Voting Blue in a Red State

So since the Indiana primary actually seems to matter this year, there was a really long line at my polling place yesterday morning. This lead me to decide to vote after work instead. I left work a little early, noted the beautiful weather, and decided that, since the polling place was only a little over a mile from my apartment, I would combine voting with walking the dogs.

I initially contemplated making a shirt for Blue that read "Vote for Hillary... or else" but then decided that A) I was the only one who would find that funny and B) Blue's too cute to be threatening.

(Side note: I received another request from someone about adopting Blue... and it would make sense if it's a good home. But then...I love Blue. So if you wouldn't mind, any reminders about why I'm not crazy to move into a teeny tiny house with two pit bulls would be appreciated...)

Right - so I go vote. (You should have seen those people with candidate signs scatter as I approached...tee hee hee...) Afterwards, noting the beautiful weather and the energy of my dogs, I decided to take a longer walk than usual. So I headed towards a neighborhood that I had never seen before near the polling place.

Two hours later, we got home.

I got lost.

For those of you who know me (and remember that I got lost on a circular path before) this is not a surprise. But, in an effort to highlight the absurdity of it all, let me point out here that the new neighborhood was MAYBE a mile away from where I live. Maybe. And it was off of a major street. (Which I could HEAR but COULD NOT GET BACK TO. It was all very stressful.) In my defense, I kept turning right in an effort to go in a big loop, but then I hit a dead end and my plan went to hell. Then it became, "well, this looks familiar...maybe this way?" and "I definitely recognize that house. Let's go that way."

Damn those curvy streets. Who deviates from the basic grid system when setting up a neighborhood?? And who puts PONDS in the middle of neighborhoods with no path to get around them?

(Let us all keep this little trait of Emily's in mind the next time she wants to live a block away from ghetto hell, shall we? Emily tends to forget little details like this when she is enamored with 2500 square feet and a finished basement.)

The walk was before dinner, so the dogs were understandably pissed when we got home - pulling me the entire way once they saw the apartment complex. (I think they got the most angry when I realized that I did not have my cell phone with me and could not call their dad...so I was on my own to get us home. Since I speak these random thoughts out loud, I'm sure they understood me.) The bonus was that everyone had a very relaxed evening on the couch with the Cubs game.

When it was time to walk this morning, Blue came out, had a nice big stretch, and looked at me as though to say, "Seriously?" He then proceeded to roll over to have his belly scratched instead of walking to the door. When I explained that he needed to go out and he would thank me later, he heaved a HUGE sigh and rolled onto his side with the most pathetic expression...until Casey walked over and bit his ear. Then he got up and came to the door with her. True story.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was to put a cute little story before actually stating the obvious that, yes, the boy and I are moving into separate residences in June, yes, it's a breakup, but yes we are on friendly terms, and yes, it was my decision. No, I'm not ruling out the idea of possibly dating once we live in separate residences, no, this is not an easy decision and no, I'm not 100% convinced I'm doing the right thing. For now, we won't call an end to the cohabitation experiment....just a hiatus. (Don't tell my mom.)