Your Name Is Big Brother

More trials and tribulations of pet ownership. Off and on over the last year, we occasionally have to take our red dog to the vet to have some lumps inspected. She has been cancer-free for about two years or so, but she's a lumpy girl, and I don't have the qualifications to determine fatty cysts vs. mast cell tumors. Shortly after we got home from tour, I noticed a new lump on her side. Over the past two weeks, we've been to the vet's office three times; once to inspect the lump, once for testing and finally, for surgery. Hours after I jogged along side Zoe as she sprinted gleefully into the vets office, we get a call saying surgery must be postponed, because of some swelling and bruising they discovered after they shaved the area in preparation. Monday morning she must go back for more tests and then Wednesday we'll go to the specialty vet to consult with her on the next step.

It's a lot of running around during work hours, and even more so because of how far we live from...well, everything. Luckily, B's work is very easy going, as they have to be, considering how frequently they hire and lay off people. I mean, there's gotta be some perk for working in an environment void of stability. Last week 21 people were laid off. Same time of year I was laid off from the same company four years ago. (There have been plenty more hirings and firings in between as well.) The Fridays that were cut from B's schedule have now been returned. Seems they're short on help.

My work is trickier. They like to think they're understanding, but in reality, it's much more complex. Or perhaps a better term would be "passive aggressive." Even though I spent three-quarters of last week with NOTHING to do, it was necessary to stop me on my way out to pick up my dog so that I could send an email to both my boss (who knew I was leaving and why) and HR to let them know I was leaving work two hours early. Even though those people sit ten feet apart and could practically whisper to each other, and even though work was extremely slow, we mustn't miss an opportunity to document how we did you this favor in case we need to hold it against you later.