Traveling's tiring
Slidey floors in JFK with my sister, Lila. Very cool.
Hi guys,
Sorry not to write sooner. It’s been a bit crazy this past week with my family.
First off, back maybe three years ago (or maybe it was a week ago…I’m not all that good with time), my family and I left our house in Colorado and drove for so long it made my head hurt. We visited new states, like Nebraska and Illinois and Iowa and Pennsylvania, and stayed in new houses every night. I loved some of them – especially the one in Connecticut with the big lawn and the pool and my new friend Boulder – but not so much the one that smelled like old pastrami and stale beer and now has a new scent after I might have accidentally had a bit of an accident in the hallway.
Well, it really was quite a journey. I tend to be pretty Zen-like on road trips. I like to watch the world go by, to daydream about swimming and fun times with Jeronimo. I try to listen sometimes to my favorite puppycasts, but they never hold my attention for too long. So, I just sit, and I enjoy, and I focus on how lucky I am to be where I am, wherever that may be.
Before long, but after a really long time, we made it to JFK. I’m not much of a city girl, so I wasn’t a big fan of New York if we’re being honest, but I endured as Dad got lost and tensions rose in our minivan. If you haven’t been to JFK, wow, it’s not like my house in Evergreen. There are lots of people there, and really slippery floors and lots of standing and moving of papers and standing some more, then bags get opened and closed and opened again, then more slippery floors and then these really cool slidey floors that move you without you having to move. I loved those. I’m pretty good at them, too, since we had to go back and forth on them a bunch of times as Dad kept taking me to a little room with fake grass and asked me to go pee there. Really? I’ve been trained for 13.5 years to not go pee in the house, and now you’re asking me to go pee in the biggest house I’ve ever been in? No thanks. And, not to mention I could smell that Tony, Ernest, Hidalgo, Gladys, Persephone, Tim, Wally, Beauregard, Franklin, Willis, Jacques, Wakoo, Tomuline, Richie, and Vinnie had all peed there already, and I am not going to pee where Vinnie had peed. Yuck.
Anyway, back to the story, after our time on the slippery floors and the moving ones, we all gathered our things and walked down to a place where a lot of people were standing. Some really nice people smiled at me and asked us all to come with them, which we did, and followed them down a long hallway and onto the strangest tube-car I’ve ever seen. There were couches and chairs everywhere, and only a little area to walk in, but finally we found our couches and settled in for our ride. People kept looking at me a bit funny, but I was getting pretty sleepy so I just curled up at Mom’s feet – her feet smell good, unlike Dad’s, but I won’t go there – and slept and slept and slept.
After either two weeks or about 15 minutes, we hit a rough spot in the road and then pretty soon we were getting out of the tube-car and to my surprise and delight, everyone around us was speaking German! My half-homeland! Cousin Vaffelhund would not believe it that I was finally half-home! I’ll have to send him a postcard. But, boy, was I happy to get out of the tube-car and stretch my legs and set paw in the land of my ancestors. I was tired, but my brother and sister, were there, as they always are, to help me on the slippery floors (those are everywhere in Europe) and tell me what a good girl I am. I like that. It makes me feel good and puts a spring in my step, even when I’m tired and have just flown for my first time and haven’t peed in 11 hours because I never, ever want to pee in a room where Vinnie peed.
Well, back to the story, we were finally in Germany, and the journey had begun. But, that night, I got really, really tired. So tired, I wasn’t sure I even wanted my dinner! I finally ate it, of course, and then we went to sleep. And, then I woke up in the middle of the night! That never happens. It was like, 3:00 AM, and it felt like only 7:00 PM. So weird. But, also dinner time. I woke Mom up and had some food, so that was good. She kept telling me I had jet lag, whatever that means.
So, now we’re in Europe, and we’ve got a lot more houses. If I’m 100% honest, I’m a bit tired of moving so much. I seem to just get settled in one place and then we move to the next one. I barely even get to unpack, it seems. But, I do love it here. We spent some time with my good friend Pierre in Chens-sur-Leman for four days. Pierre isn’t really a dog person – which I get, since some of us are real bitches – but I think I won him over. We went to the mountains to Chamonix and did some hiking, and we swam in Lake Geneva, and I ate some escargots, some saucisse, a baguette and some brie, and have kind of fallen in love with France (just don’t tell my German relatives, especially great-uncle Gunther…he’s a bit nationalistic).
Oh, and today, I did my first castle tour! It was really cool. I mean, it was really hot, especially with a fur coat on, but it was cool in the interesting sense. You know what I mean. The smells. Oh, the smells! The history I could tell you of the puppies that peed in those halls. I think I drove my family a bit crazy stopping to smell every marker even when they were only two feet apart, but, you know, you’re only here once and might as well understand the history completely.
OK, I’m a bit tired now. We just did some swimming in the Dordogne, and I did some diving to fetch Jeronimo a couple of times. He just cracks me up – always there, hiding, thinking I won’t notice. Anyway, I going to sleep a bit now, but I’ll write again soon.
Woof,
Pema
