Yep.  One of my heroes is a dog.  Weird, huh?  Well, there€™s a reason for it.  I mean, seriously€¦ tell me that after coming home to this face every day for two years, it wouldn€™t make YOUR life better too: I grew up always having a dog around.  My parents had a dog when I was born, a Chihuahua named Teddy.  Teddy actually ended up living mostly on our front porch (enclosed, not outside) after I was born because he became jealous having a baby in the house.  He had been the baby, and then all of a sudden there was this new tiny person in the house getting more attention than him.  I can understand him not being too happy about that.  Teddy died when I was about eleven, and my parents decided that it would be okay for us to get another furry four-legged pet.  (And it would NOT be a cat.  My dad had a huge vendetta against cats.  One had killed his pet chicken when he was a kid and he never quite got over it, thus we were by default determined to be €œdog people€.)   I definitely owe my love of dogs and other animals to my parents€¦ we even owned a pet shop when I was growing up.  Between all of the fish in the shop and at home as well as the hamsters we bred at one point (we named them after candy bars €“ think Hershey, Snickers, and Zero), our house was never without some kind of pet. So when we decided to get another dog, we found someone that had just had a litter of mixed terriers and visited their home to see if one of them might fit in and be the newest member of our family.  I remember going to this family€™s house and meeting the four dogs that were in the litter.  There was one white/light one that was quite rambunctious and lively, almost a bit too lively.  And there were two black ones that were pretty quiet, one of them being the runt.  And then there was one that was black and white with even a little bit of brown mixed in, with a kind of €œin-between€ personality, not too quiet and not too hyper, either.  This is the one we took home with us €“ a little girl puppy that we ended up naming Missie. Missie was with us for quite a long time, up until after I had graduated from college with my bachelors degree.  And she was a part of a two-dog household for a while, after I grew up and moved out on my own and decided that I also wanted a furry roommate (guys with chest hair definitely not an option) of my own.  I searched the local Freecycle Network and found a dog that had been abandoned on the south side, an all-black cocker spaniel named Chase.  I adopted him and brought him home, only to discover that poor Chase had very severe separation anxiety.  He barked a LOT whenever I would leave him, enough that my neighbors complained.  And if I didn€™t leave him confined to a crate, he tore things up.  I ended up really being too busy to take care of him since I was a full-time student and working part-time at that point as well, so my parents took him in.  He joined Missie until she passed away just a few years ago.  Now Chase€”who is totally a very sweet, gentle dog€”keeps my mom company. That brings us to the present day, or at least two years ago.  Two years ago yesterday€”July 19, 2008€”I decided that I wanted to try to get another dog.  (Well, really, I decided a few days before that when I was searching on Petfinder, but I actually got her on July 19.)  I found a dog that had been at Southside Animal Shelter in Indianapolis, but she had heartworm and was staying with a €œfoster family€ while she was being treated for it.  I came across a picture of Sophie on the Petfinder site and decided that she might be a good fit for me.  So I sent some emails to find out more about her, as well as making a visit to the family she was staying with to meet her.  Sophie seemed to take a liking to me right away, as she ran right to me when I called her name. It€™s been an interesting two years.  Sophie has now been through a lot with me, including some escape attempts where she went swimming in the apartment pond as well as one that ended up with her head stuck in her crate and a trip to get stitches in her neck.  We had to learn to adjust to each other€™s ways, and we have.  I€™m glad she got to meet and know my dad.  He loved her, even though she is a bit wild and definitely more rambunctious than Chase.  What€™s even funnier is that Ricky loves her too.  And he pretty much hates dogs.  (I think they just get along so well because they both love attention, so they feed off of each other.) So yes€¦ Sophie is one of my heroes.  When I have a bad day, I flip through the pictures on my phone and see the face, big dark eyes, and wet nose that I get to home to and cuddle with (and no, I don€™t mean Ricky) and it makes me smile.  When I€™m down or when I cry, she is always there to let me know I am loved unconditionally.  I rescued her, but some days I feel like she rescues me.  If you€™ve adopted a pet, you know what I mean.  She€™s my kid, and my life would have never been the same without her.

