Hooray for Feline Friday!
It's Friday, so it's time for Felines...Here we see Riley, who is so overwhelmed by life that he must hide his eyes.
Abbie has decided to take up Cat Yoga...here she is demonstrating the ever so difficult Sleeping Log.
And here she is doing the Treat Reach with Twisted Neck.
Riley's resemblance to a snake is sometimes very scary....
But they are rather pretty kitties, aren't they?
Have a great Friday!
And now for a walk down Memory Lane...
(I have no idea where I found this, but it was a nice little meme....)**25 years ago** I was 5, and I was in kindergarten, where I had two "boyfirends" who were both older than me since I was in a mixed Kindergarten/first grade class. I was an equal opportunity dater too...Harold was black and Adam was white. Harold gave me his bananas out of his school lunch because he knew I liked them and Adam took my pickles from my school lunch because he knew I hated them. I switched schools after kindergarten.
**20 years ago** I was 10, and my grandparents had passed away less than a year before. Emily and Elizabeth were my best friends, and we were all in Girl Scouts together. My fourth grade class had a competition to see who in the class could read the most pages in a set amount of days, and we each had spaceships that marked our progress. Mine went up the wall and continued halfway across the ceiling before the contest was over. I totally won.
**15 years ago** I was 15 and I was having horrible earaches. My mom took me to the urgent care where we were told it wasn't my ears that were the problem, it was my jaw. A few weeks later I got to hear my jaw joint making the telltale noises of TMJ dysfunction, like crunchy paper crinkling as a Doppler was pressed to my cheek. The discs in my jaw joints had slipped completely out. I spent the next nine months lisping around the heavy acrylic splint I had to wear constantly.
**10 years ago** I was 20 and I was living with three other girls in Los Angeles, behind Fraternity Row. The girl I shared a room with hated me as much as I hated her, despite the fact that we had started the year off as friends. I spent most of my time during the week at my next door neighbor's apartment, drinking Coke and coloring my hair. I loved the weekends, when The Bitch would go home and the apartment would be quiet and peaceful and my other roommate and I would spend all morning either in the pool or basking in the spring sun.
**5 years ago** I was 25 and I was depressed. Mortally, thoroughly, in need of medication depressed. I felt very little and cared even less. I stopped paying my bills yet had no money. If you asked me now what I spent it on, I would not be able to tell you. I ate my weight in Papa John's cheese sticks and Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream. I broke down crying in my doctor's office for no reason, and when she asked me how long that had been happening, I couldn't remember when it hadn't been happening. I walked out with a prescription for Effexor clutched in my hand like it was the Holy Grail of Sanity.
**3 years ago** I was 27 and I was still screwing my ex-boyfriend. We'd broken up 8 months beforehand, broken up in a bad, ugly, horrific scene, but we had ended up back in bed with each other. There was no reason for it, other than being too scared to move on. Eventually, we exploded again, this time for real and forever, and I had to move on. Two weeks later, I "met" Kevin.
**Last year** I was turning 29 and all I wanted for my birthday was a trip to Disneyland. And so Kevin took me there, just the two of us. He didn't want to pose for any cheesy pictures, but he did it anyway, with really very little pouting on my part. That night, we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Fullerton or La Brea or someplace like that and watched porn and got up the next morning and went to California Adventure and when we got home, we were exhausted.
**This year** I'm on the cusp of 30, and I can't wait to get there. My 20's were relatively craptastic, but my 30's look to be fabulous. In an odd quirk, this year I'm turning 30, my boss is turning 40, one coworker in my division is turning 50 and another one is turning 60. And all of us except my boss have birthdays in May. This little fact amuses me, even if pointing it out to the three of them made them a little bitter since they aren't as excited about their milestones as I am about mine.
**Yesterday** I received a beautiful arrangement of flowers from my boss, who was gone all day. My boss' boss and boss' deputy and boss' peer took me and another admin out to lunch, and yet I was still grumpy when I arrived at the bowling alley, where I narrowly avoided becoming the latest woman to try using the PMS defense at her murder trial.
