Hey.

How’s it going? It’s been a minute since I’ve posted. To be honest, did you really want to hear about my trials and tribulations of the pandemic? They probably looked a lot like yours. Toilet paper, quarantine snacks, DoorDash, brain swab, InstaCart, binging Buffy the Vampire Slayer, DoorDash, face masks, Lowes Foods To Go, binging Greek, chocolate, food trucks, stimulus check, DoorDash, more toilet paper…

That’s not entirely true though. I’ve had a fairly busy year! I started off 2020 determined to do things and that got shut down real fast, but stuff still happened. I finally finished college. Finally. I sat for my board exam, passed, and became a BCBA (Board-Certified Behavior Analyst). Barkley graduated from Basic Obedience class, and is currently enrolled in Beyond the Basics. Hopefully he passes his test next week and graduates! Brad and I had COVID, as did my parents. It wasn’t fun but we survived. We lost one of Brad’s beloved uncles to cancer just before Thanksgiving. I’ve watched a LOT of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gets me through the long days when we can’t do much else. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. I made sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, and a cherry pie from scratch. They turned out amazing, though the broccoli could have used a tad more salt.

And the best news? Brad and I are on our own again. We moved into a condo in September and have had the best fun making it our own. We are looking forward to having a proper housewarming party when COVID settles down.

In the first half of the year, it was easy to focus on all the things I wasn’t able to do. I’ve been trying to do better now with focusing on the things I can do. Like another virtual 5k – this one is whiskey themed! We also plan to do the Festival of Lights, Stingrays hockey games, and anything else we can get our hands on.

It’s been a tough year. Hard to stay positive when there’s so much unknown about the future, ya know? But there has been good, and there still IS good, we just have to find it.

Feel free to share some of the good you’ve experienced this year!

Social Distancing: Barkley Style

It feels weird that I posted about the new direction I’m taking BST without a nod to the pandemic affecting nearly everyone in the world. Obviously, the ample time I’ve had on my hands since our area began social distancing is what allowed me the opportunity to even think about the blog.

That being said, I’ve been doing a whole lot of nothing, otherwise known as staying home and staying safe. I’ve watched a lot of Netflix/Hulu/Amazon. I make the occasional trip to the store or we aimlessly drive around town for a change of scenery, but where we’re getting most of our out-of-the-house entertainment from is Barkley.

This is him and his best girl, Chloe. I don’t really know if they’re boyfriend and girlfriend or if they are just the best of friends. Either way, it’s like they were made for each other.

These days, this is what Barkley lives for. Those few minutes when he gets to play with Chloe while his mom and/or dad are being eaten by gnats. Sometimes he gets to see his other dog friends: Geisha, Ellie, or Snoopy.

I can’t wait until I’m able to go out and play with my friends! In the meantime, I’ll continue to live vicariously through Bark.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Cancer Sucks.

Need I say more?

I think I’ve talked about this before, how when you’re diagnosed with cancer, you seem to realize how many people around you have or have had cancer. It’s a horrible, horrible number, which is why I will probably volunteer and raise funds for cancer organizations for the rest of my life. We seriously NEED a world without cancer, and if I can put even the tiniest dent in that goal, I will.

In recent months, I’ve had two friends diagnosed with cancer. In the past year, another one of my friends joined the ranks, and prior to my diagnosis, another friend had started his fight with cancer. These are people who are my age…mid to late 30s. There have been other people I’ve been acquainted with or told about over the last couple years who have been diagnosed, too, varying ages. It’s just crazy how widespread this disease is. It’s crazy and so damn frustrating.

It makes me mad that cancer doesn’t care that these people have friends and family who love them. That they are good people just trying to make it through life and do the best they can. Between the four people I mentioned, there are nine kids who have to watch their parent struggle in one way or another. Two of those friends are in the hospital, one is home recovering from surgery, and the other one is going for radiation this week. I’m sure every single one of them has shouted at the top of their lungs, “Give me a break!!!” I know I did at least once during my fight.

Sometimes when I hear of the struggles others with cancer are going through, I feel guilty. I feel like I got off easy, you know? Deep down, I know that’s not true. I know my body fought hard through chemo and recovery from my bazillion surgeries. I know my body was so weak and I had to rebuild my strength. I know it wasn’t easy when everything was happening, that I looked and felt like shit, but it’s so easy to look back and say, “What I went through wasn’t so bad,” when I see my friends being hospitalized because their bodies are being beaten down by their diseases. When I see them going through it longer than I went through it. My treatment was short. I was never hospitalized. My side effects were always pretty manageable with medications.

My fight is over and I feel great. And sometimes I feel guilty for that, and I think that’s an OK think to feel. I think that’s normal. Survivor’s guilt, in a sense?

Anyway…Barkley is absolutely fantastic and if you have Instagram, you should follow his shenanigans at @sirbarkleyelkins It’s mostly pictures of him sleeping because he’s a pup and that’s what he does, but he’s ADORABLE! And tomorrow he is 7 weeks!

Our family grew by four feet!

First, thanks to the friends who reached out on Friday. I was feeling pretty blue, and you all made me feel better. We all have those days when we feel terrible about everything, and that was me on Friday. Everything sucked. I napped, exercised, and had dinner at Cici’s Pizza. It was perfect.

But now, drumroll please…

This is Sir Barkley “the Trash Panda” Elkins. What’s with the name? Lemme break it down for you.

Sir Barkley is for Charles Barkley because this little guy is our rebound dog and Charles Barkley was a rebound dude. And Trash Panda is a Guardians of the Galaxy thing…Drax calls Rocket (raccoon) a trash panda. Our Barkley has a mask over his eyes, like a raccoon or a panda.

Barkley is a chihuahua blue heeler mix. He’s 5 weeks old. His mom stopped nursing, which is why he was released earlier than puppies usually are. He is a little ball of energy who goes bananas for 30 minutes to an hour, then crashes for 30 minutes to two hours.

We are feeding him powdered puppy milk and he was getting some watered down dry puppy food. He prefers the puppy milk, though. We’re going to keep trying the puppy food every now and then.

He’s playful and handsome and stealing the hearts of everyone he meets. He fits in the palm our hand. He’s also very smart. He loves his toys and hates his crate.

He’s a momma’s boy. When he hears my voice or sees me, he takes off after me. It’s the absolute sweetest thing, if I do say so myself. Daisy was a daddy’s girl, so it fits that this little man is a momma’s girl.

I’ve been calling him a Puppy McNugget since he’s so small. His mom was typical chihuahua size and his dad was about knee-high, so he’ll be somewhere between, which was about Daisy’s size, too, which is perfect.

We’re happy to have him, and we see things in him that make us think Daisy would approve. We fully intend on spoiling him rotten and capturing every moment. Brad joked that we should start an Instagram for him. I guess we’ll see. I have one I barely remember to use, so maybe we’ll just use that. He goes for his vaccinations in a week. Wish him luck!

As for me…I’m getting some teeth yanked on Friday, so wish me luck! We’re supposed to go to see Old Dominion, but I’ll have had IV anesthesia so we’ll see if I can join. Talk about crappy timing…