No.

I have a long history of not being able to tell people no. No matter what it is, I can't seem to say that two letter word in fear of upsetting someone. It's a problem, really. 

However, after dog/house sitting for some friends last week, I may be able to use that word a little more freely. Especially for them and their dogs! 

I went over to meet their dogs C&L the Thursday before they left. She walked me through everything, told me where everything was, and while I was there she mentioned that the deadbolt on the front door was really hard to open, so she usually only locked it while she was at home. Uh, Lies. 

I arrived to their house about 6pm on Saturday night and found the key she left for me. I went to open the front door with my arms loaded down with my things to find that both the bottom lock AND deadbolt was locked. The one that is really hard to open and is usually only locked while they're at home, you remember. 

I put the key in and tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. At all. I threw all my stuff on a bench, and began to try and force the key to turn. - Nothing. 

I went to the side door to see if the same key would work, but of course that's too easy.

After spending about an hour in the sweltering Georgia heat trying to unlock the dadgum door, I broke the key in the lock. 

I finally got the broken key out of the door, and decided to see if I could get it to work on the back door (that I wasn't supposed to use) even though it was broken. After another 45 minutes of that being unsuccessful, I decided that I should try and see if Walmart could make another key. And of course, it was broken so they couldn't do a thing with it. Story.Of.My.Life. 

I called S and asked her what I should do. Thankfully, there was a neighbor down the road that came with his two sons and they found a ladder in the backyard, climbed up on the roof, and found an unlocked window. All at 10pm, mind you. The boys were scared of climbing on the roof, then they were scared of the dogs so their Dad had to talk them through it all from the ground. It was a sight. We finally got in the house, got the alarm turned off just in time, and got the dogs outside to pee before they destroyed the house. It was quite the adventure, no doubt. 

The rest of the week followed suite with every ounce of crazy. The dogs acted like they were babies with their days and nights mixed up. The first night, they woke me up every single hour, but then decided they wanted to sleep all day. That pattern continued every night. Exhausted doesn't even begin to describe how I felt by the following Saturday. They barked at motorcycles, they barked at each other, they barked at the floor, they whined, and any other noise they could muster to wake me from my not so peaceful slumber. Sometime during the week, they got a hold of a pillow on the couch and tore out the stuffing. On Friday, they found a container of cookies on the island that I made. They ripped the entire Tupperware container to shreds and ate all of the cookies. I could have screamed. By Saturday, I couldn't get away from them fast enough! I also vowed that I would never watch these dreadful dogs again. 

I'm aware that things like this could only happen to me. Which is the exact reason VA and I want to write a book. The funny abounds in our world.  

Happy Tuesday! 

XoXo,

-AK