stephanie is: 
brr…
the weather has been pretty crappy the past few days. well, maybe not as crappy for people who haven’t had to drive to work in it i guess…
i worked on sunday as usual. it is normally me and another girl who split the dogs into two groups all day and a manager. the manager said the other girl called in because she had to get stitches in her face. it was okay though since there were only about 12 dogs boarding (plus our three employee dogs we had brought), so i kept them in the lounge all day. it was frigging cold in there! i work my coat and shivered. turned out the thermostat for that side of the building was set to 55°. brr.
when i got home i parked in the driveway since there is never any parking near our house on sundays and they were calling for snow. by 11pm there was about 4 or 5 inches of snow and it was still coming down. i went out around then and cleared off my car so that danny would be able to get around it into the garage. we had perfect timing. hopefully having my car in the driveway saved danny some shoveling time. he stayed up and shoveled me out at 5am.
india eating snow a little after the storm started
i got up at 5am instead of 5:30am. i wanted 20 extra minutes of drive time and 10 extra minutes of news-watching time. i was dressed super fast since i could actually have the lights on and not be quiet. it takes me twice as long to get dressed in the dark while danny is asleep. at 6am (instead of 6:20am) i headed out. they had half-heartedly plowed our neighborhood a few hours into the storm, but there was several inches of slippery hard-packed snow on the streets. i was hoping the toll road would be plowed, but it was about the same. just a big white expanse with a few cars trying to figure out where the lanes should be.
our area is super slow about plowing… this is 30+ hours after the snow ended
i actually got to work at 6:30am (normal time is 6:40am if i leave on time). the early morning girl was out front shoveling the last of the sidewalk. one girl called in due to the snow, so we started out with all the dogs together, then split intotwo rooms when a few more started to arrive. not many showed up because of the bad roads.
we found out what had happened to our coworker. she had been at the hard rock cafe with her mom… walking down their wet stairs, she slipped and fell chin-first onto tiles. unconscious, blood everywhere, teeth a mess. she will have to have three teeth replaced and had 40 stitches. the dentistry alone will be $10,000. she is having to look into getting a lawyer. yikes.
i stayed a little late at work monday since they were short an afternoon person and the manager was going to have to leave the front desk to do two dog evaluations. i got a crash course in answering the phones and booking different types of appointments before i was left alone. i certainly learned a lot. the second evaluation was very early so i got out of there after only an hour extra. driving home was not so fun, but better than that morning. danny wanted me home before dark and in the garage since it was going to start sleeting and freezing over.
a view from our yard after the ice part of the storm started
in the morning i had to spend 15 minutes scraping ice off my car (danny has to park in the garage so i was back out in the driveway). it was freezing rain so the drive was pretty slow, but i got there right at my clock-in time of 6:45am. there were more dogs, but it was still very slow. around lunchtime a lot of dogs got picked up due to the federal government getting shut down. other parents had brought food and bedding that morning in case the roads were too bad for them to pick up their ‘kids’ that evening. when i left at 3:00pm i had to once again scrape a layer of ice off my car. it was freezing raining still. by the time i stopped for gas near home it was hailing. once i got inside it was snowing big fluffy flakes. i think all is calm at the moment. i think tomorrow we are supposed to get over freezing for the first time in weeks.
i have a photoshoot on friday, but i have nothing new to wear to it and a bazillion braids to redo first. there is nothing i can do about the clothes part – unless i magically get a sugardaddy/momma who can take me to the mall, hehe. i have been trying to get the company web site done every evening (and having to nap because my 4 hours of sleep per night have been killing me the past month) so i haven’t had time to braid. i will try to get a bunch done after work tomorrow, but many are 4 months old and badly dreaded at the root so they take 15 minutes to redo. i need to see what time we plan to start on friday – perhaps i’ll have some extra time in the morning then. it will feel super nice to have a full head of new braids for the first time in months. i think photo_obscura and i had planned to start early, but i’d like to shoot with azcra too and she has to work… so perhaps starting later would be better so that i’ll still have energy left by 5pm. i am not sure what is going on friday night or saturday. i just know i want to spend that time with danny, whether or not anyone else is with us. i know he dislikes my modeling hobby, so i am not sure he’d want to meet everyone for dinner or something…
a coworker occasionally sells framed artwork out of her truck for a national art association. she had really great prices for such large, nicely framed pieces. i got a van gogh sunflowers print framed perfect for our powder room. they are all hung up now. i’d like to paint the walls in there… maybe a pale butter color? they are standard white right now. and i want to get a postcard print or two of van goghs and little gold frames so i can fill in the space above the light switches.
my van goghs in the powder room
i need to wrap this up and go to bed. i have already gotten 1.5 hours of sleep thanks to my post-work passing out session, but i need to try to get 5 more.
it makes me super happy to get comments from you guys – even if they are silly… so please feel free to post anything you’d like to this.