Current location:	Library
Current mood:	groggy

sucker for nudges
Oh what a week it has been! In addition to sleeping very little, I started intense bar reviewing, interviewed for 3 jobs, accepted one...oh, and almost died.

Note: I tend to be overly dramatic. But, I am convinced that, but for Travis, I would have died a peculiar and tragic death.

Back up to Memorial Day. T and I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to take our insane dog (part lab/part boxer) canoing down the mighty Illinois River. We wanted to do the 12-mile but the canoe rental people irrationally limited us to 6 because of the dog. Livy (the dog) has multiple personalities. Sometimes she is a reserved boxer and sometimes she is a wild lab. This was especially apparent during our journey. Every once in a while she would go nuts and dive in. Other times she would freak out and pace the canoe (leading to many near tips). Nevertheless, everything was going okay....until the first official tip where we lost our shoes. Walking on those rocks barefoot is akin to walking on charcoal. Generally unpleasant. But the worst was yet to come. We missed our turn and ended up in the wrong part of the river. The only solution was to fight the current back to the turn. This is where it got insane. Several times I was ready to give up and create a new life on the water, maybe even developing gills. I seriously did not know how we were going to make it back to civilization. There was NOTHING and no one around, that I could see. Travis sucked it up and got us to the bank and walked us back to where we needed to be. Bloodly feet and all. I am sad to say that I was a complete baby and did not contribute very much.

After we reached safety and we were heading down the turn, Liv decided to be a lab and jumped out! The current was too strong for her and started carrying her back down the dreaded path we had just endured. T, without hesitation, jumped after her (after giving me a good push to where I could dock safely). It was an awful site...my dog floating away. She got caught in a tree, which was heartbreaking but fortuitous because it gave T time to catch up. Then came the process of getting back to me and the canoe. I will never forget that sight. Travis carrying our 75 pound dog over his shoulder, painfully stepping over the rocks. The dog was freaked out and thoroughly scratched up his back.

That was her first and last canoe trip for a while.

That's enough for now. Next time I will discuss the job and all of the job-related drama.