We all survived!

Well, we all survived the night, though I think Mollie's the only one who actually slept. Leo vacated the bed and slept somewhere else. Bow took her standard spot next to my pillow, and spent the whole night growling intermittently. For awhile, both the big ones were on the bed growling. It might have been fine if I'd managed to convince them to do it in unison, which might have gotten me a decent little massage happening, but oh no, they couldn't possibly do something to convenience me. So while we did all survive, unscathed, some of us were also unsleeping as well. Every time I was asleep nice and soundly, I felt a tiny movement near my feet, and then there was a growl that started in my ear. Fun times I tell ya!

While I've been in and out of the bedroom, puttering around the house and getting some things done, there's apparently been an understanding of sorts, develop, at least between Leo & Mollie. She stays out of his line of sight and he doesn't growl or hiss at her. Not that it really matters to her, since she can't hear it. Bow has decided she's just going to hide out. Earlier I came in and found her sitting in the sink in the bathroom. She was so happy to see me and purred her little brains out while we were in there, you would think she hadn't seen me in DAYS!

In other cat news, my friend and roomie, Erin (Nina) has gotten back into the cattery biz, specializing in hairless breeds, including Sphynx & Bambino. Check out HoBBiTcaTs at http://www.hobbitcats.com/. A little note before you start clicking… we ARE talking about hairless cats. Sure, initially there's a bit of squick for most people when talking about hairless cats, but they are some of the sweetest, most loving cats I've ever met. Also, they are not truly hairless, they do have a fine sort of like peach fuzz, and a bit more hair on their ears, and may also have thicker coats in patches or, like one I met recently, on their ankles. I adopted Mollie from her. Mollie is not out of her cattery and has normal cat hair, but is a dwarf, with short little legs and the sweetest personality that more than covers for the fact that she can't hear, which is why she was spayed and became a pet, instead of being part of a breeding program. One of these days things will settle down enough that I can get some video of her cute little rolling waddle.

As for me, I've had a bit of a busy day, and tomorrow's got several things on the agenda, including a trip to the Post Office, so I'm off to bed now.

Possibly my last post

This could quite possibly be my last post. For a bit anyway. Tonite marked the end of my 2 cat only world. I brought Mollie downstairs to move in with us. It’s been planned from pretty much as soon as I moved in here with E&T, especially since they have decided to get back into the breeding of the designer cats.



I’ve mentioned my 2 before. Leo, my big boy, is about 11 now, and while he’s not frightened of his own shadow anymore, change tends to stress him a bit, and if there is too much activity outside our bedroom door, it does tend to upset him. Bow, my precious baby girl is 12 now, and still rotten as ever, and relatively certain that the world does, indeed, revolve around her multicolored little self.


I can assure you that neither is particularly pleased with the addition of Mollie to the bedroom! And, quite frankly, I think at least part of their annoyance stems from the fact that she seems not to give a damn about the fact that they are growling and hissing at her. It matters not that she is less than ½ their size (and, as a dwarf, that’s all she ever will be).



When I first brought her in tonite, I took her to the litterbox, so she knew where it was, and then I let her go on walkabout, during which she found the water dish, the food dish, and Bow. That conversation went something like this:

{both cats on the floor at the foot of the bed, with Leo looking down on them}


Bow: GRRRROOWWRRR, PFFFFFT.

Mollie: *dopey look that says “huh?”*

Bow: PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT

At this point, I scruffed Bow where she stood on the ground and talked to her, telling her Mollie is fine and she doesn’t have to be ugly. Mollie passed her and went to the food dish. Bow heads around to the other side of the bed and goes under it.



Her first conversation with Leo went like so:


{Mollie jumps onto the bed about 4 inches from his face}


Leo: grrrRRRRRRROW pff

Mollie: (cuts him off) RRROWWW pft (and a swipe of her paw that misses him by a mile)

Leo: GRRRROOWRRRRR PFFFFFFT PFFFFFFT


Mollie: turns her back on him, waddles to the pillow and starts washing her paw


Bow eventually gets out from under the bed, Mollie has by now moved down to the foot of the bed for a full on bath and quick nap. Leo has been hissing intermittently and glaring, first at me, then at Mollie. I finally convinced Bow to come out and get up on the bed beside me, which she does, but she steadfastly refuses to purr, and is intermittently growling at Mollie, who, being deaf, doesn’t hear it, and thus doesn’t really care.



They have each finally settled down now, hopefully for the night. Mollie’s asleep on a pillow on one side of me, Bow’s in her favorite spot on the other side of me, where she’ll be right IN MY FACE should she need to tell me anything in the middle of the night, and Leo’s down at the foot of the bed with his back to me, so I’ve no idea if he is awake or asleep.



