Welcome to Chaos !!

Found a new mermaid today. on a tray. I like the way this mermaid looks with her long flowing hair, mermaids kind of need to have long hair......it's part of their look. I get told a lot that I remind people of a mermaid. What do you do with a tray like this? I'm not sure yet, I can use it as a decoration/art piece only or put it to use and keep my keys and change on it.

I don't have much more to say today. It's gray and rainy out, I feel very tired and unmotivated. Full on PMS mode here. I think I am going to take a nap together with Chhaya on her doggie bed. I sometimes sleep on her bed, curled up tightly with her. Check back tomorrow for a more enthusiastic (hopefully) update. It's nap time for me. Here is a kind of old mermaid-y pic of me.....going on 3 years soon. I need more mermaid style pics!

I finally went to work after about a week and a half break. See this is why I don't know if I could ever have a "normal" job with a set schedule. I like to take breaks and do what I want, meaning sleep, be with Chhaya, read, watch movies, write, think about the meaning of life, take baths etc. Of course not having a schedule can make you lazy, unmotivated and feel slightly crazy, I get like that once in a while. When I feel that slight craziness creep on I go to work and that takes care of that problem right away. I noticed that if I don't work for too long I don't feel well, therefore I don't understand how people that don't work or do anything besides sit at home all day long feel good? I need to find a J. Howard Marshall QUICK before I get too old for even a J. Howard Marshall, then I can sit around and drink sweet iced tea, mingle with the other ladies that do lunch and get seriously involved in charity. Last night was kind of slow. In the beginning it was awful, three confused and inbred looking weirdos just sat there with their mouths agape and a very inebriated (it's a normal condition around here) older guy sat down next to me and attempted to have a "conversation". He informed me of owning three houses in Costa Rica, owning a car (nooooooo way!!!) and wanted to take me sailing plus a bunch of other meaningless mumbo jumbo. Asked what my name was at least five times, short term memory problems apparently. Then he said that he was a millionaire and needed somebody to give his money to. I asked him if he has any kids. Yes, one. I said give the money to your kid. The girl that would had been all over his imaginary stories about houses in Costa Rica and a fat saving account was not present last night. She would had sucked his wallet dry within 45 minutes, pocket change included. Then she would had him take her grocery shopping after work, him footing the bill of course. I can't stand being around annoying and drunk people so I suffered politely for ten minutes and then excused myself. So thinking about it, I would rather be poor and alone with the company of animals (like Brigitte Bardot) than to have to spend my days "sailing" with somebody like that. Torture! No J. Howard Marshall for me when I really analyze the situation. LOL. I was just kidding about that anyways. I am so not a gold digger. My ensemble for the evening. The pink bow in the bra and the pink trim in the panties really pop in the black light.

My Wednesday Night Fever pose.....Tony Manero style. I need to watch that movies again, say what you want about John Travolta nowadays, Scientologists are creepy to me but man could he DANCE back in the day!

I have been watching some Netflix documentaries the last few days that I will see if I can reflect on here tomorrow or so. Documentaries, when dealing with serious and dark matters are kind of depressing. But great at the same time, it's good to get reality presented to you instead of all the fake and pretend stuff that we are surrounded by on a daily basis.
I made a little fire today. I burn stuff like ice cream containers, napkins, empty paper cups that had my latte in them (when I don't bring my reusable cup to the coffee shop), egg cartons, basically anything burnable goes in the fireplace. I also have firewood stacked up, that goes in the fire too but not today since I only wanted to burn some scraps. My hair smells like now.



I feel tired because I had to get up early yesterday, went to bed late and didn't sleep well last night. My body wants to sleep but I have stuff to do. Better go and take care of it I guess.......

I got inspired (from somebody else's blog, her name is Clara) to make a fruit salad. It's been so long since I had fruit salad, can't even recall last time. So I went to the grocery store today and got two apples, three kiwis, a container of strawberries and one mango. And some whipped cream. All organic except the mango. IF I can I get organic I will. At Whole Foods it's easy, it's all organic. There is no such thing even close to Whole Foods in Kenai or Soldotna but you can get your fruits and veggies from the organic section at Fred Meyer and I do not think it's that much more expensive. But I haven't really compared.
I got home and chopped it all up, put it in a bowl, refrigerated for maybe 30 minutes, whipped up the cream and enjoyed. Very good! The first bite took me back to my birthdays in Sweden as a little girl, my Mom would always make me a cake with sliced up fruit in between the cake layers, fruit on top and plenty of whipped cream.



