We were riding in the elevator up to the banquet room. At one point we stopped to pick up some more passengers, an older couple and a younger woman. The young woman seemed to have some type of mild mental disability. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I suddenly got this very strong feeling that I hoped these people were not going to the banquet as well. I was unaccountably disheartened when they got off the elevator with us. We walked into the banquet room and spotted some people we had gotten to know during the tournament, Mike and Kathy. Kathy had saves seats for us at their table, I was looking forward to a fun evening socializing with our new friends. Unbelievably the three people from the elevator came over and immediately sat down at the large table which could seat about 10. I can't explain my negative reaction nor did I really realize it until I looked back on the situation. For some reason, I did not want to talk to those people. I left an empty chair between myself and the young woman, but had to shift into it as more people joined our party.
The next thing I know, I am talking to the young woman (I'll call her Ani, she is 24) and her mother. Her father was sitting between Ani and her mom, but due to the noise level in the room I couldn't hear anything he said and didn't always here what her mom said either. To make a long story shorter, what I could understand was that Ani was an exercise rider at a horse track, she agreed to exercise a horse that no one else would ride. All was going well until the end of the ride. Some thing must have spooked the horse, he ran, crashed into and impaled himself on the rail and tossed Ani to the ground. She received back injuries and I think brain injuries as well, although I am not positive. When she explained about the back injuries I could actually feel her pain (I was in a car wreck about 12 years ago and had similar, milder, injuries). I placed my hand on her back right where I thought the pain was and seemed to "sense" that she had about 4 or 5 vertebra slipped out. Her mother was talking about suing some one to pay for surgery and throwing out names of horse owner celebrities etc. All I could think was that surgery was not going to fix these injuries and it would be wrong to put this little girl under the knife. I was doing my damndest not to speak my mind, especially considering that I am by no means a doctor, nor do I know anymore than what they just told me about the situation.
That’s when I felt Don squeeze my knee which is his signal for me to calm down. I was emotionally riled up and did not take the 'signal' well. Can anyone see where this is going? Yup, I left the table, he followed me to the room where we had a nice little battle. I broke down and started crying telling him about Ani's injuries and the way her parents wanted some one to pay and the surgery, and it was all so weird. He left the room to go back up and tell Mike and Kathy what was going on. I was still so angry I was going to go out and walk the strip!! Damn it!
Don came back before I could leave and said "you were reading her weren't you?"
That’s when it all made sense. I told him about all the negative energy and bad feelings I had gotten from those people earlier. I didn't WANT to be near them, I didn't WANT to talk to them. My emotional radar was telling me that but I didn't know it. I don't know if any of this makes much sense, but what it comes down to is that I can "read" some people. It has happened before, but it wasn't a negative experience. I never know I am doing it until later, when I look back on a situation and all the pieces fit into place.
I was finally able to calm down, Mike and Kathy had wanted us to go out with them and I thought it would be a good idea. We met them in the lobby, the first thing Kathy did was put her arms around me and say, "Here, let me give you all my positive energy". How bizarre is that?

Don and I won a trip to Vegas to participate in the NTRA National Horse Race Handicapping Tournament. On Thursday morning (1/22/04) we flew in to Vegas, got settled into our room at Bally's and walked down to the Race book to register for the contest. That’s when the first of a number of weird things happened on this trip. Bally's has a few shops on the ground floor that we passed on our way to the race book, one is a crystal shop. Normally I wouldn't bother going in because, although I find crystal figurines and the like to be pretty, I also consider them dust collectors. For some reason this time I felt compelled to go in. We looked around a little bit and saw the usual array of cut crystal ballerinas, clowns and other oddities that some marketing genius determined people would buy. We were just about to leave the shop when Don pointed to a crystal ball in the display case. She was perfect. We had been looking for a crystal ball for a few months, but weren’t having any luck. We were afraid to order online, because you never know what you are going to get and they are a pretty hefty investment. So, there she was, and as a bonus she was on sale! The sales lady was very helpful and agreed to hold the crystal for us, as we had some other errands to run and didn’t want to carry her around. When we came back to pick up the crystal, the sales lady looked at me and said ‘you are going to gaze (also known as scrying) with that crystal aren’t you?’ I just looked at her. How could this woman know that? She said she could tell by the way I was holding the crystal when we first looked at it. Bizarre.

Friday the first day of the tournament. I should state right here that horserace handicapping is not really my thing, I like to pick them by name. The handicapping is Don’s forte or at least it usually is, this contest we could not hit a single winner. I am not going to waste time writing about the tournament other than to say that out of 260 entries we came in some where around 240. But, hey, it was a free trip to Vegas! Friday after the contest we were both so wiped out we walked over to Bellagio, played a few slot machines (which means my ‘complimentary beverage’ cost us fifty bucks), got something to eat and crashed by 8:30. No we are not die hard Vegas partyers.

