The New Math

When I was in elementary school in the 1960s adults would refer to the "New Math" we were learning. I never understood what they meant - did two plus two equal five in their day?

My mother in "their day":

I thought of the New Math this morning when I called the airline regarding my luggage for a one-day trip I'm taking this week. There's now a $15 charge for the first checked piece, which I wouldn't need if I were allowed to carry on my shampoo, but you can't have any liquids in excess of three ounces and it takes a pound of products to control my frizz. The correct solution, according to the Old Math, would have been to dump out all my little hotel sample bottles of mouthwash and refill them with what I need. But I am a student of the New Math which says go out and buy about $15 worth of little empty bottles, fill them with what you want, forget to label them and then act surprised when your hair looks awful because you washed it with hand lotion.

They also charge you now for food on the plane so I went out and bought snacks. Forgot to check if there's a weight limit on those and if they have to fit under the seat in front of me.

That's what I did today instead of rehearsing and revising my presentation, although I did work on it yesterday until I got an email that two cats at the South L.A. shelter needed to be photographed for potential rescuers. I called Andrea, one of my favorite volunteers, and the two of us headed down there to take photos of various cats and dogs.

Here's one cat still in need of a home or rescuer:

As well as all of these guys:

While this lucky girl was adopted, named Zoe, and went to her new home:

Meanwhile, this poor guy was found injured and tied to the fence at the shelter annex because his former owner didn't have the decency to turn him in at the front desk:

When I get home I talk to my cats about all the animals still at the shelter (yes, I'm one of those people) but this time they just looked at me like they were asking, "Don't you have a presentation to work on?"

I did finish writing it, even timed it with a stopwatch and it's just right.

As for my hair... maybe there'll be room in my carry-on for a hat, just in case.

Don't Yell At Me! I'm A Volunteer

Someone once gave me one of these pins and it got a good response so I had a batch made to give out to the volunteers at the Mobile Pet Adoption events, even though I don't usually wear mine there - I prefer to wear it at work.







I did go to the MPA yesterday. I wore this pin instead:








It took a while to get there as the Aids Walk was passing through my neighborhood. I had no idea the homeless guy with the white pit bull was one of our local celebrities, but there they were walking with the crowd, cheered on by all who know them.



Since I was stuck in traffic anyway, I figured I'd jump out of my car and hand him some cans of dog food (I always stock the kind with the flip-top lid), but then worried they might have gone bad in the back of my car since it's been hot out. I called a friend who assured me the food was fine, handed it off, then got back into my car and headed north.



This is how I live my life; I try to do a good deed and then panic it will only harm the recipient.

Kind of like what happens at the MPA. I usually just take photos and roam around sort of helping, but don't actually handle a dog for the day because it seems my dog never gets adopted. But yesterday, around 2pm, I was asked to hold a 5-month-old German shepherd puppy. What could be more adoptable than that? Well, there were a few people interested, but at the end of the day she was still headed back to the shelter in search of a home.



On the plus side, it did seem to be a good day for some older mutts to get bathed and adopted. Like these guys:



















And two weeks ago, a woman came hoping to adopt a Shih Tzu, then changed her mind when a slightly larger dog sat on her foot and she fell in love. Here's the slightly-larger-than-a-Shih-Tzu Ruger, with his new mom and saying hello to another shelter hopeful:











I mentioned my bad luck to one of the other volunteers and she suggested that next time they'll have me hold a dog that's already been adopted. We'll see how that goes...