ALL my fruit and veggie scraps go to the animals outside. I do not throw any of that in the garbage. If the animals don't eat it....then it will disappear eventually and become mulch.
But the animals, I'm suspecting rabbits, seem to like what I give them. Unless the bears are enjoying my offerings.



I'm in the process of cleaning the house. Today I swept the downstairs and mopped a few sections. Tomorrow more mopping. All shoes come off by the door at my house. No shoes inside unless I am in a hurry and rush in from the outside to grab something real quick, so yes exceptions are always allowed. I remember when I was newbie in the US and would be so grossed out when I noticed that it was normal to wear shoes in the house here, people lounging on their couches and even beds with their outdoors shoes on. I was like??? I had never seen anybody do that in Sweden. To me that was nasty. When I lived with Shelley I would tell her friends to get their dirty shoes off her couch, of course they thought I was a rude bitch. LOL. Then when my friend Mikey moved in with me and Mike (when I had roommates) he was not happy about the no shoe rule, I would NOT budge on that. Now he takes his shoes off in the garage before he even steps into his house. He would never wear shoes in his house today, which is super stylish and very clean may I add. I think it all depends on what lifestyle you have and how you grew up. If you live in a rustic style house all alone maybe wearing shoes indoors doesn't seem like a big deal. But dragging in dirt and all kinds of nasty stuff and then get it on the couch or the bed.....I can't personally live like that.
Hello, people spit their lougies and blow their noses on sidewalks all the time that everybody steps in. Having said that, everybody has different rules for their house, you just have to respect that I guess. I wear my heels when I walk Chhaya and tend to the yard, who doesn't?

Flying with a dog is rather stressful, especially if you have to leave your baby in the care of strangers at an airport. Back in December when I started making calls to arrange for me and Chhaya to fly out of Alaska I found out that flying with a dog nowadays as opposed to last time I flew with Chhaya in 2011, is a rather complicated and expensive affair. Prior to this trip I completed two round trip flights with Chhaya, between Anchorage and Las Vegas. I would drop Chhaya off at the airport, watch her get whisked away while trying to hold it together. Boarded the airplane, got an OK from a stewardess that Chhaya was safely on board and then picked her up at the arriving airport. This would cost $200 each way. Well, I guess regulations and rules changed back in October 2014......of course. The airlines found out a way to make even more money from people. If I leave for a shorter amount of time I board Chhaya in a kennel but if I'm gone for some time I have to bring her with me.......I have no other choice. So I found out that the new rules and regulations affect all snub nosed pets, Chhaya is a pitbull and therefore considered a snub nosed dog. She now has to fly cargo with Delta, that means I have to drop her off and pick her up at a cargo facility which is not located at the airport. The price is no longer $200 one way, it was about $750 one way. Chhaya's tickets cost WAY MORE than mine. That is just ridiculous! I can fly to Sweden and back for $1500 and have money left over.
I also checked with Alaska Airlines before finally caving in and booking with Delta. Now Alaska Airlines consider pitbulls to be a dangerous breed, therefore Chhaya's airline approved crate that she has flown in before is no longer considered an approved crate. She needs a SPECIAL crate, made of steel or some shit like that. It can only be ordered from a a few Alaska Airlines approved web sites and the crate for Chhaya's size starts at like $500 and up if I remember it right. Complete and utter BULLSHIT I say.
So back in December my friend Jim gave me a ride to Anchorage and we took Chhaya to the cargo facility where they weighed Chhaya and the crate, made sure I was not smuggling any drugs or small children in the crate, made sure Chhayas' health certificate was in order........yes, you need to go to the vet and get a health certificate too within 10 days of flying, swiped my credit card and off we went. I was SO scared to leave Chhaya there. You have to check the pet at cargo a few hours before the flight. They stay put at the cargo facility before someone transports them to the airplane. I was scanning for her crate through the windows when I was waiting to board the plane and felt so relieved when I saw them board her on the plane. And I made sure a stewardess confirmed that Chhaya was on board.
Here we are back in December......my brave baby and me feeling extremely frazzled and close to tears.



