She Likes It

Ramona the Pest?

the old country
train to Aberdeen - June 12

So let's work backwards. The most recent event so far is that we got a new kitty. This seems relevant to me since the last postings I made were about when we got Monkey (aka Beast, but, of course, we call him Monkey, despite some calling that an unreal name).

We got her from the local shelter and that was a relatively pain-free process. However, being new parents, we, naturally, had new parent panic only the second day we had her home. 

You see, she got spayed on Monday, which is why we weren't able to take her home right away. So, we brought her home and placed her in the "guest room" aka Monkey's room and sequestered her away. Less than 24 hours after we brought her home, I was saying hello and hanging out in her little non-Monkey haven and noticed that her belly seemed, well, kind of large. I poked at it, and asked, "Is this normal?"

Sure, it was shaved and shockingly pink for a kitty belly. I have very little kitty belly experience. To be fair, no one has a lot of kitty belly experience. Unlike the sluts of the pet world, dogs, kitties get very angry if you touch, look, even think about their bellies [you should probably stop]. So when I wanted to check out incisions and holy crap is that belly supposed to be that big, understandably, Ramona got angry. She's no silly human girl who lets you judge her without consequences. No, she's a cat. Cats like themselves just fine, thank you very much. Anyway. Despite other household human's experience, I managed to create enough doubt to cause panic in the household. THE SURGERY CREATED A PROBLEM. EMERGENCY VET. EMERGENCY VET! Someone got swiped and bit. Thank GOD, it wasn't me. Can you even imagine?

Also thankfully, we were able to get a hold of the West Seattle Vet and they talked us down from the ledge. Sure, she had surgery, it's going to be swollen, dip shits. We are the DPs of the adopting world.

Sigh. 

So she's fine. Turns out, her belly is just larger than it seemed with fur. Turns out, I'm a terrible feminist and she's happy with her shaved, pink, slightly sitting on the floor belly. [We could all take a lesson.]

So yeah, we have a new cat. Monkey can't wait for her to be okay with playing. She loves to dig to China, just like Monkey (YAY!). She is an asshole at 4 a.m. (NO, DO NOT CLAW THE BED AT 4 AM.) Otherwise known as a normal freaking cat. But adorable. 

Welcome, Ramona. I don't care if your fake last name is Dupree. I'm calling you Quimby.

Wowza

peek-a-boo
Edinburgh Castle - June 12

So yeah. It's been a little bit since I wrote anything on this here Internets site and yet, every month I pay Typepad their ransom to keep it up. Figured I might as well resurrect it and attempt to regain some lost writing practice ground.

As you can imagine, a lot has happened. Found a job, lost a job, found a job. Lost a kitty, gained a kitty. MOVED. You know, life and all. Overall, good changes though.

I've got some good stories to sort through, can't wait to get started. In the meantime, here's a video that has been incredibly inspiring to me. If you haven't seen it yet, and even if you have, it's worth the 3 minutes:

Love,

CRo

sunset

the end of the day
Alki Beach - Aug. 09

So here it is, the end of 6 months of unemployment. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a job. No, just the coming end of the dole. Hopefully, the Obama's plan will work for me and I'll get 5 more months leeway, but I just sent off the application, so there are no guarantees there.

One would think that not having to trudge off to the salt mines everyday would be awesome, and in some ways it has been. No getting up early. No needing to get on the bus at 7 a.m. to sit in some cubicle for some ridiculous task. No needing to work through hangovers or just tired days. Yes, that part has been nice. However, applying for jobs and not getting many responses and worrying about the end of the dole and not having a steady income anymore is quite stressful. Put that on top of personal things such as the cat refusing to go in the litter box and having the new kitty scratching up every exposed skin surface and yadda yadda yadda, the past six months have been anything but the bliss that I've imagined it would be.

I'm not depressed, no, I'm not saying that, for those that may be concerned. But it is true that I get in moods...and yes, I am in one now. It's just very frustrating to not get what you want, despite the efforts that you put into it. Sometimes it's just hard not to think that everyone else has what you want. Oh sure, there are the choices I've made that have resulted in exactly the place I am, but that's cold comfort...and so, I'm self-medicating with a very large gin and tonic while the kitties doze in their post-dinner food coma.

I'm also quite sad that the pool that I just started going to 2-3 weeks ago is closing for the season this weekend, the very weekend that I'll be wandering around Seattle's music festival discovering new (to me) and fantastic bands. Bittersweet, I think is the correct word.

I still want to go to India on a trip.
I still am hoping to go to France next summer.
I am still hoping to get a job that I'm actually interested in.