Saturday, second and final day of the tournament. Nothing new to say, we whiffed it big time. My gf and her hubby (A&M) joined us in the race book where we took great advantage of the fact that those of us in the contest and others seated at our table got free drinks. We had a few rounds, the contest ended, M&A went on their way to meet a friend and we went up to get ready for the NTRA banquet that night.

Whew! Well, we got belted with about 7 more inches of snow yesterday. It was really starting to pile up by 2 in the afternoon so I decided to leave work early as I have to drive the freeway and didn't want to be stuck in traffic. This actually worked out really well, I was able to get to the ARL (which is only a few miles from our house) by 2:30. Let me back up a little here and explain how we managed to find ourselves volunteering there. First of all if you ever see me walking down the street you will instantly recognize me, I am the one with the word SUCKER pasted across my forehead and believe me, animals know how to read.

My husband (Don) and I have adopted 3 dogs and one cat from the ARL in the last three years. Our other cat Lady, was found in a restaurant parking lot. Charlie is out 10 year old Benji-type mutt, they told us he was deaf, we have since decided that he has selective hearing, he seems to hear the word WALK no matter how softly we say it. Dixie is a redbone coon hound, an apt description of her would be bark machine with big ears. She thinks she is the queen of the house, I frequently have to remind her that is not the case. Bella is a German Short Hair Pointer, she has a tiny little head on a 40 pound body. We think she was a snake in her past life as she can't seem to keep her tongue in her mouth and LOVES to give kisses. Romeo is a flame point siamese, he loves to talk to us, we decided to adopt him because he was reaching outside his cage and trying to let the other cats out.

I have been wanting to volunteer at the ARL for some time now, but have frankly been afraid. I was afraid that being with all those animals who had no one to love them would wipe me out emotionally. I was afraid I would end up taking every one of them home. Well, thankfully we have reached our city’s legal limit for dogs and I really don't want to upset the status quo by bringing in any more cats, So, as our New Year's resolution we decided to 'bite the bullet' and volunteer.

The first Saturday of the month we had orientation where they explained what we could do to help and took us for a tour of the facility. Before we left that day Don and I were talking each other OUT of adopting a 1 year old Great Dane. Did I tell you I am also insane? Luckily, Don's sanity prevailed and we did not adopt Duchess.

Monday night was our "official" night volunteering. We have found that most of the volunteers seem to be "fair weather friends". When the adoption kennels are full, there are 20 dogs that need to be walked and loved. Monday night it was snowing, very cold and windy, Don and I were the only ones who showed up for what we call the evening walk shift. I got there before he did and like any newbie, wanted to brush, bathe, walk and love every animal in the place. I started with MoJo a 6 year old Bishon Frise who had been relinquished by his owners because they were moving into an apartment. MoJo was a sweety, I walked him, brushed him and tried to cut some of the tangles out of his fur. I knew I couldn't spend too much time with him if I was going to get to the other 20 dogs and 40 cats. (did I mention it was my first night?) I put MoJo back in his cage and was petting one of the cats when a lady came up and started asking me about MoJo. Well, I could only tell her what little bit I knew from his cage card and the 20 minutes I had spent with him. We took him into a visitation room so she could get to know him, I went to get a staff member who could better assist her with MoJo. I walked back into the visitation room and squatted down to talk to the lady because she was sitting on the floor. MoJo came running over jumped in my lap and settled down like we had known each other for years. The lady was charmed, all I had to say was, "I have only known this guy for half an hour, I think you can see how affectionate he is." MoJo got a new home that night.

When Don arrived we started at one end of the kennel rows and proceeded to wrestle with each dog. Yes, that’s right, wrestle. I don't care how mild mannered and calm these dogs really are, when they have been caged up all day and you enter the kennel, they go spastic. They jump, they wiggle, they try to hug you, kiss you and play with you, all the while you are trying to get a collar on them. Well, over the next two hours we managed to walk 18 out of the 20 dogs. I was in the cage with the last one and it was closing time, poor Brutus would have to wait until morning.

We went home and saddled up our three dogs to take them for their evening walk. As we were walking we talked about the dogs we had met and realized that we both felt really good about being able to help out. The attitude you HAVE to take is that each of those dogs is warm, dry, well fed and has a really good chance of finding a better home than they had. 

We went again Tuesday night and luckily there were two other volunteers there so we got all of the dogs walked. We couldn't go Wednesday because we had to pick up the kids (the real kids, my stepsons who we have every Wednesday, Thursday and every other weekend). This brings me back to the beginning of my story, getting to the ARL in the snowstorm yesterday afternoon.

Once again, the fair weather volunteers were no where to be found. Don was going to try to meet me there after he got the kids from school and dropped them off at home. I managed to get 10 of the medium sized dogs walked and cuddled with Dutchess for awhile before they closed the shelter due to bad weather.

We will be going back again tonight.