I'm Sooooooo Jealous of Denver

Photo lifted from the NY Times online

So what the hell did Denver do to get so lucky? I want a white Christmas, too, damn it!

The New Clinic

I brought my camera to work with me so I could share with y'all. This is the lobby (which I mostly avoid, as we often get people who resent it when you actually deal with the people whose pet is dying before you see their pet's cracked nail):



And this is where I spend most of my time:



To give you some idea of scale, this main treatment area has somewhere around 1250 square feet of space (give or take). For those of you who think in metric, that's around 116 square meters, or roughly the size of a small house. Actually, my first house only had about 1050 square feet, so let's say modest-sized ranch. And this is only a fraction of our total space.

Happy Christmahannukwanzasolstica!

I'm not sure if I'll actually have a chance to write anything or have anything to say between now and the new year. Actually, I probably will, but Hannukah will be over before then and the solstice is now, so I figured I'd hit 'em all now.

Because of my busy work schedule this week, which includes working Christmas night, David and I are going to have our little Christmas for two Friday night and then drive up to spend Christmas Eve day with my family after I get off work. I am also hoping that we'll get to meet up with a certain short, bald dude while he's in this neck of the woods, but between my work schedule and our travel plans, I'm not sure if it will pan out.

And speaking of things panning out, we're still a little up in the air about the whole side trip to South Dakota thing. His mother sent a big box of presents for David and his cats - my name conspicuous by its absence. So he has asked her in an e-mail - in a direct but polite way - to be more thoughtful of me and reiterated that I am an important part of his life that shouldn't be ignored. Her response will, I think, be the main determining factor in deciding whether that visit will happen or not. She is, I have learned, a master of the passive-aggressive arts, so my expectations are not particularly high.

Being the central figure in this ongoing family dispute, it is hard for me to stay completely out of it. I do make an effort, however, because I don't think that it would be particularly fruitful for me to engage his mother directly at this time. Also, I have no particular emotional investment in a relationship with his parents - or anyone else in his family, for that matter. I would prefer to have some sort of relationship there (particularly with his father, who really seems a decent guy but not in control of the situation), but only if it includes acceptance on their part. Approval would be nice, too, but even that isn't necessary as long as they play nice. And if they can't play nice, well, my family loves David and we have friends who give us both love and approval, so there's no real reason for us to put up with dysfunction.