*comes back*
Okay, it was more like "stomp around and flail arms and have a goofy expression on my face" than a jiggity jig. Actually, come to think of it, what *does* a jiggity jig look like? And is it different from a jiggedy jig?
Anyway. I'm home. Thanksgiving morning I headed out into the drizzle and got a ride with my mom and her younger sister Nancy Weare to Mom and Dad's place in Dundee. Aggressive relaxing then happened. Also eating, reading, visiting, and laundry. Plus I helped take care of my Uncle Greg and Aunt Peg's dogs, a chocolate lab named Molly and a young, exuberant-but-sometimes-aggressive and occasionally almost neurotic yellow lab named Maggie. Maggie needs a lot of attention, which us four humans provided. Molly is older and usually more mellow; she spent a lot of time hanging out on a chair in the garage. Both don't really know what to make of the pygmy goats and the horse who live next door, but there was more befuddlement than confrontation when the animals were near each other.
(And now I remember how much work dogs can be. Thank goodness Sophie, who we had from 1990 to 2004, was relatively calm and low-maintenance.)
I got to drive yesterday to run an errand in Newberg, next door. (I deposited my first expense check from my new job: $7.80 for lunch at an Auburn, WA McDonald's.) I hung out in a pet shop called Critter Cabana on Newberg's main drag. The store had snakes in enclosures and turtles wandering the floor. I got to pet some kittens and admire all sorts of animals: dogs, cats, ferrets, fish, frogs, snakes, and more. Got me thinking more about pets. After that was a cafe-and-bookstore run, as Newberg, like many places, has a combo cafe-bookstore (Chapters, to be exact). Nice place, which fortified me with chai. Me like chai. (Huh. Firefox's spell checker doesn't recognize "chai.")
This was a weekend of special relaxation. High-quality relaxin', in fact.