A little reminder

As a child, the days seemed to be long, summer vacations lasted forever and time drifted slowly from one bip of the clock hand to the next.

What the heck happened?

I pulled up this page to write something and am amazed to see my last entry was in August! I think even Jypsy does better than I do...well, maybe not - her life is much like mine was back when I was, oh, 8 ...and time seemed endless. By the box to the right there, I see the number of blogs I manage to get online slowly decline with each year, but I want to think the ones I'm writing are much better now (ahem).

A lot has happened since August, but most of it is trivial. My two significant achievements during these past months were getting my book on Amazon.com, and then shortly after that, my SECOND book. (Picture buttons bustin' out all over, please.) Sales, sadly, are few and far between. Still. I feel a sense of accomplishment as this is something I've wanted to do, again, since I was a child.

There's also been a birthday, pushing me ever older, but I'm not so fond of the alternative - so bring it on! This might have been my best birthday ever...or at least, again, since I was a child. A little back story: In the last 4 or 5 years I have reconnected with some of the people I graduated with from high school. We are now coming together as adults with a lot of fond memories of each other and find we've turned into pretty darn awesome adults. We get along well; perhaps it's because we're past the point of trying to impress anyone, and we can simply enjoy the company of friends. 5 of these wonderful people came together and treated me to an amazing birthday dinner. We laughed, we talked, we ate wonderful food, we commiserated and we decided we're going to do this more often. I was thrilled to have these people help me celebrate making it another year! So, Marian, Steve, Duchess, Gail and Georgia - thank you so much for making my birthday so wonderful!

Three days later, I was treated to another dinner, which was special for quite a few reasons - the most important one that it was my family. My brother, my sister-in-law and my cousin joined in another celebration of making it another year and still kickin'. Thank you Joey, Brenda and Gary for putting the icing on my 'day'. I received cards from out-of-town friends that touched me and made me laugh - I still have them displayed on my dining room table, but guess Thanksgiving is going to necessitate me putting them away. (Oh, yes, I save cards for years! I re-read them and get the same glow as the first reading.) I received many phone calls, texts and Facebook posts from out-of-town family and friends as well. Thank you all!

I believe I never would have made it this far if it wasn't for the love and support of my family and friends. Another birthday has given me a subtle reminder of just how lucky I really am.

What I did this summer

Hi there folks! I thought I'd steal my staff person's computer and write about what I did this summer.

I...uh...well, let's see. Well, there was...no, I take that back. Oh, I went...well, shoot, the only place I went was to the vet.

Oh, forget it. You know what I did. I slept a lot, whined a lot, went outside a lot (when it wasn't too hot), and then slept some more. I bugged my staff person by waking her up at odd hours of the night (THAT's always fun!) I walked around the house with Mousie in my mouth moaning and groaning because she was ignoring me. Oh, not really, but sometimes she gets on this computer thingy and starts writing...it's HOURS before she deigns to notice me! Okay, that's not true either - it's more like 10 minutes, but what do I know about time? It sure seems like it's hours.

But it was a nice summer - I enjoyed it. As you can tell by this photo mom snapped when I was just waking up from a nice nap out on the back deck.

So, we're now into cooler temps. That must mean pretty soon all those boxes will come down out of the attic and mom will be in a decorating frenzy. I'm excited! There's always some box I can jump on, lay on, sleep on and generally make a nuisance of myself on. And the tree! Maybe I can bring the tree down again with all those things hanging on it that break...good times are a comin' for a cat like me.

Life

As summer's go, it's been quite pleasant here in Texas. We've had the occasional rain up until a week or so ago, and it's August. The temperatures have not gone in the triples and stayed there for weeks at a time. That's very unusual. My roommate/cousin has been cat-sitting for the summer again, so I've had the house to myself, which truthfully has been really nice. Of course, I did try and remove an appendage a few weeks ago due to my own stupidity (Hint - don't hold a half of an avocado in your hand and attempt to stab the seed, which split in half when you originally smacked it, with a very sharp knife to flick it out! It took hours to stop the bleeding and the cut went deep and should probably have had stitches, but it was late so I just wrapped it in bandages and paper towels, put clear wrap around it and taped it. Finally healing and good as new...sorta.) Jypsy has stayed well, although we need to go the vet once a month now to get her checked out. She's been so sweet and loving, sleeping on the bed next to me at night although it's probably because she doesn't have my cousin to harass. I made my probation and got a small raise (very small), but there's supposed to be another on the October 1 paycheck. I got my second book on Amazon.com and received a 5 star rating from someone who bought it and read it. The first book still has a 5 star rating. I'm working on the next one. Life is pretty good for the most part.

