Osmosis

I like hanging out with people who are smarter and more talented than I am. They are always way more interesting. They read interesting things. They've traveled to interesting places. They have interesting hobbies. I often find that I leave social experiences with smart people with a list of things to read, places to visit or things to try entered into my iPhone.

I consider myself lucky. I'm by far the lowest on the totem pole when it comes to IQ scores amongst the people I hang out with. I'm just glad they find me interesting enough to keep around so I can benefit from their brains. I've always hoped that by being around a subject genius, some of it will rub off on me. Learning by osmosis can't be a bad thing, right?

So you can imagine the excitement I had when I received an invitation from Jen and Denise to come up to Newnan for an all girls weekend. Jen is the greyhound Yoda in my book and Denise is a full blown horse whisperer. So needless to say when it comes to being around a couple of experts on two of my favorite subjects, I really couldn't have been in better company. We were never strained for conversation - between greyhounds, horses and whether Robert Redford was hot or not, you can really cover plenty of hours of chatter between three women. We always had something to laugh at or discuss. And there was plenty to celebrate!

In attendance for the weekend were six bitches: Seka and Roxy; Katie and Reagan; Peanut and Limo (the greyhound wannabe). Despite the crummy weather (thanks, tropical storm Fay), the dogs all frolicked in the pasture at Summerwind Farm, enjoying the opportunity to get extra wet and dirty.















Even Lester, the stud, even shared in the dreary play, kicking up his heels and showing us what he was made of.



This was a weekend of celebration and the weather wasn't going to put a damper on our spirits, even if it did sideline our pool plans. Peanut's adoption papers were officially signed by Denise and Matt on Sunday. This was a long road for both Peanut and Denise, but this tough girl seems to be a perfect fit for as much time as Denise spends at the farm. Celebrations require cake in my book, so I decided to make peanut butter carrot cake cupcakes to mark this important occasion. I guess you can see that Martha Stewart isn't one of my closest friends, as her genius hasn't rubbed off on me as of yet, but I'm always willing to give it the old college try. And besides, the dogs don't usually complain about my cooking.

Even with the distractions of consuming junk food and watching cheesy horse movies, my girls and I took away the following tidbits of knowledge from the weekend:

• My girls really don't know their names. Just because they look at me when I say it in the house, it doesn't mean they know what to do when I use it. We must work on our recalls so they can enjoy off lead time like Katie and Reagan at the next 9 bitch weekend.
• Roxy isn't really a pack dog. All the other dogs stayed together as they explored the 12 fenced in acres. Roxy had her own plan as to what was fun. I guess if the hyena came, she would be lunch. We need to work on her confidence.
  
• I want to work my dogs more. My girls are smart, they just don't have the opportunity to use their brains as much as I would like for them to.
• I'm going to let Clyde (that's my horse) play at liberty more. Lester looked so happy running and bucking and playing in the rain. This is totally on the docket for this week. Although, Clyde is a really low-key horse, so if he bucked at all, I'd be totally shocked.
  
• Despite my best attempts, I'm horribly inconsistent with what I let my girls get away with at home and this also filters into their manners in other people's homes. So to prevent Seka's nose from exploring party goers' awesome fruity drinks when they aren't looking, we've got to make sure she doesn't do this at home.
• Roxy has some relaxing to do. But I love her spunk even more.
  
• Seka really is the fun police. But loves to have fun on her own terms and if we ever lose that green ball, she might go into DTs.

I spend a lot of time with my pups every day - all day long, most days. But it took a weekend with two super smart chicks and their super smart pups to bring a lot of this to the surface. So beyond all the laughs, fun, extra calories and Elizabeth Taylor's horrible jumping skills in National Velvet, I learned so much from these awesome ladies in just a short amount of time and I can't wait to do it again soon. Osmosis, it's a good thing.