cat house

literally.

things have definately been a little noisy around here. garcia seems to think that he is a whole man again now that kumori has gone into heat.

the thing that makes this whole story all the more hilarious is that garcia's medical backround. he's been neutered since he was about 4 months old, but lost the rest of his manhood a few years ago when his bladder started forming crystals making it impossible for him to pee. so.. garcia is really, kind of, technically.... a tranny. now he seems very confused and not sure what to do with kumori. she is following him around mrrowing at him and doing her little dance. he gets all alpha male on her, then gets confused, and finally swats her, hisses, and walks away. it's really a very sad process as garcia will usually come to find me and jump on my lap where he'll sit and look at me like "what's happening mom?"

i've taken to squirting kumi with a spray bottle when she starts following him.

i've also made the appointment to have her spayed so all of the cat's lives can return to a peaceful existance of catnip mice and tinkle balls to chase.

people who mostly stay at home really should have cats. it's like having a daily soap opera in your house without having to pay for cable.

tufts hospital: a black hole for time

how is it that hospitals seem to suck the time out of a day?

rain and i spent most of the day at tufts hospital with my mom, and unfortunately, audrey. every month, she comes to boston to see dr. luc so they can chat about her med levels and make adjustments to try and keep my moms temporal arthritis at bay. we left the house pretty early and got bagels at park street. we spent a good hour and a half with the dr. then waited around to have her blood drawn. after that, we got soup at au bon pain in the lobby together. i hated every minute of audreys endless yapping. every sentence that came out of my mouth had to be validated by her telling me some stupid story about how she went through something similar or saying "yeah". there were so many times where i just wanted to tell her to shut the fuck up.

mom was pretty disheartened by the news that it would take her 1 to 2 years to get off of prednisone. it's really hitting her hard physically. it's making her want to eat alot, and when that happens her weight goes up (isn't that the story with some of us laramee women?). when her weight goes up, her mobility goes waaaaay down. jack from dr. koppelmans office is working on getting her a physical therapist to visit the house... man i love jack and dr. k. not only do they keep super close tabs on mom, but they also call me every six months to see how i'm doing health wise, even though i have no insurance. she's such an amazing doctor.

after the visits, i helped mom get into the car, which was quite an undertaking. once she was in, i think rain kind of kept audrey occupied so i could have a few minutes to talk with my mom alone. she was crying and really upset about the time frame for the prednisone. she's starting to be more bed bound and depressed. i told her to try and look forward to the fact that she is slowly moving down and that she didn't have to be on it forever.... still. she's pretty down in the dumps.

by the time we said goodbye, it was around 4pm. rain and i wandered back over to the amazing (a local porn and sex toy shop) on stuart street. ever since she worked there, she's had some odd fascination with porn. silly, artistic, strange, movie spoofs.... she loves it all. she scoped out the new movies and tried to get me interested. i mostly just checked out the toys they had to compare prices and variety to what we have at hubba hubba. i need to take more control back over the ordering. alot of denises choices are just boring the customers.

with any hope, i will be able to make more progress on my kitchen repainting. maybe even a few loads of laundry.

maggiesan also may have a lead on a job... which is great news. i'm REALLY excited about the idea of having an "old school" friend in the boston area. i've known maggs for about as long as i've known kristen and nichele. it's gonna be fabulous. while i love the friends i've made in the boston area as an adult, it's somewhat comforting to know that there will be someone near who knew me as a kid. to know someone that long and still be friends... even after rough patches and great distances... it's good stuff. i can't wait to introduce her to sara, erin, and karyl... and to rain... and to have someone to go to concerts with... w00t!

it's almost christmas time, and i have to admit, i've been listening to christmas music on the sly when nobody else is around. i can't wait to get our christmas tree and dig out the ornaments... to make christmas cookies and send out cards...to watch the original "how the grinch stole christmas" on an old grainy VHS tape(the one where the box is in shambles from being so old) ... to anxiously wait to see fun envelopes in my mailbox.. the lights... drinking hot cocoa or tea by a lit tree and to watch the snow outside... also, abbe might come visit, maybe becky too? it could be reminiscent of having family around like going to grammy's in christmases past...... oh i love it. and to possibly spend christmas day with my sisters for the first time?! ever?! magical.

oh man, there are gonna be lots of pictures.... i just can't wait.

it's all downhill after the dress

whoever said that is a fucking liar. what happened today.. i just don't know. maybe the gals at davids bridal were having a bad day or something, but my trip to get the dress was miserable.

