A Dog, A Cat and 2 Parking tickets

Not much happened throughout the week...outside of tutoring, writing and job-hunting...the usual.   But this weekend I house-sitted for the AD.  She and her husband (and daughter) were going out of town for the weekend and needed someone to stay with their other 'kids'...a dog and a kitten.

I arrived on Friday afternoon, and after hanging out for a little while with the AD and getting the run down on the animals, I was on my own.  Once they left, I could move my car to their parking spot (which is on the sidewalk in front of their garage) so that is what I did, and was met with a parking ticket for an expired meter...I'm pretty sure it was like only 3 minutes expired.   Well, I chalked that one up to the greedy, blood-sucking parking division of LA.  Needless to say I was a bit annoyed starting out the weekend, but I quickly got over it, being thankful that I actually had the money to pay the fine.

A sad dog...

The dog was pretty sad about his owners not being there and pretty much sulked all the first day.   While he was sulking, I working on a project for my former Pastor, and a little reluctantly so.   See, I debated on and off on whether I would do this project for them (which is a 30 second intro and outro for a TV show they are doing)...I debated mostly because I have felt taken advantage of by them and they kept asking me to do this for them, but never telling me how much they would pay.   They finally gave me a price when I think they realized there was no way I was going to do it for free.  

The cat or kitten rather, was a bit more rambunctious.  He was running around the house, jumping on furniture, my laptop while I was working on it and my face when I wasn't looking.  Which eventually led to my allergies acting up.  My eyes were red and swollen, my face was itching and I couldn't stop sneezing.

A rambunctious kitten

That night I attempted to sleep in the master bedroom, but with the dog making his funny noises or just getting up and staring at me, and the cat trying to snuggle and sleep by my head, I just couldn't take it.  Around 2 in the morning, I got up, tried to get as much pet hair off me as possible, and curled up on the tiny couch in the nursery.  With the door closed, I was finally able to get a bit of sleep.  And slept there both nights.

The Dog (when he's happy)

Saturday the dog and I took a nice long walk down to the farmer's market and "The Grove," a large, outdoor, fancy shopping area.  Having the dog was like having a people magnet.  Everyone wanted to pet him, and know is name, and age...I guess because  his breed (a French bulldog) isn't seen a lot, particularly with his coloring.  They just couldn't get enough.

Sunday came and the family returned.  We caught up and then I left.  I got in my car and as I was about to pull out, I saw another ticket on my windshield!   Really?  I've been in Cali for two years now and have never gotten a ticket, now after two days in West Hollywood, I get two!  Well, this one I wasn't going to take laying down because it was where the owners told me to park.  So I called the AD and she was surprised, but quickly offered to pay it for me...and didn't even have to ask, so it was all good.  (And her gesture made me respect her even more.)

 I finished off the day at the movies where I went to so Prometheus, which was pretty good.  Some of the story was kinda loose and a bit silly, but it was visually really cool, and was for sure a Ridley Scott film...if you've seen any of the Alien films, you know what I'm talking about.  I did enjoy it, though I probably won't go for a second viewing.  Then I came home and chilled...and stretched out on my own bed...alone.