The Lady with the Boxers

If you follow me on Twitter, you are well aware that I hate my current job but there is one bright spot that happens daily.  As crappy as the job is, I'm fortunate enough that my little cube faces a window.   I can always take a minute and enjoy the beautiful landscaping and try to figure out what the name of the tree is that's in the middle of the divider ... I'd like to plant one near my deck.   Even more enjoyable than watching the tree blossom is the lady with the two Boxers.

Like clockwork, there's a little blond lady that takes a walk between 10:00-11:00 a.m.  She's never missed a day since I've been working there.  She's a petite lady but I can't see her close enough to take a guess at her age.  She always has two of the prettiest Boxers I've ever seen walking with her.  They're well-trained dogs as she never has them on a leash.  Yet they stay out of the road and stay relatively close to her.  They'll run ahead of her as she maintains her pace but they're never more than 10-15 feet away.  They stay close together and there's a particular spot on my company's land that one likes to take care of business (if I ever get to walk during lunch I'll know which spot to avoid).    The other one must like a spot on the other side of the building as he/she never takes care of business in my view.

I envy that lady.  Not because she has two of the prettiest dogs I've ever seen (I love 'em all) but because she doesn't have to be in an office every day at a job she despises to earn enough money to pay the bills -- barely.  I've made up a whole fantasy life around her and her dogs.  She's obviously well-off enough that she doesn't work during the morning or she has a second shift job and is walking the dogs in the morning because she won't be at home during the evening.  Because my company is located in a pretty swanky part of town, I choose to believe the former. 

I think she's carefree enough to spend her days exactly as she likes or she's got a sick partner or child at home and takes a few minutes to herself every day to keep her sanity.  Or her husband is a successful ____ (insert ideal occupation here) and all she has to do is supervise the hired help.  Or her husband has passed on and left her with enough insurance money to live in that neighborhood or she lives with her parents and uses that time with her dogs to try to figure out her next move.  

I wonder if she's planning her dinner menu as she's walking.  Because she doesn't have to work, she can plan and execute healthy meals for her family everyday as opposed to hoping to get home in time to throw some chicken breasts in the pan and boil some pasta or pick up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and some frozen broccoli or defrost some hamburger and make Manwiches and frozen tater tots.   

After she finishes her walk, I'm sure she takes the dogs home, gives them a treat, and takes a shower.  She probably reads a little while or she maybe a TV junkie and watches The View, live.  The dogs are probably resting as they've romped and played over and hour during their walk.  They've sniffed every bush and run ahead enough to enjoy themselves but they always wait for her to catch up.  She doesn't go home and spend the day worrying about the visit to the Vet that her dogs are sorely in need of for annual vaccinations.  She's not trying to determine if she should spend the extra $20 to get the dogs some healthy, natural, dog food or give them the preservatives-laden mass market brand.  She loves her dogs as evidenced by their happy demeanor and playful spirit.  She wants to provide the best life possible for them.  Those dogs are cared for better than people in some areas.  

After The View (or reading) she works in her garden and makes sure the flowers are pruned and watered.  She might do some shopping as the dogs nap.  She's not stressed though ... she's just enjoying her day.   The house is spotless (the cleaning lady was there while she walked the dogs).  The lawn is mowed (the lawn guy comes once a week -- twice during the rainy season).   If anything is broken in the beautiful house, she'll  put up with the aggravation of waiting for someone to come to fix it.  She doesn't care how much it costs.  Life is pretty good. 

She's in my line of sight for five minutes top but the life I imagine her leading carries me through the rest of my day in Hell.  She can be out with her dogs as I sit in an office and wonder how she's spending her day.
 I don't know the lady with the Boxers but I envy her.