Just a Cat

I keep telling myself she was just a cat. Just a cat. But, she wasn’t. She was our cat.

 We have always joked about how bad a cat she was. We could never have a dog bed for Echo because Nefertiti would pee on them and ruin them. She did not like anyone but us and would hide from everyone else. She decided at one point that our couch was actually the litter box. The first time she met Andrew, she tried to tear his face off.

 But, she was a good cat. She loved us, and was loved by us. She used to hunt earthworms and hide them in my shoes. One time, she stole someone’s feather duster and hid it under our bed. She loved to be abused. The rougher the petting, the better she liked it. She liked to be picked up by her tail. She loved catnip, and if she was lying down and you scratched her butt, she would move in a circle like a compass with her head as the pivot point. She had no meow, but she had a huge purr.

When she didn’t come in on Tuesday, I was a little worried, but she had made herself scarce before. When she showed up on Wednesday and was breathing funny, I knew she was in trouble. Two nights at the vet—she seemed a little better yesterday, but the call came in at three this morning. As the vet told me, once you can tell that a cat is sick, it is often too late.  Andrew and I laid in bet this morning after the phone call, and cracked jokes about what a bad cat she was as tears dripped into our ears.

I hate the idea that she died alone. There was no one there to hold her and tell her that they loved her. I got to see her yesterday and hold her and pet her, but Andrew did not. I wish we could have been there to tell her goodbye, but her last gift to us was not forcing us to make a very hard decision.

She was a cat. But she was not just a cat. She was our cat, and that made her the perfect cat. 

All Things Irksome: Okay, maybe not all the things that I find exasperating, but some of the ones that are really bugging me right now. This was supposed to be a list of things, but there were too many, and too much I wanted to say that I had to break them down separately.

Rant #3

Rush Limbaugh

Or

Fat, Old Men Who Think They Can Tell Me What I Can Do With My Body

Why is it that fat, old men think that they have the right to govern my body? Or, just old men? Or, just men?  Will they ever have to worry about having a baby or not? Well, maybe, but I bet that if they are worrying about it then they shouldn’t have had sex in the first place, because it was probably with an inappropriate partner, and you better believe that they would be the first ones to pony up the money for that abortion. Let’s face it, they really don’t want a baby that they shouldn’t have made to end up public knowledge.

Also, what is with the movement to make women 2^nd class citizens again? Rush says that if a woman needs birth control, she is a slut or a whore. Did we time warp back to the 1950s? And what is he scared about, anyway. It’s not as if it affects him at all. He isn’t getting any younger—or thinner—so the end can’t be that far away. And don’t get me started on Santorum. I can’t believe that ANY woman would vote for him, and his poor wife! He give such a low value to women that he would probably like us to go back to not having the vote. It seems that we are to be seen and not heard. We are supposed to be docile little creatures that look to our men to tell us how to behave and what we can have.  He is a hateful, controlling, misogynist, and I hope the Republicans are intelligent enough to see that. I refuse to go back to being a piece of property, with only fluff for brains. Unless he is going to defer all my student loans………..

All Things Irksome: Okay, maybe not all the things that I find exasperating, but some of the ones that are really bugging me right now. This was supposed to be a list of things, but there were too many, and too much I wanted to say that I had to break them down separately.

Rant #2

Cliques!

So I have a problem. I have been out of high school for 20 years, but my social life (or lack thereof) is still directly impacted by cliques.

I work part time, and mostly from home, but I do go into the office two days a week. This is mostly because I was going crazy working from home with little or no contact with other human beings. There is only just so far that a conversation with the dog or cat can go. We are social creatures, and I am a very social creature. I like people—in general. I love to people watch (I am doing it right now at Starbucks while I write this). I like to have conversations with strangers. How are we supposed to learn anything new if we don’t reach out to others?

                Anyway, like I said, the main reason that I go into the office is to be around people. I thought that I would make friends and go to lunch with the others. Maybe go out for drinks after work, but no. This is where the cliques come in. There are the customer service and provisioning people that clump together, the sales agents that seem to be pretty solitary, and you have the sales analysts that do things together. (the different sections seem to be kinda catty to each other) And, then you have me. I am a different branch on the tree. I am the only person in my department, and *GASP* I am the boss’s wife.

                No one wants to hang out with me because they think I will tattle to the boss. I can’t say that I wouldn’t, but I can’t say that I would, either. So, all-in-all, it really makes no difference that I go into the office. I could be doing laundry.

All Things Irksome: Okay, maybe not all the things that I find exasperating, but some of the ones that are really bugging me right now. This was supposed to be a list of things, but there were too many, and too much I wanted to say that I had to break them down separately.

Rant #1

This first one has been bugging me for a while. Poor Kim Kardashian. She was crying about having Psoriasis. She feels it makes her ugly, and since she makes her living off her looks, this could hurt her financially. If this is all she has in the world to support herself, she has done something wrong. Didn’t she get the “always have something to fall back on” speech from her mother?

                I have lived with Psoriasis for almost 20 years. When I first broke out, I had patches on my arms and face. At first I was devastated, I was working in food service, and they would not let me back on the job until I could prove it wasn’t contagious. The doctor wasn’t sure what it was at first and thought it might have been Lupus because of the pattern on my face—did you know that there are no tests for Lupus, just tests that say you don’t have it (at least that was the way it was when they were looking at me). It actually took me four doctors and about 5 years to get a diagnosis. One would say Psoriasis and the next would say Eczema, and vice versa. At one point it covered 60% of my body. Even now, it is on my hands, arms, feet, legs, and face with a few patches on my torso. It manifests mostly on the joints (knuckles, elbows, and knees), but there are patches on the fleshy parts, too.

