it's almost the end of the year, so that means it's reflection time. 

well, without getting into specifics. i think what i learned most this year is that unbelievable things happen. and i understand that people throw around "unbelievable" like it's nothing. but i'm being serious, truly unbelievable things are capable of happening. 

i think it's interesting, that as you get older, you realize that you didn't know shit when you were younger. when you're 17 years old, you think you know some stuff, but you realize later that you don't. when you're 22 years old, you think you've got it sort of figured out, but you don't. i mean, how do parents not tell their kids "you don't know shit". if i have kids one day, how do i NOT just tell them over and over that they don't know shit. 

i remember in college, i read a blog of a really popular poker player, and one sentence always stood out to me, he said "you're going to get more unlucky then you thought was possible". i'll always remember that, i'm not sure why. now i know i'm a pessimist, but i think it goes both ways. i think it's safe to say now, that you are going to get extremely lucky in life, more then you thought was possible. but it's going to be harder to see the lucky instances then the unlucky experiences. everyone reading this has at least 10 things in their life that someone else would die for. you have above average athleticism? you lucky bastard. you have parents that you enjoy spending time with? you're lucky. you're asian and you don't turn red when you drink? you dodged a bullet there. you met someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with? wow, don't ever complain

you're going to get more unlucky then you thought was possible. and i think everyone has to realize this. everyone is both lucky and unlucky. superrrrr lucky, and super unlucky sometimes. it's going to balance out, and if it doesn't. if you really think the luck factor doesn't balance itself out, then you're crazy, or maybe just unlucky

1 month with kirkham. kirkham is a dog.

kirkham stays with grace in davis. so i only see him on weekends.

-he's been a great dog, no complaints.

-grace lovesss kirkham. no no, you don't understand. grace lovesss kirkham. they love each other. kirkham is a little baby when grace has to leave him. he'll start to cry as soon as grace leaves

-he is super calm, very rarely barks unless a new person comes into the house for the first time.

-he loves to cuddle

-grace always says that he is "soooo smart". a typical conversation goes something like this

go- he's sooo smart!

gm- no way, he's probably just average

go- how can you say that.

gm- i'm not trying to hate, but he's most likely just average. he's probably just as smart as any other terrier

go- ugh

gm- everyone thinks that their dog is smarter then average, but EVERY dog CANNOT be smarter then average

go- you're an idiot

-when we take him out for walks/poop. we grab the collar and stand by the door. MOST times he runs up to the door and he sits, and we put the collar on, and we go. this one time, grace was cooking so i was going to take him out. i grab the collar, walk to the door and bend down to put the collar on, i say "kirkham, sit". and grace turns around and she says something like "do not tell him to sit, he already knows!" (LOLL). As if i were insulting his intelligence by telling him to sit. sooo funny. just this past week, we were ready to go outside, and kirkham would not sit, and grace didn't want to say "sit", so we stood there for about 3 minutes. i didn't say anything because i didn't want to be an asshole, but in my head i was screaming "loltoldyou LOLTOLDYOU"

-when we adopted him from the oakland animal shelter, his name was Checkers. we said no thanks, and it's been kirkham ever since. and last week, i half jokingly asked grace "do you think he knows his name". grace said of course. and then i yelled "BICYCLE!" at kirkham to see if he would respond like normal..

 for the rest of the day, sometimes i would yell "kirkham" and sometimes i would yell "bicycle". it was really funny, but i think you had to be there. we must have said something similar to this 50 times. "BICYCLE....see he looked....Kirkham....oh there...he looked....Kirkham....see he looked again...Bicycle!!! he didn't look"

poor kirkham, grace and i were joking after, he was probably thinking "i thought my name was kirkham, but now these humans are calling me bicycle???"

-you don't understand how much grace loves kirkham, it's funny, she will always defend him. when grace is around, kirkham can do NOwrong. 

=when kirkham had an accident in the house. grace will say something like "oh, that was my fault, i kept him in too long". 

=when kirkham spilled all of grace's coffee in the car, it was the "stupid leash's fault"

=when kirkham destroyed Grace's keropi stuffed animal, i said "o0o0o0o0, kirkham fucked up"..

and grace said something like "well, how is he supposed to differentiate his toys from my toys...i shouldn't have left it out"