Next week I’m housesitting for friends living about forty-five minutes from mine. I’ve never watched someone’s home before, but it should be a blast. They have a mammoth abode, and it’s going to be something like living in a hotel with just me there. It’s out in the centre of nowhere, too, so no neighbors or city noise. The property contains both a main house and a guest house. I’ll camp out in the master bedroom in the main house. All I need to do is just loosely look after the place, and also take care of their puppy, which should be pretty easy. He has one of these set up in the kitchen, and I need to give him a mix of wet and dry dog food a few times a day. He also gets Greenies dog treats for his teeth first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I don’t even need to exercise him, as he runs around their huge property at will. My friends also have horses, but there’s a groom to take care of them.

Other than that, I’m to treat the place as my own. There’s a room in the basement that’s been fitted as a movie theatre, plus an inground pool in the backyard. Friday I’m giving a party there. Wine, cheese and dessert, before a night swim and a film screening! I feel like I’ll be living the high life for a week. It’ll be hard to come back.

Jeremy owns several companies, which is why they afford a home like this. It’s surreal to me, since he used to just be my youth pastor when I was in middle school. Then his last year there, he began a business marketing Tolkien products. That got going so well, he left off pastoring, moved to the midwest and has grown that business into three or four more. I doubt my self-employed writing will ever get me such a comfortable life.

Tags: dry dog food, greenies dog treats, orthopedic dog beds