this weekend was either complete win or complete fail, no middle ground.
So, holiday weekends. Generally not meant to be made of stress. AND YET.
Mike came over Friday night as per usual, and there was snuggling and video games, and that was fabulous. Also some horribly awkward and uneasy conversations, the upshot of which is shiny (I think) but omg not fun to do.
Saturday, we acquired a wrenbow and went down to the animal shelter, to see what we could see. They don't allow you to declaw any cats that you adopt, so I was looking for a cat who was already declawed. I found one - a female, about three, and was told she is very sweet and snuggly but may not play well with other cats. Since she seemed the most awesome of the cats that were available, I paid the adoption fee and we put her in the carrier (where she sat very quietly with only the occasional peep) and took her home - Mike drove so I could keep the kitty on my lap. Then he went off to calhin's bachelor party, and Nat and I settled in for a lovely evening.
We put the cat in the bathroom as recommended by the shelter people. Once in the apartment, she settled down a lot, and was christened Princess Zelda. She seemed totally content to hang out in the bathroom, where she had her own food, water, and litter. When we went in to play with her, she was snuggly - she licked my hand several times, and crawled in my lap. Cuuuuute. I let her hang out in there, while Ganon yowled outside the door repeatedly for about an hour, and then eventually gave up.
I started my second cycle on Persona 4, and as of today am up to the end of May. Awesome sauce.
Anyway. So Nat stayed over Saturday night, and then Sunday there was more kitty snuggling, and we swapped places - put Ganon in the bathroom and let Zelda wander the apartment. We swapped them back, and then toward the end of the afternoon, I would sit with the bathroom door open so they could look at each other. It went like this: Ganon approaches. Zelda growls. Ganon pauses. Zelda stops growling. They stare at each other. Ganon takes a step forward. Zelda growls. Ganon stops, Zelda stops, they stare at each other. Repeat.
Sunday night bobbler hosted a barbecue, so I made some baked beans and we headed down. There was karaoke and good food and good people, so that was good. I was really tired, though, so we left relatively early.
When we got home, I had a voice mail from some collections agency - since it was a robocall, the beginning was cut off and I just got the phone number. I Googled it, and figured out where it came from, and found a LOT of message boards complaining about calls from this number. By this point, I was in a state of near epic panic, and I went to Experian to get my credit report. Which is supposedly free. But they demanded my credit card information for their credit monitoring service before they would give it to me. I was too panicked to try and find another way to the information I wanted, so I have to call them tomorrow and cancel the service since there seems to be NO WAY TO DO IT on the website and that is a whole other batch of stress that I just epically DID NOT NEED. As expected, my credit report shows no delinquencies, no late payments, nothing of the sort. I am now very angry at the stupid agency's robocall for putting me in a state of panic. (Apparently, however, my credit score is MUCH higher than I thought. Awesome.) Currently debating my options under the debt collection practices act. And considering lodging a complaint about Experian's nasty little "give us your credit card" tricks. Damn you idiots, by law I am entitled to a free report from you annually. DON'T BE DOUCHEBAGS. aslkfdjalksjd.
Today I let the cats be in the same room for a while, supervised. Zelda still doesn't want Ganon getting anywhere near her, and will growl if he intrudes on her sphere of personal space, but Ganon appears to just be curious instead of mean. So....I'm hopeful.
However, that's just one more piece of flailing added on, and so I ended up crying for no discernible reason in the absence of specific stimulus tonight. Which of course makes me feel like an epic idiot. Mike petted and comforted and just let me cry a bit, and then I got myself more or less under control. He started packing up to leave, and I was saying goodbye and sniffling and he asked me if I wanted him to stay. I intended to say "No, that's okay" and what came out instead was "I mean, I do, but--" and so he put down all his stuff and stayed for a while snuggling me amid many apologies (from me) and reassurance (from him.) Eventually he distracted me with gaming talk, but. I hate it when I do that. I don't mind crying if there's some apparent stimulus but I loathe bursting into tears for no discernible reason. ANd I feel bad that I disrupted his plans. aaaargh.
And of course I have a headache because of the crying. this weekend has been very up-or-down.
