This has been, in fact, the week from hell. Not necessarily for me personally – I can think of other weeks where my direct daily life was far more difficult and frustrating. All things considered, my daily life has been pretty simple this week, actually. I didn’t sleep a whole lot, pulling 2.5 all-nighters in order to allow myself some down time this weekend, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

No, the week from hell is more like the nagging feeling that an interdimensional portal from hell has opened and is attacking my friends and family at random. It started last weekend, when Adam’s grandma apparently went into the hospital suffering from what seemed like a heart attack but is currently still unclear – she was in the ICU for days. We got the call Monday afternoon, minutes before we got another call from a close friend whose mom had died over the night. Her daughter found her alone at home, peacefully in her easy chair.

Suck, suck, suck.

Then the daily onslaught took force. Another friend whose 2 year old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, another whose appendix ruptured and sent her to the ICU (5 doors down from Adam’s grandma), another whose job was unexpectedly terminated with only 1 day of notice. By last night at the post-funeral reception, we were both desperate for the weekend to start so the week from hell would be over.

Today, we went to see the new Indiana Jones (good god…suckage) and were forced to leave shortly before the end when the onslaught of phone calls signaled bad news. Sure enough…another member of the family, set to get married in less than 2 months, was calling to let us know that her fiance’s dad had drowned in the ocean while swimming with his young daughter.

Fuck.

I’m afraid to answer the phone. In fact, I turned it off.

*sigh*

On an up note, Evey’s had a fun week. Last weekend I took her to her first dog park – a fenced-in corner of a big park where you can turn your dog loose and let it frolic. She had a ball, and she made her first boyfriend: Rocky. He’s another puggle, about 50% bigger than her, and (thankfully) fixed. He fell in love at first sight and his owners and I had to separate the enamoured couple. I held her for a while, and the poor boy just sat at my feet patiently waiting for his new girl to be set back down. I told Rocky’s owners that I’d like him to call her once or twice, you know, at least take her out on a date before they start getting physical.

I took her to the dog beach on Lake Michigan later in the week, finally getting together with Rory Miller (my fellow Chicagoan in the FameCast Finals) and her pup Lucy. I’ve never seen Evey so happy – a giant beach full of other dogs and tons of sand and all the freedom to run around and play in the world. I was worried that she wouldn’t come back to me at first, that she’d run off and disappear, but she was just like a little kid at their first day of Kindergarten. She’d run and play with other dogs for a while, but come back to me every 5 minutes or so with a big dopey puppy grin on her face, checking back in with mama and showing off her new friends.

God I love that dog.