CafeChatNoir

Stability results were moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were low which suggests you are overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense too often of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.

Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.

trait snapshot:
messy, disorganized, not rule conscious, rebellious, rash, weird, ambivalent about chaos, likes bizarre things, anti-authority, not good at saving money, not a perfectionist, leaves many things unfinished, low self control, strange, desires more attention, romantic daydreamer, abstract, impractical, unproductive, leisurely, likes the unknown

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was trying to say, “Go home.”

I cannot relax. Seriously. My companions are great, the food is spectacular and the water is awesome, but I *cannot* relax.

If this were a one week stay and we were leaving on Friday, I’d go ahead and pack it in now, because I can be this tense at home. I can only guess it is a confluence of many small things because I can’t put my finger on any one big thing, and I’m finding it very difficult to enjoy myself because I just can’t shake this underlying, unidentifiable stress.

Friday morning Carmen had a (quite literal) massive hissy fit upon being dropped off at the kennel. (What idiot doesn’t know to leave the cat in the crate until the cat is ready to come out of the crate on its own? Oh – that would be me. I don’t know WHAT I was thinking.) However, her scaling the front of the 6′ bank of “suites” and installing herself in a kitty cube at the top was tactically impressive. Always go for the high ground. I did speak to the kennel later and they said she’d calmed down and both had eaten dinner enthisiastically and they were both fine if “a bit reserved” – reserved still being better than hissing at everyone that comes within 2 feet.

No cell reception for anyone in the house. Last year we were on the cusp, and this year the trees have grown just enough to knock it out altogether. Purchased internet seems to be working for others, but very slow & sketchy at best for me – I am not one that needs to be connected 24/7, but some level of access to the rest of the world is nice, and there are some internet based services I will need to use over the course of two weeks. (And it seems to work best when I enable wi-fi on my phone and then tether that to the laptop – I really don’t think that should work better, but it does.) This after my laptop decided to puke all over itself on Saturday and simply decide to not work properly. I got it going again, but I still have no idea what went wrong in the first place.

Massive insomnia 2 out of 4 nights, that I cannot ascribe to anything other than an inability to turn my brain off.

Thunderstorms Saturday and today, which is leaving the dog decidedly unimpressed with beach life.

I guess the phone ringing off the hook 24/7 the last two years down here just blocked out all the other little annoyances. Or maybe I have just never really mastered the art of relaxing – it never was one of my strong points. But I can’t say I really relish the idea of always being tense until I die…

Granted, all that know the Awesome Dog, aka Moxley, would likely agree.  Via a friend, I found this blog post, about someone concerned that her dog might be…well…special.

I’ll admit, I laughed until I near cried reading this – and the graphics contributed to no end to my amusement.

Upon finishing this essay, I decided, “I must find the Dog IQ test!”

And Moxley scored 18 out of a possible 30 points*.

On the “hide the treat under a cup” test, he technically failed, with 1 point.  I showed him the treat and the cup, as well as my putting the treat UNDER the cup.  When I said, “OK!” he trotted up to the cup and sat down and waited for me to move the cup.  I consider it a success because he knows that he is not allowed to break into containers when I am watching.  But technically, a fail.

“Towel over head” test.  Maybe I put the towel too far over his body, I’m not sure.  But he gave two shakes of the head, couldn’t shake it, and then laid down for a nap.  1 point.

The “smile” test.  You’re supposed to stare at the dog and then give a big-assed smile (I assume this has something to do w/showing of teeth) and you see how long it takes for the dog to come to you in a happy manner.  I gave him 3 points on this one, because I wasn’t far enough away – he just looked at me and the tail went wild.  He just didn’t feel the need to actually move towards me because I was close enough anyway.  3 points.

“Treat under tea towel” – Sit the dog, show him the treat, and put it under a tea towel and see how long it takes to get the treat.  Mox happily ran up to the tea towel and then sat down next to it – again, waiting for me to give the OK for releasing the treat from it’s “container” – once I said, “Get it!”  he quickly pawed about to get under the towel and to the treat.  Once given the OK, he got 3 points.

“Getting food w/a paw!”  I automatically gave him the 5 points on this one, since I’ve seen him grab bits of food that the cats have knocked under their feeding table. 5 points

“Oh, banana!”  Use your normal sing-song-dog-voice and call him by “refrigerator” and “movies” and then his name and see what he really responds to.  I got a raised eyebrow and a tilted head from the voice, but he didn’t come to me until I said Moxley.  5 points.

So, perhaps my furball isn’t Harvard bound, but he’s smart enough to have trained me exceptionally well.

*Scoring
0-4 = Your dog must be an Afghan (I disagree – Buck from Married w/Children was an Afghan and he couldn’t have been TOO stupid!)
5-15 = Your dog is not too bright, but is most likely very cute
16-25 = Your dog is smart, but won’t go to Harvard
Over 25 = Your dog is a genius