Priceless

3 airline tickets: hundreds of dollars and thousands of travel points

Suitcases brought with us: two for the human, one for the dog

Number of panic attacks in Texas: 0

Times we heard the cry of "doggie doggie doggie!": countless

Number of migraines in Texas: 0

Places we went in Texas: too many to count (at least 2 or 3 a day)

Number of times Owen did deep pressure tasks: (at least) 20

Keeping your sanity during a family reunion?  Priceless.

I love my family, but 10 days in one house with 8 people, one baby, two dogs, and one puppy...  It can get a little stressful at times.

Owen and I did so much and went so many places and I had no migraines and no panic attacks.  I was able to go places all day long (one day I even woke up at 5:00 with Owen and we were out until 11:00 at night!).  We went to the Galleria (think mall on steroids) in Houston, we went to church, and even went to the Nutcracker ballet!  Never could I have ever thought I would have been able to keep up with my family like that without the crashes I used to experience.

Owen did great on the airplanes, but I'm planning on making our travel stories their own post entirely.

Here is our trip, told through pictures!  I know there are more pictures somewhere and I'll add them to our facebook page when I get a hold of them.  Enjoy!
 

Luckily we were at this restaurant at a really off time because Owen was nowhere near out of the way!  The servers were really great and kept telling me not to worry about moving him because "he was sleeping".  I am still working on figuring out the best places to put Owen when we go out so that he is as much out of the way as possible; I know it's all me though.  Owen can curl up really small when he needs to!

Snoozing at lunch in Houston with a family friend - Owen attracted lots of attention here, we had people come talk to us at our table and as we were leaving I heard one man tell his wife, "See! I told you there was a dog here!"

We started playing a game when we went out places, trying to get pictures of Owen with things balanced on his head while he slept - we weren't very successful with the picture taking, but you can balance a lot on Owen!  For those of you not "in-the-know", Pappasitos is a hugely popular Tex Mex chain in Houston, the food is phenomenal and it is always crazy busy.  I was so proud of Owen here, with all the people, smells, and food on the floor, he just curled up and went to sleep!

Owen's at the Houston Ballet!  We saw the Nutcracker while we were in Houston; I was a little worried about how Owen would act with the music, but he slept through it!  In fact, he slept so well that during the first act he was whimpering in his sleep and during the second act he started snoring and grumping!  The people around us who didn't see us sit down were very confused!  The children were great, I heard lots of parents explaining that he was a service dog and was working, and I had one little girl ask me very politely to pet Owen (I had to say no as there were hundreds of little kids and I wasn't about to open that can of worms!).  The adults on the other hand, were not so great.  But I'll talk about that later.

Road trip!  My mom, Owen, and I drove out to Katy (about 20 minutes from Houston) to look at the area.  Katy has a great school district and is really good for special education and I'm hoping to apply to work there (along with some other districts) for this upcoming school year.  Owen snoozed the whole trip and when we got home he looked confused as if to say, "Why are we back home?  Did I miss something?"

 

Owen and I also had breakfast with a principal of the elementary school I went to when I lived in Houston.  It was great getting to meet with her and she is going to help me get my resume out to different schools in the Houston area, hopefully in a few months we will be back in Houston interviewing!  The tables were quite interesting at this restaurant, and there wasn't really room underneath for Owen, but he found a spot.  Wedged between the pole and the wall! (Don't worry, he didn't sleep with his head smooshed like this the whole time, I don't know what he was thinking!)  When it came time to leave, I had to move the table so he could get out!  He took the opportunity while I couldn't reach him to hoover up some crumbs on the floor.  Whoops!

Probably Owen's favorite part of the trip was getting to meet (and love on) lots of little kids.  Almost every night we had people over to my grandparent's house and they brought their kids.  This is Owen's favorite little girl "making sure he stays" while I got his dinner ready.  She then remarked while he was eating, "Wow, he's a really good eater." :)

New year, new plans

I am not a fan of new year's resolutions.  I hated having to write them as a kid, and I haven't come up with any in a long time.  I live my life without regretting past decisions.  Everything I have done, everything I have lived through, has made me into this person I am today.  For better or for worse, there is nothing I can do to change that.

And the idea of a resolution is that you are resolving to do better at something next year.  As if the past year was a mistake.  Or you didn't try hard enough.

