The dog, the fence and the big house

Yesterday I came home to a dog-less hotel room. Chienne had been invited to spend the day with Kim and Jim and had happily taken up residence in a room downstairs. She slept all evening once I picked her up and I, equally happily, availed myself of the new VPN access into Industry's system and worked all evening. I made slides, filled in blanks in spreadsheets and answered email from when I got home until I went to sleep.

I really like my job. I'm still figuring it out and there are challenges and frustrations and problems, but I find I'm very engaged and content while I'm working.

Today I came to find a puppy in my room and she was overjoyed to see me.

"Hello," I greeted her, leaning to accept her kisses on my chin while I cuddled her after we'd been cruelly separated for about 8 hours. "Want to go see the new house?" I asked, so we got in the car and proceeded to the big house.

"Big house?" The owner asked as he stood outside talking to me. "It sounds like you're moving to prison."

"Oh," I grinned sheepishly and shrugged. "It just seems to huge to me."

"You'll see," he replied, "once you're moved in, it won't seem large at all." I looked at the big house on a small hill and doubted his words. Then the fence guy came - about 45 minutes late - and measured and took notes on what I wanted done. Chienne and I met neighbors and chatted with the current owners until we finally proceeded home.

We picked up hamburgers on the way - Jon canceled our dinner plans (I didn't get the reason as my house's current owner was mid-monologue about helpful hints) and I decided to embrace the unexpectedly free evening. I longed for my work laptop a little bit - think of how much I could be doing! - but relaxed and turned on the television, cleaned up a little in preparation for heading south tomorrow, and began a blog post.

Chienne jerked awake and pranced to the door when there was a knock just moments ago. Kim had come to see her, saying that she'd missed her this afternoon.

"She was gone when I came to get her," she said, sitting on the floor to cuddle. Chienne happily obliged. "Is she coming back before you move? Can you send me pictures so I can show my kids? I talk about her all the time."

"You're an angel," I told her, returning her embrace before she left. "Thank you for taking such good care of her - you made the week so much better for both of us. And you'll come visit us in the new house, OK? So while Chienne won't return to the hotel, you'll definitely see her again."

Two more weeks, I thought happily. Then we move into the big house and begin the next aspect of our new life.