Pets vs. Babies

As the end of our housing contract approaches, Kagan and I have been discussing whether we want to renew and continue living where we currently are, or if we want to move. We decided that the only way we would move is if we found a place that was about the same price (or better, less) as our place (including utilities, which is difficult since the cost of our internet is included in our rent), in a good location, about the same size as our place, and, here's the clincher: allows pets. Yes, Kagan and I want to get a pet. Specifically, a dog.

I could go into the discussion of whether we really should get a dog or not, but that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about pet policies of apartments in Provo/Orem.

I'll start by saying this: it is incredibly difficult to find a place in Provo that allows pets, let alone a place that allows pets and isn't super expensive. No one wants to let you have pets in their apartments. I can understand that they don't want your dog to pee/poop all over the carpet or chew up the baseboards, puke up all its dog food on the carpet, etc. I get that.

Here's what I don't get: why do apartments not allow pets, but they DO allow people to have children in their homes? They're just as, if not more destructive than pets. Sure, a dog may poop or pee on your carpet, but unless it's got a pretty bad case of the runs, it's easy to clean up. Dogs generally aren't dumb enough to sit down in their poop and drag it all over the house, or to roll in it and dig it into the carpet. Oh no. Dogs would hardly ever do that.

But a child? Those things love poop. They have no problems reaching down the back of their diaper and grabbing a handful of whatever happens to be in there, and then drawing you a nice, incredibly smelly and hard to remove picture on your walls and carpet. And baby poop stinks. Not like dog poop doesn't stink, but baby poop is, 90% of the time, raunchy.

Then you have the issue of baby puke. Dogs puke. Occasionally it may get in your carpet and yeah, it stinks. You clean it up, and generally the smell goes away. If it doesn't, shampoo your carpets. Problem solved. However, how often do dogs puke? If there's something really wrong with your dog, maybe once a month.

But babies? They puke like every hour, on the hour, and every half hour in between that. And then it gets in your carpet, and boy, does that stuff stink. Sure, you can clean it up or even shampoo your carpet, but that stuff is lasting. Plus, you can't shampoo your carpet every day. You might as well just replace your carpet once a month. Let me tell you, I've gone to far more baby owners' homes whose houses smell like rotten milk (baby throw up) than dog owners homes whose houses smell like dirty nasty dog smell.

My point is this: what the heck, Provo? This is ridiculous.

Please, Provo, give me a place to live that is the criteria we're looking for. I will be forever grateful.

Inconsistent

I feel bad that I hardly ever post anymore. Unfortunately, my life is slightly less-varied than it used to be. Rather than getting inspiration for posts from weird BYU students, my inspiration now comes from my slightly normal co-workers, my "office" (quotes because I don't know if I can really call it an office. It's where I do my work, but it's also a storage room for tables, t-shirts, and other odds and ends. Maybe it's a storofice. Yep, made that word up just now. I originally had storfice, but I like that it has the word orifice in it now.), and my husband. Those are pretty much the only things that I interact with on a daily basis. Working 40 hours a week in an office has its perks, but inspiration for blog posts is not included in those perks.

Lately I've been thinking of things to blog about but have been working and can't just drop everything to get on my blog and write whilst getting paid to do exactly not that. That would be dishonest, and while I enjoy the interspersed sarcastic fib, I don't generally indulge in stealing time and money from my company. Maybe I'll devote a pad of post-it's to blog ideas...

We'll see.

Confession

Here's something I've been wanting to talk about but have been to embarrassed what the reactions will be of the people I tell (mainly my husband and my mother). I don't want people to know. So here I am, posting on the internet about it because...well, there's no people on the internet, right? Right?

Here goes: I'm not going to grad school. I didn't even turn in my application. The deadline was February 1st and the night before I remember thinking to myself, "Maybe I should finish it and turn it in even though I don't have a professor to work with." Then I justified not doing it by remembering that I already blew $70 on a GRE Subject test that I decided I didn't want to take, and I would just be blowing $50 on this application, because the odds of me getting accepted without having a professor who wants me to work with him is just about slim to none. Then I remembered that if I didn't apply then I would have wasted another $70 on the GRE that I took but that now will go toward nothing since I'm not going to grad school.

Needless to say, there has been a lot of justifying going on in my head, both for and against going to grad school. However, that's how it's been since I started considering the possibility that I would go, so I'm fairly used to it.

In the end, it came down to this: is this really something that I'm willing to put myself through? I have absolutely no desire to go to grad school. None. After talking to professors and some grad students, I've come to realize that grad school is already awful and miserable enough, you don't want to do it if you're not doing something that you're really passionate about. And honestly...I can't think of anything that I would be able to study at BYU that I am truly and honestly passionate about studying for 2+ years. It seems like the things I am interested in change so rapidly that I don't think I could commit to doing the same thing for that long. Right now, I would love nothing more than to study dogs. Yes, the domesticated canine that you have sitting on your lap or on the floor next to you as you read this (if that is the case I am incredibly jealous, by the way. I want a dog more than anything). It's strange, but I love dogs and want to learn all I can about them. I was so interested in behavioral ecology while in school, and it's something that I'm still interested in, but I don't have a particular animal that I want to study, which is what I would have done in grad school.

I feel like this is the right decision. Even if it's not, there's really nothing that I can do about it since the deadline has passed, but that is beside the point. I've been on the lookout for job opportunities, and have even applied and interviewed for a few. Until then, I have a good job that I like, working with people I love. That's good enough for me.