Happy Wednesday to you too

Today started off very productive. I took my time getting out of bed because I didn't have to be anywhere until 3. So after walking to dogs I got down to house cleaning. Mom and dad will be here on Friday and I've been very lax about things since I've gotten back from Bermuda. But the house looks lovely now. I considered started packing up some things I won't need in the next month, but I don't want to trip over it for the next couple weeks.

I had an appointment at 3 on campus so I took the dogs out early. There was a small dog sitting in our driveway with no one around so I sat the dogs down behind a bush and waited for it to wander off into the neighbors yard. Then I walked the dogs and kept their attention so they didn't notice it. Unfortunately, the neighbors saw me coming and started calling their dog. I tried to tell them not to, but they did and she came running at Kyle and Zoe.

So they started barking at the each other because Zoe (the dark dog) wants to play and Kyle's over protective. So I tried to keep walking and the neighbors started yelling at my dogs. I told them that it was their fault because their dog was off the leash and to please quit talking to me like that. The neighbor said he was talking to Kyle. I pointed out that through extension he was speaking to me as well. So to end the situation, I walked away and went off on our walk.

Unfortunately as I came around the corner back to our house, we live at the end of a cul de sac, the neighbor's sister walks out into the road and into my path so I had to stop or run her over. She started yelling at me. I'm not even sure what she said. I explained that their dog was off the leash so I wasn't at fault. She tried to tell me that the dog had just run out of the house but if that was true they would have come to get her rather than letting it walk around the neighborhood. I didn't raise my voice with her. I remembered that much of my conflict management training. I didn't even argue with her. Even when she started accusing me of believing children should be on leashes too because that's what my landlady says. I pointed out that I'm not my landlady.

I was so upset I was shaking on the inside. The woman had 75+ lbs and several inches on me. I was very polite. She mentioned she was forty and I didn't tell her to act her age like I wanted to. She also gave me a perfect opportunity to ask her if she wanted a cookie, but I was afraid I'd get hit. Finally her brother, the dog owner, came out of the house and yelled at everyone in his family to get in the driveway. He asked them if they were a bunch of rednecks. His sister said yes, apparently, since they were loading up an RV in the driveway. I finished my walk. I was shaking by the time I got home. I am so tired of all my neighbors letting their dogs run loose and then taking it out on me when they start barking at each other. Thankfully I only have about three more weeks of walking the dogs. Tomorrow morning, then my landlady will be home next week, and the two or three weeks til I move. I'm counting down.

But even after this I still had to go to school. I drove with the top down since it's finally beautiful out. Then I mailed off my application today for a full time position at the local aquarium. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. If I get it, I'll most likely be staying in Wilmington. If I don't, it just means there's somewhere more fun and exciting that I'm supposed to be. But I'd love to stay. I also mailed off my camera to get it fixed so it will quit leaking underwater. And I mailed off my application for my North Carolina Education Certification so I can tell them with all honesty that I'm working on it if I get an interview at the aquarium.

Then as I was walking up to class a woman stopped me and told me I looked like summer. If that isn't enough to cheer you up, I don't know what is. I also got several compliments in my class on my dress. Tonight I team taught a class on GIS which is geographic information systems. Basically it combines different types of maps of the same place so you can look at the connections. For example you can look at how soil types affect your vegetation types. Well, it's a very complicated subject, they teach whole classes about it in my department, and we had to teach teachers how to use it in their classrooms. I had come up with an activity and a list of websites with great, simple GIS resources. The class and teacher loved it. He had never seen the sites we used and he was very impressed. I was a little nervous because it is so complicated and I wasn't sure they'd find it as interesting as my partner and I did. Thankfully they loved it.

So tomorrow's a new day. I'm teaching a very interesting lab this week that the students love. Then tomorrow night we're going out to celebrate birthdays. My friend turned 23 yesterday and I turn 26 next week, so we compromised and are having a big bash tomorrow. It should be fun. We're having the rum cake I brought back from Bermuda. It doesn't get much better than that.