Apparently I own the Devil

I've decided it's time for me to make the commitment, to settle down, to take the plunge... I'm getting a puppy. Yup, you heard me. A fluffy, crapping, shedding, yipping puppy. And no, I don't even have the sense to get a puppy that's going to stay small. I want a BIG dog.



So I've started looking at shelters and rescue organizations. I'm completely and totally against breeding puppies. There's no reason in the world someone should buy a puppy when there's so many out there. Then again, I'm pro-choice, too. I was looking at a rescue organization called Proverbs 1210. "A wise man regards the life of his beast." I first saw Fido walking into the Petsmart one morning with my boyfriend. I like to go and look at the adoptable pets. I fell in love with this puppy. Well-mannered, calm but playful, and absolutely adorable.

I then offered to at least foster the puppy for a period of time, see if it fit with me, and if nothing else, help out a rescue organization that relies solely on foster care providers and other volunteers. I wanted to help, and possibly find myself a little companion in the process. I thought I was helping, but I must have been mistaken.

I filled out the application they had for all potential foster/adoptive pet owners. One of the questions was about other pets in the household. I own a snake. A Ball Python that's about 2 feet long, and extraordinarily nice, even for a Ball. His name is Fluffy, and I've had him for about 6 years now. He's been around plenty of other pets, and while he may stare at them from his little log hide in his tank, aggression has never been an issue. Frankly, he has trouble eating a small rat, I'm not sure what he'd have done with the feisty-ass kittens I had with him for a year.

So Proverbs got back to me about my application via email. They denied my application! A loving, pet-friendly, willing applicant got turned down. What's the most amusing about the entire situation was the reason they turned me down. The only reason they denied me was Fluffy. They apparently weren't comfortable having one of their puppies in the same house as a snake.

I should have realized they wouldn't like Fluffy by their name, but I thought they'd be more concerned with helping "all of God's beasts" than worrying about my 1.5" diameter snake eating or otherwise harming the Australian Shepherd puppy that it took me two arms to hold.

The hypocrasy of some people still amazes me. They'd turn down a willing parent because of some ancient and out-dated stigma attached to snakes. I can't have a puppy because they think I own the devil.

Predictable.

I just finished a book I was given for Christmas. Jodi Picoult wrote a book called Nineteen Minutes. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book. However, it made me realize how predictable our society has become. Everyone is trying to throw off the voyeur, to create the most controversial plot twist they can think of. And in the end, all it's done is made it that much easier to guess the ending. You always guess the ending that's always been in your head, but has always been too controversial to say out loud.

This book in particular, while relatively well-written, falls distinctly into this category. It tackles the entirely too taboo topic of school shootings, and why they happen. It speaks down on bullying, condemns the popular crowd and it's pull in "society", and all the while interjects meaningless comparisons to make the author sound like a better writer than she really is. An ironic point about fitting in, I believe.

I guessed the ending about halfway through the book. The "bad guy", the one that shoots up the school, killing ten people and injuring nine others, used to be best friends with the girl I will call the protagonist. She's the girl that used to be best friends with the shooter, but left him behind to become a popular girl... a girl that she hates. Now... if you're planning on reading the book, don't read any further. I guess I could warn you with a spoiler alert, or whatever they call it. She hates herself, and hates the way she has to stay with her popular boyfriend just because she's afraid that without him, she'll be nothing. Her boyfriend gets killed. He's one of the ten. She's found next to him, on the floor, with a concussion, and nothing more.

The entire novel tried to blame the bullies, blame the parents, blame the loner kids that the shooter hung out with. And yet you discover that the girl had a chance to stop the shooter, she ends up with a gun. And yet, she shoots her boyfriend in the stomach. She realizes that she hates who she has become. She hates that she has forgotten herself in the pursuit of becoming who she thinks she is supposed to be.

This is all to say, that any semi-educated person that reads this novel, and can read into the protagonist's persona, can easily figure out what's going on. Why has it become the norm to be controversial? There's not a single movie, book, anything out there that claims to have a major twist that can't be guessed be anyone with a GED. Is no one inventive anymore? What happened to trying to entertain your audience rather than just choose the road that is obviously the one that would offend the most people?

I think I'm going to write a novel... and not put a single twist in it. That would freak the shit out of people.

BFF????

I was wondering what makes people stay friends for a decade or two after high school. I mean really, think about the person you were in high school, and think about what the people around you were like. Would you really want to be friends with them, or hell, even yourself, now?

Sure, there is a small chance that as you grow into an actual adult, you and the girl you shared a imo to senior prom with will grow in the same direction. But that's about the same chance you have of finding a hundred dollar bill on the street today.

I ask this because I was given a project recently, scanning my Mother's old photos into digitial form. Of course, it is inevitable that one would find some horribly embarrasing pictures from the days before you got braces and learned how to do your hair in something other than a ponytail. Some of the ones I found were from my birthday in 5th grade. There were purple and teal balloons (hey, those were cool colors back then) everywhere, and a lot of very awkward girls! This finding prompted me to get on any social networking site I could find and try and look up the gangly girls in the photos. I was more than a little surprised to find that some of them are still friends with each other! How? That was a damn decade and a half ago! The closest I've ever come to maintaining a friendship with people from that long ago WAS the very act of pressing the "Add as Friend" link on Facebook.

Granted, I have led a very abnormal life. I tend to move... a LOT. I've been refered to as a gypsy more than once. I find it absolutely amazing that I'm living in a city, I've been here for almost a year, and I haven't planned on moving yet. But really, is this common?