Let me start at the beginning, with the next time we went to Camp Kiwanee after our initial viewing of the place.  Our final venue visit went all right.  We headed down to the camp a few weeks prior to our wedding day and talked with the caretaker again.  When we got there, he wasn’t around, having forgotten about our meeting.  Sigh.

But when we found him, we told him about our plans, our setup ideas and everything.  He didn’t take any notes, just requested that we email him all the information.  I don’t know if he didn’t take notes because he forgot about our meeting and didn’t bring a notebook, or because he doesn’t generally take notes for these sorts of events, and prefers to let the couple handle everything.  I didn’t ask.  Oh well.  We talked about everything, and then we found out that Camp Kiwanee in fact does not allow candles.  On our first visit to the camp, the caretaker (the same one!) told us they did allow candles.  It wasn’t a big deal — our decorations didn’t center around candles or anything, so it wasn’t like our plans were ruined.  We also found out that the caretaker and his helper had planned to be around for the entire day, which isn’t what we were told initially.  We thought the caretaker would have to be elsewhere, celebrating Father’s Day with his family, which is what he told us over the phone at some point in the last month.  So yay for having a caretaker there all day, boo for the unnecessary stresses our conversations caused.

We got home, put together our plans for our wedding day and emailed them to the caretaker.  Of course, we didn’t know what kind of plans he wanted exactly, so we made a floor plan, we made a list of duties and who they were assigned to, we made a list of all the vendor information, our contact information, timelines, etc.

Then the big day.  When we arrived, the caterers were already there, setting up everything, as was the caretaker and his helper.  Thank goodness.  The caretaker looked harried, but he handled the setup with the help of his helper and our friends.  As far as I can tell, this went according to plan-ish.  I was sequestered away, trying to rid myself of a migraine, so I didn’t get a first-hand view of everything.

Then the wedding started.  We got married.  We took pictures.  We sat down to eat.  And somewhere in there, the caretaker and his helper left.  Just…left.  As in, they didn’t feel the need to stick around and make sure everything went smoothly.  They were gone for at least four hours and possibly more.  They came back in time for cleanup, but it was disconcerting to be at Camp Kiwanee with ZERO CAMP KIWANEE STAFF.

After we ate and danced and talked, people started leaving and we started cleaning up.  The caretaker gave us our parking permits and we distributed them to our friends, and that was that.  Except it wasn’t.  At our first meeting with Camp Kiwanee, we were told we could get back into the kitchen on the morning after the wedding so that we could all cook breakfast together.  About a week before our wedding, they told us we couldn’t.  Sorry!  To make up for it, they gave us a $30 Dunkin’ Donut gift card.  So we thought we’d be able to get in in the morning, store all our leftover food, cook for everyone and then leave, but it didn’t work out that way.

And that really was that.  On the whole, Camp Kiwanee performed just okay.  I wouldn’t expect much more from a venue at the price we got it for, but I was at least expecting that the caretaker would stick around for the whole day.  In summation, I’d say if you’re going to get married at Camp Kiwanee, be organized!  Have everything you agree on written out and signed by everyone, have all your plans written out so that you can show them to everyone, make lots of lists, and get help.  Have one of your friends act as the Day Of Coordinator.  Try not to deal with the woman in the Camp Kiwanee office as much as possible, and go into this with your eyes open, because they are not going to be organized on your behalf.  They just provide the place.  You do the rest of the work.

This dog.  I can’t get over how funny she is.  She’s been super excited about the cats because they’re her size.  We’ve gotten her to stop barking at the cats for the most part, but today, I watched her follow Kairi without him knowing.  She walked with her nose to his tail across the bedroom and dining room before he noticed and jumped onto a chair.  Lily looked pleased; Kairi looked pissed.

Later, Lily put her paws up on Sadie’s stool to investigate the smell of catnip I rubbed on it last night.  Sadie was unimpressed.  She hissed and raised her paw.  I was hoping for an epic smackdown so the dog would learn her place, but in the end, Lily’s size beat Sadie’s anger, and Sadie jumped down to hide on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.

Tonight, I threw food for Lily to see if she would chase it like Kairi does.  Lily didn’t think there was anything interesting about it, except that the food made a funny noise when it bounced across the kitchen floor.  But Kairi thought it was awesome that we were playing his game.  He pounced on a piece of dog kibble and was about to eat it until Lily came lumbering along and scarfed it down.  I grabbed a handful of cat food and threw a piece for Kairi, who chased it in his happy way.  Lily saw this and figured the cat was trying to play, so I tossed a piece of food for her and she jumped after it, suddenly excited.  It was almost as if the cat and dog were playing a game together, instead of the truth that they were playing the same game separately.

I must’ve pushed my luck because I threw a piece of food for Kairi, but Lily chased it too.  She doesn’t have good traction on the kitchen floor; she slid into Kairi, backpedaling the whole way.  Kairi flipped out, hissed, puffed his tail up and ran away.  Lily cowered underneath the coffee table and refused to come out or even eat the kibble pieces I put next to her.  There goes that game!

