Monday, June 13, 2016

What’s Your Superpower?

He's lucky he's cute.
Tony hasn’t messed in the house for a long time.* 

Even so, his superpower remains: Given all the possible options, he will always pick the place I least want him to. If I put him out, he might pee right there on the welcome mat. (His oh-so-tragic facial expression says, “Oh, but it’s drizzling. I might get wet.”) Though he’s got the whole yard, his mission is to poop in the garage.

Some people can suck every bit of fun out of anything, through their worry, their rigid thinking, their control-freakiness, their incessant complaining. Alternatively, some people are crazy-making risk takers. (Have you noticed? They rarely get hurt. It’s the people who are with them, like you or me, who do.) Some people are just mean. Some people, God bless ‘em, just breathe loud or snap their gum or say “Ya know what I mean?” after every phrase.

But as my sister always says, perhaps pointedly, “It’s easy to see other people’s stuff but not your own.”

So, what’s my superpower?

Ach, I see myself in almost all the ones I’ve listed … except I’m not a risk-taker and haven’t ever peed on the welcome mat or pooped in the garage.

What’s your superpower?



*Yay! … Knock on wood … I doubt I will ever bet any money on Tony not peeing or pooping in the house, though I am, at this point, about 80% sure of him … If I do ever succeed at this, is there any way I could put “Housetraining willful little dog” on my resume? ‘Cuz it’s one of the harder things I’ve ever undertaken.

5 comments:

  1. Hmm...I haven't peed on the welcome mat yet, although I wouldn't entirely rule out that possibility due to pelvic floor insufficiency from giving birth to two almost nine pound babies. One of them breech.

    I'm not a risk taker either. Risky things make me nervous. My son posted this on Facebook about Dinner in the Sky--where they hoist a group of people aloft and cook dinner for them. Made me queasy just to watch it.

    https://www.facebook.com/intheskydinner/

    I guess my super power is writing cartoon captions. I've been a finalist in The New Yorker cartoon caption contest twice now. Always the bridesmaid. I keep trying, though!

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    1. Wow, that is cool! I look at the caption contest every week and every week I draw an absolute blank.

      I totally do not get the appeal of risk-taking or of things that seem risky, like roller coasters, or of horror movies .... Do they do these things because it feels so good when they stop? It's the only think I can figure. :o)

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    2. I've read some interesting things about risk takers and their need for the increase in dopamine and adrenaline that occurs in those behaviors. There was something once (can't find it now, aarrghh) about some people being Reducers and others being Enhancers. I think the reducers find life already too stimulating even in its normal state and tend toward non-risky behavior. The enhancers needed that adrenaline jolt just to make them feel "alive." I think that whole bunch who want to go 185 ft. off the ground for dinner fit into the latter category.

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  2. Oh! I should have actually knocked on wood. As soon as I wrote this post, Tony got out of my eyesight for seconds and peed on my husband's side of the bed. Lola, as a puppy, peed on his pillow ... twice. We think they are making a statement.

    We think that because my husband is not home during the day, Lola and Tony think he is "the dog who is not allowed in the house" and is lower on the totem pole than they are.

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    1. That is so funny! (Sorry.) Yes, your husband is definitely not the Alpha dog in your pack. :)

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