Specific Thoughts

It's been a long time since you and I have really chatted, your trip out to Oregon, including the east coast snow mess and then your time out here, I feel like so much has happened!

So I am giving great thought to my goal of being back in my house by spring and given that the people renting my house are in their 80s and will likely have a heart attack when they find they have to move, I will give them at least two months notice, more if they need it or want it.  Fortunately, some of my furniture went to the home of my mom's friend and he lives alone so it should be in good shape.  And I shipped a lot of my pots/pans/silverware, since my mom had purchased nice things for me.  My mom bought T-Bone's bed and a desk when he left, overpaying for it I guess so that he would have some traveling money.  But my plan is to end up in this bed which is an amazing experience.  I plan to control more of my sleep environment, food environment, basically everything will be up to me and my cats.  Yes, I will be crazy cat lady but it will also include champagne so not so bad!  I could ebay all my gorgeous clothes that are laughably tiny, like ordering clothes for my soon to arrive niece.  I have a fabulous new computer and I could hit up hulu or watch Netflix or DVDs.  I could possibly make some peace with my religious experience, even attending a congregation that is suspiciously close to our favorite beer and fondue spot.  Even as the snow falls and the cold wind whips around, keeps me buoyed. 

Really all of this depends on 1) if I can find a job and/or 2) if unemployment continues on the federal level as it has been.  I could squeak by on unemployment, no more fun happy hours or trips across the country to drink with my dear friend but it would be summer and I could eat delicious fruits and take walks in my lovely neighborhood and maybe do some local pet sitting or whatever.

And as I think of this, I really would love to have you back here.  And I don't mean simply the west coast.  How cool would it be if you were here and we could start that pet sitting enterprise and/or organization business.  We are both good at those things, we're equally rather unmotivated and lazy so I kinda think we wouldn't bug each other.  Granted we probably wouldn't make a lot of money due to that but maybe more of my killer instinct would return if something in my life was succeeding.  Something to nosh on.  I think those businesses would work great, if you lived downtown or towards your parents and I stayed westside in my house, we could cover a great deal of this fair city, meeting for happy hours would be our corporate meetings, thus a write off!  We could travel for conventions on pet sitting or organizing, and count it off while we work!  I think it's fabulous.  Of course I want you to be ever so happy, whether in the east or in the sunny part of the US.  That's cool too because I could visit.  We seriously need to hit up the desert together. 

With my upcoming trip back east, my thoughts turn to T-Bone, my T-Bone not your T-Bone Two (hehehe).  I miss him, guess I couldn't help it.  He left, he came back kinda, he left again.  I do want to see him and then something inside of me throws up.  So I guess the right answer is to not see him while there.  He's not asking and I haven't told him I'll be back around.  I would love to know how he is, I would love to give him a big hug and leave him with the best impression of me ever.  Oh, now that I write that, maybe that is more the answer.  Meet him, be sparkling and amazing and fun, not wanting or hoping or anything, and leave him with that great impression, not those crazy email exchanges that left me feeling odd.  Does that sound mature and healthy or crazy and deluded?

Miss you much.  Hope your new job is filling in some of the sadness.  Remember you see me in 16 days!  I will have champagne!  We will eat brunch!  We will skate in the park!  We will be fun and flirty and fabulous!  And we will sleep in awesome beds like the one I posted above.  We might not be able to get up in the mornings.....good we'll stay up all night....call me when it strikes your fancy....

Champagne! Our official one!

There needs to be a proper balance of kittens and champagne here so I'm going to delve into my favorite champagne, actually California sparkling wine.  With you my friend, we have explored the world of champagne, staying mostly below about $50 so can't really say we've had them all, but we do intend to try.  We're even getting some experience with Prosecco and Cava and whatever other word this world uses to describe the nectar of the gods.