to begin with, i never even got a call that it had arrived. i got an email instead. when i called, they told me "oh yeah, that arrived about a week ago. you should have picked it up then." well sure. it's not like i wanted to leave it there. like i want them holding my dress hostage? so i decided to take off for danvers to get it. when i got there, i stood at the counter for about 15 minutes in full view of a consultant helping another girl. there was nobody else in view, i know she saw me. she looked right at me and still ignored me. i wouldn't have minded standing there if she had just at least acknowledged me or said i'll be over in a minute. finally someone else wandered out and got my name to find my dress. when she came back, it was still vacuum sealed into the little bitty bag it came in. i mean really. i just paid you HUNDREDS of dollars for this dress, and they couldn't even put it into the garment bag (that i had to pay for in the first place by the way). it was wrinkled and well... there was just no "magic" to picking it up. the girls were just rude.. like... what, i paid you and you got your commission so... that's it? fuck me for customer service? in the big picture, i'm really glad i went to get it... but the whole experience kind of left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

after that, i decided to heal my emotional wounds with some retail therapy. the christmas tree shops are always good for some cheap interesting things.. i've also been toying with the idea of repainting my kitchen. so i went to home depot and picked up some swatches... so far, a bright sunny yellow is in the lead as far as colors go. i also bought some home things... a photo board... a new rug... picture frames... and some kitchen odds and ends. tomorrow, i will probably go pick up the paint and start the kitchen. to me, the orange it is now makes it feel smaller and darker.. i need something nice and bright to pick it up. i'm also going to re-design my blackboard by framing it and adding in the photo board i picked up. i love home improvements :)

did you vote?

i sure did. in fact, i had a voting date this morning. steve and i walked over as soon as the polls opened, voted, then got some breakfast. it was great. i am so anxious to see which direction our country goes in tonight. i have been glued to the TV (except for the time i was out on my interview and in court with rainy). i have practically been in a nail biting frenzy all day. it didn't help that this weekend i watched a few documentaries on how the machines used for voting can be simply hacked into, or that they keep on referencing our last voting day.

god... i can't wait for tonight to come.

just because i now own a helmet doesn't mean you're allowed to call me special

i was lucky enough to be sitting at my computer when i got the email telling me that i won a skater helmet through ebay. it probably happened about 15 minutes ago, and paid for may be less that 5 minutes after that. hopefully, it will arrive here before friday. it's the last bit to my halloween costume. i'm hoping it will get here by wednesday so i can spray it gold to completely finish the costume. i am going to be a contestant from the 90's nickelodeon gameshow "legends of the hidden temple". i'm kind of stealing it from amber. she did it last year. i chose to go with it because i really hate costumes that get in the way of me moving around and being (somewhat) normal. last year, i went as a vegas showgirl. i had a giant feathered head dress that was about 3 feet off my head, and the heels and the sequined dress i wore while shuffling around and helping people at hubba hubba made me want to cry by the end of the night.

the costume allows me to wear jeans and a t-shirt only adding the out-of-norm knee/elbow pads and a gold helmet. i'm going to be from the green monkey team... i'm jazzed.

in other news tonight, i let my somewhat passive aggressive road rage come out. when i got to my car, i found that someone had parked about 3 inches away from my bumper. inspired by ben's note writing to the folks who had a mount washington sticker on their car, i left a note on the car behind me that read "thank you so much for parking up the ass of my car. i really enjoyed being able to hone my paralell parking and turning skills tonight. jerk." i dunno, i guess i was just really frustrated that they decided to sneak by the "10 feet from the intersection" law that somerville has, by practically forcing me to leave my car in davis square. it took ALOT of turning and reversing to get out of that spot. besides all of that, i was tired and cranky from a loooong day at hubba hubba.

tonight will be forever known as "the night i got stuck in a coffin"

steve took me on an adventure tonight, to abington MA to see barrets haunted mansion. besides the mansion, they also had an attraction called "buried alive". it's a simulated "ride" where you climb into a real coffin, they shut the lid, and it plays a track in your ear and has simulated movements and whatnot. it kind of freaked me out a little once i was in there. it blows cool air in at the foot, and it feels (and sounds) like the coffin is filling with water. all in all, its really cool. what was not cool however was the prank that was pulled on me for my exit of the coffin.

