Wesley the Dogsitter

As of yesterday I have been watching the cutest three month old puppy for one of the health and safety instructors. He's gotten a lot cuter since he stopped throwing up from yesterday. His name is Teddy Bear, unfortunately. There's not a good nickname to derive from this. TB is out for obvious reasons. Along with being a disease's name, it all got Taylor to guess Tyra Banks. This is what happens when children name animals. I wanted to name my first cat Blue Paint at the age of 4. Luckily, my parents turned me down.

Before I got the puppy, there was a pretty eventful weekend. Saturday we had our annual Red Cross volunteer recognition and picnic at the Macabee Center near the VA in Tuscaloosa. There was some excellent free food from Buffalo Phil's, Wintzell's, Steamers, and TCBY. There were around 150 people there. It was great to see a good portion of the volunteers that I have worked with over the past year. The highlight was the awards portion of the event. There were two in particular that got to me. When we gave Ro, the woman who was here coordinating volunteers when I first got here, her award, she was so surprised and looked like she might almost cry. The other one was when I got to present James with his award. When everyone in the office went to stand up at the front, James came along even though he wasn't presenting any of the awards. He got the Philos award which is about volunteering  with a loving spirit. He was so surprised. He has mentioned it at the office each day since then. He was so happy that day, and I enjoyed that more than anything else.

After the event I attempted to leave for Atlanta to celebrate Karissa and Amanda's birthdays. I was held up by putting fire cases into the computer for people in other counties. The first person didn't call me until 4, and after a quick Taco Casa dinner the next person called me when I was about 20 minutes out of town. I stopped at my parents house to put it in their computer before finally making it to Atlanta at 9.

Karissa, Amanda, and I went out with Amanda's friend Shannon to a bar called One Pace Over. It was pretty fraty and similar to the bars I avoid in Tuscaloosa. We had fun, though, and even ran into someone that we had minimal contact with in high school, which is always an adventure. When we left Karissa and I shared the best street food buffalo chicken panini. Amanda said it smelled bad, but we did not care. By the time Karissa dropped us off at Amanda's I barely had time to get under the cover on the couch before Amanda passed out on top of me.

The next day was filled with good food and Amanda. She took me to a Cuban.Mexican/American restaurant called La Fonda. It's a chain that is specific to Atlanta, and the food was great. Their cheese dip was excellent, and the quesadilla with yellow rice and black beans was superb. I'll add a picture below for you to enjoy. After that we went on an adventure in H&M at Atlantic Station. We found many things we liked on display, but there were no versions for us to try on only the ones on the mannequins. We met  up with Karissa and Justin and two of his friends for them to have a late lunch. Amanda and I were impatient.

We went back to her apartment and took a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap while her dog Belle(a) flopped around going inside and outside. Once the nap concluded, we went to dinner at Mirko, an pasta restaurant near Amanda's apartment. It was excellent. You picked your pasta, sauce, and meat from a very extensive menu. I got mushroom ravioli in pesto cream sauce. They also give you a warm bean dip that is hummus-esque and bread to dip it in. The atmosphere of the restaurant was really cool. My favorite thing besides the food was the glassware. It had a line around the middle of it. Above the line was printed optimista and below it pessemista. I thought it was funny. I was very well fed by the time I left Atlanta for the 3 and a half hour drive back to Tuscaloosa.

Work has been pretty slow. Knock on wood. A lot of people are out of the office, so I've just been keeping up with this little pup pup. We did have a traveling salesman offer Cody a flashlight that doubles as a taser, but that's the most exciting that's happened. My parents and brother came to visit me to bring a larger crate to keep the small puppy in while I'm out of the house. We went to Mr. G's and spent most of the time making fun of each other for our terrible drawings on Draw Something. As per usual we'll end with the James Quotes of the Week. 


James Quotes of the Week

"I wanna see a dog in a baby diaper."

"Don't you do that in here." James telling Teddy Bear not to pee inside

"Wake up in the morning time doo doo in the bed." James's feelings about sharing a bed with a dog

"Look, Wesley, put a sock in your mouth."

"I bet she look good. Foxy Mama." James about Wynease in a bikini