Wycliff Sparkling Wine.  Memorize that.  It is sweet and dry and full and overall simply easily drinkable.  And...I'm telling a secret....it's incredibly cheap.  This online wine store has them for $3.99 a bottle, the cheapest I've ever seen, with the cheapest shipping.  Of course it's in California and I'm on the west coast so that makes sense.  Side note champagne bottles are usually more expensive to ship, maybe they are heavier or oddly shaped, don't know.  However that wine store is out of this sparkling wine, not sure if it's because of the proximity to New Year's or if they just run out.  Next best is here.  Only 50 cents more and ships from Nevada.  Alas, they cannot ship to your state at all, or more importantly, they can only ship to a liquor store or a restaurant.  You'll have to find a favorite watering hole ;-).  And another store where it's only $4.34 and being in Michigan, shipping to east coast and midwest is less.  Obviously shipping prices greatly depend on where it's going to and from.

Only one bottle left in our fridge.  I'm thinking of getting some and hopefully I will be able to bring with me to NYC...so good and almost cheaper than buying juice!  That's how I'll justify!

Charley in a Tree...No K.I.S.S.I.N.G

Finally, I got a pic of our house with the tree that Charley found himself in a couple of Sundays ago.  All the way at the top with the little nub and to the left is where Charley was packing back and forth.  Since the top of the house is probably between 15 and 20 feet, I'm assuming the tree is close to 50 feet. 

He had gotten out the night before when my dad was making steak on the grill and since I was letting them out about an hour a day to get them use to outside, it didn't seem a big deal.  Except an hour later, when I called, nothing.  No stampede, no Charley in the beds in the garage.  And it was cold, not as bone chilling as it had been, but just above freezing.  As it got closer to 3 hours outside, close to midnight, I was getting frantic.  People started going to sleep, silencing the neighborhood and the air, and slowly I could hear a small meow when I called his name.  Eventually, with my heart dropping, I realized he was in the tree.  He's all black and was apparently all the way at the top, we couldn't find him.  I had to wake up my dad because the thought of my 2 pound lovely boy in the tree was just too much, plus it had started raining and I didn't know if Charley could find cover.  My lovely dad got his long ladder and went into the tree.  We didn't know where he was and the tree was wet so it was dangerous.  Being about 2 am, it seemed best to wait it out until the light.  Of course, I could not sleep and every 45 minutes to an hour I went out and called him, only once did I not get his little meow.  And I searched the internet for anything that would help bring him back.  Kittens don't know that their claws only go one direction; so to get down he would have to take himself down backwards, which also seems that it wouldn't be as frightening because then he wouldn't be looking at the ground.  But my little one didn't know this and his mommy just sat at the base of the tree.  It was a long night. 

When daybreak occurred, I was outside, looking for that little screwball.  He was pacing back and forth and crying with emphasis.  No food for over 12 hours, likely not much sleeping, he wanted down.  I couldn't coax him anywhere so I waited for my dad to come back from his early morning appointment.  First thing, dad up the tree.  See, firemen will come if my dad is stuck in the tree, not so much for the kitten.  By this time, Charley had worked himself down a couple of branches, maybe about 20% of the way down.  My dad climbed as high as he could safely get before branches were unsteady.  Because of the rain, the branches were wet and he can't afford falling out of a tree, death or injury not okay.  With dad in sight, Charley could be coaxed to start to jump to the branches just below him and over half an hour, he got close to my dad.  The problem came in when my dad would reach up to get Charley, he was so scared, he would dig his nails into the branch.  And with my dad in sight, Charley did not want to climb anymore.  Eventually, my dad was able to pull his little body that Charley couldn't keep his claws into the branch.  Then Charley started clawing my dad.  Oh this little guy.  He got down, safely put inside, chowed on food, comforted himself with mommy and was okay.  He isn't allowed out of the house until he turns 18, and I mean that in human years not cat!

I love your idea of putting him in the smaller trees and coaxing him down.  I think once the weather gets warmer, that will be our outside project. 

Makes me realize what horror and uncertainty a human mother feels when her child is missing.  I knew where Charley was, I could see him and I knew we could get him back.  And I couldn't eat or sleep or think until I knew he was okay.  Plus he's a cat and only about 4 months old, not a cat I've had a long history with.  What a mother goes through when her child is missing, I don't know how I would live through such a thing.  It's sobering.

