The Curse of the Cat Hair

I am, and always have been, allergic to cats. This didn’t stop me from caving in at the first “Free Kitten” sign I saw when I moved out though. There were about ten kittens to choose from and I had been holding an all black one when I saw a little spotted one. She climbed up on the porch and proceeded to fall backwards off of it.



“That is my cat.” I told my mom.

While I decided on a name she was Free Kitty. I finally decided on Goblin. Goblin is a cat anomaly. She loves to cuddle and will always prefer to be around people. She loves sitting in things like boxes, cauldrons, and sinks. She also enjoys watching people brush their teeth.





When my ceiling collapsed and I moved back home Goblin had to stay with some friends since my mom, like me, is allergic to cats. Goblin had an unfortunate climbing accident that left her with a broken femur. After a long, emotional day she had her leg amputated.

This all being said let me talk a bit about why, two days back to school, I am skipping. Goblin is shedding. I am a finicky sleeper in the best situations. Add any irritating thing to my sleep environment and I get grouchy and can’t sleep. In a fit last week I cleaned my room. I dusted walls, swept the floor (twice but that makes me sounds neurotic), and changed my sheets and quilts. I was bound and determined that Goblin would not be able to lounge around my room until she was done shedding.

That didn’t work out.



Because she’s CUTE and my family loves her. She sits outside my door and meows and they melt and let her in when I’m not home.

So last night I was itchy. Not just a little but terribly, scratch your own face off, itchy. I felt like there was cat hair everywhere. Finally at four a.m. I went downstairs with a clean blanket and pillowcase to sleep on the couch. I closed my eyes and woke up to this not ten minutes later.



I gave up. I have had ten minutes of sleep all night.

So here I am, still in my pajamas. I will go sleep in my parents cat free room and hope that maybe with the aid of Nyquill I will be able to sleep.

The Problem with Princesses

When I was younger I loved Disney. Ok, I still do, but I was totally a Disney Princess girl. I watched all of the movies, had the dresses to play dress up in and the first book I read was the Disney Cinderella one.

I’m not sure when I realized that most of the Disney Princesses were…less than awesome. Cinderella is quiet and obedient. Her fairy godmother does everything that turns out to be awesome in the story. Snow White just makes friends easily and hides in their house. Sleeping Beauty…well, sleeps.
The thing is I still love them! I have no idea why. I stumbled across these pictures from Dina Goldstein and fell in love.
I think its because one of my issues with the Princesses now is that their story ends as soon as they get their man. With these pictures the story continues and shows that just because they got said man doesn’t mean they lived happily ever after.










There are a few Princesses I can justify liking though. One is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She reads, and loves it! There are so few role models for little girls about girls who love to read. Mainly we get “Math is hard” Barbie (for the record math IS hard but girls could use some positive reinforcement when it comes to more serious matters than shoes). Then there is Jasmine. She kicked butt. She didn’t want to be a princess, or marry a prince. She just wanted to explore and see the world. I loved Jasmine. Last we have Tiana. My favorite. Not only do I love this movie because it is set in New Orleans, has a creepy voodoo bad guy and good music but the main character is awesome. She works super hard, supplies plenty of sass, and has a dream that she doesn’t give up on just because she landed a prince.

I hope that Disney makes more movies where the Princess has goals beyond finding prince charming. They got my childhood heart by pretty dresses, songs, and magic. The can win my adult heart by giving me heroines who don't need any of that.

One is silver and the other's gold

I did girl scouts when I was little. Technically, I was a daisy and a brownie and then a girl scout drop out. When I learned that Teach for America looks for people who have volunteered with kids I knew what organization I wanted right away. Now on Tuesday's I am a daisy and brownie troop leader. Two classes, back to back, of singing and crafting. The funny thing is, not much has changed since I was involved in the early nineties. The song I remembered is still being used! I was overly excited.

Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
And the other's gold
A circle's round
It has no end
That's how long
I want to be your friend.

I loved this song when I was little and it's one of those things that you don't forget when you grow up. Lately I have been singing this song twice a week so it's even more burned into my brain. It got me thinking about friends that I don't make time for anymore. Two people in particular came to mind and I set out to right it in true girl scout fashion.

First was my friend Krissi. Krissi and I grew up together. Our parents are friends. We go on vacations together, celebrate birthdays together and had a span of time where we saw each other a minimum of four days a week. Once she started college that changed. I am not a phone person. I hate talking on the phone and avoid it at all costs. We drifted apart and I let it happen because I am stubborn. Recently I got in touch with her and we have started hanging out again. Our mom's already have a weekend planned for the four of us to go on a mini vacation. I feel like an idiot for almost letting one of my best friends slip away.

Then was Sarah. Sarah is my future roommate. We went to high school together but never really hit it off until college. I can talk to Sarah about anything and get absolutely no judgement for it. Last night me and Branden went out to Clifton to see her boyfriends band play. The band was bad but I had a blast. It was just like every time we hang out. We drink, talk outside while she smokes, and laugh about highly inappropriate inside jokes.

With my life its not the new friends that come in between me and my old friends, its my life in general. I get carried away and tend to bite off more than I can chew. One of the things I have learned about my friends is that they know me, they know I do this and they will be there for me once I step back and start to breathe again.

#fridayflash

thirteenOhclock

“I can’t go to sleep before twelve oh one.” I tell him. We are sitting on the benches next to the café and watching the river.

“Why? Seems like a crazy thing.”

“I need to make sure that the next day is coming.”

It’s eleven fifteen.

“What if you’re tired?”

“I get all anxious before it hits, like right before.”

“Like now?”

I nod. “Maybe this day will fool everyone and just keep going. Like we will look up and say ‘Oh look, it’s thirteen oh clock already’.”

He shrugs. “Maybe it is all just one continuous day.”

