visiting dy and I actuallly have visitors!

First as a side note to yesterdays post, I did actually get myself out to the Moonshine Cafe. Once Bogart was back in the room, I grabbed my trusty white cane jasper and headed out. It was a pretty quiet place but the music was good and the beer was really good. The owner came up to me when I came in and helped me find a table. I learned that there is a country jam on Wednesday and a blues jam on Sunday. I will probably go to both to get some playing in. For those who don’t know I’m a professional drummer and am currently playing in a classic rock band called Rainshadow. I also really enjoy playing jazz and have found a great jam on Monday nights in Vancouver at the Cottage bistro. It was good to get out of here on my own. I’m perfectly capable to find whatever I need but sometimes it just takes a lot of motivation to head off by myself and see what the evening brings to me. Maybe some of the other adult students might want to come with me on one of my other excursions.

Today is our day off from training and this week it feels well deserved. I was so tired when my alarm went off. I must say that Bogart is a pretty patient dog. I got him downstairs around 8am. He certainly had to go. Then I came back up and went back to bed for another 40 minutes. Breakfast is at 9am on Sundays. Have I mentioned how good the food is here? I guess I should since it was one of my key anxieties before coming. Anytime you are going to be at a place for a month one can only wonder about the food. There is a good mixture of foods but I seem to like most of everything. In the first week I seemed to eat and eat. I was accepting seconds and really enjoying the desserts. I have found that as time moves forward I am getting back to not eating so much (although I always leave room for desserts which are almost always home baked).

Around 8:30am I got a phone call asking if I would like some visitors today. I certainly would. I am getting bit of cabin fever. Bogart and I relaxed in the morning and I took him for a run with Rhino after lunch to try and burn off some of his energy. As I was coming back from the courtyard there was my sister, Jennifer, brother, Stephen, and my nieces Madisun and Kamyrn in the hallway. I was surprised to see them since I had asked them to call when they got close. (I guess I forgot to say call my cell phone ). Also, they broke through our amazing security system. Actually, Courtney let them in. I’m sure I had a very surprised look on my face. I told them that I had to give Bogart a drink since he had lost a lot of fluid running around and slobbering all over Rhino’s head. Once he had a good drink we went down for the official meeting.

I will try to upload some photos of this event but I’m sure you’ll already guess that everyone loved Bogart. The biggest insult Bogart paid to me was when my niece Madisun asked him to sit and he did with no hesitation. What’s up with that? Unfortunately we can’t take our dogs off school property until we officially graduate if we are not accompanied by a school trainer. This left Bogart heading back up to the room.

The rest of us piled in to the mini van and headed down to the lake for a picnic. My how times have changed. I was there two weeks ago before coming here with so much anxiety about everything. I still have some anxiety about how things will work out when we get home but every day brings me closer to feeling that we’ll be able to make this work.

It was nice to see some of my family members again. I usually only get out this way about once a year for meetings so like to take the opportunity to visit when I can. getting Bogart has given us the opportunity to visit several times.
When we came back from the beach everyone was able to meet my friend John, his wife Chris an his dog Rocco. Of course, now my nieces want a poodle and a lab. 

We had our tearful good byes and I had to rush in for dinner. Bogart and I had a relaxing evening, if not boring, evening. I took him down around 8:30 thinking we could sit outside but it had got much colder. Of course, Bogart took the opportunity to go pee. We sauntered back upstairs with a little detour to the cookie jar for me. When we got into the room Bogart went and curled up in his bed. I thought that wasn’t a bad idea so we both had an early evening.