Mr. Annoying (my dog) struck first blood in the war against "momma driving daddy away" last night.

As posted earlier, the dog dislikes changes in the status quo, and is irked at my husband's four-day business trip. The dog's theory seems to be that, since he is inconvenienced, "momma" will be too, since it is "momma's" fault "daddy" is gone (we left together but only I came back, so clearly I had something to do with the disappearance. It was like this when the rabbit, Bump, passed away--he left the house with me going to the vet for them to handle his body, but only I came back, and the dog hasn't fully trusted me since).

I tried to go to bed at 9:30. Sounds early, but my time as a night-owl has long since passed, and I get up at 4 each morning to walk the dog and go to the gym. So the dog came into the bedroom, and I put down treats on the floor and turned off the light, the usual bedtime routine. (Many of you are wondering, why no crate? Because the dog is evil and screams like a banshee--look up the breed details of the Shiba Inu if you want proof.) Maerlyn was wondering why I would go to bed without "daddy" and proved his displeasure by wandering around the room, randomly scratching at the door, the side of the bed, and the blankets in his closet. (Yes, my dog spends a lot of time in the closet; no, there is no suggestion there.) When I would "shush" him, he would crawl under the bed and whine, those annoying, high-pitched, through-the-nose whines that some dogs have developed a skill for.

It took about an hour and a half for the dog to settle down and for me to go to sleep. Then, I woke up for an unknown reason at about 2 and couldn't go back to sleep (could have been any kind of noise, from mice, to dog flatulence, to trucks downshifting on the highway) for about an hour. When the alarm went off at 4, I mumbled "screw it", turned off the primary alarm and activated the secondary, allowing me another hour and a half of sleep time. This meant I did not have time to go work out before work.

I was punished for my laziness and lack of sleep by a massive traffic jam caused by a three-car accident in a construction zone. We slowed to a crawl, and it took over thirty minutes to travel two miles from one exit to the next, and by the time we got about to the second exit, the tow trucks pulled away and the cars around me accelerated. Yippee. I got to work half an hour later than I am comfortable with (thankfully I get to work half an hour early each day, so technically I was right on time). All morning I have felt rushed and frantic. I guess I'm a little OCD when it comes to my schedule--I don't like deviations. Just like the dog. I guess he gets it from me.

Damnit, this is all my fault, isn't it?