I can honestly say that I have had a week from hell. Between being late for school twice in three days (once due to ridiculously out of control traffic, and once because I managed to sleep in 2 hours late), having a rather difficult Friday at school, spending most of my Saturday exhausted (although I had a great time at Summer Live, Vancouver 125 in Stanley Park! Free concerts for the win!), working Sunday and today, plus dropping my phone, smashing the screen and cutting my finger in the same place multiple times at work.... I'm being a giant complainer. Sometimes it feels like life just gets out of control, and there's nothing that you can do about it. That's how I feel right now, my life is spinning out of control, and I just don't know what to do to stop it.
On the plus side, school is working out quite fantastic for me (for the most part). As it turns out, I'm quite good at hairdressing... I get it, and I love talking with people, and working hard to make them leave feeling amazing. We started taking clients from the public this past week, and I've discovered that, being a very sociable person, and someone who works hard to please people, this job comes easy for me. As I'm still learning, it does take a bit longer than usual for haircuts, but if you're ever in Vancouver and have a burning desire to spend some time with me - book an appointment and enjoy some inexpensive hair magic! (okay okay... hair magic may be going a bit far. ;D)
Something else I've had to slightly sacrifice in order to maintain my sanity (and my sleep schedule) other than blogging is reading, which is highly unfortunate. I love reading, and for my birthday, my wonderful boyfriend got me a KoBo, and I adore it! I wish I had more time to use it, but eventually my life will settle down, and I will get some good use out of it on my days off (which I have occasionally). But, while I don't often have time to read, the past two days at work were exceptionally boring, so I did some reading of my own at work, and fell in love with a novel I think everyone should read.
As many of you know, I work at Three Dog Bakery. It's quite the place to work, and a lot of the time I see it as a job... a stepping stone on my way to the career I really want... and in some ways this is 100% true. I often lack the drive to really go to work and care about being there... that is, until I see the little faces who walk through the door, tails wagging. There is something in the face of a dog that people will never have, and it's 100% honesty. Dogs don't lie to you. When they are happy to see you, they let you know.
I always knew that Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff wrote a book about the founding of Three Dog Bakery, and I knew that we had it in the store, but in my 6 months working there, I had never even had the desire once to pick it up off the shelf and read the back, never mind devour it in less than 2 days. This weekend was extremely boring at work, and so I took it upon myself to learn a little bit about the company, and see where the place I work came from, and the story is for dog lovers and people who can appreciate a good non-fiction story alike.
I was unsure how this book was going to go, I know the basic idea of how Three Dog Bakery got started, and I will give you a brief run down. Two guys (Dan and Mark) wanted to start a business, but had no ideas at all. Mark had two dogs, Sarah, a lab mix, and Dottie, a dalmatian. Dan, who had recently lost his dog to old age, was talked into going to rescue a dog from a breeder, and he fund Gracie, an 8 week old, runt of the litter, albino Great Dane who was both deaf and blind in one eye. He fell in love with her. As Gracie grew up, she got sicker and sicker, and she stopped eating... after trying every food on the market, the vet told them they needed to start cooking for Gracie, or she would probably die of starvation. They needed to find something that she would want to eat. Dan, totally oblivious to the world of cooking and baking, started simple, and tried to bake cookies for Gracie adding different ingredients, trying anything to get this dog to eat - and eventually he got it right. People, through word of mouth, started finding out about his cookies and started to order them from him, and, well, the rest is really history. Three Dog Bakery was born, and because of them, I have a job.
Dan and Mark wrote a book called 'Amazing Gracie - A Dog's Tale' which pretty much tells the story of how Gracie was the inspiration for the start of the company that now has hundreds of locations all of the USA (and in parts of Canada). Because I knew that much about the company already, I figured this book couldn't tell me anything more - but oh was I wrong.
The book is not only exceptionally written, but extremely emotional... lets just say I looked like a fool to some customers when they came in to find me bawling over a book about the place I work. I know it sounds like this is a book that someone who works there would like, but no one else... and this couldn't be further from the truth. This book is beyond amazing - and it's only a little bit heart-breaking. If you're a dog lover, you have to read this book. Hands down one of the best books I've read all year... and I've read quite a few!
I hope that you are all enjoying this summer (or at least the little bit that we've had)! I know I wish that I had more time to lay around and enjoy life... but this year, I have discovered, is more about the journey to improving my life for the future, rather than having all the fun now. There are bound to be tiresome, boring and stressful times in one's life... and I just happen to be right in the middle of one of those times.
I hope to not leave you postless for multiple weeks ever again - but some promises are made to be broken!
Blog, and be happy!
Kyleigh.
