Tagging along

Today I'm enjoying a break from the hospital/clinic thanks to it being my preceptors day off and it being a physician's golf outing that his partner is attending. Why anyone would want to golf in 90+* humidity in July is beyond me, but I've never really liked golf.
I started off my day with a long run seeing as I'm running a few more half marathons and signed up for a marathon this fall. I was plodding along the country roads when a medium sized black dog comes running up to me. I stopped, waited for it to leave, but it playfully tried to jump up and scratched me. I decided to keep running since I had a few more turns to go (I was just over half way done). I figured the dog would get hot, bored, turn around, and leave me alone. I was mistaken. It followed me the whole way back (5 miles!) despite my attempts to dissuade it by stopping and saying sternly "no, stop, go home!"  It didn't understand that I was not interested in a canine running buddy today. It didn't run right next to me the whole way, it would run off and stop to sniff at things along the way. I thought for sure it would be distracted and go away eventually. It seemed like a smart enough animal in that it would stay out of the road when a car came along for which I was grateful because I was not eager to take responsibility for it. Yet, it was dumb enough to run miles with me in this heat/humidity. It was slobbering up a storm from all its panting. When I got back to the farm, I went inside to shower and have breakfast and ignored it completely. I had other things to do today than worry about someone else's dog. I like animals especially dogs, but I wasn't a fan of a strange one following me on my morning run. It was kind of annoying. I was worried it would mess with the old cat that lives around here. When I left the house a bit later, I didn't see the dog hanging out so maybe it did make the trek back. It didn't have a name tag to identify it on the collar so I couldn't say for sure to whom it belongs.
Some days in rotations, ok - most days, I feel a bit like the dog, a bother, just tagging along. I trail the providers I work with as best I can... Seeking to please and often failing. Not always understanding and getting distracted easily by everything that's going on around me. Mostly just trying to keep up with the pace and stay out of the way so I don't get hit. By the end I'm exhausted and in desperate need of a drink. 
Most of the rest of the day I've been studying. Taking a relaxing study break. Study. Break. More break than study. My brain needs time to let it all sink in.