Someone mentioned to me recently I need to get out of my comfort zone. I was somewhat taken aback by that - what comfort zone might they be referring to? I haven't been comfortable since getting laid off five years ago, and am only now realizing I might possibly be able to get back into some sort of 'comfort zone' in maybe the next year. Or two. Life has a way of sending you zingers just in case you get to feeling too pleased with yourself. Every time I think things are easing up and there might be just a smidge of money left at the end of the month, I have to do something like, oh, buy new tires. Or get a brake job. Or fix the roof. It's crazy, isn't it? The thing is - I've finally accomplished something I've wanted to do my whole life. Being laid off gave me an opportunity to sit down and type words on a page. Page after page. Until I had a book. Then two books. And another. My greatest accomplishment from losing my job is becoming what I've always wanted to be. A writer.

It's Life. You deal with it or you go crazy. I have a plaque at work someone gave me that says "Gone crazy. Back soon." Which is cute, but since I'm really not so hep on going crazy, I think I'll just do what I can and let the rest slide. It is what it is. I'm still here. I've got a job and a house to live in. I have some of the most amazing friends in the world. My family is beyond belief - they are so cool. I'm still able to make time to write. And most importantly, I've got a cat who makes me laugh every single day and let's me know what's really important. Ya gotta sleep. Ya gotta eat. And ya gotta go out in the back yard and chase birds and squirrels. Life is good!

Is it still Spring? Prolly not

It's gotten warm here, so yeah, I think Spring is over and Summer is here. My staff person lets me out early in the morning for a bit before she goes to work, and then won't let me out after she gets home until waaay later. The sun's almost down and I can ONLY go out while she waters those green things that sometimes bloom. When she first gets home and I whine to go out she just says, "Too hot." I'm a cat! I can take it! Just between you and me though, when she occasionally gets fed up with my frequent requests to go outside and lets me out it is even a little warm for me. And even though I protest when she makes me come back in, and I take my own sweet time walking in the door (you know - so she understands this is not my idea) I'm really kinda glad. When the cool air hits me, and I collapse on the chilly kitchen floor - wow - it's like kitty heaven! I think she's on to me though, 'cos she just laughs.

She's been pretty excited. Apparently she put her first book (which is NOT about me, by the way, and I'm miffed) on something called amazon.com, and it's running for free until midnight tonight. She's already had 82 downloads she sez. I heard her on that talky thing saying she doesn't make any money off it, since it's free, but she's hoping to get some 'expohshure', whatever that is. She said if people like it and recommend it to friends that's good, and maybe it will make people look for her second book (which isn't about ME either! of all the nerve!) and buy it.

Well, I gotta go - I have to start whining again to go out. I know she's only going to tell me "No!", but hey, a cat is nothing if not persistent. I thought I'd leave you with this lovely picture of moi after just coming back in on a hot evening. It's not the kitchen floor, but it's a nice wood floor that's nice and cool too.

What happened to May??

Time is really starting to be on a fast forward. It was just the middle of May, and you turn to your left and it's almost the middle of June. We've been really lucky in Texas - usually the temp hits 100 degrees for the first time in April or early May. We've gotten in the 90's, but no triples yet. I woke up yesterday to a rousing thunderstorm with lightening and torrential rain. Yes! (As I like to say, every drop that falls out of the sky is a drop that doesn't come out of my faucet that I have to pay for.) Today it hit 90 and Friday is finally supposed to hit 100. Well. It was nice while it lasted.

Here's all the news -

Huh. Well, guess Jypsy told you I've been really sick. Some sort of upper respiratory thing going around and wow, did it kick my butt. My doctor wanted to call in a prescription for antibiotics, but I told him to forget that and just get me some cough syrup....and make it the good stuff. Jeez. It was definitely the good stuff. The dosage was a teaspoon every 12 hours. Since I was at home I took a teaspoon, and didn't wake up for about 4 hours (which was actually good for me as I hadn't slept in about 3 days). I started dialing the dosage down until I hit a quarter teaspoon. That seemed to work to keep me from coughing like an emphasemic cigarette smoker and didn't knock me out. It took three weeks, but I think I'm finally well. I finally swam last Friday morning and didn't do too badly - my guess is all the coughing acted like exercise and I now have Ahhnold lungs. Went in this past weekend to do a workout, and today I feel like I got hit by a truck. Everything seems to be sore. Which in a way is a good thing. I guess. (ooh. Ouch!)

