Nic Narrates

I love buying gifts, love picking out that one thing that you forgot you mentioned once back  in February, love wrapping each treasure with care. So, it’s no wonder I’ve been Christmas shopping since September. Or that I assembled a color coordinated wrapping paper collection. Or that I put my new KitchenAid mixer in pistachio to use in making six kinds of Christmas cookies. Or that my boyfriend and I crafted our own obnoxious Christmas sweaters to wear to the Music Box’s annual double feature sing-along of White Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life (don’t worry, pictures of our craftiness will be posted soon).

After all that festive cheer, I mused on what I would treat myself to this holiday season. A new pair of fancy shoes? That sweater I saw at Anthropologie? The expensive under eye cream I’ve been coveting? Airfare to the Dominican Republic in February?

No.

While all of those things are lovely and I would like them, I don’t need any of them. In fact, the very thing I want the most isn’t on that list at all. A dog.

I’ve waited my entire adult life to get my own dog. Over the past eight years I’ve plotted and planned but ultimately have held off on getting one of my own for reasons of my commute to work and being gone nearly 12 hours a day. Regardless of those legitimate hurdles, I nearly adopted a dog anyway from PAWS this past summer. I was heartbroken by the realization that my landlord wouldn’t allow it even though other dogs currently live in my building. Happily though, the dog I was looking at was adopted out and I hope is now having a wonderful Christmas with a loving family of his own.

Since then, however, I haven’t forgotten and haven’t changed my mind about desperately wanting a dog and this past Monday I reached a life-changing decision. I’m ready for the next step in my life and that step involves having a dog. I’m tired of being responsible and waiting and allowing someone else to dictate what I can and cannot have. So I’ve taken control.  Rather than another sweater or pair of shoes that I don’t need, another trip to the Dominican Republic that is nice but not necessary for my inner happiness, or even another experiment in preventing the effects of time upon my face; I chose to get the very thing that will make me happiest.

Her name is Wendy.

Filed under: awesomeness, crossroads, just say 'when', Little Faces, nicely done by Nic