what to do if you're caught with a dog in your car on a hot day

so i brought my crazy dog to school today. no, there were no children there today. i thought lizzie would have fun running around at school, since the only architectural complexity involves a long hallway.

i discovered that hyperactive dogs get bored easily. for a while i had my classroom door open while she ran around freely. but i left to take a bathroom break and she was in the front office, and one of the administrative assistants was wiping up a piddle. (fortunately she's a dog owner, so she understood). so i got a little nervous and kept her shut in my room as i straightened things up. lizzie only likes chewing on rawhide if there is another dog present to make envious. and when there is no other dog present to play with or otherwise annoy, she stands by me looking up at me, begging for some kind of attention. so i decided to take her outside on the playground in case she had more piddling to do.

at around 13:00 i decided i'd had enough. i informed the front office that i was taking her home and that i would be back in a couple of hours.

but then i remembered i had to go pick up my new Rx sunglasses. so in stead of going home i made a "slight" detour to pass by the mall. aware that it was a hot day and that i had a live hyperactive animal in my car with me, i stalked the parking lot looking for a spot with a shadow.

of course there were none, so i considered taking the dog inside the mall. but i think it would be hard to convince anyone that she was my "seeing eye" dog. (but now that i think of it, i could have made up a story of how i was recently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and MY DOCTOR TOLD ME TO KEEP THIS DOG WITH ME AT ALL TIMES because i can't take medications and she keeps my mood regulated.)

finally i pulled into a spot, resigned to roll the windows down halfway, leave the sunroof open, and leave lizzie in the car as i ran to the mall and then back out as quickly as possible, a volvo wagon full of young'uns pulled into the spot right next to me. a boy in aviator sunglasses startes talking to his friends about "oh what a CUTE DOG!" and then jokingly he asks me, "hey, can i pet your dog?"

actually, would you mind watching her as i run into the mall to pick up my glasses? i'll be really quick, i promise! to which the boy and his friends readily agreed.

"hey we've got a dog! now people will talk to us!"

i was a little worried leaving her in the hands of strangers, but they didn't come to the mall to kidnap a hyperactive dog, so where were they gonna go?

anyway i popped back out in a flash, with the above large sunglasses on my face. she was still there with the kids.

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now that i've got time in the morning, i've been turning the satellite to CSPAN. i think i am falling in love (politically, of course) with durbs. he really seems like he cares! he only looks at his notes when he needs to quote a statistic! the guy he was debating today made some points that seemed semi-valid to the casual observer (me); he illustrated how (they think) farm families are affected by the estate tax, but i didn't quite get how "minority small-business owners" have any harder of a time with estate tax than do these farm families (ie, why make the distinction?) maybe he just decided to throw in "minority" for good measure.