A day in the life...
I took our dog Sullivan to the vet last Saturday to have his doggie physical and get up to date on his shots so he can start training on March 6th. There's this little problem with him being aggressive towards strangers which needs to be addressed before the start of class and the place that I work at just happens to specialize in that area. Gee, an employee discount that I can actually use for a change.

I hauled him up to work with me today for them to take a quick (5 minute) look at him, knowing full well that he was going to spend the day either in the car (if the weather was right) or in the room we use for aggressive dogs. I figured it wasn't much different than him spending the day in a room at our house and who knows, maybe he'd enjoy the change of pace. Besides, I could spend time with him on breaks and that's pretty cool.

So early this morning one of the trainers asked me to get him out of the car and Sully decided to put on the most aggressive display I've seen him do yet. Maybe it was because I hadn't had enough coffee yet, but somehow I let the leash slip out of my hand and that was a tense moment. Fortunately, it was all show and no real substance and the trainer, of course, knows how to read a dog and what to do in those situations. Still, I felt pretty foolish letting Sully slip away from me like that. Strike one.

Then I ended up with even more egg on my face later today when I didn't realize there was a client in the room at the time I made an extremely tacky comment out-loud about a phone call that I had just finished. It never occurred to me that there might be a customer around since we didn't have any appointments scheduled at the time. Strike two.

Two o'clock rolled around and I had to leave to avoid running up too many hours for the week, but there was so much that didn't get finished which needed to be done. Strike three.

I doubt anyone there is going to complain about these things, but I'm sure doing a good job of beating myself up over it. I'd like to think that it's just because it's a new job and I want to make a good impression or some crap like that and this too will pass, but truth be told, I'm a perfectionist and I will feel like this whether I've been on the job three weeks or three years. I've never figured out how to cut myself slack when it comes to work (I don't seem to have a problem when it comes to housework) and I don't know what the answer is. Maybe I need to start smoking pot. You know, that "don't worry, be happy" kind of thing...