Amber & The Case of the Facebook Meme

Today, on a very special episode of "Michelle & Amber's Open Adoption Blog"....Amber loses her blog-ginity.


{Scene: Michelle & Amber's living room.  Michelle and Amber sit on the couch, Michelle's legs stretched out with her feet resting in Amber's lap.  Empty take-out containers of sushi are stacked on the end tables.  The TiVo is paused, freezing an episode of Modern Family on the screen.}

Michelle:  You should write a post for our blog.

Amber:  Ugh. No. That's your thing.  You like it.  You're good at it.  You do it.

Michelle:  I know.  But you'd be good at it too.  You're good at Facebook.

Amber:  'Good at Facebook'?!  Who's 'good at Facebook'? What's that even mean?

Michelle:  I don't know.  I like your status updates. They're funny.

Amber:  That's different.  I'm not writing a blog post.

Michelle: C'mon, you said you'd never do Facebook, but now you love Facebook.  You'd love writing a blog post too.  You just have to try it.

Amber:  No.  And I don't "love Facebook"...

Michelle: You do. You love it.  It's ok.

Amber: I'm not writing a blog post.  You know me.  You just write it and say it was me.

Michelle:  No! I have enough things to write.  You write it, it's not that hard.  I'll find you a meme.

Amber:  A what?!

Michelle:  A meme.

Amber:  What the hell's a 'meme'?

Michelle:  It's little questions or lists or writing prompts that people post on blogs.  Things that give you a chance to post little clever snippets without having to actually come up with a topic for your blog post.  And then they go viral or whatever, and a bunch of people post the same thing.  Like that "25 Random Things" thing from Facebook.  Ooooh.  That's perfect.  That's what you'll do.  You'll do the "25 Random Things" Facebook meme for your blog post.

Amber:  Hrmph.  Can we just watch this show?

Michelle:  Ok, but you're doing a blog post....

Amber: We'll see....

{Fade to black}

Without further ado, we now present "25 Random Things About Amber" brought to you tonight in it's entirety without commercial interruption.


1.  I'm finally driving the Suburu Outback that I've wanted ever since I turned sixteen.
2.  I've been a vegetarian since I was 14 years old because I love animals too much to eat them. I turned both my younger sisters vegetarian by showing them gory pictures from PETA brochures.  My mom still hasn't forgiven me for that!
3.  I would have a house full of dogs rescued from the pound if it weren't for Michelle.  This is why I'm not allowed to volunteer for the ASPCA.
4.  I take a weekly spin class at GSU, and have a secret penchant for bass-thumping dance mixes.
5.  I've never met a stranger.  I think people are fascinating, and I can talk to anyone.  About anything.  For hours.
6.  I can't wait to become a mom.
7.  I love to read and always have been able to get lost in books.  My favorites are mysteries, spy thrillers, and cop books, and my Kindle is my favorite new toy.
8.  I have a death fear of roaches.
9.  My sisters are six and eight years younger than I am, and I loved being a mini-mom to them when they were growing up.  Now that we're all adults, I love and value the close relationship we all have with one another.
10. I have a master's degree in anthropology.  I did field work in archaeology.  No, it's nothing like Indiana Jones.  It is, however, exactly like Lara Croft.
11.  I got chased by a moose in Alaska on a family vacation.  I stepped between a mom moose and her baby moose, to get a picture.  The rest of my family ran and hid in the van before I even knew what was happening.
12.  The first bone I ever broke was my wrist from a skateboard fall when I was in the third grade.
13.  I have an extra bone in my foot that most people don't have.  I didn't know it was there until I broke it by tripping and falling in our driveway a few years ago.  Oops.
14.  I'm left-handed.
15.  I grew up playing softball, but my mom also made me take jazz, tap, and ballet classes.  I still have nightmares about being the chubby kid in a purple leotard, dancing to "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"
16. I had a 'coming out' party when I was sixteen, but not the type you would think.  I was a debutante, and had a formal debutante ball.  I still have nightmares about that, too.
17.  One of the best vacations I ever took was to Sicily to meet all my relatives.
18.  Michelle and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  It would have been the best vacation ever, but I ended up in a Mexican hospital.  Word of advice: Don't drink the water.
19.  The next year, we decided to play it safe and stay in the US for vacation.  I got stung by a stingray on that trip.
20. I love the water, and I miss living on the beach.  Frequent road trips to Florida and the Georgia coast fill that void.
21. My grandfather worked for NASA, and I grew up watching shuttle launches from my own backyard.
22. Jade, Fonzie, Michelle (the poodle, not the person), Ebony, Muffin, Skittles, Snickers, Cheena, Hobey Cat, Nut & Honey, Zacheus, Max, Jake, Kermit, Roger, Aurora, Peta, Janice, Mocha, Jerry, Phil and Byrdine are the names of all the pets I've owned.
23. I have two tattoos.  Someday soon there will be a third.
24. I'm a secret shoe whore.
25. I didn't really write this blog.  Michelle did.  I'm really stubborn and wouldn't do it.  She's more stubborn, so she did.