What?  You haven't heard of gRegorLove?  How is that possible?  He is only the most awesome ladies man around!  You can read the story of gRegorLove right here, but you haven't gotten the full effect until you get to know him.  I met gRegor sometime in 1999, I believe.  This was back when the chat program ICQ was pretty popular, and I did a search for people living in my zip code at the time.  Oddly enough, gRegor didn't live in my zip code anymore, but had briefly at one point in time.  We got to chatting off and on for a while, and he eventually invited me to "Club Z" at the now-defunct Sonshine Inn.  So I went, on a Tuesday night, down to Fountain Square, dragging my best friend Seren along with me.  The first time I was there, I didn't know anyone, and gRegor was so popular that he seemed to always have someone around him, but eventually we connected and introduced ourselves.  Thus the beginning of what I believe will be a lifelong friendship. I eventually began attending Club Z more regularly, and was also invited to movie nights on Sundays at the "Mecca" (aka the Deckard's house in Danville) as well as the Bible studies they were holding at the time.  Through gRegor, I made many new friends, including the infamous Deckards and the other two members of the Tridumbverate.  My friendship with him has been the beginning of many things, including five years of trips to Cornerstone, lots of nights at Sonshine Inn, promotion of quite a few local concerts, infinite inside jokes, and a slew of new friends made. Earlier this year, I moved into a new apartment, my fourth move within the last six or so years.  And even though I only moved across the street within my apartment complex, it was still a huge hassle.  It made me realize that if you really want to find a way to see who your true friends are, just move and ask people to help you.  Nobody ever wants to, and it seems like most people will try to avoid it at all costs.  But selfless friends will always be the first in line to volunteer.  And though it's not always willingly, gRegor has helped me every time I've moved. If you know gRegor much at all, you know that friendship with him is not something you really ever want to give up.  He is one of the friendliest, kindest, most loving people I have ever met.  I'm not sure it's possible to find a person that knows what being a friend really means better than him.  And in 2007, we all came close to losing such a great friend.  On a Sunday morning that May, I woke up to voice mail messages from a couple of friends.  gRegor had been watching a movie with them and all of a sudden he started having what they thought was a seizure.  It was actually a problem with his heart, and he had to be taken to the hospital.  Over the course of a few days, many people came to visit him in the hospital.  The prospect was grim, and his condition was very serious.  We weren't sure if it would turn out okay.  But it did.  Thankfully, gRegor woke up, and eventually made a full recovery.  He now has to wear a pacemaker to protect that big heart of his. I will never forget the day I got those phone messages and rushed to the hospital.  I knew I was one of few friends he had (at least locally, as a lot of our friends from shortly after the time I met him have now moved to other states) that really knew his parents, and I also probably had more friends in common with him than pretty much anyone, so I took on the responsibility of calling people who knew and loved him to let them know what had happened.  I made A LOT of phone calls that day.  I think pretty much everyone that knows gRegor realizes what a gift he is, and the world definitely wasn't ready to give him up.  I know I won't be anytime soon!  I'm very blessed to have had gRegor in my life for about 10 years now and to be able to call him one of my best friends and heroes, and I look forward to many more years of spending time with him.  Love you, gRegorLove! <3

Every girl should have a best friend.  Someone they've known for years, some other girl that they can say has been with them through thick and through thin, through multiple boyfriends, through those tough times of life that honestly, no guy can really completely understand.  For me, that's my friend Seren. Seren and I met in 1989.  I can't remember the exact month we met, so she was either 8 or 9, and I was either 9 or 10.  I do remember that if you talk to the right person, you may be able to find a VHS tape of us in a Christmas play at church that same year.  (Good luck finding one of the lucky people that owns a copy of said tape.)  I can honestly say that we've pretty much been best friends ever since. As kids and sometimes teenagers, Seren and I had this habit of buying something after the other one did.  Purses, cell phones, shoes, you name it.  I'm not sure whether we happen to just have the same taste or we just wanted to compete with each other.  Maybe a little bit of both, honestly.  