AWWW. For a second there I got all excited about going through today’s comments on the site because I thought I got a message from fellow CMU alum Ted Danson!

But then I read more closely and saw it was just some dude named Tad Dawson offering me MORE FREE PORN VIDEOS IN ALL CATEGORIES.

Gee, thanks, Tad.

ANYWAY. Yesterday Riley had his first official playdate, with our friends’ seven month old chocolate lab Nestle. They met at our weekly flag football games, where they shared (despite Riley’s reluctance) a big yummy stick. Since they got along really well, and socialization is like Rule #1 for making sure your dog doesn’t become the next Cujo, we all thought they might benefit from a romp in our friends’ fenced in backyard together. Surprisingly — because you know how puppies hate chasing, wrestling, and playing with other puppies, right? — they loved it.

These are two of my favorite pictures from the playdate because my sweet little Riley has transformed himself into PSYCHO KILLER ATTACK PUPPY!

And Nestle’s just like, “You know, I think I’d buy it more if you weren’t lying on your back so submissively.”

Currently said PSYCHO KILLER ATTACK PUPPY is curled up under my desk sleeping with his head nestled against my feet, because PSYCHO KILLER ATTACK YARD MEN are driving their mowers past our patio door.

Ah yes, he’s so frightening.

When I was younger, I used to wonder what my life would be like when I reached certain ages… I’m not sure I made it past about 20… But what I probably would have imagined, back in the day, is that I’d have some kind of career I was totally in love with, for one.

This is actually from my friend Mary’s most recent LJ post, but it sounds like something straight out of my own diary. As I child I dreamt about high school and especially college, but somehow my imagination never really got past that time frame. I’m not sure why. I am sure, however, that not having a good idea of what should or could or might come next had me terrified.

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I never took full advantage of the writing community available to me at Carnegie Mellon. Certainly I had friends within it, and some fabulous professors (Hilary Masters and Jane Bernstein in particular), and I loved talking to them about what they were working on, what I was working on, or what we were reading. But I usually skipped out on the myriad of talks and student readings, instead devoting the time to my residents, my friends, or my bed.

Now I sometimes find myself wishing I still had that community handy. Sharing work was both humbling and encouraging — some people wrote better than me, some didn’t. We all tried to provide constructive criticism, regardless. We stayed up late with each other to finish stories. We split pots of coffee and Chinese takeout. We offered suggestions, or kept our mouths shut, whichever was most appropriate. (Or most inappropriate? We loved being inappropriate.)

The community was good to me, and good for me in a lot of ways. I don’t know if I necessarily need(ed) it to improve my writing, but I definitely long for it sometimes.

Since I often look to the internet to solve my problems, I have joined WritingForums.com in the hopes of finding a new writing community there. Right now I don’t have much interest in posting my own work — I’ve got plenty going on, but nothing I want feedback on just now — so I’m just trying to integrate myself into the community, finding interesting works or questions to reply to. So far so good. The range of experience and talent varies widely, and I like the mix. I have yet to determine where exactly I fit within the spectrum, but I don’t think it really matters. My only goals are to advance, and to help others advance. For now, the sky’s the limit.