Now flying out of Vegas turned out to be a bit more complicated.....You have temperature restrictions too when flying a pet. It can't be too hot and too cold. If it's over 75 degrees F you are not allowed to fly a pitbull. I wanted to get on a 7 30 am flight, thinking it would not be over 75 degrees at that time on the date I had in mind. I had been checking hourly temperatures for weeks leading up to the flight. Well, THAT particular aircraft leaving at 7 30 am would not accept Chhaya's crate, it was a whole 4 inches too tall! WOW. I mean, charging me $750 is not a problem whatsoever but making a fuss over a meager 4 inches is? Booking her on a later flight would mean taking a chance that it would warm up to 75 degrees or more. Which would mean, no flying for Chhaya. So I flew out of Los Angeles instead. It was actually better choice since MY ticket from Los Angeles to Anchorage was over $400 cheaper than flying from Vegas to Anchorage. And the rental car I got was affordable too. Yeah, flying with your dog is a complete nightmare and an expensive one too. Thank goodness I make money and can afford unexpected expenses like these.
Here is my baby in Los Angeles.



I was even more stressed out leaving her at the cargo location there. It was very busy and super loud. Some shady looking dude kept on staring at Chhaya and telling me he liked the way she looked. I gave him the evil eye that basically said, "mind your own business and don't look at my baby". After dropping Chhaya off I had to find the rental car location, drop the car off and get myself to the airport. There was some major construction going on at LAX that day so everything was just more complicated. Then the guy working at cargo that had dealt with Chhya's paperwork could not find her health certificate when I had already given it to him and he made a copy of it, so he called me and told me to come back while I was already in traffic, then called me back and said he located the paperwork. Yeah......you can just imagine. I was SO happy and relieved when I picked up Chhaya in Anchorage and I'm sure she felt the same way.
So since these new regulations and fees took place, an increased amount of people have been getting fake companion animal/emotional support animal certificates for their dogs. Stating (even if completely made up) that their dog is flying with them, next to them because they have a condition of some sort that means they need a companion animal. It can be PTSD, stress, you name it. The dog flies FOR FREE. Did I think about getting a fake certificate for Chhaya? Yes. I mean, why the hell should I shell out $750 for my dog to fly cargo when she can sit next to me for free? It's actually VERY stressful for both me and Chhaya, so that in itself should be grounds for a condition, I am stressed out and need my dog, she gives me EMOTIONAL SUPPORT! I personally know a girl that went and saw a therapist a number of times and faked being "sick" just so she could have her dog with her on the plane and not have to pay for her dog to fly. It worked, her dog now flies for free as a companion animal.
No questions asked. I guess you need to see a therapist or something like that to get some kind of a paperwork that verifies that you have issues. I have never been to a therapist or a psychologist or whatever terms you use for professional people that help you with your mental issues, so I wouldn't even know what to say. I thought about it but decided against it. I also worried if there would be enough room for Chhaya curled up by my legs. That whole affair seemed rather complicated. But all kinds of people are getting these certificates just so they can fly their dog for free and I DON'T BLAME THEM! Flying with Chhaya is something that I rather not do again.
The baby is home and enjoying life.



One more thing while I'm writing about my latest flying experience. Check out my free snacks - Starbucks coffee that tasted really bad and a Delta cookie, I love these cookies. It's very trendy for girls to put up pics on their blog or Instagram of first class flights or private jets and all the luxuries that come with it, often funded by a wealthy man that will demand or definitely want something in return for buying you that experience. I can happily say that I pay my own way with my own money, not owing anybody anything. Independence is priceless! I would not want to fly first class anyways, I'm too frugal for that and would much rather save the money and spend it on something else. I think upgrades on flights are a huge waste of money. If I can have a window seat so I can sleep and not be surrounded by screaming infants and fussy toddlers and munch on a crispy Delta cookie I'm happy.
I'd rather munch on a Delta cookie than having to have sex with some dude I don't even like in exchange for a first class flight. BARF! Independence is the ultimate trendy - I decided.

I spent several hours outside today. It was even warm enough to lay out and tan! So I'm very happy. I got a light tan while in Vegas, I rarely get dark only kind of bronzed and I thought the little bit of color I managed to get in Vegas would soon disappear after retuning to chilly Kenai but now I think my tan will stay. Great! Chhaya lapped up the sun all afternoon like a big lizard, she loves napping in the sun. Outdoors season has arrived! For me that means, putting on the running shoes for some outside exercise in the fresh air. I do not like running on a treadmill, nothing beats running outside even if it's raining. Hiking. Canoeing. Camping. Reading a book outside while hearing to the birds chirp. SO NICE!
The lawn is not that green yet, I live in an area that gets lots of cool ocean air. I think that affects the greenery here. Or lack of thereof. Guess what, it's running time!