Six Degrees

My Tuesday went like this:

Trip to the vet with Belita The assistant said the doctor was busy next door with a litter of nine puppies. Curious, I asked if I could take a look. What I saw was a Tub of Puppies: the owner had brought the whole wriggling litter in a 30-gallon Rubbermaid container. The tub of puppies cracked me up. Was not laughing so hard when Belita peed on the yoga pants I'd tossed into her carrier and I had to rinse them out in the tub.

Play Group I don't have small children, but this is my chance to hang out/chat with the young moms from church. This week, they introduced me to a woman they'd met at the library (they all go to storytime on Mondays, too) and invited to play group. She said they'd lived in Japan most recently (Mike just got back from a business trip there) and they'd lived in Los Angeles before that!! At last, someone who really knows what a head trip it is to go from LA to the Rio Grande Valley! I'm totally inviting her over for dinner!

Valley Haircut #2 My hair was way shaggy, so I used the gift certificate from the Scary Feminists to get a haircut. My stylist was also a transplant to the Valley and confirmed that 1) it's like moving to a different country and 2) it takes at least a year or more to get used to it. We had a good laugh about Valley customs while she gave me a bland slightly layered bob. At least it's not a Rachel.

Columnizing For this week's Valley Girl column, I visited the labyrinth and peace garden at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Edinburg. Father Bob showed me around the grounds, then introduced me to the rector. After we finished talking about the labyrinth he wanted to know how I'd gotten the blogging gig. He's a volunteer at the Humane Society (I applied to be volunteer coordinator there) and wanted to see if he could give their efforts some good press. I told him who to contact and we chatted a bit more about the spiritual/theological dimensions to caring for animals. An interesting cross-pollination of shared personal and professional interests.

Pack Rats at Work Then I raced back to McAllen to work at Mary's for a couple of hours. The woman who spearheaded the labyrinth/mural/peace garden project was one of her clients. Mary had saved a post card for several years advertising the labyrinth and we ran across it while cleaning out some boxes. Checking it out this afternoon made me late for work--but it was for a good cause all around. I'll take Mary with me the next time I go. So glad she hung onto that post card!

Peppercorny Since my day did not include a trip to the grocery store, I talked Mike into dining out. He was itching for a Red Robin peppercorn burger, but when we got there, it wasn't listed on the menu. Our server asked the kitchen if they could whip one up and they agreed. I went for the bleu cheese burger with chipotle mayo. Mmmm. For all my foodie tendencies, I do love the occasional chain restaurant slumming. That reminds me: one of the jobs I saw advertised was doing cooking demonstrations at HEB. I may give it a shot. Look out, Rachael Ray!