Instead, this year, I am going to write where I see myself a year from today.  What I hope to accomplish this year, instead of what I want to change. 

In one year I want to be a teacher.  I already am technically, I spent a year student teaching and I have my teaching credentials.  But in one year I want to have my own classroom.  I want to have a "real" job as a teacher.  I want to have students whose lives I can impact.  I don't know where I will be.  Before this trip to Texas, I would have said without a shadow of a doubt, I would be in a public school setting, hopefully at an Elementary school working with kiddos with severe developmental disabilities.  Now though...  I'm not quite sure.  I knew Texas had a lot of services for children with special needs, but I didn't realize quite how many.  There are private schools and special centers specifically for students with special needs here.  So then I have to weigh the options; do I work in a public school - dealing with all the paperwork and hassle with being a government employee and the struggling school system - and make more money?  Or do I work in a private school where I may not have as many "hassles" to deal with, but where I would make significantly less money...  I don't know.  I'm hoping to apply to many different schools, possibly including both public and private, and I'm confident in the fact that the right school will be made apparent.  A school where I feel comfortable with what they are doing, where I will be able to use evidence-based curriculum, where I like the team I will be working with, and where the principal is comfortable with me and Owen working as a team.

Next January 1st will mark one year that Owen and I will have been working together.  One year is the magic number; experienced teams say it takes one year to find your groove and to really work efficiently as a team.  Now, I find things where I don't know what to do.  We went out to a restaurant yesterday, and we asked to sit at a table in the back.  It was a large table, but we were a large group.  I put Owen on his mat behind my chair, where he fell asleep and sprawled out.  We weren't in anybody's way, because there was nobody else there, but I felt funny about having Owen in such a "in-the-way" spot and I wasn't really sure where I would have put him had the restaurant been busy.  But until I figure all these things out, I'm just going to square my shoulders and hold my head up and pretend like I know what the heck I'm doing.

Hopefully in one year, I won't be pretending anymore.

In one year I want to have an answer regarding my weight.  I want to know one way or the other if the pills caused metabolic damage.  I want to know if there is something medicine can do to help me, or if I am on my own.  Either answer I am okay with, but I need to know.  Owen and I will be going to a slew of doctors in the next two weeks, one of which is the doctor who can hopefully answer this question for me.  One year from now, I want this not to be something I am still looking for an answer to.

One year from now I will hopefully still be celebrating the holidays with my family, but I am hoping to have moved back to Texas and not be celebrating with a white Christmas.  Neither Owen nor I are a fan of the snow; I think we will both be happier somewhere where it doesn't snow and keep us cooped up inside all winter.

I wish I could say that in one year I will be done with school.  But, it is looking likely that if I come back to work in Texas within my first year of teaching I will need to add an ESL certification to my repertoire to work here.  But, in one year I will have both a teaching certification and a behavioral analyst certification.  I will be a board certified behavioral analyst (BCBA) which is a nationally recognized certification.  I am hoping that in a year I will have one (or more) papers published in peer reviewed journals.  This summer I am hoping to be going to the international Applied Behavioral Analysis conference in Minneapolis (with Owen of course!) to present two poster presentations on research projects I have done.

I have a lot to look forward to this year.  Tomorrow, Owen and I get back on an airplane to end our Texas trip and go back to California for two weeks.  I'm not looking forward to all of the doctor's appointments we have lined up, but I know it is a necessary evil.  And hopefully I can get one step closer to finding some answers.  After that we are back to Spokane to finish graduate school and start applying for jobs (yikes!).

Happy New Year!!

One Year

Exactly one year ago I wrote this.

I put myself out there and came out to my family and friends about something in my life I hadn't wanted to talk about.  A year is a long time.  On one hand, I can say: "Wow, it took a whole year to get Owen!  I thought we would have been here a lot sooner..."

Or, I can say: "Wow, all of this in just one year!" (This is how I have been feeling lately.)

One year ago, the majority of my friends and extended family had no idea what I was living with.  One year ago, the idea of a service dog was a dream.  Something I was wishing for.  Today, it is a reality.  Today, I am open about what I live with.  I share things with both my family and my friends about my disability and the hardships it brings.  And I am walking tall with a service dog.