**Today** I woke up panicking about money, then did a half hour of high intensity aerobics in hopes of feeling better. I wrestled a 6 pound turkey breast into the CrockPot by breaking a few of its ribs. I got soaked by the morning's downpour, and I sat through an interminable meeting. I gave in and had some M&M's.
**Tomorrow** My boss is off on vacation with his family, and I'm forcing him to leave his Blackberry behind when he leaves tonight. I'm going to get up early enough to both work out and still be able to stop and get some coffee with the S-bucks card the finance staff gave me yesterday. I get paid, so I can finally go buy the prsent I need to pick up for the baby shower I'm going to on Saturday. And tomorrow is Feline Friday, hooray!
Just so you know
For the past six months I've been on a generic form of my birth control pill and MY GOD, THE PMS THAT HAPPENS TO ME ON THIS PILL. Today I thought for sure I would get fired for yelling at someone because every time one of them walked in the door I practically screamed "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" if I wasn't about to break into tears instead. Happy fucking Secretary's Day indeed. Also, PayPal issues were making me bang my head against the desk during discussions about registration stuff for JournalCon and IT WAS NOT THAT BIG A DEAL, PEOPLE. You should feel very bad for
Weetabix today because she really got hit face on with a big glob of crazy today. I wasn't even aiming for her either!
And then I spent most of bowling night ready to beat the ever loving crap out of this little old lady who insisted on polishing her ball before every throw and getting ALL IN MY WAY, DAMMIT. Of course, if you hit a walking mummy, the mummy collapses so I couldn't hit her without running the risk of a manslaughter charge. Instead, I named her The Ball Polisher, a nickname that I'm sure would make her very popular in whatever senior "active living" community she lives in.
All I know is it's a good thing they are switching me back to the non-generic next month because otherwise, Kevin would be like those guys in that new "got milk?" commercial where the guys are buying all the milk they can because calcium is supposed to help with PMS.
Hm...does that mean I should be eating more ice cream then???
Something I needed to write to remind myself
I've known my best friend for almost 22 years. She's the closest thing I'll ever have to a sister. When there's big tragedy or big happiness in my life, she's one of the first people I call to tell the news. When I got engaged, I text messaged her before we called anyone else other than my mother. And she replied by saying "I'm standing here so excited I'm crying!"
But she won't be at my 30th birthday party, and she won't have much to do with my wedding planning despite the fact that she is one of two people that Kevin and I are bothering to make a place in the ceremony for. And after our conversation this morning on IM, I'm a little...befuddled. Not hurt, but it's taken me a few weeks to realize that this is one of "those times".
It's one of those times when her life and my life don't converge very much, and not just because we live in different cities. It's because we have different interests and different schedules and different priorities and we don't have the time or impetus to make us force our lives to converge.
It's one of those times when the focus of my life (the wedding, the job, the JournalCon, the recommitment to WW) and the focus of her life (the teaching, the partying, the traveling) are so different that we barely have anything to talk about.
It's one of those times when we barely talk, when we don't always return phone calls, when we have abrupt IM conversations, when we almost but not quite have a snarky little argument because our lives are so different.
You don't have a 22 year friendship without going through phases like this. We've been through them before, and we'll go through them again as we hit these different life changes. I just have to remember that and not let myself get hurt or upset when she doesn't call me back right away or she walks away from IM conversations suddenly. She's as busy as I am, and her life is going different places than mine is but it doesn't mean that she doesn't love me or that she's not still the closest thing I'll have to a sister.
It just means we'll have lots to catch up on when this wave of "those times" goes by.
Feline Friday: The Inaugural Episode
I'm a big fan of
Pratt's Monday Bunday. Big, giant, huge fan who sometimes demands that he give his bunnies to me as a result of Monday Bunday.
So the other day when I was showing someone yet more pictures of the cats that I had taken, I was struck by inspiration. I can steal the idea and do Feline Fridays! Everyone loves Abbie and Riley!! It'll be perfect!!!
And so now I present to you the Very Special Very First Feline Friday.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Look at Riley, trying to make the cover of the next CQ.
