A Bit of A Set Back

So, unlike many other college students who recently enjoyed some vacation time during the middle of their last semester of college I spent my time at work. Dreading two more years of this nonsense. I find myself asking “Why am I doing this?!” on a daily basis. And lately I’ve really been trying to figure out if this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’m taking these all of these classes, but it will all be for nothing if I don’t actually want it.

Currently, I’m a business major. This is a pretty typical degree for a lot of students and I’ve even been told it’s a “lazy degree”. Right now I work in an office doing accounts payable/customer service. I hope to continue to work in an office environment because they pretty much have what I like to call “mommy hours”. A business degree, to me, is a pretty flexible degree that can be applied in many different fields. So naturally this is the route I decided I should take. And as you all know, my dream is to one day get us back to California, and live happily ever after by the beach. However, at the moment we’ve been told jobs for individuals without a degree in the area we would like to one day move back to are pretty scarce. So I can’t go back there without something.

As much as I would like to just call it quits and completely give up on this whole school thing, I know that it’s in my (and my family’s) best interest that I continue. Unfortunately, I’m all kinds of burnt out. I find any excuse to NOT do things because I swear if I have to read another chapter about the Texas Government or about the flow of production at our local department store I will set those damn books on fire! Agh! It’s so annoying. And I feel like I’m missing out on a lot. Focusing on school is taking away from a lot of other things I could be doing (with my family, my daughter). Financially, it’s put a nice dent in my pay checks as well and right now we need every penny we can spare. And I do mean, every penny.

Now, I know that school is the right thing. If I want to have any kind of career, I need to put on my big girl undies and suck it up. Which is exactly what I plan to do. I just plan on slowing things down a bit. So for this semester I’ve withdrawn from two of my classes (the hardest ones), which only leaves me with two classes to take. I will take each of the classes I’ve withdrawn from, individually, during one of my mini semesters because I need to give them my full attention if I want to pass them. I've been so focused on just finishing that I haven't taken the time to really breath and focus on what it is that I'm actually doing. So yes, this sets me back a semester but for now, this is what I need. For my sanity. For my GPA. I need a break, I need to slow things down until I can get out of this slump.

Listen

Holy Bagees, That Stung!

On Monday it got up to 70 degrees and I was so excited to get home and go out for a “test run”. It was a bit windy when I got home but with the time change I knew that the temperature would hold for a few more hours. I felt like I was long overdue for a slow, long distance run. I needed to get out, stretch my legs, and feel the sun on my skin. So once I got there I changed and headed out.

Everything was fine, up until I hit my .5 mile mark. Since the sun was pretty high still I decided to take the longer route home. And that’s when things got interesting. I rounded a corner and saw a dog out in the middle of the road. Now, I’ve encountered this dog before (about a month back), and he actually nipped at my shoe once. That day, I squirted him with water and he ran away. This time he didn't look very threatening at first because he isn't very big, but he was barking up a storm and growling. I just assumed he was being a tough guy. But, I still picked up a rock and opened up my water bottle just in case. I had my headphones in and I kept up my pace. I saw him start circling me, but I kept my eyes ahead. At one point he got a little too close so I kicked in his direction and told him to “get”. He took off behind me back to his house so I assumed I was clear and started to speed up. That’s when I saw another dog coming at me really fast from the left side, and then I felt a bite on my right calf.

As a reflex I kicked back when I felt the sting and the dog let go. But he kept trying to come back at my leg, and the other dog that had caught my attention before was also growling at me. I checked my leg and it didn't look bad at all but I did see some blood so I wiped it away. Then, I went in search of the first big stick I could find. My first thought, in all honesty, was to hit the crap out of that damn dog. But then I realized I needed to tell the owners and see if I could find out any information about the dog (did he actually belong to them, was he vaccinated?). So I made my way up to their fence, stick in hand, and tried to get someone to come out. I was out there hollering for about 3 minutes and no one came out. I knew someone had to be home because cars were parked out front, but either they really couldn't hear me or they were hoping I’d just go away. So, I decided I’d continue my run and then come back to talk to them in my car.

I swung my stick and backed my way down the road before I started off again. Once I got home I told my husband what had happened, and he insisted I call the police. Now, I’m an animal person and I know how bad it sucks to have the cops called on you because your dogs loose. So, I told him I wanted to speak to the owners first. He said he’d come with me so we all loaded up and made our way to the house. When we got there he knocked on the windows and yelled. No one came out. Finally I honked, and started yelling with him and a little girl came out. We asked to speak to her parents and they came out a few seconds later. They claimed the dog belonged to their daughter’s boyfriend. He wasn’t there at the time, because his daughter was in labor. I introduced myself, showed them my leg, and told them I ran by there often. I told them that this was the second time that this dog had come at me, and my husband made some reference about calling the sheriff. That’s when they told me that the dog had his vaccinations and that the dog would be taken care of. I told them we didn’t want any trouble, but if it happened again I’d call animal control. They shook our hands, and took both dogs into their fenced yard.

My husband insisted that I call the police but I felt we had handled the situation. It wasn’t until I was at work the next day that someone asked me “What if he had attacked a child? or What if you had been out running with Emery and he bit her?” So, I called the sheriff and made a report. I let them know we had spoken with the owners, and they immediately knew who I was talking about. Apparently, I’m not the first to complain about their dogs. I told them I didn’t need a sheriff to come out, but I just wanted it on file that I had made the report in case it happened again. They asked if I had gone to the ER, because the owners would be held liable to pay for my visit if I had gone. I told them that I hadn’t since it wasn’t that deep, and my leg was healing so rabies wasn’t an issue. The sheriff told me that if it happened again to call them immediately so they could have animal control pick up the dog.

I honestly don’t want any trouble because this is a small town. We see everyone pretty much every afternoon. But I would feel so bad if that dog got out, bit a kid, and I hadn’t spoken up. So, I feel like I did the right thing. The owner can be angry with me if he feels like it but I’m sure if the roles were reversed they would not have hesitated to call and make a report. The bite wasn't that deep, mainly deep scratches, so it’s healing really fast, and it’s mainly just one big bruise. If I’m on my feet for a long period of time then it swells up a bit, but other than that it’s fine. Since then, I've gone on one run by that house. The dog was outside of the fence but he was tied up. I glad to see that they were serious about making sure he wasn't loose again. I really would have hated to have another conversation with the police.

p.s. I was reading Erica's current post, 

and come to find out bloglovin has my blog listed. 

So, if anyone has that, you can also use that to follow along.

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