In one year I have become a teacher.  I don't have my own classroom yet, but hopefully one year from now I can be writing that instead.  In one year I have graduated Magna Cum Laude from college and begun my graduate career.  A year from now, I will hopefully be writing that I graduated (dare I say it?) Summa Cum Laude from graduate school and that I have finished my thesis.  In one year I have flown on airplanes 11 times, twice with a service dog.  Next year, it's possible I will be on more flights (what with having to travel for job interviews and moving), but all will be with my service dog.  In one year, I hope to be able to write that I took a cruise with my service dog, something I have been looking forward to for a long time.  In one year, I have found inner peace.

With Owen, I feel at peace.  I'm not terrified to go out in public anymore because I know that Owen will help me when I need it.  He takes care of me.  Owen follows me around like a shadow, always there just in case I might have a chance to give some pets.  He makes me laugh on a daily basis, and I have to take care of him, which means leaving the apartment (or house) multiple times a day.  I feel safe with Owen.  I don't have to rely on family members anymore as mobility support.  I don't have to ask them to do things for me that I want to be able to do myself.  And I have a way of gaining back my peace when my brain threatens to take it away.

I wrote back at Thanksgiving time, all the things I was thankful for, and they all stand true now.  Part of me feels like Owen was a missing puzzle piece.  He fit right in immediately, it was like he was always there sleeping next to me at night and waking me up in the morning.  He and Toby acted like they had lived together their whole lives.  The other part of me feels like I still can't believe this is real.  Like I can't believe that I'm actually with my service dog and that I feel safe and strong going places with him.  I wonder when that feeling of newness will wear off, but I kind of hope it doesn't.  I love waking up with Owen everyday, and I'm excited to go places with him.  It isn't something I dread anymore, it's something I look forward to.  I look forward to seeing how he will handle a new situation and I look forward to running the same easy errands with him that we do all the time, because they're actually easy now.  I love snuggling with Owen and loving on him and getting to know his personality more and more every day.  I love feeling happy.

A lot changes in just one year.

Team Training Recap

The day before team training started I promised to the "internet world" that I would be blogging every day of team training.  I would post photos and share what we did that day.

I have a new promise now.  I promise, to myself, to never again promise to blog for 12 days straight again.  Wow.

I know I will appreciate having this blogged in the future to look back on, and I like to comfort myself in the fact that somebody internet searching "team training Heeling Allies" might find my blog and enjoy reading about my experience.  But I'm done with the daily blogging for a while.

Here is the result of my late-night blogging; in case anybody is interested in having all of these in one place.  I'll pretend like somebody would like having all of these in one place.  Otherwise I just spent every night for the past 12 days blogging for no reason.  I'll pretend like there is a reason.

Day 1: Darcie and Owen are here!

Day 2: Now the Real Training Begins

Day 3: Sit... No... Sit... Good Sit.

Day 4: Classrooms and shopping and giant dogs, oh my!

Day 5: In which we practice more tasks...

Day 6: My Shadow

Day 7: Hi ho... Hi ho... It's off to work we go. 

Day 8: Let's go to the mall! 

Day 9: busy busy busy

Day 10: Surprise!

Day 11: The End

Day 12: On our own now...

On our own now...

Owen and I had our first official day all by ourselves.  We didn't have to check in with anybody, we didn't have to meet anybody for training, we were all alone.  And we were busy.

This morning, Owen and I had to go to the chiropractor.  He was a rock star at the chiropractor, he stayed where I put him and I really needed him afterwards to help me walk out.  Sometimes, when I get adjustments, it makes walking really difficult for a day or so.  Owen did his job perfectly, helping me get back out to the car.

After the chiropractor, we left to go get his dog food.  He eats both kibble and a dehydrated-raw food, and I had only purchased his kibble before he got here.  He lost his mind a little bit in the dog-food store over these giant bones, but other than that he did his job well.  The owner of the store was a little too chatty for my liking, and she was very curious about Owen.  It was the first time he was mistaken for a guide dog puppy today (we would have three misplaced comments by the end of the day).  On a side note, I'm still totally confused about how people mistake my 2.5 year old Labrador (who is giant) for a puppy in training.

After we got Owen's food - he was very relieved - we went to Hobby Lobby.  I want to make a tote for his orthopedic mat that he has for going out before we start traveling.  It's really unwieldy to carry around, and as I'm quickly learning, I need my hands as free as possible to use the harness and steward Owen in the way that I am supposed to.  When I was with Darcie she helped me carry things, and I know I can use my family when we are on vacation, but soon we will be on our own and I will need to be able to juggle everything I need in one trip.  Yikes!