F-A-T spells FAT. C-A-T spells CAT. Put them together and you have...Abbie.
Hello, my name is Jake and I am a giant cat who belongs to Kris. And I am moving to Vegas where it is hot and I will shed all of my fluffy fur all over her clothes. So there.
This is Max, Jake's brother. Jake is the smart one.
Riley is not amused. His contract clearly stipulates that he does not have to share screen time with cats that are not part of his family.
Funny things that I have said to my fiance
"Get my clean underwear off the cat!"
"I can't use your penis tonight so I have no qualms about kicking it right now"
I've seen some pretty funny billboards lately, but I can't remember any of them now
I should be in bed right now. I seem to be saying that to myself every night these days.
Every time I think I can't possibly get any busier, something comes along to force me to be busier. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because I'm not. I'm busier than I've ever been before but I am happier than I've ever been. It's like stress is some kind of tonic for me.
This weekend I actually spent most of a day by myself. I woke up at 7 and headed out to my weekly WW meeting, then it was off to the credit union to open the JournalCon bank account, then down to the post office to open the PO Box, and then straight to Macy's in search of the perfect moisturizer and the perfect daily lipstick. And I found both at the Clinique counter, where I was helped by a remarkably pregnant salesgirl who whipped out a lipstick called Surprise that looked like a way too shimmery, way too bronzy brown color but I whipped that stuff on and adored it. Add in their moisturizing gel stuff I bought and I was a happy, happy princess.
And after stocking up on princess supplies, I headed to The Container Store, because I had gotten one of their sale flyers last week and my GOD, it was like getting housekeeping porn in the mail. Kris and I drooled over it together and I had grand visions of buying all kinds of shelves and baskets and racks and finally getting my kitchen into some kind of workable condition because my cabinets were regularly leaving me throwing small tantrums when I was trying to prepare a meal. I restrained myself while I was there though, getting just enough to get my drawers organized and get my horrifically messy bathroom more organized.
And then I came home and threw away roughly two tons of unnecessary cabinet dwelling bottles, cans and other assorted crap, and after that I passed out because man, it was 2:00 and I had done more errands than I usually do in a week.
The rest of the weekend was lazy...spent time with Kris since she's moving in a week. But she's moving to VEGAS. I'm going to have free room and board in Vegas whenever I feel like hopping in the car and driving out there. How awesome is that? She's also decided that my bachelorette party will be taking place there so...yeah, there's that. But I'm still going to miss her something fierce. She's feisty and stubborn and needs to listen to her friends more often, but she would say the same thing of me. But she'll be back for my birthday next month and she'll be back for the walk and she's only a few hours away.
And just for the record...JournalCon has officially taken over more of my brain that the wedding has. At this point, work only occupies about .5% of my brainspace. But don't tell my boss, okay?
Brain vomit
I hired a new assistant this week. Her name is nearly unpronounceable but her personality shines like like a newly minted penny and she loves being a paper pusher. She starts on Monday, and I cannot wait to hand things over to her and send First Assistant off into the sunset. First Assistant does seem to be regretting her decision these days...she has yet to find another job and has offered to stay until I have New Assistant trained and ready to step into her shoes. Big giant about face from 3 weeks ago when she was chomping at the bit to leave. I think she has suddenly realized that she had a pretty sweet deal for someone with little experience and no degree. I think she's also realized that her musician husband isn't going to be able to support the two of them on his occasional gigs.
