WAVING IS THE NEW "SAFETY FIRST"!

First off, thanks to everyone who sent me e-mails and for all your comments about my blog ! I'm glad everyone will be reading. Heidi you owe me fifty bucks. After that it's ten cents per word. Above is Penny ! We'll get to her later.

Onto my title and first semi-angry rant. Now friends who drive in Chicago, you know this is hard enough. People are total jackwad maniacs with no regard for their fellow man. Lately, Brendan and I have discovered a disturbing new trend among drivers. This is not the first time this has happened to me, but, without really endangering my safety this was clearly the most comical. Yesterday Penny and I are on our way to the dog beach. We're driving along, suddenly I see a car kitty corner to us, stopped and waiting to cross the intersection into the road I'm on. I have the right of way as traffic is moving smoothly, but not fast. This woman obviously thought she had plenty of time to get in front of me (not true) and merge into traffic. Suddenly she guns it in front of me, and this is the trend pals: as she is gunning it she is waving her arms at me like they have just exploded into giant fireballs. Not a nice "Thanks for letting me in neighbor !" wave. This is full on "DON'T HIT ME ! I KNOW YOU HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY ! MY BAD ASS ARMS ARE FIRE-Y STICKS OF DEATH !" Like her arms are some sort of wizard shield to protect her from my car blindsiding her. Or they are glow sticks from a barn rave in 1994. Even more hilarious, her insane flailing was with both arms and she was still steering. All I could do was laugh......(then follow her to an alley and beat the shit out of her for having zero patience, drive her car into the lake, and carry onto the dog beach. not true. maybe.). Look for this trend at an intersection near you.

I've decided if I write a rant I'm going to balance it out with something I LOVE ! Something that makes the world nice again. Today I will talk about one thing I will miss most on the ship and that is my morning walk with my dog. It wasn't always like this. Mama likes her sleepin's and there was definitely a time when Brendan was up before me and would do this walk alone. Now, I barely miss it, and when I do I'm so sad !

I love our neighborhood. Call it what you want. Ravenswood, Northcenter, "almost" Lincoln Square, this delightful 'hood is a great mix of families and young adults. Old people watering their lawns 90 times a day and cute babies. The walk is lush, green and delightful. Penny gets to sniff her ass off and pee like a champ. It makes me so happy I'm out of Wrigleyville and would much rather have a nice family pet my pooch than Titsy McGruder in her high heels and full make-up at 11am on a Saturday going to brunch. We get it. You like to drink.

So there's nothing better than a walk with my favorite dog, a hot mug of coffee and my lovely boy in the morning. I guess on the ship I'll bring a rope and a stuffed dog. Dragging it around the ship's track every morning drinking ship swill. Weird ? Maybe not to the Europeans.