Cool baby/toddler stuff (human in case you wonder)

I've been searching for stuff for my new niece, percolating as we speak.  I found Flying Peas and really like it.  I even found coupons which is crazy cool. (coupon code: wts09 (10%) or RMN2009 ($5 off $50 or more)).  When I had a question that needed an answer, I got one, at 11 pm the same day, from the owner.  Great customer service!  And $10 flat fee shipping is way cool.  I'm impressed with this business model.

I ordered this poncho for my new niece and some other fun things.  I had to hold myself back, everything was so cute.  I don't think there are babies in your life right now but I'm thinking your sis isn't going to wait much longer.  She's already negotiating with her main squeeze!

Unsolved Mysteries

I'm such an Unsolved Mysteries whore.  I took an ambien tonight and I'm fighting sleep because a UM that I have never seen is on.  Oh, I'm all over this....yum....

One lucky kittie

This little one had quite a journey.

Because of 9/11

Hmm, poking around this site, I found this.  I was to have been on a train that went below the towers the next day, my friend was shopping in the mall beneath the towers the day before.  If but for a day either way, my life would have been affected personally.  And being the person I was then, I would have listened to what I was told, stood underneath those buildings, and been engulfed in the debris, as this woman was.  That compliant person doesn't exist anymore, glad it wasn't tested that day.

Like the shot heard around the world, the falling of those towers, it changed all of us.  It's become the reason for just about anything, "privacy concerns because of 9/11," a failed TSA because of 9/11, horrible travel experiences because of 9/11.  My father's conspiracy theories about 9/11.  On and on (needed a mood lift there for a moment). 

Some days I miss our innocence, such as it was, before that terrible day.

Days like yesterday are why Xanax is popular

Sigh, I do that more that I like to admit, yesterday I attempted to figure out the TomTom gps I bought for myself.  It seemed so simple but somehow it was evading me how to use.  The box did not contain a manual so I found one online and tinkered with the device.  I realized that I needed a fix that was on the website so I outfitted the device with the USB cable and plugged it in, which is good because I used the gps the other day and it couldn't find a McDonalds nearby, which was a problem because I needed a sausage mcmuffin bad .  No joke, this is about 5:30 pm, on a Saturday night, I won't even go into my in the hell I am at home on a Saturday night configuring my gps...but onward to the story.  Download the program that the device needs to interface with and update.  That seems to be okay.  Then to the map update.  I had read online that one needs to be remove whatever isn't needed on the device because it isn't big enough for the map update otherwise, so I took out the french and spanish voices and whatever else seems superfluous (big word of the day!).  The update starts, it takes 3 and 1/2 hours.  And at the end, not enough space on my computer, where it apparently is making a copy.  I had also read about making a backup, which somehow the program for the TomTom has a button for this but when I press the button it tells me "Your device does not support this function."  No problem, I make a copy of the device and leave it on my hard drive, after checking it for errors, this is all about 2 hours at this point, beyond the download time.  So I start deleting programs off my computer, I have a new computer on Monday so I'm only concerned about personal content and not any of these programs which I'll have to download again.  That still doesn't free up enough space, besides taking another hour to delete a bunch of programs.  I delete a really large program I have the CD for and that seems to work.  So again start the update, it seems to finish.  Turn on the gps.  It can't find the map.  Error messages all over the place.  I'm thinking maybe I'll just send it back now....TomTom support not available until Monday.  About 2 am I decide to just go to bed.  But it bugs me.  So I get up (meaning sit up in bed and turn on my computer) and try it again, after spending over an hour on the support website.  I'm at the point of reinitializing the device, which is a huge step, and see that now the backup button is supported on the TomTom program on my computer, so something changed.  Anyways, I figure out that the map is on the device but not "activated."  Apparently the map is downloaded on my computer and needs to be activated onto the device.  About 6 am I figure out how to do this.  And the gps now works, I think.  Is this even worth it?  Better be.  That's my Saturday night.  I needed some champagne desperately.