These are the things I'm focusing on at the moment. Everything else can - in the words of a friend - crawl up my ass and die. Is that harsh? Perhaps, but I have only had one swallow of my drink and am still a little agitated. I suspect somewhere at the bottom of my glass and towards the end of the queued up Will Farrell movie, I'll have recovered.

if it's quiet, someone is being naughty

Volunteer Park Deco
Seattle, WA - July 2009

Emeril is on, but aside from that it's pretty quiet in the apartment. Makes me wonder where the Monkey is and what he's getting into. I can see Cassie sitting on the chair, happy for a few minutes reprieve from the Monkey trying - desperately - to get her to play with him. Poor kid, no one is as awake as he is or ready for him to chew on their hair.

Yesterday, I went to a Washington State Bartenders Guild event where Bill Samuels spoke a little about Makers Mark and I enjoyed a few cocktails made by the legendary Murray Stenson. Not bad for a lazy Tuesday afternoon.

And tomorrow, a friend and I are making the first preparations for our big pickling and canning experiments. I'm pretty excited about that.

So, yeah, as per usual, there are several food and beverage activities going down in the household, and much spraying of the kitty as he tries to get attention.

So, in other news, I gotta tell you, I watched Mamma Mia! The Movie the other night. And...I still can't stand something about Meryl Streep's face. This makes me sad because I've been eager to see Julie and Julia and I don't know if I can handle Streep portraying Julia Child. I love Julia Child, she is my hero. I don't love Meryl Streep and cheese and rice she's every freaking where. Oh yeah, my life is so filled with trauma. Don't you just weep for me?

Still job searching. Zzzzzzzzzzz. Damn I'm boring.

funky chicken

Sunk
Seattle, WA - August 2009

I know I've typed quite a bit about how I've been staying home and saving money, but every now and then we need to get out and enjoy some of the things we used to do quite frequently. So, we went to Tiki Night at Vessel - or rather Tiki Afternoon.  Had some fine cocktails made by the visiting bartender and our favorite, Keith.  Even drank one out of a pineapple.  It's funny to be all buzzed up early on a Sunday afternoon, so strange to walk out of a cocktail bar in the searing light of day. I highly recommend...but not every weekend, that would be bad.

Monkey man is still zooming around the apartment annoying Cassie and generally getting into all sorts of mischief. Like any young thing in an apartment of old crankies, I think he is bored by our general lack of energy.  Maybe if he'd vacuum or do the dishes, he'd understand, but, like his older feline companion, he refuses to engage in anything productive. The nerve! 

Speaking of productivity, I have still not found gainful employment, however, did have an interview for a job last week that I'd like to have.  They said they'd let me know in 2-3 weeks. I fear that is not a good sign. Oh well, the search continues. In the meantime, I am going to a MAST class this weekend and maybe I can get a part-time job as a server or a cocktailer somewheres. This is my back-up plan. Better to be serving others instead of being served and draining away our meager funds. At least this is the logic I pose to Companion Cube who has so far been very good and not freaked out about the idea that I have 4 weeks left of unemployment benefits.

In other news, one of my dear friends has sent me sonogram pictures of his baby and another has been tooling around Italy for a few weeks. Guess which one has sent me into fits of jealousy.

I am supposed to be - meaning I've tasked myself with - making a pie crust for the cherry pie I want to make tomorrow.  I am procrastinating because, well, it's just more fun to shoot the shit out of zombies. I mean, I've already talked about how some of my fellow apartment dwellers are so lazy that they'd rather sit there and sleep and purr instead of rinsing a dish or fucking two. Okay, so maybe the spoon in the sink is the only thing they've collectively dirtied, but mamma needs a new pair of shoes break. Deadbeat moochers. Harumph.

I think a trip to the range is in order. What do you say?

enter the monkey

Cassie and Monkey
Seattle, WA - July 2009

So, we got a new kitty. We figured Cassie needed a friend to keep her company in her dotage. So far she has begged to differ with us, but is, as you can see from the photo, slowly warming up to him.  He is pretty young and thus pretty rambunctious and she's...not. In fact, right now she's sacked out on the drum stool while he's running around amusing himself with a stuffed mouse.

We also had Companion Cube's parents in town.  We actually did a ton of stuff including finally getting out to the Seattle Asian Art Museum and a walk through the Olympic Sculpture Garden. We had amazingly sunny and nice weather too whilst they were here.

Aside from those recent events, I've been spending my time job searching of course, but also killing many zombies with a fellow unemployed friend.  We kick undead ass. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if the dead do start to walk the earth, you could do far worse than have either one of us on your team, and with both of us you could be assured survival.  Oh yes, we are that good.