                But, I am not “ugly.” Men still find me attractive. I have a wonderful husband that knew about the Psoriasis before we got married (and had seen it at its worst).I walk down the street and have men stop to talk to me. And, I believe that it has to do with my personality. I am happy, open, and outgoing. I smile with my whole face (I have the crows feet to prove it). I laugh out loud, and often. I have hit the late 30s, and 40 is fast approaching, but I still get carded. I am not bitter or overly vain, and I rarely wear make-up. But, people look past the scaly skin and see the me underneath.  My husband says he only notices it when it is really bad, and then it is just to sympathize with how uncomfortable I must be.

                If Kim is so worried about some dry skin (because it seems that she is worried most about the visual side of the disease), her priorities are messed up. And if you solely base your worth on your looks, learn a skill fast, those looks don’t last. 

Some of the Things I Have Made in the Last 6 Months

For Erin

Hippos

For Shannon

Monkeys

Butterflies for Heather

Seaweed and Mermaids

SeaShore

Classes Really Suck ........

WHEN YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM!!!!!!!

So, I miss being in school. I know it’s crazy. Four years of full time school and full time work should have been enough to burn me out, but I’m yearning for academia. I looked into taking a class at the local community college here in SLO, and I even found a class that would not only be helpful for my job, but could have furthered my desire to get a degree in Library Sciences (which is what I wanted to do at UNR, but they didn’t offer it).  I have a B.A., but this was going to be fun.

I enrolled, and went to sign up for my class (just one, just to get back into it). After I hit the button, the fees came up. Not bad, $170 for the class. But then the rest of it came up. Out of state tuition……$597!!!! It was going to cost me $767 to take one class at a community college. I could take a class at the university for that. And, it wasn’t even a face-to-face class. It was all online….

Guess I won’t be doing that.  

I found a similar class through the school district’s adult education program for $60. I signed up for it, but it didn’t go because there wasn’t enough interest in it.

I JUST WANNA TAKE A CLASS IN BUILDING WEB PAGES!!!!!!!

Party Like It's 1999.....Or not

So we had a busy week.

Between our lazy Christmas and today there has been visitors from Reno, horses, track and field, bowling, movies, and food, food, and more food.

Annie came to visit us from Reno on Wednesday night. She and her friend Connie took Amtrak down, so they had to switch between train and bus for about 12 hours. We loved having Annie here and when we put her back on the bus this morning there were almost tears. Andrew said that he felt like he was living in a sewing circle because whenever we all sat down on the couch, Annie would pull out her knitting and I would pull out my cross stitch (I will finish this project! I have to because I have another one I really want to start). The two of us would sit there and watch TV and our needles would be flashing.

On Thursday, Andrew and I had to work, so Annie and Connie used the car and explored Morro Bay. I finished work early, so they came into SLO and the three of us walked down to see a movie. I love me some Robert Downey, Jr. (I just found a movie called “Restoration” on Hulu—not a great movie, but soooooo Robert Downey, Jr.) so we went and saw Sherlock Holmes. Mmmmmmmm bloody Robert Downey, Jr. He gets my heart pumping…….

Also on Thursday, Andrew came home with a Kinect for the Xbox. After he got it hooked up on New Year’s Eve, we were bowling at home. 

STEEEEEEERIKE!

Hurdles!

We also tried the Track and Field. We ran a sprint, threw both discus and javelin, long jumped, and jumped hurdles. I kicked Andrew’s ass in boxing. He kicked mine in beach volleyball. The console came with Fruit Ninja, and I think I like that one. Last night we bowled and ate pizza and wings, and it didn’t matter if our fingers were saucy… Gotta love technology!

It's bowling, not yoga......

On Friday, Andrew had to work, but we three girls decided to go horseback riding on the beach. Now, I had not been on a horse in over 20 years and was a little nervous. Until I actually got on the horse. His name was Trigger, and when I first saw him I thought “but, he’s so small…..” (my horse Della was 18.5 hands high—which just means big); I could see over Trigger’s shoulders. But I got up on him and he was so sweet. We had a 90 minute ride, and the first half hour was on a trail out to the beach. This let me get comfortable on Trigger and learn some of his quirks. He kept trying to brush me off against the gates and bushes, and he didn’t want to lead, but he had to be right next to the lead horse. 

Connie, me and Annie on the beach December 30, 2011

Once we were on the beach, Annie, Connie and I decided to run, and that was a blast. I have to say that I was scared at first, I hadn’t had a chance to find my balance yet, but after a while I was having soooo much fun. The beach ride didn’t last long enough for me, but the horses were tired and they had two more trips to make that day. The one thing that Trigger did on the beach that was driving me crazy was that he kept trying to run between the fishing poles and the water instead of around them on the beach side.  It is a memory that I will cherish, and it is definitely something Andrew and I will have to do together.

Saturday, we all hopped in the car and went north. We drove up to Hearst’s Castle to see if we could spot the zebras, but they must have been hiding. I’ve seen them before, but not this day.

Nap Time!

 We drove a little further north and found the Elephant Seal nursery instead. They are huge. The females can get up to 1,600 pounds and the males can reach 5,000 pounds. They look like rocks (especially the ones lying in the water).

All those lumps on the beach are elephant seals

 Big can be beautiful! We stayed in for New Year’s and bowled and watched Dick Clark (he’s getting a little scary). At midnight we toasted with champagne, popped our poppers, and watched the fireworks over the bay.

Andrew and I started watching all the Harry Potter movies at the beginning of the week. We only have “The Deathly Hallows…pt 2” left to watch. We filled in Sunday and Monday with two Harry Potters each.  I was kinda lost in the last one—I guess that I never finished that book….. One more to go. Pizza and bowling for dinner again. I think I need a vacation…….