New idea
So, I'm going to try something different for an experiment. I don't know how long this will last, but I'm gonna try. Basically, I'm going to try to keep y'all updated on the goings on by posting at least a bit of something every day. Unless there are really weird circumstances, I tend to get on my computer at least once a day. During that time I'm going to try and remember to do some kind of LJ post.
We're giving Bandita over to Mom's cat-loving coworker tomorrow. Mom did not consult me in this. I wish she had, as Bandita's not quite ready yet. She's not quite old enough really. We also haven't done any work on distancing her from Bandit (her mom). I'm rather nervous that Bandit's going to freak and Bandita's going to feel really disoriented. But there's no changing it at this point. What is, is. I'll miss her. At least I know she's going to a good home where everyone loves kitties very much and have dealt with kittens before.
I'm hoping that I can get my therapist (who is thinking about taking one of the kittens) to take both Brie and Monsieur. That way they will have each other in their new home.
Mom really wants to keep both Lili and AJ. I'm ok with that. The other kitties in the house don't know how they feel about it, however. Cole has checked them out before and seems intrigued by them, but generally okay with their presence. I had Lili on my bed yesterday just to give her a new space to explore. She was doing her normal fearless kitten thing when Fluffy came in. Without knowing that Lili was there, Fluffy jumped up on the bed. She stopped short and sniffed at Lili for a second. She immediately made this WTF?? face and hopped off the bed, ran out of the room, and hid at the top of the stairs, peeking around the corner at the new THING on my bed. I'm actually rather happy that she's totally intimidated by Lili. I'm hoping that means that she won't pick on the kittens when they're integrated into the main household.
Good news about the Girls as well: Bandit has become very affectionate! She comes up and does the leg caress, and LOVES to be scritched on the head and stroked along her back. She definitely knows her name, comes up when you lean over and rub your fingers together, and has learned that when you point up to the top of the counter, you're telling her that it's okay to get up and eat the food there. She still has her moments of shyness, but they're fewer and father between. Elise is still incredibly shy, but I can now stand a couple of feet away from her and hold out my fingers for her to sniff. However, if I straighten my fingers as if to pet her, she immediately runs away. She will always be a proximity cat. I have high hopes that Bandit will come to be a kitty that sits very close to people comfortably. (Meg is like that. She's not a cuddler, but will lie down and sleep very near you. She's also very affectionate when you pet her, and she'll play wrestle with you.)
In other news, we're super poor again. Like, Mom's account is in the red, and she doesn't get paid for another week and a half. And there's very little we can sell to get some money. Mom sold all of her wedding silver last pay period (since her marriage to Dad was such a shitty one, she wasn't going to miss it, and neither Sis nor I wanted it handed down to us). I'm hoping Sis can land a baby-sitting job that will bring in a little money. I'm putting my car up on Craig's List (and if you can think of anywhere else that would be a good place to advertise it, let me know) this week so hopefully we can offload it ASAP and bring in that $2500-3000.
I'm also waiting to hear from Social Security about the final decision on my claim. They have until the 26th to give me an answer. I'm praying very hard that they don't fuck me over and go ahead and award me the disability on the first go-around. I have a feeling that they'll deny it, since I've heard that that's the normal way they do business. I know several of y'all have dealt with the SSA, and if you have any tips/tricks for me to try (or advice for bringing in a disability attorney) please comment. I can use all the help I can get.
All this stress is making my brain take it all out on my body. Gotta love somatization. I've been feeling like I've got the flu - all of those muscle/joint aches, and stomach/GI upset - plus a nasty migraine, plus I'm so tired I can only function for a few hours at a time and then have to sleep for about 4 hours to recharge. Blerg.
Final thought: Don Lemon on CNN is CUTE. Especially when he wears his Buddy Holly frames to read. He graduated from LSU, so he tweets "Geaux Tigers!" on Saturdays, and talks about New Orleans and NOLA food a lot. A boy after my own heart. The other day, when talking to some kids from the church led by Bishop Long - the guy dealing with the lawsuits alleging he molested a handful of boys from his church (which I think is totally true from the descriptions of his behavior - he disclosed that he'd been the victim of a male sex abuser as a child, and that what he was hearing from the alleged victims sounded very much like what he'd experienced at the hands of his perpetrator. I immediately tweeted and wrote on his Facebook page how amazing he was to speak up like that on national TV. As someone who is also a victim of molestation, I know how hard disclosure is - even to one's closest family and friends, for fear of stigmatization. (I haven't really come out and been blunt about what happened with my very best friends, that's how difficult it is to talk about.) I think he was incredibly brave and I told him that I hope his story does two things: first, that it made those kids at least open their minds to the possibility that their preacher did do these horrible things, and second, that his sharing of his story prompts other people, both privately and in the public eye to talk about their experiences.
Okay. No more heavy stuff...I'm excited about Glee doing a tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in two weeks! Also, because I've been watching Top Gear religiously for almost a year now, I've become a definite junior petrol head. I'm getting to where I can identify some cars on sight... I still can't tell between models of Ferrari, but I get almost all the others. I saw an honest-to-goodness Rolls Royce the other night. Driving on a small highway road at about 1am, but it was still a Rolls. It looked like there was just a guy driving and no one in back (which kinda made me think, WHY??). Then again, there's also a "WHY??" factor when you pull up next to a Maserati or Ferrari at a stoplight downtown. There's nowhere nearby where you can actually enjoy what the car can really do. It then means that it's totally a "look at how much money I have and how insecure I am about the size of my ...." car. Usually that complex is expressed in a large, jacked-up truck. This is Texas after all. Strange.
