Guest Post: Kim

It's time for February's Guest Post comes from Miss Kimberly! Or that Asian kid, or that dam Latina girl (this is a bit of an inside joke between us, I'm not racist or something.) Kim and I roll back from our HHS days, we met in NJROTC. What the heck is NJROTC,you ask? You will never know. Seriously, I think we have both blocked that time form our memories. So here's Kimmy:

Let me start by introducing myself, as I’m sure many of Marisol’s blog readers most likely don’t know me. My name is Kimberly Tran, I am 100% Vietnamese, and 100% nerd, both of which I am proud of being. I’ve known Marisol since our days in high school and I’ll be the first to admit that she and I have shared tons of great memories, and some not so great memories, but through it all, I find her still willing to be my friend, and for that I am eternally grateful. She’s put up with my mom being absolutely horrendous to her, forgiven me for watching her tumble down half a flight of stairs, and has still maintained contact with me. Now either something is wrong with her, or she sees something in me that makes her want to remain my friend.

When I first started reading Marisol’s blog I realized two things, one, I really like her writing style, and two I really like her as a person. Then when I saw that she had guest bloggers I absolutely squealed like a little girl, I sent her a message and asked her if I could do an entry in her blog, she told me I would get February’s slot and I was completely happy with that. That was like way back in October, maybe even November, the point is, I completely forgot I was writing an entry for her blog until she so kindly reminded me the week before January was to end. When I got her reminder I was so excited, and then slightly panicked. I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I had told her I wanted to write about food, recipes, restaurants I especially enjoy, experiences with food and what not, but then I got an email from CSULB saying that I was finally getting my diploma, and I was so excited I wanted to do an entry on my time in school (I spent a great deal of time in college). Marisol suggested I do an entry on both, but as I sit here watching, surprise, a cooking show, I realize there’s something else I’d much rather blog about. That something else is my dog, Pepper.

What brought on this change of topic? Well today I spent Valentine’s morning in South Central L.A getting new tires for my car. While I was there I saw at least five stray dogs. Something about stray dogs just tugs at my heart strings. Stray animals in general. It’s just these animals are so cute and deserve to live with a family that will love and cherish them, they are living creatures, and I hate seeing helpless strays wandering around in the street. On my way back to the freeway something caught my best friend’s eye, there was a cart set up selling goodies for Valentine’s day gifts, and among those gifts were TINY TINY Chihuahuas! These dogs were so little, and they looked a little malnourished and one was just WAY too sleepy, I felt like buying them just so that I could give them better homes. This leads me to my dog, Pepper. Pepper is a dog I adopted from the Carson city shelter. She was listed as a Labrador/Pit-bull mix. I am almost positive she is NOT that mix, because if she is, she is the TINIEST Lab-Pit EVER. She is a mere 35lbs, with short black and white hair. When I first took her home from the pound they told me that I had 2 weeks to return her to the pound if I found that she was in poor health. That very same night I took Pepper to my local vet, where I found that my poor little pup had a heart murmur. The vet told me that this was common among the runts in a litter of puppies. She told me that if the murmur didn’t fix itself after her fifth month of life I would have to pay for an extremely costly surgery. I was so bummed, but, there was no way I was going to return my dog, she had already wiggled her way into my heart. Besides, the way I saw it, I figured that if I gave Pepper back no one else would take her and she’d be put to sleep because of her health condition. So that night I made sure she was comfy in her new home and prayed to God that my dog didn’t die over night and that she would get better because I didn’t have the money to pay for a surgery.

She was so little….

That was three years ago, and my monster is healthy as ever. Pepper has been through so much with me in the past three years, she seems to always know when I’m sad because she’ll come sit by my side and lay her head in my lap to cheer me up. She’s smart, silly, and a great guard dog. Going to the shelter to find a dog was the best decision I could ever make. The shelter spayed her and gave her her first set of vaccinations all for free.