancing it on the bookshelf hoping it will not cover the shelf in Prussian Blue as it did my face earlier.
I slip into my boxers and throw another clean tank over my head. My hair is dripping from the quick shower. The clock blinks midnight. Orion is sprawled out on the floor looking up at me as if assessing wether he can in fact go to sleep or needs to move again to follow after my fleeting form.
I bend down and kiss him between his ears.
"Thank you for staying up while I painted. I love you. Now, try to sleep in."

Solo time becomes swim time

"Well Orion, this is probably our second day rolling solo since April. Seems kind of quiet huh?" I say as I'm sitting on the couch on a Friday morning. "I wonder how I ever lived alone without you around and stayed entertained?" I puzzle, as I'm still sitting in my jammies at 8:30 in the morning.
"What should we do today? We already went for a walk, I've showered... we could paint, we could work on looking up graduate programs, we could go for another walk, take another nap, work on Etsy, write a book...." I find this unscheduled time is new to me. Typically I always have another human to bounce ideas off of and inevitably make plans with the person, but today is a full day on my own in my own apartment and I find the ideas of what to do could go on and on, limited only by the fact I'm not driving still.
"Let's go for another walk after I eat something," I decide, and wander out to the kitchen to poke around for some grub.
Before long, I call Orion over, slipping his wet leash on, and we're out the door walking up the street.
"I think we're going to have to take this slow," I say, thinking my legs feel a little fatigued and not wanting to have a wobbly day. I picture in my head walking with confidence, energy, and normalcy, figuring the good intentions won't hurt. We wander by the juice shop, where a guy sits with his bagel and strawberry cream cheese in front of him, past the gallery shop with the cute oil paintings of the town, and out past the mini park entrance where the pond begins to loop against the road. Orion is happily trotting along, presumably enjoying the sunshine as much as I am. He stops to sniff this and that and I wait patiently, not in any rush. We work our way around the edge of the pond to what I have deemed his "watering hole" and I quickly swap leashes so he can swim at length. Releasing the short leash Orion takes off and jumps spread eagle into the pond. He swims, he jumps out and shakes. Turns around swims again. I sit down on the grass, happy to be outside, happy to be sitting, happy to see my dog enjoying himself so.
In and out Orion goes, once seemingly to chase a frog. I hope I won't have to be pulling a frog out of his mouth and am thrilled to see the pond scum has diverted his attention. A little kid wanders by with his dad and they ask if Orion's friendly.
"Yes, he jumps and he's wet though so let me come up and get him to sit for you," I say. Yet when I get up there Orion is barking and the little boy pauses in his interest to see this now wet, bouncing, barking dog.
"Maybe the dog is scared of zombies," the dad says, as the kids out stretched arms imply his zombie status may in fact be a deterrent on this summer day. Instead, the zombie just scoots beside the dad to whisper in fact he is no longer interested in petting the wet dog, zombie or no zombie.
And so we go back down to the water. Orion strikes a pose and starts stalking something in the grass. I wonder if an animal snuck by without my notice but realize it is just a dragon fly...
After a few more swims, I decide it's probably time to head home. The boy bounces around as we climb up the small hill, runs some loops and dutifully waits to have his leashes swapped and off we head for home. Good day.

Skylights

"Mags, unroll the skylight for us," I say as we're cruising up the highway for yet another trip to New Hampshire. We've been spending a few days here and there up there each week--keeping my duel residency up, visiting with the family and friends, and making my doctor's appointments. Orion, the trooper that he is, comes along for the ride.

The wind rolls in over our heads. Mags slips on a second pair of sunglasses, leaving the first pair on her nose, and pushing the other up to hold her hair in place. I'm smiling. It's been a good day. Orion steps forward in the seat, so his paws rest on the console. 

"Can you see with him there?" I ask.

"Yeah, he's fine," Mags replies before turning off the exit that has us driving by our old elementary school. 

Thrilled to have an extra few inches into the front seat, Orion peers out the front windshield before discovering the open sun roof.

I laugh, as from below I watch his lips flapping in the wind. The pine trees fly by and Orion continues to leave his nose out the skylight, tipped just high enough to check out the views...

Flashback.

Today I sat on the couch as the evening rolled to a close and watched over all my little Orion videos. I initially was going to watch ones on youtube of labrador puppies, but thought, I have plenty of my own so proceeded to watch him tackle a bell, a curtain string, a pan... videos of him chasing after a large boxer (Webster) on his first encounter of another dog, desperate to play with this new friend, then again as an older puppy after his best friend Oliver, and then of him jumping in a pool in New Hampshire. It was warming to reminisce about him as a puppy but also about the fun he and I had in Ohio with our new and old friends. We had fun. We've had some quality adventures. And it made me think of taking a road trip back there to spend time with those friends... maybe next summer... one yellow dog's head sticking out the window, one healthy girl pedal to the floor... I-90 here we come.

Skylights

Today Orion discovered he could put his nose out the skylight. His little lips flapped back and forth. His nose angled up to the sky. And every time he brought his head back in he'd sneeze and throw snot all over the car.
It was a hoot.