Perseverance

I can't even believe that I'm writing about this, because I can't believe it happened. Yesterday Anil and I decided to make a day of errands into an adventure by bringing Bailey. We were going to Newbury Street, where the Patagonia store is as well as lots of other stores, to get and mail some family birthday presents and get lunch. Then I convinced Anil to do this long walk along the Charles River, about 4 or 5 miles. It goes down the Esplanade from Mass. Ave. to the Museum of Science, then crosses over to Cambridge and follows the river back to the Mass. Ave. bridge and to the store, where we parked. We've never taken Bailey down there, so we decided to go for it. We loaded Bailey into the car and headed down Beacon Street, when Anil uttered the fateful words, "Bailey didn't poop before we left so I hope he doesn't poop on Newbury Street." 

Warning, if you're already grossed out by me writing poop twice up there, don't read on. Just stop here. I wish I had been able to. 

Literally right after he said that, we both smelled something that should not be in the car, and realized that Bailey was not going to poop on Newbury Street because he'd just crapped in the car!! We had the back seats pushed down, so we could turn around and assess the situation. For some reason, instead of pulling into a parking spot on either side of Beacon Street, Anil pulled down a side street that was on a vertical incline, pointing downwards. The incline combined with Anil's stopping short... well... can you guess? Some of the poop flew forward. And hit me in the elbow. Again, the back seats were down, so there was no barrier. This is about when I started flipping out. 

We got out of the car, all three of us, and I held Bailey by the collar with an iron fist while Anil bagged the poop; if there was anything good about this situation it was that Bailey didn't step in any of it so it was easy to pick up. We had towels in the car that I scrubbed my elbow with. 

And then.... and then. We got back into the car (with the seats UP this time and Bailey all the way in the back) and started driving. Then I looked down and saw that, inexplicably, there was a small piece of dog poop on the center AC vent!!! How it got there we'll never understand. 

While all of this was going on, I need to mention, I was having a total hormonal breakdown, and the AC vent put me into a tailspin. On the one hand, this was a completely hilarious situation. This is not something that just happens--it was so random and so perfectly timed, from Anil's comment, to the smell, to the ill-fated AC vent that made no sense at all and was seemingly just there to mock us. And in some part of my brain that is probably squished to the side much like my abdominal organs, I could see the humor in all of it, and I knew that laughing would be a much better solution and would make Anil and me a team instead of adversaries in this drama. 

But nooooo, for the life of me I couldn't access that reaction, and instead went into complete meltdown about how we couldn't do anything right, everything was so gross and disgusting, Anil never listens to me (ahem, I had said we should put the seats up before driving), I'd asked him to get the car cleaned a billion times and now there was crap on the AC vent! And somewhere in there was the realization and fear and panic that some time soon we'll have a baby in that backseat, a baby that poops indiscriminately and, from what I've heard, does not confine that action to her diapers (or onesie or, God forbid, car seat???). And our lives are going to be a string of these kinds of episodes, and I'll never feel competent or, let alone, cute and, well, clean, again. I just lost it. 

Anil told me later that he was trying with all his might to not start laughing about the AC vent because there I was with tears pouring down my cheeks in the passenger seat. We weren't far from home so we just went back, cleaned everything up, and decided to make another run of it. 

Here is the happy ending though, after all of that drama. The rest of the day was a total success! Bailey behaved beautifully on Newbury Street. We got burgers at my favorite place, B.Good, and sat outside where Bailey laid calmly beside our table. We got our birthday gifts in the mail. Then we walked to the Esplanade and all the way around that loop with Bailey at our sides. He's drawn to the water like I am drawn to blocks of cheddar cheese these days, so there was some leaning and tugging towards the Charles, but for the most part Bailey did a great job. Here are some photos we took to commemorate the day. 

These are both from the Mass. Ave. bridge:

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, so it was really good that we didn't let the faulty start ruin our adventure. The esplanade and this part of the city is my absolute favorite part of Boston. When we moved here, I was so happy to have a place where I could sit and walk by the water. The last Harry Potter book came out the summer that we moved, and this is where I took it to read the day it was published. For our third anniversary, I made a picnic lunch complete with mimosas and took Anil to the Esplanade... even though that June 4 was a dismal day of rain and overcast weather! We enjoyed our picnic in fleeces and baseball caps because I wouldn't relent my plan, and it was fabulous. This is also where we like to take all of our out-of-town guests, because you can see so much of the city, from the Salt and Pepper bridge (behind Bailey and me in our photo), to the MIT and Harvard sailboats and Cambridge on the other side of the river, to the Hatch Shell where the Boston Pops play on the 4th of July. So it was worth the angst of the morning to spend such a nice afternoon with the boys, and to find that despite the awkward start, my dog is not a total disaster, and neither am I. 

When we walked back to the Patagonia store, I decided to reward myself with some ice cream from J.P. Licks, which is next door. Then I thought that Bailey deserved a reward as well, so I got him a doggie ice cream.