Big sigh

Oh man, am I glad that this weekend is over. How did it get so crazy?

As I posted earlier in the week, my friend Mariecel's dad was murdered last weekend; she grew up where I did, but moved to Germany a number of years ago with her husband, who is German. She was here for a visit when her dad died, along with two of her four children. Her husband's employer wouldn't give him enough time off for him to come, so I stepped in as support person for two days of wake and the funeral, burial, and lunch on Saturday. I'm so glad I could be there for Mariecel, but it was emotionally draining, especially due to a stunt that the father of her oldest daughter pulled at the reception after the burial. What kind of asshole serves someone with custody papers at her father's funeral? I couldn't believe it.

Along with being with Mariecel as much as I could, I also volunteered to house/dogsit this weekend for my aunt and uncle, who took the kids to Ohio for my cousin's cheerleading competition. I love dogsitting (surrogate pet ownership ranks up there with OPKs--all the fun, none of the responsibility), but I do admit that their dog is a handful. He's a very (very very) large, very energetic St. Bernard who is still pretty much a puppyl. He's not very good around other dogs (he gets way too excited), so all walks involve some level of Boda wrestling, and he weighs 140 lbs. Luckily I'm both strong and bloody stubborn, so he didn't get away with anything, but it was a good workout. I'm pleased that his only expressions of annoyance were eating a newspaper and a box of multiplication flashcards (he was peeved that I wanted to sleep in), and we had fun. Slobbery fun.

Today was slightly more restful, with yoga class and my cousin Liz's baby shower, but I'm so behind on my marking. And my editorial work. And research for my Shakespeare essay. This is definitely one of those weeks when I'm looking forward to Monday so that I can catch a break! And Tuesday, as I have a date. More on that later; I think I need a full post to deal with the bizarre sociological experiment otherwise known as dating. Wish me luck--I haven't gone on a date (as in, not a date night with someone I'm dating/engaged to/married to) in almost six years.