I swear the minute Zack leaves things around here go to pieces. Or may be they don't, but I just notice the loss of someone to worry at. Either way, things have gone a little crazy here in the last week or so. For one thing, I've started a new class for my degree. It's the last one in a series that is essentially designed for us to create these things called Action Research Projects. It's what we do instead of writing a thesis. We pick a problem we notice at our work setting, research solutions, and then pick one to try out, sort of, except we're not required to actually try it out if we can't for whatever reason (in my case because I'm not teaching enough classes). Instead we make up data and go through the motions of writing the 30ish page report. At first, I thought this final class wouldn't be nearly as bad as the last one (which was a nightmare that I coincidentally went through the last time Zack left). For one thing, this time we only have one more chapter left to write, whereas last time we had four chapters to write in the same amount of time. Also, upon first glance, the teacher seemed pretty cool. Now, though, I have my doubts. We had to resubmit our first four chapters and he's torn all the other students' papers to shreds and hasn't given me any feedback at all (we're having technical difficulty). So I'm living in absolute terror of what he'll have to say.
To complicate matters further, I'll be out of town for a solid week of this class sightseeing with my in-laws. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally excited about the trip and seeing them, but it will make editing my paper a bit more complicated. Plus there's the small matter of cleaning the house and packing and all that, which brings me to the minor crisis.
It occurred to me Sunday (when the kennel is closed) that I hadn't reserved a kennel space for Dory while I'm gone (I was hoping Zack would be home) at the kennel on base. So Monday I went in to get my space, and of course they're all booked up. I should have expected this since American school is out and it's prime traveling time for Navy-folk (many of the other ships just got home, so people are going on vacation). The kennel people gave me names and numbers for three Japanese kennels and wished me luck, and I was not looking forward to calling them myself and trying to sort out the details in broken Janglish. Instead, I planned to take the numbers to my Japanese class tonight and get my tutor to translate for me.
Then on the way to class I passed a dog-related store, just like I do every week, and it occurred to me that there are also dogs in there every week, and that it's nice to know where to take the dog when you're ready to leave on vacation. So I walked in and successfully asked them if they have kennel services. (This was a major success for me.) They do, but only for small dogs (which is good since Dory's nice and small). Not only do they have the services, they cost 10ish dollars less per day than the kennel on base. All the kennel spaces were visible from the front desk, and everything looked pretty good, so I successfully booked Dory's stay at a kennel not two blocks from my house without using English or a translator. I'm very proud of myself.
So that's one issue down, two or three hundred more to sort out. I can do this...
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