Today was one of those days that makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into a contemporary American novel: hot, muggy, oppressive, the fields shimmering in tune with the cicadas’ thrumming.

The puppy didn’t mind.  She’s a brush dog.  That is, she loves to wade through grass taller than she is.  If there’s a shrubbery nearby, she’ll curl up underneath it.  She spent a half hour running through the brush with Seth today, and still wasn’t tired.   It’s probably all those naps she takes.

Lily’s been feeling sick lately.  Yesterday, she slept for three full hours, woke up to throw up, and then fell asleep for another three hours.  Then she woke up one more time, and fell asleep for the night at 7:00.  That’s unusual — we’ve been putting her to bed at 10:00.  Of course, she woke up at 2:30, and again at 5:30, whining both times — also unusual.  Then today, she fell asleep next to me on the couch and proceeded to have a bad dream where she whimpered and whined and wouldn’t wake up.  I hope she wasn’t dreaming about the dog that killed her littermates.

Now it’s time to wake her up so that she can play for an hour and a half so that she can sleep past 5:00 a.m. this time around.  I hope this works.

]]> http://qfinder.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/the-lily-putian-chronicles-day-6/feed/ 2 SavvyChristine http://qfinder.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/the-lily-putian-chronicles-day-5/ http://qfinder.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/the-lily-putian-chronicles-day-5/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:15:09 +0000 SavvyChristine http://qfinder.wordpress.com/?p=967 ]]>

We’re starting to see more of Lily’s personality, now that she’s settling in with us.  For starters, she’s smart.  And I don’t mean SMRT.  She has taken to asking at the door to go outside to go to the bathroom: she sits down at the door and stares at us until we figure out what she wants.  That’s pretty awesome.  Of course, she only does that when she has to poop.  When she has to pee, her choice is still the carpet — although she did ask at the door that one time this morning.

She’s stubborn.  When we don’t go her direction on the leash, she fights and pulls and jumps until she flops over, exhausted, then walks up to us as if nothing happened.  Brat.

We took her to the park this morning to let her run a little, and also so she could explore new situations.  When something catches Lily’s attention, she sits down and stares.  Then, when she’s processed it, she either moves on or moves closer.  We approached the tennis court today, and she had to sit down three times to work it out.  I think this is hilarious.

Lily hates the car.  I took this picture yesterday when we were on our way to Seth’s parents’ house, and she moped the entire way.   She’s getting better about being in the car, but she knows that going for a drive usually means a new situation, and she’s still so unsure of herself and us that I’m positive she thinks it’s going to be another change to her life.

When she’s home, Lily is the life of the party.  She and I, we danced yesterday in the living room.  She bounced and pranced, and I bounced and pranced back at her, and she thought it was the Best. Game. Ever.  Which is good, because her usual play is biting whatever she can reach.  We’ve supplied her with enough toys so that she has some good alternatives to the chair legs, though.  She likes the stuffed carrot that you can see in the photo, but she LOVES her Bobo, which is a long, thin, curly-haired dog with two squeakers in it that she stole from Seth’s parents’ house.  She licked and chewed it for forty-five minutes last night.

One final note — she’s learning how to play fetch.  If you catch her in the right mood, you can toss her carrot, tell her, “go get it!” in an excited voice, and she’ll run, jump on the carrot, then bring it back.  If you take it from her and throw it again, she’ll do it again.  I know a hundred other dogs can do that, but it’s like magic, watching her learn.

See Lily.  See Lily pee on the carpet.  Pee, Lily, pee!

That’s how the last 24 hours have been.  Well, not really.  We’re still getting to know Lily’s schedule for eating, napping, and going outside, so it’s only natural that she wet the carpet once or twice.  Thank goodness it was our carpet and not our landlord’s!

Lily has become more comfortable with us by leaps and bounds.  Yesterday, she stayed in her crate for most of the day.  This morning, she was a party animal!  She bounced and pranced and played, barked at the cats, chased Sadie under the bed, crawled under the table, chewed her stuffed carrot for a half hour, ate the peanut butter out of her kong, and wiggled her butt too many times to count (okay, so it was twice).  She has progressed to walking inside the apartment building without hesitation, and walking inside our apartment with only a moment’s pause.  When you call, “Lily!” she looks.

Unless she’s chewing her bone.  Then all bets are off.

She has fabulous Yoda ears when she’s at attention, but when she’s relaxed, she folds them back against her head.

The cutest thing Lily does is when she wakes up, she needs attention.  Needs it.  There will be no coming out of the crate until Lily has her belly rubs, and woe to the person who does not give them quickly enough!  And by “woe,” I mean “sad puppy eyes.”  She does those well.

Coming into second place for the cutest behavior ever is that when Lily is happy, she prances.  And she pranced at me after Seth took her to go to the bathroom this morning.  I was out of sight for two minutes, then she saw me and pranced.  She likes me!  I think the feeling is mutual.