Kitty pictures later; for now I am going to go snuggle Zelda because I suspect she is lonely.
Mike came over Friday night as per usual, and there was snuggling and video games, and that was fabulous. Also some horribly awkward and uneasy conversations, the upshot of which is shiny (I think) but omg not fun to do.
Saturday, we acquired a wrenbow and went down to the animal shelter, to see what we could see. They don't allow you to declaw any cats that you adopt, so I was looking for a cat who was already declawed. I found one - a female, about three, and was told she is very sweet and snuggly but may not play well with other cats. Since she seemed the most awesome of the cats that were available, I paid the adoption fee and we put her in the carrier (where she sat very quietly with only the occasional peep) and took her home - Mike drove so I could keep the kitty on my lap. Then he went off to calhin's bachelor party, and Nat and I settled in for a lovely evening.
We put the cat in the bathroom as recommended by the shelter people. Once in the apartment, she settled down a lot, and was christened Princess Zelda. She seemed totally content to hang out in the bathroom, where she had her own food, water, and litter. When we went in to play with her, she was snuggly - she licked my hand several times, and crawled in my lap. Cuuuuute. I let her hang out in there, while Ganon yowled outside the door repeatedly for about an hour, and then eventually gave up.
I started my second cycle on Persona 4, and as of today am up to the end of May. Awesome sauce.
Anyway. So Nat stayed over Saturday night, and then Sunday there was more kitty snuggling, and we swapped places - put Ganon in the bathroom and let Zelda wander the apartment. We swapped them back, and then toward the end of the afternoon, I would sit with the bathroom door open so they could look at each other. It went like this: Ganon approaches. Zelda growls. Ganon pauses. Zelda stops growling. They stare at each other. Ganon takes a step forward. Zelda growls. Ganon stops, Zelda stops, they stare at each other. Repeat.
Sunday night bobbler hosted a barbecue, so I made some baked beans and we headed down. There was karaoke and good food and good people, so that was good. I was really tired, though, so we left relatively early.
When we got home, I had a voice mail from some collections agency - since it was a robocall, the beginning was cut off and I just got the phone number. I Googled it, and figured out where it came from, and found a LOT of message boards complaining about calls from this number. By this point, I was in a state of near epic panic, and I went to Experian to get my credit report. Which is supposedly free. But they demanded my credit card information for their credit monitoring service before they would give it to me. I was too panicked to try and find another way to the information I wanted, so I have to call them tomorrow and cancel the service since there seems to be NO WAY TO DO IT on the website and that is a whole other batch of stress that I just epically DID NOT NEED. As expected, my credit report shows no delinquencies, no late payments, nothing of the sort. I am now very angry at the stupid agency's robocall for putting me in a state of panic. (Apparently, however, my credit score is MUCH higher than I thought. Awesome.) Currently debating my options under the debt collection practices act. And considering lodging a complaint about Experian's nasty little "give us your credit card" tricks. Damn you idiots, by law I am entitled to a free report from you annually. DON'T BE DOUCHEBAGS. aslkfdjalksjd.
Today I let the cats be in the same room for a while, supervised. Zelda still doesn't want Ganon getting anywhere near her, and will growl if he intrudes on her sphere of personal space, but Ganon appears to just be curious instead of mean. So....I'm hopeful.
However, that's just one more piece of flailing added on, and so I ended up crying for no discernible reason in the absence of specific stimulus tonight. Which of course makes me feel like an epic idiot. Mike petted and comforted and just let me cry a bit, and then I got myself more or less under control. He started packing up to leave, and I was saying goodbye and sniffling and he asked me if I wanted him to stay. I intended to say "No, that's okay" and what came out instead was "I mean, I do, but--" and so he put down all his stuff and stayed for a while snuggling me amid many apologies (from me) and reassurance (from him.) Eventually he distracted me with gaming talk, but. I hate it when I do that. I don't mind crying if there's some apparent stimulus but I loathe bursting into tears for no discernible reason. ANd I feel bad that I disrupted his plans. aaaargh.
And of course I have a headache because of the crying. this weekend has been very up-or-down.
Kitty pictures later; for now I am going to go snuggle Zelda because I suspect she is lonely.