Center of the Universe

The Grotto
Portland, OR - April 2006

I'm feeling funny today, not bad, just strange. I think it's the grey skies that we've had over Seattle the past couple of days. It's summer, it's supposed to be sunny and nice everyday. I think I might have jinxed the weather when I told a recent visitor that we don't get any rain during the summer months. Or perhaps it's the yummy Snack Pinoy I just ate. Not used to eating tapioca out of a pouch.

I'm home, as usual, looking at jobs. Waiting for the motivation to do something aside from Bejeweled and Zombies vs. Plants. Perhaps I'll turn on the xbox, perhaps I'll do the huge pile of dishes that the kitty refuses to wash. Or perhaps not.

My dad called me to tell me about the memorial service I wished I had the cash to go to. It's been a very long time since I have been to Pensacola and a very long time since I have seen many of those that were there.

I've been musing about the people that I know that have a very hard time not knowing that the earth revolves around the sun and not them. Which is funny since these people do not have blogs wherein they write about themselves, but I do. What does that say about me? I give myself a break since I don't really think anyone reads this but the few people that I force to.

What are you doing? I haven't spoken to you in ages and yet I'm thinking of you; wondering what you're up to.  And please don't just say how tall you are, I am tired of that joke.

How many times in a row does something have to happen before we realize that it's not a strange coincidence that that always happens around me, but rather is a reaction to me or being around me?

One day I'll get back to posting funny stories, I just have to have one happen.

The companion cube's parents are coming to town this weekend. Sounds like we might be taking a trip with them, since the places they're interested in visiting are all down by Portland. I hope so as I am looking forward to getting a little break from the monotony of my apartment.

spacing out

gearing up
Greenwood, WA - Aug. 07

I get myself in trouble a lot.

Mostly it's because I have a big mouth and a defective filter. I also am, shall we say, challenged, at gauging appropriateness. I guess that all goes together in one big awkward package. But I like to think that those that love me - and hey, there are people out there that do (hi Mom!) - find my social handicap endearing...or something approximating that.

Not being in an office environment everyday has lowered the occurrence of me saying something stupid to strangers tenfold, but this charming habit has yet to be eliminated completely from my repertoire. In fact, just last week I struggled not to say "ass" in an interview. And this afternoon, I fought against an inclination to correct the 8 year olds next to me on the bus because they were saying "that's what she did" instead of "that's what she said." I'm sure the teachers would have appreciated my restraint had they known.

The bad news is that with the decrease of stranger-horrification, I have increased friend-alienation. I just want to put it out there that if I am giving you far too much knowledge of things that should be private affairs, or if I am grumbling about the crumbs in your beard, or if you know all sorts of boring stories about how I picked the lint from my belly button, I am so sorry. A job will come and I will be back to falling down and inadvertently accusing my boss of being high maintenance in no time.

I don't know what all this has to do with anything let alone the space store, but I'm here and I like that picture, so there.

there's an old man sitting next to me makin love to his gin and tonic

 grainy keys
 Olympia, WA - March 2009

Seriously, can't believe it's June already. This year has been crazy. And by crazy, I mean, not much has been going on, what with me being at home trying to conserve funds while applying for the same jobs that a thousand other people are applying for as well. Sigh. And this blog used to aspire to be about funny stories.

It's 10 a.m., is it too early to fix a drink?

I suppose I should be taking this time, it has been almost 4 months afterall, to be writing. I haven't written a Metblogs post in ever and not much has been going on here either. Motivation, it has left the building. Probably went to the same place as Cassassin's ability to use the box.

Breakfast may be in order this morning. Ooh. I do have bloody mary fixings.

I am breaking down and seeing Jens Lekman this evening. Swedish pop sounds like a great opportunity to be bouncy and happy, plus I have yet to visit the newly reopened Crocodile.

Just started a new book and this quote reminded me of the Companion Cube for some reason, "I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends, I have heard of little else these last twenty years at least." Heh.

just an excuse to post a picture

lost in the camera
Deception Pass, Anacortes, WA - October 2005

When I went to Olympia last month, I unearthed the regular non-digital camera from the closet.  There was half a roll of black and white film in there just sitting, waiting to be used. After taking it with me on the train, I again lugged out the camera when we went to Deception Pass with the companion cube's brother. 

I got the film back on Monday night and at first couldn't figure out why they seemed to be all out of order, nor why there were no "found" photos that had been sitting in the camera waiting to be developed. Upon showing the pictures to the companion cube last night though, it all came clear.  Those seemingly lost photos were there all along. They were of our first trip to Deception Pass way back in October of 2005 when Muffin and John first came to visit us here in Seattle. 

So much has changed since then. Muffin and John are married and have a mini-muffin. The companion cube's car is long gone and not replaced. I'm the one that don't got no job. Oh and so many other un-internet-mentionable things. Can you believe it? Three and a half years is such a long time.