1)Mu�e's outside, tied to a tree. She's been a very, very bad girl. Bad chihuahua. Bad bitch. So she's been punished, confined to the frightening Great Outdoors. She cried all day, but I kept going over how she didn't even bark in surprise when Mar�a and I got home. What if she'd gotten loose and was out there, lost in some dark alley, getting butt-raped by a german sheperd or something? Worse, what if she got hit by a car? Or gotten picked up by some loony old lady with a cat obsession and mistook Mu�e for a very large big-eyed kitty? And never responded to the LOST DOG ads because her vision was (obviously) going or she simply didn't care to return our beloved pooch? See, I've got a big imagination, don't I? That's why this 'writing-for-a-career' thing calls out to me. Anyhow, I'm going off track. Point is, I was worried about the damn mutt, ok?

2)My cell phone. I didn't know where it was. I was almost positive I had left it in Makaveli (the car), but was too lazy to go look.

I rolled over decidedly, bent on ignoring these things, but in the end, my annoying worry-neurons won out, and I got up and out of the house, in only a t-shirt and underwear, to go check up on the dog. She was in the old doghouse that used to belong to Kookie and later to Billi, just like she was supposed to. I shrugged. Since I was outside already, might as well go get the damn phone from my car. So I went.

And it wasn't there.

Oh... crap. I went inside and gave the kitchen and dining room a hasty but effective search. Nothing. Then I grabbed the house phone and dialed the number. The first time around, there was no answer at all. I got the damn machine that still has 'Ama's voice recorded into it. (It pisses her off that I haven't changed it, since she never uses the damn phone.) Frustrated, walking over to my room, I dialed again, hoping I had somehow left it in the mess of my room. This time, after the first ring, a familiar voice picked up.

"Hello?" Ah, relief! Mar�a!

"Hey! Sorry, did I leave it in your room?" I whispered apologetically.

A confused: "What?"

"My phone. Did I leave it in your room?"

"Um... well... who are you?"

Crap. No Mar�a? But I coulda sworn-- "Sorry, sorry. I think I dialed the wrong number." It had been dark in my room, after all.

"No, no, no! The phone is at UPS! Who are you?"

Shit. Things just keep getting better, don't they? "This is G-Unit. I'm one of the International clerks. You say it's at the warehouse?"

"Yes, you left it here in the office."

"Which office? The scanning or--"

"The one where Irene's at."

Oh. "Oh." A pause as I consider my situation, and then, "Is there any way I can go for it right now?"

"Uh, sure, sure! But how far do you live? How long will it take you to get here?"

"I live about five or ten minutes away from the warehouse."

"Oh, okay! The security guard leaves at one, but maybe he'll leave the gate open."

Cool. "Okay, I'm on my way."

And I went on my way. I almost took off like that, in my t-shirt and underwear, but decided against it. Even though it's after hours, I still felt I needed to keep some kinda etiquette or something. Plus, I wasn't too keen (and still ain't) on letting whoever was still there see my bare hairy legs. I like to keep my fur to myself.