Well, I'll be damned...

I came home from the optometrist and the grocery store to find that Charlie, in a characteristic lapse of judgment, had decided that one of the Playstation 3 controllers looked like a chew toy.

I yelled. He cowered. I tapped him on the nose with it. He looked contrite. But we've been here before, and it only seems to sink in for a month or so that just because it's within reach on the coffee table doesn't mean it's fair game.

Then I remembered something. When I was 5 or 6 years old and we had just moved to Bonaire, we acquired a dog. I don't remember the details - I think it was a stray, and I know my dad adopted it. I have no memory of the dog's name, so he'll be Dog. Dog, who was an outside dog, would roam the neighborhood at night and come back with... things. More specifically, things from other neighbors' homes. A piece of decorative coral left to dry on a porch, an empty bowl, and on one memorable occasion, a goatskin rug.

One morning, Dog came home with a sneaker - just one. For whatever reason, that's when my dad decided he'd had enough. I don't know where he got this idea. He may have come up with it on his own, but it seems more like a tip you'd get from some guy at work. Anyway, he took the shoe, scolded Dog... and then tied the shoe around Dog's neck. Left it there all day. That dog walked around, so damn embarrassed and ashamed, and never brought home stolen goods again.

So I had Charlie sit and tied the controller to his collar. He sat in that same spot, silent and motionless, as I put away groceries, cleaned the kitchen, and put food in his bowl. I untied it about 15 minutes later, and he's been quietly following me around ever since.



I don't know if it worked, but it sure as hell did SOMETHING.

If you listen to one thing today...

...listen to this:

Segment 3 with Sherman Alexie.

It starts as a pretty standard interview about his most recent book, but then turns into a conversation about good and bad, heroism and villany, and tribal identity that just resonated with me as so profoundly true and honest.

As he discussed how the events of 9/11 changed his view and showed him "the end game of tribalism," I realized he was explaining one of the essential struggles with identity. As soon as you identify with your tribe - I am American, I am liberal, I am Christian - you start encountering conflicts between how you feel and what the larger group believes. The way Alexie described his struggles with that issue was, for me, a complete "ah-hah!" moment.

Filet Mignon, Mojitos, and why I'm glad my dog never saw 'Waterworld'

Poor Charlie.

I was gone for a long time today. It felt like a long day to me, so in dog years, Charlie had already decided I was gone forever and it was time to fend for himself. I expected to come home and find he'd built a contraption to convert his urine to water and had painted a handprint face on one of his Wilson tennis balls.

He hadn't, of course. He just sat on the couch all day and almost spontaneously combusted when I walked in the door.

Tonight was a good night, though. Grace has named 2009 "The Year of Girls' Night Out (GNO)" and tonight was our first event. We went to MOCA Jacksonville for Best of Jacksonville 2009. There were over two dozen restaurants and sponsors there, and we tried food or drinks from every single one. Some of the highlights:

- Chocolate caramels with sea salt and chocolate-covered Cheerios from Claude's
- Beef-cured salmon tartar from Pastiche
- Steak and mac & cheese from Morton's (hello!)

All that, plus funky music and an open photo shoot for models who wanted to be on the cover of Jacksonville Magazine made for great fun and outstanding people watching. I swing back and forth on my feelings about Jacksonville as a city, but tonight - I have hope. This place could really be something.