Today I turned 31. I'd like to say being 30 was the hardest year of my life. Really, though, I'm not sure it's been any harder than the rest, just a different kind of hard. My goals for 31 are to: (a) Rise Golden Rule all phoenix style from the ashes of financial destitution and mismanagement, (b) Figure out how to make a living on my internal skills, ideas and resources rather than relying purely on stuff to earn money, (c) Prioritize art making, personal wellness, home building, and community fostering, and (c) Learn how the fuck to relax, to enjoy being myself in myself, to decrease chaos making, to bond with nature, and to take good care of myself and my dog. In honor of that today I had a sauna, got a massage, went to therapy and played at the park.

In honor of my birthday and my desperate need for a break, I'll be MIA from Golden Rule goings-on until Sunday when the flip begins for Lahaina Alcantara's July showcase. I would love to say I'll be totally off the work grid, but alas I'll be finishing out some lookbook editing, getting the basement put back together after pulling so much stock for the shoot, getting the newsletter ready, building FaceBook events, and strategizing, strategizing, strategizing about how the fuck to finance us through September. But at lest said activities can happen on my own time, and sans the interruption of telephone and email (the iPhone is disconnected for non-payment and I plan to keep it that way for a bit). See you in a few days, and until then, be well. Xoxo.

As one of the last tests of Daisy's fitness for my lifestyle, we took her on a two-day lookbook shoot with seven models and a production assistant. She trooped it like a charm, even getting brave enough to step in a cold river and to hop over logs! The one challenging situation was her need to be in my immediate vicinity frequently put her supermodel legs in front of the camera:

Isn't she beautiful? Such a wonderful dog, never straying from our crew, never wandering out too far on her own, always coming when called, perfectly content to follow us around or wait peacefully in the car with her sand bucket of water (fits right between front seat and her twin-sized futon in the back of the station wagon) or to protect us when approached by scary dudes)

I have now had Daisy for almost two weeks. These have been the best two weeks I've had in a long time. When I got her she was super timid, very skittish, experiencing a stress-induced case of anorexia and was perceived by many people as "a behavior problem" (this never made sense to me, as she is and always was very well behaved) and by others as "the biggest dog with the smallest personality" they'd ever met. In less than two weeks her spirit has really started shining through. She's wagging her tail and kissing, hugging, playing like crazy when I come home after being gone even for a few minutes. She's warming up to the sites and sounds of the city, the new affection she's having bestowed upon her by strangers, and she's really turning out to be quite a goofy girl. It's a 180-degree turn from when I got her. No small personality anymore by any means!

She's very attached to me, her new environment is growing on her, and as long as she's with me, she is happy as a clam, even with my hectic driving all around and my poorly-scheduled stressful life. And honestly, her timidity and skittishness have made me mindful enough of her comfort to slow down, to not frantically thrown things around, to not have temper tantrums at inanimate objects, and to want to be home with her more than running around busy-making. Beyond that she's SO wonderful to wake up to in the morning (we have a "Good Morning" dance and song), and waking up in the morning was never my thing! My grandma was so wrong when she told me, "I hope you didn't get that dog. Those dogs are very hard to take care of. They're really messy and hard to train. Do you think that's good for you? Did you ask your therapist first? What did your therapist say?"