I know I haven’t updated in a while and I am not sure why. Certainly I have enough on my mind these days, enough to share with you, sweet Internet. I could tell you how the snow has melted (and despite going flat on my face because of the ice, I do miss it already… it made the world so much lighter and prettier than your average rainstorms that we have here), or that I had a really great jamming lesson this Friday (turns out I CAN hold a rhythm, I’m just still searching for my strings). That I gained back a little weight and I’m bummed about it. There’s a lot of stuff going on.
But first and foremost, here’s the stuff that’s really on my mind the past couple of days:
- Puppies. Now that I’m working home at least one day a week, have a day off every fourteen days, and Olli is flexible with his working hours and only in the office twice a week, Olli wants to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams. He would really, really like a puppy. And he has his eye on a very cute one as well. We’ve only seen pictures and youtube vids of him, but he seems totally adorable and cheerful and playful. He was born this September, so he’s past the real tiny puppy stage, but he is still really young.
And while this puppy is completely adorable and on one hand I would love to have him, all of my ‘hell no responsibility’ alarms are going off in my head. It’s the same alarms that are still going off in the question whether I’d want to have children… a loss of freedom, having to care for something. Making time for a new addition tot he family. Sure we have our bunny Charlie, but Charlie’s fine if you give him enough food on Friday night and you come back on Sunday morning. He’s fairly low maintenance if you don’t want him to be. And of course you’d have to walk him, make time for him, etc etc. I think I could do that if I wanted to. However, the question is, do I really want to? Because I’m not a dog person. I don’t dislike them or anything, and some of them are downright adorable and sweet, but I don’t know the first thing about taking good care of them, and what it all entails.
Olli does, however, so I guess we could figure it out. Bottomline is that I just don’t know. I have no frigging idea if I would like it, I have absolutely no image in my head on how it would be. And in that regard, it’s all the same like having a child, I suppose.
It all kind of scares me. So I don’t know. Anyone got any advice?
- Social gatherings. So far the past few weeks I’ve been able to organise really spontaneous dates on Friday evening. Last week I suddenly got Brenda, Wendy and Lie together for tapas on the shortest notice ever (less than 24 hours), and this week I threw out my nets over Twitter and got both Mieke and Kat interested for drinks in Amsterdam. The boys had band business to do and I didn’t feel like staying home, so I got myself two lovely ladies to spend the first part of the night with, and afterwards Olli, Tijs and Derek came sit with me in the pub. It all worked out rather splendidly, if I say so myself. I had a really good time!
- Bass playing. I’m going to see whether with the aforementioned working from home day, I can squeeze in some more bass lessons. I notice that I just don’t get around to playing enough, and I do always practice before my lesson. So maybe I just need to force myself a little more… because I always come home from my basslesson with my head full of music and enthusiasm, and it just peters out during the week. I need more practice, more calluses and more flexibility in my fingers.
Oh, and perhaps a new bass guitar. 
Turns out that bass guitars have a battery in them as well, for connection to your amp or something. My Rebel’s battery was empty, so I played with the bass of my teacher. Oh. My. God. It played so lovely!! Its strings are close to the neck so I didn’t have to press this hard, but most of all, it had a slender neck. It really sucks to have stump fingers like me when you want to play bass.
However, with this bass I could reach everything, and it played so much better. Needed to feel like that too, because I’d been totally messing up my exercises from the book until that point. When we started jamming a bit, I felt like a true bass hero. 
There’s more on my mind but I just can’t think of it right now. These are the most important bits anyway 
Puppy! I’m so jealous! Cannot wait for that (sadly) distant day when I get a Cavalier puppy of my very own.
Getting a puppy might take a bit of adjusting, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Taking care of a puppy on a day-to-day level is just feeding it and taking it for a walk and letting it sleep cuddled up to you. If you dog-proof the garden and install a dog flap in the back door, the puppy can go out whenever it wants to. It sounds like your puppy would be old enough and well-trained enough not to be too destructive. If you have friends or family locally who could take care of the puppy for a few days, you could still go away for the weekend without worrying. Plus you will have a cuddly ball of fluff that just wants to make you happy!
I am pining even more for my future puppy now. Piiiiining.
Take an average week, and superimpose the dog over that. When will you walk him (and how many times a day)? Can he stay at home alone, or does he need to come along? Do people you visit with the dog (really) appreciate the dog coming along? What do you do if the work schedule does interfere, or on the days the both of you are out?
Those choices aside, if you do decide to take a puppy, take the time to take it on an obedience course. It needs to listen to the both of you. There’s few things worse than poorly trained dogs.
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My experience with owning a dog: it’s not as daunting as it seems. I mean, we have to find accomodation for our cats as well when we go away for a longer period of time. Granted, you can leave cats by themselves for a weekend if you leave enough food and a clean kitty litter, and with a dog you need to find someone to look after it or take it along if you are staying away for more than one day.
That’s the thing you need to think about most – are the both of you away for extended periods of time regularly, and how would you fix that? Other than that, also take a look at what stretches of time someone actually is home. There are dogs that need to go out every two hours, but there are also breeds that can stay indoors for a longer stretch of time than that.
Dogs are so much fun and aside from the walking, there isn’t really that much of a hassle having them around if you take them to a good obedience class.
By the way …. prrrrrretty layout!!
True. And as with most pet, you get bundles of love in return
oooh… Such a cute puppy.
Being a dog person myself, I’d say go for the puppy! But like mentioned before, the time schedules really need to be figured out before this. 8+ hours a workday alone for a puppy is a lot. An older dog can handle it but when the puppy is still small, it would be better if the time could be divided or have someone come in during the day to take it out and play a bit.
Elina takes their dog to a doggy-day care every day as the neighbours complained about some howling Ziggy did when she got bored. That’s also an option. I know that I could not get a dog now. You really kind of need the two people looking after it, to make sure the puppy is happy and does not have to be too long alone etc.
Well the good thing is that Olli works from home A LOT, and I am home one day a week as well (sometimes two). So I think that location wise, we’d be okay with taking him out – especially in the beginning.
It’s the reason why we’re even considering it…