dog watching

[truepenny]

I learned something about myself this trip.

I knew that I don't like traveling, and that I especially don't like traveling to somewhere I've never been, and that I even more especially don't like traveling to big cities with scary reputations.

I knew that traveling makes me anxious and unhappy in a low-grade not worth worrying about sort of way.

But what I didn't realize until this trip is that I have a coping strategy.

I look for dogs.

As we were driving down Santa Monica Boulevard Saturday morning, I saw a Harlequin Great Dane, natural ears and tail, standing on the sidewalk, leaning over the railing of a café's sidewalk seating, clearly so that his people could share breakfast with him. He was a happy dog having a lovely time, and seeing him made me feel better.

And then I thought, I always do that.

I watch for dogs habitually, and I'm always pleased to see one, but when I'm traveling, seeing dogs out with their people, enjoying themselves, makes me feel that perhaps this new scary place I'm in isn't so bad. If the dogs are happy, the people must be doing something right. And so maybe it's gonna be okay.

Comments

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

My dad and I do the same thing. We like traveling, but we don't like being away from the drooly fuzzy thing at home, so we'll both glance around to find other drooly fuzzy things.
I envy you the Dane sighting. That's one of my ideal dogs.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't have a drooly fuzzy thing at home yet (omitting comments about markgritter and timprov), so I do the same thing whether I'm traveling or not.