go big or go home

When I get a degree, get a job, and get settled, I plan on enjoying luxuries my last four years of travel haven't afforded. Two main things are on this list: a subscription to National Geographic, and a dog. Both of those things are pretty normal, but I'm not a huge fan of that. Normal is boring. Anybody can do normal. There's not much I can do about NatGeo, that's a pretty standardized item. But the dog...well, there we have some leeway.

My classes start in 2 days, and I should be reading a document entitled "Cross-Hedging Your Security Portfolio with Futures Contracts." That's exactly why I'm dog shopping instead. I was originally thinking about a Newfoundland. A family I used to babysit for had one, and that thing was awesome. Well-mannered, loyal, relatively sedate, and the novelty of its enormous size came standard. I looked into the topic a little further though, and something else caught my eye. There's a dog with very similar characteristics, shorter hair (less shedding!), and even more massive size. It's called the English Mastiff, and I would love to cruise around the neighborhood with this thing in my back seat:



I'm no mind reader, but I'd wager that right now you're considering how impractical that dog is, on many different fronts. Practicality is boredom's less-attractive stepsister. If my job doesn't require ridiculous hours or excessive travel, I'm getting me one.