I have developed an aversion to these dogs. I do not like them. Not one bit.
I am talking about Chinese Shar-Peis, not green eggs and ham. Good heavens, look at it...Maybe I just don't like the idea of having a dog whose skin I could use to hide various small objects in. Useful? Maybe. Appealing? Nope. (Okay, just to go ahead and say this because if I don't someone is bound to-- yes, I am sure that these dogs have wonderful personalities. But I still do not like them.)
I don't have a thing against wrinkles. At least not normally. My great-grandmother had tons of wrinkles and she was one of the neatest people ever. She had this big button collection in a golden tin and she would let me take them out and sort them into piles by color and shape and I spent many afternoons of my young life laying on the carpet in the sun sorting buttons into rainbow piles. When Great Mama visited the hospital she was too weak to do anything on her own but threaten the medical staff ("I'm going to slap you good." "If you do that another time you won't see daylight again."), but then when you are ninety-something, you can basically do whatever you want. I am getting off track-- Great Mama had wrinkles, but they came from doing things like smiling, living through the Great Depression, having cows, and raising six children during World War II. Those dogs are just born with them. Maybe that is what causes them to be so repulsive to me. Anyhow, I digress.
I leave in 8 days. Someone asked me yesterday when I left and I said, "In 8 days-- I am so excited-- I can count the days on two hands now!" The person gave me a strange look out of the corner of her eye and changed the subject. Yes, I am painfully aware of the fact that I have only two hands, but now to count the days, I only have to use each hand once. That has always been something I do. So anyhow, I'm not so bothered about the flying part now-- I'm not going to say I'm thrilled about flying over the Atlantic Ocean, but I've really been given a sense of peace about it lately. I sort of made the decision to go in a spilt second and wondered if it was the right thing to do, but now after the team meeting last Wednesday I definitely think God has something big planned and I can't wait to see what it is.
On an entirely different closing note, I love the entire cross country team and I am so glad I am running with them this season. It is part of my handful of favorite things.
