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What Fresh Hell ....
Welcome to primary day. This post will be fairly short, since I'm still not quite on my feet, but my crabbiness remains fully intact, which means I can blog.
This is just something I've been thinking about today.
When I met my husband, lo these ten years ago, falling in love with him also meant enjoying the company of his evil companion, a six year old, seven pound hairball of a black feline female called "Tosca". Oh, that she would imitate her namesake and throw herself from the nearest parapet. But parapets are hard to come by these days. Pity, that. She hisses at everyone and everything and hates all lifeforms except my husband. I've tried to make nice with this beast. I've even gone so far as to serve her warm milk in a saucer by the fireplace. That was during the first year of our marriage. Now, these many years later, I live in a stoic coexistence with this menace to humanity.
It's not merely that she is evil. No. She also pukes. She binges and purges. Or sometimes it's an actual hairball and not mere gluttony. Or she's stupidly eaten the plants, once again for the zillionth time, imagining them to be some sort of kitty-type salad. She pukes with charming regularity. And she pukes anywhere and everywhere in the house.
My favorite is when she pukes at the bottom of the stairs during the night, and in the morning I hit the slippery wet slime, when my eyes are only half-open, and I'm heading full speed for the coffee pot. I go sliding along on this disgusting mass of regurgitated cat contents for a good five feet or so before coming slamming to a stop. Into the nearest wall.
Lovely.
Anyone who knows me, knows well of my loathing for Satan's fur-covered handmaiden.
Tosca is now about 15 years old and shows no sign whatsoever of taking her cattitude and shuffling off this mortal coil anytime soon. Or in fact, ever.
Which brings me to this morning.
This morning, my six year old son was sitting at the counter eating his favorite breakfast cereal, Crispix, and having a perfectly wonderful 7:30 in the morning pre-leaving for first grade routine.
I, on the other hand, having not slept at all last night, again, and with a headache, again, looked liked the scariest part of any scary movie monster you have ever seen.
Hoping to raise my mood from "What Fresh Hell Is This?", to merely, "God, I Look Forward To Old Age So I Can Be Crochety But Also Be Socially Acceptable", I set about making a freshly fabulous cup of thick, black, turbo caffeinated acid. I'm talking about my personal ambrosia, baby: Peets Coffee.
I was pouring the water in an environmentally unfriendly bleached piece of crap Melitta coffee filter when disaster struck. I was walking away from the draining coffee, and then the filter overflowed, and the boiling hot coffee/water spilled over the side, onto the counter, down the cabinets, and onto the floor. A huge, giant, dripping mess all over, well, everywhere. I didn't even have the energy to deperately wail to the heavens, "Is The No Balm In Gilead?".
The boy sensed my distress and offered to help. So sweet, just like his Dad.
"No", I said wearily, "It's just one more part of the many things I will spend time cleaning up today." To which he replied, his face full of smiling angelic wisdom and innocence, "You have to look at it this way, Mom--It's better than cleaning up cat puke."
And just like that, my day went from "What Fresh Hell is This?" to "Is There No Balm In Gilead?", to "It's Better Than Cleaning Up Cat Puke."
Life has been both great and utterly crappy lately. Mostly it's been really tiring. But for today and tomorrow and the next day, I am going to hold fast to my son's wisdom. Because he's right. It's better than cleaning up cat puke.
And most days, even when they are bad, are still better than cleaning up cat puke.
And thus the boy kissed me good-bye, hugged the dog, and got on the bus.
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Reminds me of my mother-in-law (departed) who had seven kids.
One of them said, "Mom, my apple has a worm" and she said cheerily, "Better than HALF a worm!"
We used to have a little dog (half Shitzu, half American Staffordshire Terrier, but we didn't know that when we got him) named Hoho and people either loved him or kept asking when he was statistically likely to die. There were no mixed opinions. You couldn't see his eyes because he was completely all dirty fur on the front, and if you did, they were kind of clouded over. Toward the end, he had arthritis and was deaf and blind but it was almost impossible to trim his hair or cut his nails. He had pit bull teeth in a Shitzu body. He had no malice toward any other dogs and probably not toward people, but you didn't want to ever go anywhere near his teeth.
Oh casey! What a treat to come online in the morning and find that already my day is way better than cleaning up cat puke. I knew 2008 promised to be better than 07. And now my fear of stepping on a scorpion in the dark seems better than the thought of sliding through slimy cat puke. What can I say - whilst I try to rein in the empathy with the laughter? Have a nice day is more like salt being rubbed into the wounds, So, I'll just say that this year, the aged furry fiend in your house, may just find an even better place to live. Cat heaven perhaps.
Casey,
You morning tradition does sort of sound like it needs a newer improved tradition.
I don't remember Nolie telling me about your cat. (I thought it was a dog you had.)
Anyways, I hope you feel better. And while you're coffee mess IS better than cat puke, just think of another nice thing. Your coffee mess didn't burn the countertop like our coffee maker just did yesterday to our counter top yesterday.
Casey,
Thanks for sharing! Makes my daily fresh hell a little easier to bear!
Suz,
Nolie lucked out and Tosca likely remained out of sight except for Bill. Or, back then, I probably didn't bitch about cat puke to a guest.
And we have a dog, now. We rescued her six weeks ago, and I love it. Her name is Lucy and she is perfect for our family. She is a three year old Akita/Blue Heeler mix.
Now the boy and I have a pet! Grooming the dog is Waaaayyy better than cleaning up cat puke.
And it's Wednesday morning, and it's still better than cat puke.
Another example of how the current regime has strengthened national security... especially note the part about the employee who was able to embezzle $25,000 for her own use... they are blaming the problem on this event, but is sounds like the problem is a bit over $25,000.
"...there is widespread agreement that the current financial management system, first introduced in the 1980's is inadequate..." Hello... there have been some improvements since DOS.
Much other info in article
~~~~~~~~~~~
FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills
(yahoo link) http://tinyurl.com/2fx34b
Richardson drops out of presidential race
(yahoo link) http://tinyurl.com/yq88pv
Former Dem nominee Kerry endorses Obama
(yahoo link) http://tinyurl.com/238bbw
US readies "reasonable" ID card rules after debate
(yahoo link) http://tinyurl.com/3b5h3s
re: January 10, 2008 5:56 PM post
Meant to say anything that impedes infringing on our civil rights can't be all bad. It's just that the situation is sooooo absurd o_O
Hi Aimzzz,
It's great to see you here again! I'm not sure if you're aware of this (you might be wondering at the silence after your posts) but up top ^^^ there is a button called "Open Thread". Click on that button and you'll find a whole new blog-thread there where people can chat and play and so on. (The same as before.)
The page here, that you posted on is a more formal/ traditional thread where someeone writes a piece and the replies are on topic.
This helps people who only have time for a few reads per day; whereas, having the open blog allows the more traditional forrays all over the place.
So come join us there too, ok?
(Use the same signin name/nick over there as you did right here.)
oh - you've beat me to it. Hi aimzzz - I think I know you from the past. I was about to invite you over to the Open thread also. There are a lot of us there who often post in real time so it would be good to catch up there. And we can decide if we do know each other. (sandi? becky?)
Dear Casey...
In honor of you (your thread here) an Open Thread here.
Some cats are Hell and some just look like Hell.