At any rate, it may be a couple of days before I’m able to update, should there ensue a heated discussion in the night, of exactly what the pecking order in this little abode shall be. If anyone has any “make the kitties get along famously” sorts of spells, incantations, or ideas, please send them my way, as I may need them soon….

Success & Re-evaluation

As Christmas creeps ever closer, I am having good days and bad days, and gradually the good are beginning to outnumber the bad. In the past year the circumstances have forced me to step back and re-evaluate my life, and what's truly important. I had truly become complacent, and lost sight of the direction I was headed. I lost sight of ME, in my drive to be helpful, and a 'good friend' and somewhere along the line, I forgot that not only am I a good friend, I have some very good friends as well.
My success is not measured by the number of people that I rescue or help, nor is it measured by the work I do. I am a good person, a good friend, and sometimes shit happens, deserved or not. I am in the process of starting over, from the lowest I have ever been. Everything I own could be packed into a 10x20 storage building. Growing up, it seemed that everyone around me had more than we did. Oh, we were not poor, by any means, but we did live fairly modestly, and didn't have a lot of modern material things, or the latest gadgets, but I also understood that THINGS were just that, and that possessions don't equate with happiness, love, or contentment. Even as an adult, I have tended to purchase items I really want, after considering my options, AND whether or not I truly want to invest my money into a particular item, rather than competing to keep up with the Jones', Smith's, or anyone else. Sure, I have many things that truly are luxury items, rather than necessities, and very few of them are collecting dust from disuse.

I have never been in this situation before… I always had Mom to fall back on, in the event of a crisis, but not this time. I have had to reach out and ask for help, which has always been hard for me to do, whether it was schoolwork, or moving. I suppose that my mother and grandmother did a bit too good of a job teaching me to be self-reliant and not allow myself to become dependent on anyone else, because having to ask for help makes me feel weak, helpless, and like a failure, when that it truly not the case. The failure that I have experienced in the last 18 months or so is not truly MY failure, it is the failure of other people to do the right and moral thing. My only failing is in being too trusting and trying to provide a safety net. I have long considered myself blessed to have friends that I can trust, and while this year has shifted where some of those friends are on the true and reliable friend spectrum, I see a much clearer picture of many of those people that have shifted. And, truth be told, I've discovered a level to some of the relationships in my life that is much stronger than I imagined it was, and for that, I am grateful.

Over the weekend, I closed a chapter that a year ago, I would never have dreamed would close as it did, when I turned the keys over to the house that I once thought I would eventually purchase. It was a great size for me, and while there were a few little quirks about it, it could have been truly perfect for me, had I ever managed to sort through all the crap that I had been either carrying around for the last 7 years, but also that which I accumulated in the 19 months that I lived there, so that I could organize effectively. On my way out the door, after walking through with my friend and landlord, I smudged the whole house with a sage stick, in an effort to cleanse any negative energy still floating around and leave it with a clean slate. I am hopeful that closing that chapter, and the negativity that ultimately I came to have to live with while I was there will free me to move on to bigger and better things. I am truly blessed by the fact that while my living situation is far from perfect, it is MUCH closer to perfect than what many people have, as I do know where I will lay my head each night, and I know where my next meal will come from, and I can have my cats with me.

This will not be an easy journey, finding my way back to where I should be, emotionally, and physically, not to mention spiritually. Christmas, Yule, Chanukkah, each have their own traditions and ideas, yet somehow they work together, at least in my little head. I think that the most prevalent theme across all 3 is Light. Winter Solstice (Yule) celebrates the longest night of the year, which then gives rise to lengthening periods of light during the day. Chanukkah celebrates the 8 nights of light provided by only one night's worth of oil. Christmas the birth of Christ, believed to be the light of the world. I've been perhaps not in full darkness, but certainly not fully in the light that is available, sometimes by my own choice, sometimes as a result of the depression that does run in my family, sometimes simply because the combination of depression and other people's choices which affect me directly become overwhelming, and in an effort to not hurt the people around me, I withdraw into the darkness in order to try and find a little peace.

Tonight's list of things I am grateful for (aside from the obvious warm bed and a safe roof over my head)

1. Friends and family that loves and accepts me for who I am, and not what I can do for them, or anyone else.
2. Knowledge that I do not have to be perfect in anyone's eyes, and that striving to be so hurts me more than it does anyone else
3. The ability and willingness to measure my success by its own yardstick, independent of material or superficial things or events

And on that note, it is off to bed with my sleepy little brain.

OOH LOOK, I have posted again!