Owen and I had some quality down time at home; because we are still new and figuring each other out, it's important for Owen that he has down time and that I don't push him to work all day.  Eventually, we will build up to a work day, but for right now he isn't supposed to be working all day.

Travel plans never seem to go as planned when you need them to, and my dad's flight was cancelled this evening.  They claim it was because of "weather".  They are lying.  Regardless, he isn't able to get here until tomorrow evening, so Owen and I found ourselves with a night off.

Instead of crashing at home like I might have before Owen, I texted my friend and we went out to dinner.  Owen was fantastic at dinner, I had to hold him back a little bit to keep him from diving under the table before I put his mat under it.  The staff were phenomenal, there weren't any tables where I would have liked to sit (in a corner), so they moved a chair for me so that Owen could fit comfortably under the table.  The other patrons however, were not so phenomenal.  As my friend and I were finishing dinner, a couple sat at the table directly behind Owen and I.  They saw Owen as they came to sit down, and as the man sat down he reached over his chair and started petting Owen!  Without even looking at me or talking to me or anything.  He pretended like he couldn't hear me the first time I said: "Please don't pet him, he is working."  So I had to raise my voice and repeat myself.  The whole time my friend was rolling her eyes.  The man then goes, "Oh, is he a service dog?"

Really?  Like I would just bring my giant dog who is in a mobility harness (which looks a lot like a guide harness to an untrained eye) to dinner with me?  Ugh.  I was more shocked than anything.  I was taught to never ever pet an unfamiliar dog.  And I know that Owen is completely bombproof, but Owen was sound asleep when this guy invaded his space.  I'm sorry, but you are asking for it if you pet an unfamiliar dog while they are asleep.  And yes, by "it", I mean a dog bite.  Owen would never ever bite, but you don't know with an unfamiliar dog, so why would you risk it?

I just can't understand how selfish somebody has to be to think it is appropriate to reach over and pet somebody's service dog (because really, what else would Owen be?  We were at a restaurant for crying out loud).  Did he think I was blind and wouldn't notice?  Did he see a young girl and think I wouldn't speak up for myself?  Did he think at all?

Trust me.  If you touch my dog without asking, you will be hearing from me.  At least he stopped and turned around, and at least my friend and I were almost done with dinner.  I totally ignored him on my way out because I'm sure that my facial expressions wouldn't have been nice given the chance.  I don't respond well to people touching me without me expecting it, and I really don't like people I'm not very familiar with touching me.  It's asking to get hit - if you touch me and I'm not expecting it, it will interrupt the thought process I use to control my tics, and tics will get out of control.  I already view Owen as an extension of myself, so I view touching him as invading my personal space.  And I don't take well to people invading my personal space.

There are a lot of people in the service dog world who embrace the persona of "ask before petting".  I disagree.  Asking implies that I will say "yes", and it puts me in the position of having to be the bad guy and say "no".  And I will say "no".  Every time.  I'm sure that there will be times where Owen can "say hi", and at school in my graduate level classes, after we have gotten into the swing of things, we will probably allow Owen to take a break (take his harness off) to say hi to my friends at school.  But the general public?  Heck no.

Just don't ask.  Admire us from afar.  Comment to whoever you are with about how pretty Owen is or how well behaved he is.  Don't get in his face and tempt him to break concentration.  Don't pet him without even asking me first.  But really... I'd appreciate it if you were able admire Owen from afar and be thankful that you don't have to walk with a service dog.  And let me and my dog do what we are supposed to do.

Owen is totally passed out right now (he worked really hard today) and I'm sitting on the floor next to him because he still isn't allowed up on the couch and he was acting like he wanted some cuddles.  So I obliged.  :)  Toby is on the prowl, he is acting like he wants to follow us outside each time we go somewhere, so I am having to keep a closer eye on him than normal.  He has made it out of my apartment once (last winter).  He made it a few feet down the hallway before he stopped and had the look that said "I think I made a mistake", but lately he is looking like he will make another try of it.  Owen and I are going to bed soon, we are both really really tired.  I had forgotten what it felt like to be tired from actually going places and doing things!  I was thinking about it today, and I realized that in the last week, I have been more places than I had probably been in the last month.  And when I was going places, it didn't involve the hours of mental preparation to get myself out the door and into the car.  Wow!