We're giving Bandita over to Mom's cat-loving coworker tomorrow. Mom did not consult me in this. I wish she had, as Bandita's not quite ready yet. She's not quite old enough really. We also haven't done any work on distancing her from Bandit (her mom). I'm rather nervous that Bandit's going to freak and Bandita's going to feel really disoriented. But there's no changing it at this point. What is, is. I'll miss her. At least I know she's going to a good home where everyone loves kitties very much and have dealt with kittens before.
I'm hoping that I can get my therapist (who is thinking about taking one of the kittens) to take both Brie and Monsieur. That way they will have each other in their new home.
Mom really wants to keep both Lili and AJ. I'm ok with that. The other kitties in the house don't know how they feel about it, however. Cole has checked them out before and seems intrigued by them, but generally okay with their presence. I had Lili on my bed yesterday just to give her a new space to explore. She was doing her normal fearless kitten thing when Fluffy came in. Without knowing that Lili was there, Fluffy jumped up on the bed. She stopped short and sniffed at Lili for a second. She immediately made this WTF?? face and hopped off the bed, ran out of the room, and hid at the top of the stairs, peeking around the corner at the new THING on my bed. I'm actually rather happy that she's totally intimidated by Lili. I'm hoping that means that she won't pick on the kittens when they're integrated into the main household.
Good news about the Girls as well: Bandit has become very affectionate! She comes up and does the leg caress, and LOVES to be scritched on the head and stroked along her back. She definitely knows her name, comes up when you lean over and rub your fingers together, and has learned that when you point up to the top of the counter, you're telling her that it's okay to get up and eat the food there. She still has her moments of shyness, but they're fewer and father between. Elise is still incredibly shy, but I can now stand a couple of feet away from her and hold out my fingers for her to sniff. However, if I straighten my fingers as if to pet her, she immediately runs away. She will always be a proximity cat. I have high hopes that Bandit will come to be a kitty that sits very close to people comfortably. (Meg is like that. She's not a cuddler, but will lie down and sleep very near you. She's also very affectionate when you pet her, and she'll play wrestle with you.)
In other news, we're super poor again. Like, Mom's account is in the red, and she doesn't get paid for another week and a half. And there's very little we can sell to get some money. Mom sold all of her wedding silver last pay period (since her marriage to Dad was such a shitty one, she wasn't going to miss it, and neither Sis nor I wanted it handed down to us). I'm hoping Sis can land a baby-sitting job that will bring in a little money. I'm putting my car up on Craig's List (and if you can think of anywhere else that would be a good place to advertise it, let me know) this week so hopefully we can offload it ASAP and bring in that $2500-3000.
I'm also waiting to hear from Social Security about the final decision on my claim. They have until the 26th to give me an answer. I'm praying very hard that they don't fuck me over and go ahead and award me the disability on the first go-around. I have a feeling that they'll deny it, since I've heard that that's the normal way they do business. I know several of y'all have dealt with the SSA, and if you have any tips/tricks for me to try (or advice for bringing in a disability attorney) please comment. I can use all the help I can get.
All this stress is making my brain take it all out on my body. Gotta love somatization. I've been feeling like I've got the flu - all of those muscle/joint aches, and stomach/GI upset - plus a nasty migraine, plus I'm so tired I can only function for a few hours at a time and then have to sleep for about 4 hours to recharge. Blerg.
Final thought: Don Lemon on CNN is CUTE. Especially when he wears his Buddy Holly frames to read. He graduated from LSU, so he tweets "Geaux Tigers!" on Saturdays, and talks about New Orleans and NOLA food a lot. A boy after my own heart. The other day, when talking to some kids from the church led by Bishop Long - the guy dealing with the lawsuits alleging he molested a handful of boys from his church (which I think is totally true from the descriptions of his behavior - he disclosed that he'd been the victim of a male sex abuser as a child, and that what he was hearing from the alleged victims sounded very much like what he'd experienced at the hands of his perpetrator. I immediately tweeted and wrote on his Facebook page how amazing he was to speak up like that on national TV. As someone who is also a victim of molestation, I know how hard disclosure is - even to one's closest family and friends, for fear of stigmatization. (I haven't really come out and been blunt about what happened with my very best friends, that's how difficult it is to talk about.) I think he was incredibly brave and I told him that I hope his story does two things: first, that it made those kids at least open their minds to the possibility that their preacher did do these horrible things, and second, that his sharing of his story prompts other people, both privately and in the public eye to talk about their experiences.
Okay. No more heavy stuff...I'm excited about Glee doing a tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in two weeks! Also, because I've been watching Top Gear religiously for almost a year now, I've become a definite junior petrol head. I'm getting to where I can identify some cars on sight... I still can't tell between models of Ferrari, but I get almost all the others. I saw an honest-to-goodness Rolls Royce the other night. Driving on a small highway road at about 1am, but it was still a Rolls. It looked like there was just a guy driving and no one in back (which kinda made me think, WHY??). Then again, there's also a "WHY??" factor when you pull up next to a Maserati or Ferrari at a stoplight downtown. There's nowhere nearby where you can actually enjoy what the car can really do. It then means that it's totally a "look at how much money I have and how insecure I am about the size of my ...." car. Usually that complex is expressed in a large, jacked-up truck. This is Texas after all. Strange.