You

My fellow blogger (part time ;-)) and friend, times have been achangin for you and it's tough to be out of one's comfort zone.  I am so incredibly proud of you for making the leaps, in love, in career, in cities.  Even if this jaunt only lasts a couple of months, the courage to make those changes is fed by experience, hopefully good, and practice.  You are a capable, wise and beautiful young woman.  There is much to do, if you want to do, and much to see, if you want to see it.  And I hope to be around for all of it, the slip and fails/falls, the successes and love, the journey.  It's been fun so far and I wish you whatever you need to get to the next step.  Even the unreasonable things in our common life together have sprouted good, so although I don't believe that all things happen for a reason, I do think all things can teach us something that will be good in the end.  Point is, glad to be part of your life and I will look forward to the next chapters, whatever they bring.  Remember "the biggest gift will always be from me."  Love you!

Two Great Shows Together

It's fine when she's sober, but she's never sober

Can Love Last?

Don't know, these people seem to think they do.

Frustrations Venting All Over the Place!

I am so tired of dealing with the unemployment department.  I'm going to be very gracious and say they are simply doing a job but argh.  Seriously I put in my claim September 25th and have had nothing but problems since then.  Another rail against the machine is I'm having problems with the pharmacy I went to for the first time, Target.  I love Target, seriously, like get everything I can there.  I find them to be helpful and accommodating on returns (I'm the return queen).  Pharmacy not so much.  I had ongoing issues with a prescription, which I get a lot of medication, and I finally just requested the prescription number so I can take the prescription elsewhere, I'm tired of dealing with people who simply have excuses and won't get to a solution.  I never provided my phone number, I gave an email address, and today got a voice mail from the pharmacy manager.  How the hell did they get my phone number?  Whatever, just ridiculousness, seems to be par for the course with businesses anymore.  People are certainly not happy just to have a job.

And of all things, someone I knew in New York, not a friend exactly but a man I knew, he was let go from his long time job, has no close family and came out to distant family in the state you are from.  He moved to my city to make a new start, and killed himself in his car last week.  I overheard my dad talking about the incident with someone, being in a fairly small religious community means everyone knows everything.  I recognized the name and my dad explained what happened.  He was actually the minister for the wedding of my best friend in New York.  It's distressing, more because I'm sad that he didn't have anyone or anything to live for.  He was a special person, touched really, but lovable and a loss to this world.  Bible says death is our enemy, never feels more true than when someone chooses it over us in this world.

So first post on T-Bone, which I'm realizing what a good moniker that is since he is being boneheaded.  As you texted me over the weekend regarding two and his boneheadness, makes me realize that sometimes we just can't understand what guys are thinking.  Exactly why did T-Bone move all the way across the country?  Was it really to convince me to date him again?  If he felt like his actions from years ago weren't right, why didn't he do anything different this time?  Wasn't okay to let sleeping dogs lie?  He recommended Paper Heart to me, as well as a book I just finished reading.  On Friday, I texted him that I had finished both the book and the movie and great recommendations.  I didn't expect a response exactly, I didn't ask a question or anything but it still bugs me that there is no response in the big picture.  Why start something that can't be completed?  I'm sure you're feeling that as well in your situation.  I guess we don't always know what's going on and maybe if we had all the info, we would better understand.  At least that is what I'm sticking to.  At this point, I don't feel the need to contact him while I'm in New York in a month.  Any thoughts for or against that?

One more thing since I'm venting frustration, is that someone I know is having medical issues, sleep problems specifically that are either causing overdrinking or the overdrinking is causing sleep problems (not that I am a doctor, both issues are simultaneously occurring).  Once a friend, many things have occurred since then, we haven't seen each other in like 5 years, but he and his wife recently moved back here.  Seems this guy has fixated on me and I'm feeling pressure to go see him "to help."  I feel so petulant even writing this but I don't want to go!  Not that I have to because I'm a big ole adult.  I've been in bad straits and this guy, in particular since I specifically asked him and his wife, did not come when called.  And I'm not particularly kind with people who don't do anything to help themselves.  Life can suck sometimes, I've been handed much more pain and suffering than I ever imagined I would have, along with a body that just doesn't want to work properly.  My friend Erik told me you'll have to work twice as hard to get half as much and nothing truer has been spoken.  I would like to think I have compassion for tough situations.  I can sit and commiserate with anyone.  But at the end, we have to get up (even if we need our friend to lean against as we get up on the cobblestones of Philly ;-)) and keep walking.  Isn't that Johnnie Walker's slogan?