It's been a busy couple of weeks since Thanksgiving. The move is almost complete, literally. Tomorrow I'm going back to the old place to clean and pick up the last few items still over there, and Saturday will do the final walk through and turn over the keys I honestly had hoped that I would live there for many years, and ultimately purchase the house, but alas that was not to be.

My friends, The Rogues, entered a Battle of the Bands being sponsored by an Irish brewery. They took 2^nd place in the preliminary round, out of 65 bands from North America and Europe, and advanced to the finals. If they win, they will go to Las Vegas to perform at one of the resorts for St. Patrick's Day, 2010! If you would take just a moment to go to http://www.slbc.ie/involved/competitions/, watch their video, which is listed first on the page, and cast your vote, I would really appreciate it, as would they. Also, your vote will also enter you into a drawing for a trip to Vegas to see them!

Thursday afternoon I made my 3^rd annual trek to Galveston for Dickens on the Strand. I had hoped to head down earlier in the day, but alas that didn't work out and it was very nearly 4 p.m. before I got out of here! I was looking forward to seeing the island in the daylight, to see the recovery from Ike. Obviously since it was after 9 when I arrived, I was only able to see what was lit, and truthfully, that alone was an AMAZING difference from last year! I stayed with friends who live on the island, in a beautiful, late 19^th century home, which, fortunately sustained no real damage to the living spaces, though the workshop on the ground floor had about 5 feet of water & muck in it. Of course we stayed up entirely too late, since we hadn't seen each other since June. They added a train to the scene in their living room.

If you look closely, you'll see that it's a LEGO set! How awesome is that? Apparently you can go to the LEGO website and design whatever you want and get the pieces shipped to you!









Friday was full of roasting and other preparation of food for the party Saturday night. I promise to put up recipes later.  There were dire predictions of a significant (for Galveston, anyway) snowfall on Friday, however we only saw a few tiny flurries that didn't amount to anything, and about 5 minutes of sleet, but it was COLD! It was good to see more of the island than I've seen in a great many years! We had lunch at a little bakery called the Sunflower Bakery & Cafe as we had to go by there to pick up the birthday cake. I can highly recommend their Deluxe Grilled Cheese, made with Gruyere Swiss, applewood bacon, and tomato (which I left off, thankyouverymuch) on sourdough. Of course we stayed up way too late again that night, but that's because the rest of the visitors had rolled into town.

Saturday dawned COLD, and I layered up so in an effort to be warm but not overly hot and needing to go back and forth to the car. It was a cold, but pretty day, and the crowds were pretty good, from what I saw. I kind of thought I might run into more people from up here than I did, but for whatever reason, it just didn't happen. The Rogues had 2 stage shows and did several street shows throughout the day. I have to say that being back in the pub was AWESOME, since last year we were pretty much out on a street corner the whole weekend because so much, including the pub was not yet open again after the storm. Because of the weather in the Midwest, one of the pipers couldn't get back to TX in time for Saturday's shows, so we had an emergency fill-in, Stuart Clements, who did a fabulous job, especially considering that he had NEVER played with the Rogues before! It was a wonderful day, and the gathering at the house that night was, of course, a good time, as the bunch of us that was there tends to spend a lot of time laughing and enjoying the conversation, not to mention the food!

Sunday was a bit warmer, and another beautiful day on the floaty bit out there in the Gulf. I was only out until about 2:30 due to a need to get the Canadian contingent back to the airport in time for their flight. I did score some fun things, including a couple of Woozies, a smartass, an awesome 2 piece barrette thing for my hair, and a couple of other gifts that I am not ready to reveal, lest I spoil the surprise! My drive home was longer than I would have liked, largely because it was rainy for about half the trip, but I was certainly glad to get back to my kitties and my own bed, on the ground floor, as opposed to on the 2^nd floor of a house that sits about 12 feet above ground level to begin with… Have I mentioned my butt is quite tired from all those stairs?

Today's random weirdness can be traced back to Sunday at Dickens, and the smartass I bought. On Saturday, as I walked around looking at the various vendors, I came across one that had a variety of pins shaped like butts. There was a rat's ass, dumbass, a smartass, a kickass, a pain in the ass, cinnamon buns, a candyass, an ass 'n' 9, a grapeass, a buttface, and I don't even remember all of the rest of them, but I found them highly amusing, and went back on Sunday to purchase one of the smartass, and a rat's ass. While I was standing there deciding just which ones I needed, I noticed some beads on the other corner of the booth. When I'd made my selection, I was looking at the rest of the booth, and I realized that the beads over there were ROSARIES! That struck me as even more amusing than the asses in the first place, having both products in the same booth!