If Amber blogged, it would look like this.

x's & o's,

Michelle

Must Love Dogs. Or The People Who Love Them.

Some people are "dog people."  They love dogs.  They can't imagine life without cold noses, sloppy wet kisses, big, sweet brown eyes looking up at them when they're sad, and happy, wagging tails greeting them at the end of a hard day.  Their dogs have beds and toys and balls and gourmet treats to eat.  Stray dog hairs stuck to wool winter coats are a fact of life in their house.  Trips to the dog park are a weekend must.

Amber is a "dog person."

I like dogs, but I'm not a "dog person."  I'm a "dog people person".  I like people who love dogs.  And, it's not just Amber...although she IS my favorite "dog person" (and my favorite person, in general).  Many of my closest friends are dog people, too.  There's just something about people who love dogs that I can appreciate.  I guess the things "dog people" love about dogs--loyalty, kindness, exuberance for life--are the same things that I love about "dog people."  I admittedly have a soft spot for dogs, themselves, too.  I just don't want to be licked in the face, thank you very much.

At 5 yrs old, I loved Freddy, but I still didn't want him licking me in my face.

Growing up, I had a dog (Freddy) and later, a cat.  Amber grew up with too many pets to count.  Mostly dogs, but some cats, bunnies, and small rodents thrown in for good measure.  When she was 17 years old, she became a 'puppy raiser' for a group called Canine Companions for Independence.  She raised a sweet young golden retriever puppy named Aurora, and taught her the basics to one day become a companion dog for a disabled person.  Amber and Aurora were inseparable.  Aurora accompanied Amber everywhere as a part of her training.  Then, after over a year together, Aurora went off to New York to complete her advanced training, and Amber left for college.

A sad farewell.

Luckily, the story doesn't end there.  Aurora went off to advanced training and promptly flunked out.  Not that she wasn't smart, or didn't have a good teacher.  No, Aurora simply missed Amber too much.  She got depressed, wouldn't eat, wouldn't perform her tasks, and the training center had no choice but to call Amber and see if she would take her back.  Of course, Amber wasn't faring too well without Aurora either, and she immediately accepted the offer to take her back.  In fact, I'm pretty sure in that picture there, where they are supposedly saying goodbye, Amber is really whispering "Ok, so once you get there, just stop doing the tasks...and look real sad...and refuse to eat....."  Aurora always did follow commands well.

When Amber and I met in college, Aurora was right by her side.  Eckerd College was the only college in the country at the time to have "pet dorms" so students could bring their pets to college with them.  But, at that point, Amber didn't just have Aurora.   She also had this furry, fat football of a dog, with toothpick legs, buggy eyes, giant ears, and whiskers sticking out wildly all over his face.  His name was Jerry (after the recently deceased Mr.Garcia).  Amber got him from the pound soon after Aurora left, hoping to fill the void.  

Jerry loved Aurora. He just didn't want her licking him in his face, thank you very much.

Jerry and Aurora quickly became a perfect team.  They loved college life...roaming through the quad, chasing their dog friends through the dorm hallways, and eating cold pizza scraps from under the picnic tables.  They may or may not have attended a few keg parties in their day, as well.