Kitten alert: They are very adorable.  I get woken up most mornings when they are hungry since all the other cats like kitten food, apparently it's fatty and tastes good, not that I would know that personally.  The kittens don't cry or anything like that.  They come and sit in front of me, touching their nose to my face and their whiskers wake me up.  Freaking adorable.  I should have discovered kittens years ago!

Bubbly

Ah yes, nectar of the gods.  Wish you had been there for delicious warm cheese and sparkling pears. Apparently three are too many....trust me....

Don't let him fool you. Pure evil.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Nothing more to say

Um Yeah

GPS

I actually ordered two GPS machines, one Garmin and one TomTom.  I'm split because the reviews on the Garmin are so much better, like a star and a half better than the TomTom.  I'm interested in how you like yours if you've had a chance to use it and why.  I'll probably take both out on outings and see which I like better.  The TomTom seems so much easier.  Sigh, hate to evaluate technology.  Maybe I'll just go with easiest and price.  I can't imagine I'll use it all the time although maybe I'll love it and be addicted!

Life is Weird ~Jack Kerouac

I see that we now have 12 hits to our blog, of course we are ridiculous about that.  It seems that people actually do put kittens and champagne into their google browser.  Who would have thought that besides us?

The universe is being weird to me right now.  On Monday I found two wayward socks, you know those socks that somehow never get out of the washer/dryer and you hope that you will someday find them?  Well, I did, after about 2 years.  Two, in one day.  It's weird.  And I don't have the most unusual or the most common name but on Monday (again with Monday), I got called three variations of my name.  That never happens to me.  I think the universe is telling me to give up my quest to not drink for a month.  Or is that just you in my ear? heheheh

Tonight I went to my favorite bar and again the older gentlemen who started the conversation I texted you about the other night was there, sans his wife.  He's in his 60s or so, had a successful ad agency in Silicon Valley for 25 years and his wife (who he actually married twice!) is in Singapore.  So he came to have some scotch and soda and I was there to have a bit of food, only two glasses of wine, so proud of me!  It was a lovely conversation, he was interesting and forthright, maybe thinking he wouldn't see me again.  He even covered the tab, which was very sweet.  He wanted to know my life circumstances, which I explained and he was genuinely caring, not offering platitudes or false promises with the sucky hand life has supplied me.  That's really awesome for me to find, of course makes me angry when the people I've known my whole life can't be accommodating of me but c'est la vie.  A conversation got started about the bartender having recently turned 30 and I said "when I was thirty, etc." and this man was like "WHEN you were thirty?"  He thought I was his daughter's age, 21, which seems a bit crazy but I'll have to live with it I guess.  He complimented my skin and the fact that I laugh a lot, which doesn't lend to my age.  That was really nice.  Combats the strange week I had last week. 

So it seems that not drinking at all will be difficult.  My plan had been to only drink if offered but it seems that is happening more than I would have anticipated, my dad even offering to open TWO bottles of wine.  And since you will be here in 3 weeks, well so it goes.  But I think I can work on the mental stuff, not relying on alcohol to calm myself down or to be jovial.  Life can suck and it can be weird (thank you Jack Kerouac) but as this man, Bill, said his life's motto is something along the lines of life can be difficult but there are those moments that make it all worthwhile and beautiful and the quest for those moments fills the bland and boring moments.  Simply for me, writing this to you, listening to my kittens stampeding down the hallway, lovely red wine, knowledge that somewhere someone is happy to have known me, those are great moments and the rest is forgotten, for now ;-).

My Ode to You

Don't know when you'll read this, before or after, but when you do I want you to know a few things.  First of all, you have been a true and loyal friend.  I so appreciate that.  And even though I do not participate in the typical gift giving occasions, I never use that as an excuse to not show my appreciation, particularly when I know of a gift that will make you happy.  And lastly, do not allow this to put pressure on you to reciprocate in anything other than being the lovely and amazing person you have always been.  Because I don't participate in holidays and such, it leaves me with the option to give gifts when I am moved to do so and I expect that of all of my friends as well.  Keep warm and well fed and may you always be able to navigate around the ghetto areas.  My love across this great country.  Wish I was there or you were here....