when we got to this place, there was a clown on stilts standing in the doorway. this is the part where i try to express my sheer terror for clowns. i can't explain why, but i get goosebumps, feel nauseous, my mind starts running, and get cold sweats when i see clowns. the stilty clown had a red face with the white frowny lips, black around his eyes and had neon green contacts in.. with an orange wig. he was all dressed in black. while we were waiting in line for the burried ride, i watched him outside tearing across the parking lot chasing people. again... all in stilts. he was freaking me out. there was another pair of clowns around in neon yellow and orange suits. without me knowing. steve told the girl about my clown fear, she took it from there.

now, the room that the ride was in was a little itty bitty room that was made to look like a murder scene, top that off with the fact that there is a coffin in the corner... folks... you have quite a freaky little room. the whole thing was very convincing. if i had wandered into it on my own not knowing it was part of a halloween attraction, i would have been a bit edgy. the ride is over. i am waiting for the gal who happily tucked me into the coffin to open the lid. nope. clown 1 opens the lid, it took me a second for my eyes to adjust to the light, and i then let out a blood curdling scream. at this point i covered my eyes and tried to sit up, but he was leaning over the coffin right in my face making growly noises. so i laid back down and waited to hear him move. i sat up trying to scramble out of the coffin, at the same time, i pulled my scarf up over my eyes so i didn't have to see them. i threw one leg out and twisted around to pull the rest of me out. keep in mind, i still have my scarf practically wrapped around my head. one foot on the floor, and two hands to steady myself, i discovered that my other foot was now tangled in the plastic wrap that was protecting the coffins interior. i tried for about 10 seconds to get myself free, and failed. at this point i could still hear the pair of them growling, one of them right next to my ear. i froze. i was afraid that if i pulled, i was going to knock the coffin over. i was pretty close to panic at this point.

can you imagine me standing there? scarf over my eyes, near tears (seriously), two hands on the rim of a coffin trying to pull the other foot out? i guess that the clowns transformed from fear inducing creeps to two guys who realized that i was stuck and terrified. he reached into the coffin and pulled the plastic off my foot where i then turned around and fled towards the door where i was able to feel my way out. when i got back outside, steve was standing there filming my exit. i pretty much knew thats where he would be, and i came out of the door ready for action. i beat him up a little.

the first video is of one of the clowns entering the room. the little tv screen is actually me in the coffin, but you can't really tell because of the glare from the light.

the second video is from my exit from the room. this is where i attack steve. he had it comin'.

after that, we headed over to the mansion and got some hot chocolate and fried dough to nash on while standing in line. we stood in line for about an hour.. all the while creepers in freaky costumes moved through the line scaring people wherever they got the chance. the mansion itself was neat and scary. i think the room that bothered me the most was a room that you were looking in on.. it was a guy lying on a surgery table, being dismembered or tortured... whatever. but there are people around him and a strobe light is going crazy. the flashing light almost made me lose my shit. in less that 30 seconds i felt like i was either going to pass out or throw up. i moved on to the clown room and wished i was getting sick in the last room. eventually, after we had been screamed at and thoroughly scared, we got outside and decided to get one more hot cocoa to share for the ride home since we were both freezing from our hour wait. while standing in line, the stilt clown decided that he was just going to loom behind me until i noticed. being the mostly oblivious type that i am, i didn't even notice until steve snickered. once i turned, i screamed and bolted for the car.

all in all... we, scratch that, i ended up with the halloween scare that steve was seeking. this sunday... we are going to attempt the corn maze in sterling MA and also get our halloween pumpkin.

lay-to-the-zee

that was my day. lazy. i spent most of my day under the covers watching "six feet under" and cuddling with the cats. kumori is now in the habit of meowing and nosing in the blankets, its her signal for you to open the comforter so she can get under it. she's started this thing where she likes to sleep under the comforter next to me, its a very odd sensation to have a kitty purring under the blanket next to you. it's also sickeningly adorable. i think i am going to keep my little video camera next to me when i'm lounging so i can try to catch her cuteness on tape.

the weekend was spent in needham where i house/dog sat for lucy. we went for a long walk in the woods on both saturday and sunday. it was sooo nice. when i wasn't out in nature, i was hanging out and sketching and drinking tea in what i am calling their "tree room". it's on the second floor of the house, and when you look out onto the deck, it looks like you are just hanging out in the trees. sadly i didn't see any deer.

the rest of this week looks to be busy. i have 2 lunch dates about illustrating. i bought a new portfolio to organize some of my drawings. i also bought a new sweater and some nice jeans so i look like a professional illustrator and not just an art hippy.