I honestly can't even really explain it, but somehow we have just been there throughout the whole of each other's lives, ever since that day in 1989.  We grew up hanging out at each other's houses on Sunday afternoons (between church services) and having sleepovers.  We dealt with each other's crushes and boyfriends.  And we totally fought like sisters when we were teenagers. Then came college.  Somehow we managed to stay in touch even after graduating high school.  Seren started attending IUPUI in spring of 2001, and I started in the fall (if I remember correctly).  Because she switched majors and I stuck it out with the one I started with, we found ourselves graduating the same semester, from the same school.  One of the coolest things ever was to walk out to "Pomp and Circumstance" with my best friend of (at the time) 17 years. Seren has seen more of my life than pretty much any of my current friends.  She has known me and seen me grow for the last 20+ years of my life.  She chose me as the maid of honor in her wedding, and should I get married, she will no doubt be in mine.  I can't even describe what we've seen each other through.  Friends, relationships, boyfriends, love, hate, hurt, pain, joy... we've pretty much seen it all.  And although we pretty much live on opposite sides of town now and don't see each other in person too often - we still manage to stay very much in touch and able to share each other's lives.  In fact, we're both working on getting our MBAs right now and are currently sharing in the pain of having little free time due to the burden of both a full-time job along with school. If you can't say that you've had a BFF (Best Friend Forever, for the uninformed) at least sometime in your life, that's too bad.  I love mine and don't know what I'd do without her.  I'm glad she's been there for me through thick and thin for all these years.  Love you, bestie! ;)

Did you think I forgot about this series?  Or about my blog in general, for that matter?  Sometimes there are things that I would like to blog about but the actual act of sitting down and writing out my thoughts in a coherent manner just feels too overwhelming.  Or, maybe I'm just lazy.  Anyway, here's my next hero (and they are in no particular order, FYI). Ricky (aka rickyleepotts) is my boyfriend, most of you are probably aware of that.  Some of you may not know him.  Some of you may not care for him.  But yeah, he is definitely a hero in my world, and here's why. Ricky came into my life at an interesting time.  I had just started a new job, and was going through some things in different relationships that left me open to new ones, and wanting to ring in the beginning of 2009 somewhere new and different.  Ricky and I met between Christmas and New Year's, and he was open to plans for New Year's as well.  We ended up ringing in the New Year together (which is an interesting and crazy story in and of itself), and have been dating ever since. Ricky's not quite like anyone I've ever met before.  I don't always see eye to eye with him on everything, but one thing that I think is great about him is exactly how real he is.  He's probably one of the most real people that I know.  And what I mean by that is... well, I can think of relationships I've had where I spent a lot of time wondering what the other person was thinking, because I really had no idea.  Some people are just not great at conveying much about themselves sometimes.  Ricky is the complete opposite of that.  I never have to guess what he's thinking - he will be the first to let me know.  I think more of us need to be like that, and I certainly wish I was sometimes.  It's refreshing to know someone that is honest about how they feel and what they are thinking.  There's a degree of authenticity there that's hard to find.  Some people that know him might think Ricky's too opinionated, but my thought is that everyone has an opinion... how many of us are just too afraid to share it? Another thing I love about Ricky is how passionate he is.  When he gets an idea in his head that he is interested in, he really goes after it.  I see people sit around and think of things they want to do for years, yet never end up doing them.  They don't make the phone call or take the steps or whatever to accomplish what they really want.  That's not Ricky at all.  Once he figures out what he wants (just don't put a restaurant menu in front of him, or that may not happen), he goes after it.  He takes the steps to make it happen, and is usually successful.  I've gotten some nice perks (get your mind out of the gutter!) over the last year because he just knows how to make things happen. Ok, I know you've been waiting for it... here's where I get sorta gushy.  Probably the thing I like most about Ricky is how he knows how to deal with me.  Nobody's perfect, everybody has their bad days... and on the days I'm sad, even though he doesn't understand, he lets me know he loves me.  On the days I'm mad, if it's at him, he tries to figure out what he's done wrong and how to help.  I'm not perfect, but I'm very hard on myself, and thus sometimes hard on those closest to me, so you can bet he has to deal with a lot of that.  And he handles it probably about as well as anyone could.  I can't imagine feeling much more helpless than dealing with someone who has just lost an immediate family member.  And he's been there for me through all of that. To my sweetie... thank you for loving me and for all the things I learn from and admire in you every day. <3