I feel bad, fleetingly, if I think about it too much, but for the most part my feeling is that this is what she gets for being all "Oh, this company bores me and I want to follow my bliss and not work in an office." Don't say things like that to your boss if you don't already have something else lined up, dear. Take that life lesson and run with it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *In other news, we finally joined the 21st century and got DSL. And I installed it and everything. And I'm sort of in love with my computer all over again now. Mmmm, fast.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *I've been thinking a lot lately about body issues and my Life as a Fat Girl, because this week for the first time I actually saw myself being able to leave that life. I've lost 25 pounds now, not enough for just anyone to notice, but enough for my engagement ring to already be a little looser and enough to make most of my pants and skirts need their waistbands taken in. I'm falling in love with my body, which surprises me because I never hated my body the way others have. (
In rereading that last sentence, I realized it sounded like I meant others have hated my body, which I didn't mean. I meant that I haven't hated mine like others have hated theirs, but I suppose I also never hated my body the way some people probably do hate my body.) I've always loved the fact that my body is strong and healthy and curvy, but I've never really liked it. I haven't ever looked at any part of my body (aside from my boobs and my ankles, oddly) and really liked how it looked. But now I'm catching myself tracing the line of my jaw with a fingertip, caressing the shadow of a collarbone that keeps appearing, fondling the spot on my thigh that used to stick out just a bit more. And it's all just making me think.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *Someday soon I'll have enough brain power to sit and write the entry that's stewing in my head about all this. But these days, the only things filling my head are JournalCon details. JournalCon is my life.
Speaking of JournalCon, we started a NotifyList for the JCon site, so be sure to sign up so you're among the first to find out things like we updated the Committee Page with clever little blurbs (which we totally did, you should go read them).
And now I'm going to go have my snuggle time with my cats and my man, because I'm too tired for anything else.
JournalCon 2005: Bring It On
Okay, my lovelies. Today is officially THE DAY when we get to announce what's been brewing behind the scenes for a few months. The rumors are true:
So, how many of you will I see there?
So mad, so very, very mad
I called an old friend tonight, one who I hadn't heard from in a while. K is someone I have had this very complicted, antagonistic relationship with since we met when we were 18. Long, complicated story that I think I've gone over before so it's not going to be repeated again here. Anyway....
He hadn't responded to the email I sent out about the egnagement, which surpriosed me. I figured he would at least have some sort of smart ass comment about it since he's been ardently anti-matrimony for as long as I can remember. So I called and we were talking and while it started off as playful teasing, somewhere along the way the conversation devolved into him telling me I was insane for thinking that Kevin and I might actually have a successful, happy marriage and me telling him he's overly cynical and living a chickenshit life since he said I should be "trying to preserve the status quo" since I'm happy now. Mind you, all this crap he was spewing came from a guy who hasn't even MET Kevin so he has literally zero clue about what our relationship is like. It was also coming from a guy who got burned by a former live in girlfriend, which means that I take every damn thing he says about realtionships with a huge grain of salt.
And then he actually had the nerve to say "Well if you're not having kids what's the point of being married?" Gah. he just...really irritated me, with his complete inability to consider the fact marriage can actually be a really good thing. And I feel sorry for him, because I don't know if he will ever get to feel this way himself. I don't know if he'll ever let himself feel this way.
What hurt the most was hearing him laugh at me getting angry. It just made me angrier, and by the time I hung up, I had realized one important thing: I do not need to make any effort to stay in touch with him anymore. He just drains my energy. And I sure as hell am taking him off the guest list as soon as I finish this entry, because the last thing I want at my wedding is someone I considered a friend sitting there scoffing at how "insane" I am for getting married.
Fuck. That. Shit.
Tonight my fiance asked "Are you ever going to update again?"
Hi. Miss me?
Last week was sucktastic at work. Seriously. It was just...gah. And also, I was completely PMSing which meant that even if I'd had the time or energy to post an entry there would have been no way for me to adequately convey my whininess so eh, why bother, right?
And really, I have nothing of much import to say now except...dude, JournalCon is so going to rock this year. Keep an ear out for outstanding news in the Very Near Future.
But for now I give you this little photo essay.....
The cats have been a bit itchy lately, so I decided it was time to bathe them. Abbie went first, on Thursday night.
She really hates bath time:
The pitifulness just gets to her, you know?
Abbie can't even bear to be looked at after a bath....
She really doesn't like baths....
Today it was Riley's turn...he's about ten times worse when it comes to bathtime. Whirling dervish, thy name is Riley.
I'm always surprised no one comes to investigate the howling...
He has the pitiful thing down to a fine art, turning it into one of his cutest moments...
The only time he manages to really bathe himself is right after I give him a bath. Ironic, no?
So how was your weekend? Because man, it sucked for my cats.
