Pet Sematary

When Mark and I arrived here in Ohio yesterday, we started talking to a couple of people at a mall in Easton who were (The) Ohio State University fans, fans who took a liking to Mark and I and invited us to go tailgate at OSU and see the game. Upon waking on Saturday, however, Mark was slightly hungover from hanging out with Rian's Yemeni nuclear physicist father, Moustafa, and other friends, following the rehearsal dinner. I was slightly hungover from the previous night as you can probably understand from reading the post below.

We didn't get going until noon-ish and largely missed the tailgating scene, as well as most of the game.

It was looking like I would have to embellish my "something new" story for the blog, until Mark and I got off-course headed to the wedding.

As if a blog post were calling from above, we ran into "Pet Heaven," a cemetery for pets. Now THAT is something I have never done before.

We went to the wedding and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly (best wishes and all our love for the new life together!) but afterward, headed back to the pet cemetery...and it was one of the strangest things I've seen in a while. I've seen the movie "Pet Sematary" but didn't know places like this actually exist! It makes me question so many things about pets, and, well heaven.

But not too much.

Now, I understand that pets become part of the family and deserve to be treated as you wish in life and in death, but honestly, a grave site and headstone? I'm not so sure. Personal opinion.

So, we perused the pet cemetery at night, a spooky experience that we treated with beaucoup irreverence. But how could you not? There are tombstones with pictures of puppies on them. And flowers.

Creature glorification? Maybe. I guess only if there were a procession with a hearse and religious service. No...either way, it's still creepy.

It's just that some of these pets have been buried for YEARS and people still come back to put flowers on their graves. I just can't justify the monetary and emotional expense. Opinions?

It should be noted that this puppy was alive less than a year. I don't think that warrants a grave site and tombstone.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Today was a day unlike any other, in the amount of times I used excuses to do things as a reason "for the blog." Although I guess that is the whole point of the blog--to do things I wouldn't otherwise do.

Today, I went to the rehearsal dinner of Katie and Rian and did utterly unbelievable things like shamelessly promote my blog to everyone who was in listening distance to hear that I had a blog, that everyone and their brother should visit, and that it was my raison d'etre.

I must mention, however, that Rian was the first to bring it up...and thank goodness. So far, I have only really promoted the blog on Facebook and Twitter, shying away from actually talking about it in person. Sometimes I think people will say "why on earth are you doing that?", "I don't get it", "That's a pointless project" or other things, and I don't want to have to convince anyone to look at it or force an awkward conversation.

I broke that mold.  For example, I used it as my excuse to interview a guy about how he was "Nasty in the 'Nati" (as in Cincinnati, thanks Katie!!) and told him after I interviewed him to look at the blog, as well as taking a "New York Apple" shot (thank you server!!), on top of bar-hopping through Columbus, OH (lovin' you Brynn!!).

I, like Garth Brook, am Shameless.

I will post pictures and video later, because this was one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time, and you should probably see the dumb/amazing things I did "for the sake of the blog." Truly. It verges on pathetic. And yet now, at 11:00 p.m. I'm proud. People think my idea is fabulous--and I will never lead them to believe otherwise.
 
UPDATE:

New York Apple Shot

The Stars of Oneida, TN

Mark and I are currently en route to Ohio for my dear friend Katie Kinsley's wedding, and my original "something new" was the low-hanging fruit...that I'm road tripping to Ohio. When Mark asked me about today's "new thing," I think he was unimpressed, so, while driving through a very rural part of Tennessee he suggested that we pull over off the highway and stargaze.

He knows me so well.

We pulled over in the nearest exit which happened to be the not-so-bustling city of Oneida. I was insistent on finding a dark spot free from streetlights and billboard signs, which is quite difficult off the side of the highway. After traveling past fireworks vendors, a gas station and through service roads, our journey concluded in us driving precipitously high up a rugged hunting trail. While probably illegal, the journey was totally worth it to get out in the damn-near pitch black and stargaze on the hood of the car.

There were so many stars, so clearly visible in the rural night sky, and rather than try to explain the impossible, I'll leave it to the comic styling of Joe Rogan: