The Day The Earth Stood Still, In A Good Way / October 27, 2015 by Rachel Abrahams

I celebrated a significant 20th Anniversary recently for the longest relationship I’ve ever had (outside of my marriage). I have been completely and totally in love with Tori Amos and her music for 20 years. 20 freaking years. Sometimes there is a musician or artist out there who grabs ahold of your heart and, no matter how life shifts and moves, stays with you for your lifetime. For me, it’s been Tori Amos.

Now, I am perfectly aware some of you may have no idea who Tori Amos is or you do know and she is definitely not your cup of tea. So I ask, what is the thing that rocked your world and has stayed by your side through all of your life changes? A musician, artist, book, poet, city; anything that when you are in their presence you just feel like they complete you. Wait, that’s cheesy. They are your spirit animal (that’s better) and you remember the first time you experienced it like it was yesterday. That’s what I am talking about. Now you can relate, right?

When I think of Tori Amos, it reminds of a scene from the movie Love Actually:

Harry: What is this we're listening to?

Karen: Joni Mitchell.

Harry: I can't believe you still listen to Joni Mitchell.

Karen: I love her and true love lasts a lifetime. Joni Mitchell is the woman who taught your cold English wife how to feel.

Harry: Did she? Oh, well, that's good, I must write to her sometime and say thanks.

It’s not often in our lifetime we experience that feeling where our entire world is turned sideways in the most eye opening, positive, and uplifting way possible. Those experiences leave a permanent mark on your heart and I feel like sometimes we forget to focus on those and instead think of the negatives, the things that caused us pain.

Tower of London and Tower Bridge - London, England

I remember the first time I heard one of her songs. I was at a dance competition, practicing a routine in a hallway and heard her song “Silent All These Years” float through the air. I ran into the room to watch the performance and, though the dance was beautiful, I was riveted by the song. The notes, her voice, and the lyrics turned my brain and heart upside down, in a way I hadn’t experienced before. I had to know immediately who sang the song.

This was before the iPhone and internet so I grabbed a program which had the dance studio’s name, asked around for the dance teacher, and then (FINALLY) found the teacher to ask her the most important question of my life at the moment “WHO SINGS THAT SONG?”. I know she thought I was insane in the membrane, but I didn’t care. After that, it was game over for me and the true beginning of my emotional education. I was changed.

The 2nd “once in a lifetime positively changing experience” for me was when I visited London for the first time. It was entirely different from my Tori experience in the sense that London creeped into my being slowly, like a fog, over the time I spent there for school and left me a completely changed person when I went home. I look back at that time as a pivotal point in my life where I can actually see the proverbial fork in the road of my life and London redirected me for the positive.

I was in college and had the opportunity to study abroad in London and made the utmost best of it. I lived on the same street as the British Museum and obsessively spent every minute I had trying to absorb the entire city into my memory. I had lofty goals.

It was an addiction of the best variety. I couldn’t get enough of the museums, the history, the buildings, the cultures, the food, the obvious and not so obvious differences of living there vs. the U.S., and navigating my independence. I made the decision to reprioritize the bold, confident, and adventurous version of myself I had lost in the shuffle of college and the pressures of trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grow up.

It is absolutely no accident, in my mind, that I came home from London and within 6 weeks began dating my friend of nearly 6 years who is now my husband (we’ve been together for 13 years). I also took a quick weekend trip to Ireland, which became my next study abroad location a year later. Again, no accident. My Ireland semester introduced me to my roommate Erin, who is still one of my closest friends.

Do you see what I am getting at? There are these moments in our life which alter our core being in the best way possible. They can either shake your proverbial life foundation so hard you can’t believe how different life looks now or they will grow slowly on you like mold and change your inner world into a soft mossy heaven.

These moments change you into the best version of yourself you had always hoped you could be and shouldn’t be minimized or forgotten. They should be celebrated with anniversaries of happiness and remembrance.

For my anniversary, I listened to every single album Tori Amos has created in order of release date. It was a time warp of the last 20 years of my life and eye opening to hear the music with my adult (I am an adult supposedly now, right? Society says so) ears/mind.

I was so happy I did it because it reminded me of how far I’ve come and that I have so much more to accomplish. I also wouldn’t change a damn thing.

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The Dog Who Disappeared for Four Years & Then Came Home / August 30, 2010 by Rachel Abrahams

It can be hard to think of good things when Monday rolls around, so I thought I’d try to put myself in the right frame of mind and start the week off with remembering things I am grateful for. This week, I’d like to talk about Otis, my pug, the dog who ran away for four years and then came home.

Otis, the pug, ran away in Tallahassee, summer of 2003, while I was in Ireland going to school. He was just a puppy at a year old. His partner in crime, Pac the Great Dane, and he had dug a hole under the fence and one day it was big enough for him to squeeze through and off he went on his adventure. Pac was left behind, covered in dust & too big to fit through the hole. We did everything we could think of to find him, but nothing ever came of it. After almost a year, I finally started taking his fliers down and stopped running ads in the paper. My husband and I had to move to another city, 8 hours away, and I let go of the thought of finding him. When I sold my car in 2006, it was then that I threw away the "LOST" fliers in my trunk.

Saturday, June 30th 2007, my husband and I were at our friend’s house when an 850 (Tallahassee area code) number called me. I still have an 850 cell number, so I get a lot of misplaced calls and I usually ignore them. I had nothing else to do, so I answered. The woman on the phone introduced herself as being from Animal Control, asked me if I was Rachel (insert my maiden last name here) and when I answered "Yes", she continued on to tell me she had my dog and if I could come pick him up, that would be great. I couldn't understand how Pac, the Great Dane, could have escaped from our current apartment. The apartment is on the 2nd floor with enclosed windows and just the front door. I asked her to repeat herself & she told me, "I'm from the Tallahassee Animal Control and we scanned your dog, Otis, and his microchip had your information. Do you want to come and pick him up?"

At this point, I was making crazy noises and my husband and friend were thinking something awful had happened. I told them both that they found Otis and wanted us to come pick him up. They both started flipping out immediately. The woman from animal control couldn't understand why I was crying, and asked if we didn't want him anymore, and I had to let her know that we lost him FOUR years ago and thought we'd never see him again! She was as much in disbelief as me and relayed this information to the woman who found Otis.

I then went into my friend’s office area and got the whole story from the woman who found Otis. She said her son saw Otis wandering around near Tallahassee Community College, with no collar on, and brought him home. They put ads in the paper and on Craigslist, but no one responded. They already had four dogs and just could not keep Otis, so they took him to the shelter. The shelter scanned him, found my info in his microchip, and the rest is history!

Once I explained that we lived in a city that is a five hour drive away and couldn't make it to the shelter in Tallahassee before they closed (it was 4:00pm), the woman who found Otis offered to meet us halfway. Otherwise, the shelter would have had to board him and we wouldn't be able to get him until Monday. My husband and I agreed immediately and within 15 minutes, we were in the car heading to the halfway meeting point. It was the longest two and a half hours of my life, but we met the boy who found Otis at Sonny's.

Poor Otis was so over-excited and hot that all he did was make this awful pug breathing noise, which concerned my husband and I. Within minutes of having him in the car, it was obvious this was Otis and he also knew it was us. We gave him some ice and his breathing got better. My husband and I were both overwhelmed and it seemed so unreal.

He’s been home for five years now and it has been wonderful having him home. We joke all the time and make up stories of his travels, giving him nicknames and such to explain where he was for four years. Pac, the Great Dane, passed away just over a year ago. Otis rules the house now & loves every second of our undivided attention.

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t look at him and think I cannot believe we have him back. Just amazing. He’s “The Dog Who Disappeared for Four Years and Then Came Home”.