Like all of her pets before them, Jerry and Aurora were Amber's babies.  And, when we started dating--as much as I'm loathe to admit it--they became my babies too.  They slept curled up in our bed.  Most often Jerry slept soundly with his head on one person's pillow, and his butt in the other person's face.  We fed them little pieces of whatever we ate.  At one point, Aurora even had her very own couch in our house.  When Amber got a job at Georgia State, she even managed to convince her boss to let them become "office dogs."  They both had successfully attended 4 years of college, after all.

Jerry & Aurora take a coffee break in the office lounge

We lost both Jerry and Aurora to cancer three years ago.  Aurora's illness was long, and we fought it with everything we had.  The day she died, we discovered Jerry was blind.  We hadn't realized it before, because Aurora had been acting as his guide dog for who knows how long (I told you she was faking it when she flunked out of guide dog school!!).  We bought him a doggy stroller and carted him around wherever we went.  Four months later, we were shocked to find out Jerry had a fast-growing, invasive cancer.  There was nothing we could do, and he passed as well.  It was a difficult time in our lives.  A time we couldn't have made it through with anyone but each other.

But we made it--together--as we always do, and now we have two new special dogs in our lives.

Phil came from a rescue organization in North Georgia.  He is a full bred, registered bichon frise.  Bichon frises look like this: 

When we got him, Phil looked like this:

And this was AFTER his first bath.  When we first saw him he was the color of Georgia clay, and I swore he was a poodle/weenie dog mix.  So, needless to say, we thought the rescue dude was lying to us.  We kept telling him that we didn't care.  We weren't looking for a purebred dog.  In fact, we preferred a mutt.  But he showed us the papers, and there was no denying it.

Phil will never have the exploding cream puff look of a show dog.  But, now that his hair has grown back in, he is pretty darn cute.  

Phil of the Jungle, basking in the sun.

And he's as sweet as can be.  Smart?  Oh no, definitely not.  But, loving as all get out.  And SO. EXCITED. TO. SEE. US. every time we come home.  And, really, if we just walk back into the living room after being in the kitchen for a few minutes, he's SO. EXCITED. about that, too.  He's the kind of dog that if you were Southern, and he was a person, you'd sigh and say "Bless his little heart" whenever you mentioned him.

We got Byrdie from another rescue organization about 4 months after we got Phil.  They couldn't be more different.  She was a street dog before we got her.  Animal control picked her up off the streets of southern Atlanta with her puppy, and the rescue organization saved them both from being put down.

When we first brought her home, she was freaked out by everything.  The telephone ring scared her.  She didn't know how to lay in a dog bed.  She paced endlessly around the house, looking for a way out.  But, we spent a lot of time working with her, getting her to trust us, and now she's a total sweetheart who likes the softest dog bed in the house.  She still eyes the television a little suspiciously when the Animal Planet is on, but we're working on that....

Phil and Byrdie are special dogs.  But, they're just that...dogs.  They aren't our babies the way Jerry and Aurora once were.  Yes, we take them to the dog park.  We love walking them around our neighborhood lake in the evenings.  When we spend a weekend at a mountain cabin, they come too.  But, they don't sleep in our bed.  They don't get table scraps.  And sometimes, when we go on vacation, they stay home.

We love our dogs, but we're at the point now where we are ready for a real child.  The kind without fur.  

We're looking forward to our child growing up with dogs, the way Amber and I both did.  I know Phil will be the perfect lap dog for our kid.  He's the kind of dog that will willingly wear baby clothes, ride in a stroller, sit at a tea party, or do whatever else our child wants during a game of make-believe.  And Byrdie will be a great dog for our child to run with and chase around the yard.  She'll make a great catcher (and fetcher!) as our kid learns to throw a ball, too!

Maybe our child will--like Amber--be a "dog person."  Maybe he or she will be a "dog people person" like me.  Or, maybe our child will turn out a "cat person", because his or her birth mother loves cats.  That'd be ok, too.  We could get a cat.  

Just don't tell Byrdie.

x's&o's,

Michelle