A Typical Day

People are always asking us that general question, "What have you been up to." Always a hard one to answer, and even more so when our days blend together so much. We don't seem to do a whole lot, but the days do fly by. A typical day: We wake up around 7:30 and on most mornings, Joshua gets up at 8 to take Jackson for a morning walk in Buena Vista Park across the street from us. I usually feel at least mildly guilty about this, but rarely enough to jump out of bed before he does. They're out for 30-45 minutes and then we have breakfast and read the paper. Often, Joshua will go back to bed for a few hours, reading and/or napping until 1 or so. I'll do random things around the apartment or maybe go grocery shopping. We'll then have lunch and it will be time for dog walk #2. If it is a nice day, we'll go to Golden Gate Park or to Crissy Field. Or, I might walk him on my own in the neighborhood. The day always includes at least one or two calls from friends or family checking in. Joshua usually lies down again at 4 for a couple of hours and gets up in time for the 6 o'clock BBC news. I try to take that time to do some yoga and meditate or read. Evenings are spent having dinner, walking Jackson AGAIN, and watching a movie or increasingly bad t.v. We'll read before bed and have lights out by 11.

Variations on the theme can be a day where Joshua spends the entire day in bed, not necessarily sleeping, but too worn out to be up and about. Or, the opposite will happen. We'll be up and out the door for most of the day and he might lie down for an hour or so in the late afternoon. Today, for example, he went to Carmel, which is a couple of hours south, with buddies Bruce Campbell and Dean Sands, to visit their friend, Phil Melrose. I expect them to be back this evening.

Jackson goes to "doggie day care" once a week, and we've gotten into the routine of going to a movie and out for lunch on those days. We'll occassionally have dinner out with friends or go to a show. It's not too exciting, although I am always surprised at how quickly the week goes by. And always amazed that I never manage to get all the little projects done that I want to get to. And, yes, a couple of themes quickly emerge: 1) we see a lot of movies, and 2) Jackson is a very spoiled dog. If you were to ask me, however, what the last movie I saw was, I'd probably have a difficult time remembering. Oh yeah, Ratatouille on dvd and The Savages in the theater. If you could ask Jackson if he thought he was spoiled, he would most likely deny it. Not nearly enough meat in this household!

There doesn't seem to be much of a cause and effect to what we do. For example, it would be logical to assume he'll be exhausted tomorrow, given that he was out all day today. But, he might not be. Or, we can spend an entire weekend doing nothing, and he'll be wiped out the following Monday. He does try to pace himself, though, and although it is difficult for some of you to believe, he has gotten pretty good about it.