Meet Osito!

It's National Puppy Day

Hey there. It’s been almost two years since this newsletter has appeared in your inbox. That is bananas. I write today with two major goals: 1. to introduce you to my new puppy (!); and 2. to share a (long) list of recommendations. I will be sending these newsletters more regularly (more about that later), so don’t expect me to cover so much ground going forward. I’m making up for lost time here!

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Today is National Puppy Day. I know because my Facebook memories reminded me and then I confirmed by searching it up, as my stepson would say. Meet Osito, the nine-month-old Shih Tzu who now lives with us. (Osito means “toy bear” in Spanish.)

Here he is on his first outing, to Kardinal Hall.

Allow me to explain how Osito became part of our family. Longtime readers might remember that my beloved Penny died in January 2021, less than twenty-four hours after my father died. Over the last five-plus years, a lot of people asked me why I hadn’t gotten another dog, or when I was going to get another dog. People accused my husband of hating dogs, of being the reason I didn’t have another dog. I want to be very clear: My husband took excellent care of the Penny in the short time that he knew her. He might have been her favorite person toward the end. When I was in San Antonio with my father and, eventually, only my mother, my husband and my then very young stepson took the Penny to the vet and allowed me to watch on FaceTime as she took her last breath. We all sobbed relentlessly.

So he was never the reason.

My stepson who is now in eighth grade has been asking since the Christmas he was in fourth grade, when he wrote a note to Santa us that said, simply, “I want a dog,” line after line repeated for approximately a dozen lines. He drew dogs with Santa hats at the bottom. But I wasn’t ready.

He kept asking. For years. And my husband always said, “That’s between you and Allison.”

Osito with his lamby

Almost three weeks ago, I saw my dog. He and his sister had been abandoned as strays and then rescued. A colleague knew his foster and showed me his photo. I filled out the thirteen-page application, submitted my two references, my veterinarian’s contact info, ten photos of my home, and waited. I heard back two days later. My references had both answered ten questions and I had been invited to the meet and greet. It felt like the hardest test I’d had to pass in a very long time.

Two weeks ago, on my husband’s birthday, he and I drove out to meet this puppy. And we brought him home.

Osito in his bed with his toys. He’s very good at fetch!

I like to say that last year on Stepmother’s Day (which is the Sunday after Mother’s Day, in case you have a favorite stepmother in your life) my husband got a fancy new grill, and last year on my birthday my stepson got an updated wardrobe, so this year on my husband’s fiftieth birthday I got a puppy. And all of that is true. But the reality is that we all got a puppy, and he got us, and we’re all the better for it.

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And now for some recommendations.

1. Because I am selfish and this is my newsletter, I want to point you to this VQR TrueStory I wrote in a flourish when my cousin, Stacy, and I returned from our trip to Bali last November. Keep in mind that it’s part of an issue themed Ghost Stories.

2. Get out your credit card or your library card. Or both! I read a 450-plus-page novel in basically two sittings and I stayed up late to finish it and I absolutely have to tell you about it. (In case you think that happens a lot—it does not.) Rachel Beanland’s forthcoming novel, The Half Life, is exhilarating. It’s set on a Mediterranean island during the 1970s. It’s about navy wives and nuclear-powered submarines and possible fallout. It’s about learning who you are…and who your husband is. Pre-order now.

3. This Joy Williams essay in Harper’s on the last days of Gene Hackman. As Anne Helen Petersen would say, just trust me. Even if you’ve read a lot about Hackman’s death. Always read Joy Williams.

4. Kaitlyn Greenidge interviewed Margaret Atwood for Harper’s Bazaar. They talk about whether Atwood is a Scorpio and revenge (topics near and dear to my heart) and other fun things.

5. I think everyone knows about Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast. It won the first Emmy for Podcasting this year. (Look, I never claimed to be breaking news here.) I listen to a lot of podcasts. I’m pretty excited about the next season of Serial. But I haven’t heard that yet, so I’m not recommending it. What I can tell you is that every Tuesday I am excited to listen to Good Hang. The episode with Viola Davis is so good. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

6. NPR’s Planet Money just aired an episode called “Inside a BOOK auction.” (No, I don’t know why they formatted the episode title that way, and yes, it is bothering me.) If you’ve ever read or heard that a book “sold at auction” but didn’t quite know what that meant or how it worked, this episode is for you.

7. You know I love an audiobook. Did you watch Somebody Somewhere? No? You should remedy that ASAP. Jeff Hiller is the breakout star of that show and I will not be told otherwise. And he’s from San Antonio! (Spoiler alert: People were not nice to him growing up there. He is only a couple of years older than I am. We were in the same school district. If you went to Eisenhower Middle School and/or Churchill High School with Jeff Hiller and you were a bully, I hope you feel like shit now and do whatever you need to do to get right with your ancestors.) His memoir, Actress of a Certain Age, is a delight. I listened to him read it.

8. By now everyone you know has read or gifted or recommended The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (again, not breaking news!). I’m here to tell you to listen to it.

More soon!