Here it is. It is your proof. When I talk about dirt night, it really is that dirty. That's Ruby and Otterpop, and Fate and Hobbes. All tied to a post together in the dirt. Hobbes isn't my real border collie, he is like my practice border collie. He belongs to my instructor. I run him in class and in some stuff at the dog shows because I only have little dogs. If I had my own border collie, I would want him to be exactly, completely like Hobbes. He is my favorite dog in the whole world besides my dogs. I am like his stalker. Hobbes thinks I'm ok. I think anyone that can run fast and will tug on a thing with him is ok with him. I am supposed to not hit bars with him. In theory.
Here's the thing with dirt night. Everything lives in that trailer until dirt nite. Then we get there before the students come, take everything out of the trailer, drag it up to the ring, set it up, have a bunch of classes, then after our late class, drag it back to that trailer. We're good at it. We've been doing it a long time. Every Wednesday night. We are like Teamsters. Yes, it's a pain in the ass. It is the pain we do in the name of dog agility. This is why we have advil.
This is a pretty utilitarian shot. You know I am allergic to the flash on a camera, right? Hate it. I have a thing about the flash. Just gives me the creepies. I would rather take a picture in the dark and hold real, real still for a long time. So I tried to take all these before it got too dark. Because now we have the daylight savings, which also means we are like zombies in the morning and have to have extra coffee. Because we just taught agility, ran agility, and dragged thousands of pounds of agility stuff in and out of a trailer as a neat after work activity instead of something like, oh say, dinner. We can unset a course and stuff it back in that trailer FAST. Usually it is a panic to get home before Project Runway starts. Now there's time to sit back and smell the dirt since Season 4 ended.
Let's watch everyone stay on the table.
Mary and Ariel. You met them once when I went to CPE and I took their picture at 4:30am. Be nice to Mary about her new blondeish hair.
Linda and Jazper. They were my performance DAM team with Ruby in December. Jazper barks a lot. Doesn't this weird no flash, covered arena fluourescent lighting make Dirt Nite look mysterious and other worldly? Yeah. It's just like that.
Rob and Fate. There was an article about him in Clean Run that called him Agility's Mr. Nice Guy. He is pretty nice, even when I make Hobbes hit a bar. At least he still lets me run him. He has gotten used to it that one of his dogs has their own stalker.
It was a good Dirt Nite. A few bars from Hobbes due to a couple late front crosses. I am SO SORRY Hobbes! I HATE it when I do that. I love running a 26" dog. If that dog is Hobbes. I love running really, really fast to put in front crosses where others say, "but that looks dangerous." It's like a disease. Hi. I am Laura and I am a Front Crosser. Ruby and Otterpop were super speedy and no weird antics, thank god Project Runway is done with for now and Heidi is locked back into her box. It was a 3 dog night for me. Maybe I am skinnier today? And I ran with a frisbee to keep Otterpop fast and frantic. Maybe someday they would have Steeplechase Where You Get to Bring Your Toy in the Ring. Yeah. And maybe it would actually be at the dog show in Marfa.
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Well, the thing is, I went to Ross-Dress-for-Less to get sporty wear so that instead of staying home drinking beer because I could not find any clean sweat pants to wear on a walk, I would have ready sporty wear, and therefore no excuse not to take the dogs to Lighthouse Field which is now a Fraught With Anxiety Outing Because of Rangers with Guns, and Beer Drinking seems now preferable to braving Ranger Related Dangers. (See Team Small Dog posts on Dangerous Rangers.)
So, along with Getting Sporty, I thought I would change my look to Grey Panther look because, well, I'm tired of Preference by L'Oreal at $9.95 a pop because I'm worth it. But there were no Preference by L'Oreal boxes with Grey Hair Color. So, that would mean 3 months of public reddish brown seguing into real grey color hair. Which would be OK, in general, because "Who Cares,Mom?!?" (oblivious sons). But as I have whined about previously, which I shouldn't whine about, because it is a privilege and an honor to teach English composition at De Anza College to well-meaning students most of whom do not speak English, I have to teach a class next quarter and therefore miss 12 weeks of Dirt Night about which I am SO SAD. But I sort of thought, wow, how much sadder the whole thing would be if I have to stand in front of said students (most of whom don't speak English let alone write it did I mention?) with my hair seguing from fake reddish brown to natural iron grey.
So, I thought. (I'm a big thinker.) Perhaps it would be worth it to got to a real Beauty Salon and let the professionals take care of Hair Segueing . Which I did. And look what happened. And it cost $180. (Check prices before you strike hair deals -- your beauty treatment *might* just *might* cost more than your regular $9.95 Great Clip.) And it took 3 hours. And there was tin foil involved.
So that is why Team Small Dog said you should be nice to me. Thank you Team Small Dog.
And I am striving mightily not to be depressed about how that very $180 was the $180 I thriftily saved by not going to Madera this weekend. Which is also making me feel very Left Out and Sad.
Which just goes to show that age does not necessarily bring wisdom or consumerist savvy.
Which is why I want to be a Grey Panther because well, obviously.
And so I wondered, "Where can I find all those Grey Panthers I heard about when I was a youngster?" I'll leave you to answer the obvious, and to be nice to me about my hair.
But we will wear our Team Small Dog t-shirt at Sunnyvale Bay Team CPE trial and Kick Ass! like we are supposed to! So, life is perfectly good, after all.
i can't wait to have a trial that allow me to bring 'roasted pork' into the ring...
Oooh, I love dangerous front crosses, too, and anything else that people don't think they can do with their dogs. Jim Basic calls some of these things Cool Factor, although that usually has to do with leaving your dog in the weaves and doing a front cross 40 feet away so that you can avoid a difficult double rear cross. Or serpentining something that everyone else does with 5 front crosses. It helps having classes with Ashley and Luka to inspire me.
-ellen
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