Owen and I are going to take a short break from blogging, but we will definitely keep you updated on how our travel and vacation goes.  Wish us luck!

The End

Owen is quite skeptical of the snow

Well folks, today is the end.  As of a few hours ago, Owen and I are officially on our own.  We could go anywhere by ourselves and we have nobody to be accountable to.  It's just us.  Darcie is driving back to Seattle tomorrow; the weather is supposed to get really bad Saturday and as much as we both wanted her to be here for one more day, it just isn't smart when Owen and I are completely through with team training.

Tomorrow night, Owen and I will pick my dad up from the airport and then we will go to dinner together; our first restaurant by ourselves.  And then Sunday we take our first flight that starts our whirlwind holiday vacation.

Things with Owen are going really well; I feel like he is already an extension of myself.  It feels natural to be bringing him everywhere with me, and as hesitant as I am to say it, I am already noticing a difference.  I'm hesitant to say this because every other time we thought we had found something that would help, it didn't.  And that let down gets worse every time.  This time though, I am in a better space mentally (if not physically) and I can look at Owen and see him for what he really is.  He isn't a cure.  He helps me to do the things that the Tourette's makes difficult.  And that is the difference.

I am positive we will have setbacks along the way; there will be times where I want to communicate something to him but don't know how.  And times where I am telling him something and he doesn't understand the manner in which I chose to communicate it.  We will both have days where we are tired and don't want to work; and if those days overlap we may just take a mental health day and snuggle at home.

Today felt so easy though; Owen went with me to get my nails done this morning.  Darcie came with us to help us get situated, but she left shortly after.  Then, we went out to lunch with Darcie.  The manager (I think) seemed well-informed, which was nice after yesterday.  She asked me if Owen was a service dog, I said yes, and we ate lunch.  It was a small restaurant with small tables, so it was good to see how to handle Owen in that situation.

Owen and I showed Darcie the two things from yesterday that we needed to re-test and Darcie, Owen, and I hung out for a while.  Eventually though, Darcie headed back to her hotel and Owen and I stayed home.  It's bittersweet in a way; I am so excited to be on my own working with Owen tomorrow, but there was so much buildup to this week happening, that I am sad to see it go.  I can't believe that the end of the year is almost here; by Monday, Owen and I will be in Texas, then back to California, then back to school.

Owen and I shared some cuddles after Darcie left; I finally had my breakdown that I knew was imminent since Darcie and Owen arrived.  It's back to business as usual tomorrow though; I have a chiropractor appointment in the morning that Owen will be going to.  It's the first place we went with Darcie; and it was when she was still stewarding Owen.  This time, I will be by myself and Owen will be in the rooms the whole time with me.  We have some errands to run afterwards - I have to pick up his dehydrated food he eats because we are almost through the stash Darcie gave us and it's back to Hobby Lobby yet again for some last minute craft needs.  Then we'll have some downtime at home before heading to the airport.  I promised Darcie that we would go to the airport early (the one thing we didn't get to in team training was an airport visit) with treats to work with Owen.  My anxiety spikes immediately upon entrance to the airport; I don't even have to be flying.  Because Owen has never been to an airport, tomorrow I will work on making it a positive place to be (with food) so that as we start traveling, he doesn't automatically associate the airport with anxiety.

I'm planning on one last team training post tomorrow, kind of as a summary, and then after a short break from blogging, I'll put up a post with links to all of the blogs and some "best of" photos.

Surprise!

I had this cute idea for a blog post all ready to go for tonight.  It was going to be 'Twas the night before the Public Access Test and I was going to write a poem about getting ready for our PAT tomorrow.  However, Owen and I don't get to write that tonight because...

WE PASSED OUR TEST TODAY!