“I don’t like that.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“So will the day be on its best behavior since you’re watching it?”

“Maybe.”

“What if it wants to rebel?”

“I need it to change, to be a new day. If the days change that means I can too.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I leave. People, places, things.”

“All the nouns.”

“I can’t feel like everyone else.” I look at him now. I don’t know how long he has been looking at me. “I can’t love someone forever. Barely for a year in fact.”

“Are you warning me?”

“Maybe. I should.”

“Are you going to run?”

“I ran here. I’ve always been running to right here.”

“So stop running. Simple.”

“What if I can’t find it here either?”

“Forever?”

I nod.

“Listen.”

I hear a few musicians down the street, people talking, laughing, singing.

“That’s Forever Love.” He tells me. “The soundtrack to Forever Love.”

It’s twelve forty five. “I’m terrified.”

“Everyone is.”

Silence. The guitars. The coffee mugs being sat down on tables next door. His breathing.

“What if I can’t stop running?”

“You can.”

“I can’t.” I look at my watch. “It’s twelve oh one.”

“No.” He stands and holds his hand out for my tiny one to hide inside. “It’s just thirteen oh clock.”

Disasters

It’s crazy what can happen while we sleep. It seems unfair that a place can be devastated by two natural disasters in the span of a few hours. I went to bed at two thirty and had just logged off of Twitter. I saw the news about the earthquake. I woke up and heard tsunami news out of Japan and thought it was wrong.
I don’t know if it’s because I am more news savvy/tech savvy nowadays or if the world is just having more disasters recently. How many devastating earthquakes happened last year? I have never been on board with the 2012 hype but I have to say, I’m getting ready to start keeping an emergency pack ala Sheldon Cooper.


Sheldon judges you for not having an emergency pack.

When everyone was afraid of the bird flu here while I was in high school my dad started hoarding water and canned goods. My whole family teased him about it. We had giant water bottles in our basement for months. Even though bird flu never really took off here (get it? Took off?...sorry) he had wanted to make sure that we would be prepared if it did.
Natural disasters continue to baffle, amaze, and terrify me. I can never seem to wrap my head around them. Sometimes these disasters are made worse by shoddy building codes or out of date engineering. One of the posts going through my Twitter is that the real story is the fact that if Japan hadn’t had such strict building codes this could have been a thousand times worse.
I can honestly say that until very recently I had very little interest in traveling to Japan. My desire to go there grew slowly and was fueled by travel shows, movies and pictures. I think the thing that did it for me was a combination of watching Lost in Translation and seeing Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode about Japan.


Beautiful movie poster



The neon, the nightlife, the interesting food…all things that I look for in a hypothetical future destination. I also spend a summer working at a hibatchi grill restaurant. One of the guys who worked there was more talkative than the others. He was always going to karaoke after work. I thought that this was hilarious. He was so shy and his voice was quiet. He told me right before he moved to New York that he was some sort of national champion karaoke singer in Japan.
My thoughts are with Japan today. If anyone happens to be looking for a chairity then please check out Shelter Box or even YA author Maureen Johnson's site (she is hosting a contest for those who donate).

http://www.shelterbox.org/

or

http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/2011/03/11/shelterbox-in-japan/

Back From the Dead

Hey what's this? I have a blog? Oh...I remember now.

Anyway, I will be trying to blog more often from now on. Also, I will try to use my Twitter for good and not just for forwarding funny demotivational posters.



I can officially say that I know someone who has been arrested. And get this, its for A GOOD CAUSE. My friend from work, Jesse, along with several other protesters were arrested outside of Ohio Senator and Speaker of the House John Boehner's office. Mr. Boehner makes a very big fuss about his "open door"policy. Jesse and his friends went into Boehner's office with a petition about repealing the use of tax payer dollars on the "Defense of Marriage" act (a bill to keep marriage between a man and woman). Mr. Boehner locked the doors and refused to look at the petition. Jesse and his friends continued to talk to him about the petition through the closed door until the cops came to arrest them. I have never been so proud of someone I know. Follow the link to the story and maybe leave some supportive comments!

http://www.wlwt.com/politics/27138743/detail.html

I have a goal and that goal is to post every day up to my birthday (march 26th). I will try and bring fun things to you up to then, including a review of Sucker Punch!

Nostalgia

Maybe it's because I'm back in school or maybe because the snow just keeps coming but I am thinking a lot about New Orleans today. Not really about living there as much as my favorite time spent there. Have you ever remembered something and been able to recall a feeling with it? Like your gut is remembering it along with your brain?

I'm thinking about volunteering there two summers after Katrina. About how we worked ate our GoPicnic's sitting on the ground next to the swamp, covered head to toe in mud. About working on the groundskeeper's house in the boys school where Louis Armstrong first played and how the giant tree's shaded everyone as we sat on the porch talking about the places we had been. The sense of accomplishment that comes with seeing an obstacle (like a really thick old wall), being given the proper tools (like a sledgehammer) and not stopping until you've succeeded. I think that's a fantastic metaphor for life. We can almost always identify what is standing in our way. All we need from that point is the right tools and persistence. This semester I need to keep that feeling with me. The feeling I had when the last piece of that wall came down. I was tired and sore and sweaty but I'm not sure that I have ever felt better about myself.

Sitting on the giant old porch with Sarah, brandon, and Quanice was the first time I ever viewed volunteering as a way to see the world. Sarah had been everywhere, as had our roommate Bassima (who is now in the Peace Core and stationed in Mongolia). The connection that you have with the people in an area through volunteering is unlike anything else. That was the first time I KNEW I would live there.

I'm watching the snow cover everything outside but I can't stop remembering the feel of the breeze while Sarah told me stories of her travels and the world seemed accessible to me for the first time.