There's an idea that I've had for a little while about a new kind of blog post series that I think I am going to start.  See, there are a lot of really cool people in my life, people that mean a lot to me or have helped me or touched me in some way.  I'd like to start writing posts about these people, something of a tribute series to the people that mean a lot to me.  I'm going to call it "Heroes in My World". Welcome to the first post in this new series.  And I can't think of anyone else that I would rather make it about besides my father.  If you read my blog at all, you know that my father passed away earlier this year.  And while I have blogged about his death and the experience that has been for me, I don't think I have really talked too much about who he was, either for the world, my family, or me personally. I honestly feel like I grew up not necessarily knowing my dad very well.  He owned his own business and was gone "out on installation" a lot.  See, my dad's business was making and installing kitchen/bathroom/etc cabinets.  He decided he wanted to do that when he was a teenager and started his own business shortly after marrying my mom.  And, well, he was GREAT at it.  Not too many cabinet businesses actually make custom cabinets.  A lot of kitchen and bathroom cabinets are factory-made.  My dad was also a perfectionist at what he did, and while it may have only paid off financially enough to just support his family, he had a stellar reputation.  The local newspaper for the town that I grew up in has an insert once a week that showcases houses for sale.  The coolest thing in the world was seeing the times that a house was featured as having "Hugill cabinets". I remember going through some rough times in my childhood that I won't get into too much, they are a bit too personal.  But through those times, I remember being scared, but knowing my dad would take care of things.  And I didn't always get along with him (what kid or teenager does?), but looking back, I can see how I am a lot like him.  I think I relate to people very similar to how he did.  I find it very easy to talk to and be friends with just about anyone, and looking back, I can see that he was the same way.  In our small town, people knew him everywhere he went.  And after having worked at several local businesses as a teenager, I found the same was true about me. This Christmas will be hard for my family.  My dad will be greatly missed, as he was a big part of our holiday celebration.  It's grown smaller each year, it seems - my paternal grandparents used to be a part of it and are now gone as well.  One thing I really remember about Christmas each year growing up was that my dad always did his shopping on Christmas Eve.  I vividly remember when I was 16 and working at the local Walmart on the day before Christmas and seeing my dad there shopping for my mom.  Mine and my brother's presents were already wrapped, of course, as my mom did that.  But most of her presents wouldn't be purchased until the last minute.  He did that pretty much every year, and then would wrap them in comics from the Sunday paper.  Of course, until I got old enough to know how to wrap, then he pawned the job off on me.  What I wouldn't give to be wrapping those presents for him this year... I miss my dad, and not just because he was my dad.  He was a fun person to be around, always joking, laughing, and teasing people (sometimes to a fault!).  He was loved by so many people, and the number of them at his funeral and visitation was evidence of that.  For years and years, my dad used to carry around a poem in his wallet that he had found, something that he apparently strived for, something we should all strive for, and something that I can say without a doubt he did indeed achieve.  Here it is: Success To laugh often and much to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. -Ralph Waldo Emerson I can only hope that when I die, I am as successful.  There's a song by Jimmy Eat World that I can't help but crying when I hear now, because it makes me think so much of my father.  I've posted it on here before, but to me it sums up my feelings so clearly that I just can't leave out the two stanzas that speak to me the most. What would you think of me now? So lucky, so strong, so proud I never said thank you for that Now I€™ll never have a chance If you were with me tonight I€™d sing to you just one more time A song for a heart so big, that God wouldn€™t let it live May angels lead you in... I love you, Dad.  You're very much missed. <3