Darcie came over in the morning and we ran through all of Owen's words that are applicable for him to use at home (which was a lot).  He was perfect and did almost everything just right.  We have some homework to do tonight though, and tomorrow we will do "over" and "rest" for Darcie again.  Owen got a little too carried away with his kisses during the "over", so we have been working today on putting my face right next to his, but not letting him lick.  He is okay to lick when he is working (as long as I don't mind), but it got excessive today so he is on "licking probation" for a little while.  His "rest" (resting his head on my leg) was a little rusty today.  He acted confused during it and kept trying to do a "paws up" instead.  Darcie thinks it may be because we keep doing the two commands in rapid succession, and the position he is in for them looks identical, it's just that rest is without his paws in my lap.  And in Owen's world, it's always better to be in his person's lap.  So we are going to practice those things tonight, and even though we passed, we're going to do them again tomorrow.

snuggles after our "over"

We took a break after running through all of his commands (he did an hour of solid work) and then we went to the grocery store again.  The plan was to take a pretend PAT so we knew what to work on tomorrow, so Darcie walked around with her clipboard having us run through each of the items.  It was pretty easy stuff; mainly just about my handling abilities.  Owen didn't have to be perfect on everything, but I had to be able to correct him when appropriate and get him to perform the task correctly.  We had to do things like demonstrate we could load up and get out of the car safely, walk past traffic, go through doors in a safe manner, walk with a shopping cart, etc.  Owen was absolutely perfect.

"stay" in the middle of a Safeway aisle

The test scores items two different ways; some items are "yes" or "no" things and you have to get all "yes" to pass.  Other items get scored on an "always", "most of the time", "sometimes", "never" scale and you have to have all "always" or "most" to pass ("most of the time" meaning more than 50%).

Owen and I had all "yes" and "always" except for one item (which we scored a "most of the time" on).  It was "ignores the public".  Whoops.  Owen is just not one of those dogs who is going to ignore everybody.  If somebody so much as looks like they might come over and give him pets or talk to him, he hones in on them.  He knows he has a job to do, and he does it spectacularly, but it would be stupid for me to expect that he would always ignore everybody.  Darcie said he gets a lot more attention than a lot of the other dogs because he is really handsome and has that huge blocky head that makes people wonder what he is (he's a Labrador...) so we tend to get a lot of attention out.

My favorite was the Safeway employee who came over, got on his level, and was like (in a super high-pitched voice), "Oh, what a good doggie!  Good doggie!  Oh no, you can't touch me.  You're working!"...  I didn't say anything because Owen was doing a really good job ignoring her (he was interested, but not pulling or looking like he was going to do anything) and what I had to say to her would not have been nice.  Especially after I told her he was my service dog, giving no illusions of him being in training or anything.

Unlike the man who we asked to be the stranger who had to greet Owen for the test; he was awesome!  He was hesitant to come greet Owen, even after we asked him to "because he knew he wasn't supposed to pet working dogs".  Thank you!  He was super nice and kept the interaction really brief; just the way it was supposed to be!

Owen also got tested on all of his out-in-public tasks while we were at Safeway; he did a perfect "switch", "cover", and "front".  We also did "leave it" practice at the Starbucks in Safeway; we got his kibble out and put it on the floor next to him when he was in both a sit-stay and down-stay.  Darcie also had to take Owen and walk him out of my sight and back again, to prove that if we were in an emergency situation, a first responder could take Owen and he wouldn't react poorly.

Celebratory Starbucks drink!

On our way out, we walked by the Salvation Army volunteer who was singing Christmas carols; Owen was pretty sure that the singing was for him and we had to stop to listen for a minute before continuing.  We went on our way to go to a pet store; one of the items on the test was that Owen had to remain in the car under my control with an open door while another dog walked past.  We found a dog in the parking lot with some very nice people who agreed to walk by my truck for us.  Check!

We walked around the pet store with a shopping cart, steering clear of all the unruly dogs in the store (I'm not just being stuck-up about my super dog; there was a dog in the cart howling when we walked past and then again when his person stopped to look at the cats in the adoption center, and a very skittish looking herding dog who we encountered on our way out).  Owen was super interested in the very cute puppy who we saw (but so was I!), and there were a lot of interesting smells and things in the store, but he did really really good.  Darcie and I tormented him with reindeer antlers that lit up, but he would not oblige us with a good picture.  He slunk backwards into a display nearby because he was so embarrassed!

doggie heaven

We came home and Owen got a celebratory peanut-butter Kong; wow, was that a jackpot treat.  He licked and chewed on the Kong forever, long after the peanut butter was gone.  Finally, he gave up and fell asleep, which is what he is doing right now!  Tomorrow, we get to take it easy.  In the morning I have a nail appointment that Owen gets to go to, and then after that Owen and I will show Darcie the two tasks we need to do again and after that, who knows?