Animals on drugs, standardized tests, doing what you don't want to do, liver abuse . . .

My dog ate some chocolate crackers while we were gone. She usually never gets into food or trash when home alone, but I guess she decided to make an exception for the hearty tub of cat-shaped chocolate crackers sitting on the kitchen table. Maybe it was the cat shape that drove her over the edge- cats and chocolate!! PAAARRRTY!! Supposedly, chocolate is like speed for dogs. I don't think there's a whole lot of credible research that goes into that theory, but admonitions abound as to the woes of chocolate munching canines. But my girl is fine. Besides, what she ate was nothing compared to the half of the catcher-mit sized solid chocolate bunny that my childhood dog snatched and licked away. He kind of acted nuts for a while, but he recovered and lived to be twenty years old. Maybe chocolate, like heroin for people (if you don't overdose) has an age-defying effect . . . it's probably only a matter of time before there are chocolate face creams.

In a similar vein of careless joie de vivre, I've decided that I am done with standardized tests entirely. I'll take licensing exams, I'll take regular tests that assess real knowledge and achievement, but I don't think my soul will survive another standardized test. Ever. Just wanted to put that out there . . .

And so that is one area where I am refusing to effect compromise (it's not the only one). It's scary how we learn to do what we don't want to do. We do things to make people happy. We do things expecting some kind of reward far off in the future, like what I tell myself when I want a sticky bun with my coffee . . . that I want to continue fitting in my clothes. But ultimately, I think that doing too much of what we don't want to do leads to some kind of excess in another area of life. Hence my current state of liver abuse which will have to be toned down now that I'm outta the woods of standardized testing hell.