It's been kind of a scary week so far. First off, someone broke into our apartment building on Monday morning after most everyone was at work. He posed as a maintenance man and the only thing we can think of is that he told someone he was cleaning crew and they let him in. Otherwise, there's no way for anyone to get in here since the doors are pretty secured. He was sweeping the hallway while paying attention to which apartments were quiet and who was leaving for work. I'm still on the job hunt however, my recruiter set me up with a 2 day job to assist with on Monday and Tuesday, so I was not home (normally, I would have been). When I got home around 5:00, I found my neighbors standing in the hallway and the girl next door was getting a new door put on. Apparently, this idiot tried to take the peepholes off the doors to see inside the apartments. Her apartment and one other had been pried open with a crowbar, and some others had a little wear by the door handles, as if a break-in had been attempted. On our floor, there are 2 apartments with dogs - ours and the one across the hall. Since we've moved here, Penny has decided that it's necessary to bark at all the noises she hears in the hallway or at the door. It's annoying and we've gotten to the point of keeping a spray bottle with water nearby to spray her and stop her from barking. Doesn't work. Anyway...before I went inside my place, my other neighbor with dogs said that it looked like our apartments were 2 of the only ones not to be messed with (aside from having our peepholes loosened) since he probably went to our doors, heard the dogs bark, and moved on. I'd always heard that intruders are more scared of dogs than alarms, for the fear of being attacked. I opened my front door and there was Penny, standing there happy to see me with her tongue hanging out and tail wagging. I gave her the BIGGEST hug and kiss, changed out of my work clothes, and took her right to the park to play. Suddenly, I was happy that she decided to bark at noises in the hallway and I now see it as her way of protecting us. She might be no more than 20 pounds, but she's the best little guard dog we could ask for.
Now, the ironic part is that I had not planned on Penny being home that day. Since I've been home most days and had this temp job coming up, I had thought about taking her to doggie daycare since I didn't know what time I'd be home and since Mike was working as well. Both our work places were too far from home to come take her out during lunch, and since we had friends in town over the weekend and didn't get to spend much time with her, I thought it would be fun for her to get out and play and was all set to drop her off at 7:30 on Monday morning. However, the weather here has been so gorgeous, that I decided to forego daycare and decided that I would take her to the park after I got home from work. Had I decided to take her in, chances are, our apartment would have been broken into since Penny would not have been there to bark and growl at the door noises. All I could think about was coming home to a busted door, and stolen laptop and jewelry like my poor neighbors.
Yesterday, I did treat Penny to a day of play at doggie daycare. Our apartment was not broken into however, my car was hit. I was on my way into my temp job, sitting at a light, when the guy behind me wasn't paying attention to the red light and hit me pretty hard from behind. I was so shocked, I literally let out a scream. My car was hit was some pretty good force, that the stuff in my console and the coins in my change holder all fell right out when my car moved back. I was totally expecting a major dent in the back of my car (though I was relieved, knowing I wasn't at fault), and there were only just a few minor scratches on both cars. The man who hit me was very nice and very apologetic and even he was shocked that there was no bad damage since he admitted to not paying attention and slamming into me. Even though he would have been at fault, it's never fun to deal with a damaged car. I am feeling the effects of whiplash today, but he has offered to pay for chiropractic treatment that I will most likely take him up on.
Now here's a weird twist...the night before, I had a very vivid dream about a song. Lately, I have been having very vivid dreams and I think it's because I have a lot on my mind. I've been getting discouraged about a few things and not to happy about the way some things have been going however, I've been trying hard to restore my faith (that I will admit, I lost a bit of in the last year). I say a prayer before bed every night and even downloaded a devotional app that automatically posts a verse or saying every morning and night. On Monday night, I remember that the song "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood (who is one of my faves) was playing in my dream. I don't remember how or why, but when I woke up Tuesday morning, I remember that song in my dream very, very clearly. When I got in the car on Tuesday morning, I decided to play the song since I had not heard it in awhile. I played it once, then played it a second time...and then I got hit. I didn't really think of all this until today, but it's so ironic how this accident, which felt like it should have been MUCH worse than it actually was, was OK. Almost as if some higher being was watching out for me, knowing that I have been dealing with stress lately.
Finally, the third incident has to do with a show I watched today. Lately, a lot of my stresses have been job related. Finding a good job in today's economy is tough, and I know there are people out there who have been looking longer than I have. When we moved to Atlanta, I was in debate about what to do job-wise. I was (and still am) having the "what do I want to be when I grow up" syndrome. The last several years, I've been working in marketing and I've been lucky enough to work with some really good companies. I wouldn't mind staying in marketing however, I really want to work for a company that I'm passionate about (such as arts, entertainment, media) and I really want to start stepping over and doing something more creative. I would also love to start a side business doing something creative, that maybe I can eventually down the road, make full-time. I'm most happy when I'm doing something creative and doing something I love. I love my photography, I love to bake, I love to do anything artistic. The question is, where do I start and how do I start? Also, what do I do? Do I start selling my pictures? Do I start a dog bakery (don't laugh - I bake Penny treats all the time and she loves them)? And most of all, how do I get the motivation to do that? This afternoon, I turned on the TV and Katie Couric's new talk show had just started. I never watch this show, No offense, Kaite, I've just never had much interest. Today's topic was "Reinventing Yourself." There were stories of several women - all older than me - who had lost their jobs and decided to take a risk and pursue what they loved and were passionate about and through the sacrifices and perseverance, made it. The author of this book was on the show and I think I might need to go get it:
OK, Katie, you sold me. I'll give your show another shot.
Anyway, those are my inspirational stories of the day. I have a lot to think about and a lot to be thankful for.