I am two and a half months from making my probation. The other admin on our team retired and so it's been a little difficult to keep up, but I'm doing it. It's so much more pleasant w/o my former co-worker around - this is a piece of cake.

This week the roommate/cuz is going out to take care of the cats at the lake. I'm looking forward to having the house to myself and Jypsy for the next three months. I might even be able to get the house clean. What a novel concept :o ! I'm going tomorrow to protest my property taxes and think I've developed a pretty good defense. We'll see. I'm also going to try and get my book onto Amazon this weekend. It's going to involve taking it off the other indie site and getting my 'webmaster' to take it off my web site (funny how Amazon is about being the only seller...) and see if it goes anywhere. Wish I could find an agent in this area to help, but am doing what I can.

Now. If you're a follower of this blog and have kept up with my posts, I have to admit something. I...am not writing 30 minutes a day. I have writers block and sit down to write and just sit and stare at the screen. When I swim I sometimes come up with some good plot lines, but cannot figure out how to get from where I am now to where I want to be. Of course if I really wanted to whine, I'd say, "I've been siiick!" Which I have been. But I was also home a couple of days and sure could have used the time to write. Except for the fact that I was knocked out by the uber cough syrup, of course. Lately I've been doing research to protest my property taxes, which I have to do tomorrow at 4pm.The cat got sick again too (don't worry though, she's fine now). There's been other things that have come up that seemed much more preferable to sitting staring at a screen trying to come up with the next line of a book. Remember Roseann Roseannadanna? That's my life in a nutshell. "...it's always somethin'..."

Ahhh. Spring!

Mom's home sick today and was up most of the night. She's going to call in to work and go back to bed, but she's moping around, coughing, sneezing, and just, well, she's miserable. It gives me a chance to catch all my peeps up though, 'cos she turned this computer thing on and then went to make a cup of tea. I haven't been on here in a while, mainly because it's Spring, and I have such a fun time in the Spring! I mean, what's not to like about it? Number one, it's not hot. That's a real plus right there. Number two, there's fresh, new grass to munch on out in the back yard so I can throw up later and do a 'cleanse'. Number three, even my staff people join me in the back yard in the late afternoons and sit around and drink that wine stuff. I like the back yard, but I love it when my people are out there with me. I like to zoom around sometimes, but mostly I just check everything out to make sure it's exactly how it was the last time I was out there. Which it usually is, but you just never know if something might have moved overnight. Then I sidle over and just barely brush against mom's leg so she knows I'm still there. Sometimes she'll reach down and run her hand along my back. That feels good. Then I'll go check something else out, and rub my face all over it because you can just never claim things too many times! Like a chair leg. Seriously. It's mine. As is the whole chair. I do however, allow my staff to sit in one sometimes.

Yesterday she found my favorite toy! Well, not the exact one, because, really, any will do. There was this little tree branch, see, that she picked up and swished around in front of her, er, MY chair. I crouched down, did my butt wiggle, and POUNCED. But I missed. So I chased it around for a bit and then subdued it. Victorious! Yeah, I know she's the one making it move, but hey, that's one of the best parts of being a cat - we have tunnel vision. We can only see the end of the stick moving, and home in on it as an intruder, or a bug, or a snake - something that must be conquered! It's fun. You should try it sometime!

And then sometimes, I just hop up in one of my chairs and sit with my staff. Or, my personal favorite, take a nap on the deck. Like this:





Oops. Here she comes, gotta scoot....

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

A little over a year ago I flew to Florida to help a really good friend move back to Texas. She had divorced her husband several years before, and with her two grown children off trailblazing their own lives, decided it was time to come 'home'. (I did the same thing about 15 years ago, I came back 'home'.) Home is Texas, and even with all it's warts, bad politics and incredibly hot summers...it's still the best place for a Texan to be. My mother always said a Texan is never happy anywhere but Texas, and darned if she wasn't right!

My friend moved to Amarillo, where she had been offered a job, and we had gone to high school together. It turned out to not be much of a job, especially for a good lawyer like she is. Plus it's Amarillo. First off, and a huge black mark for me...it snows there...a lot. It gets really, really cold during the winter. The wind blows almost all the time, year round. There's a distinct odor when the wind is coming off the stockyards...but mostly, it's Amarillo. So, she's back in Texas which is a good thing, but in case you haven't looked at a map lately, it's just a wee bit big. For either of us to drive to visit the other was a little over 6 hours. To fly was better - only 55 minutes, but I was, and am, broke, so I made three trips up there; two driving, one flying. She's made several down here, and got to fly each time, lucky duck! She also has family over on the Big D side of the 'plex, so she's made more trips than I have. We have another friend, who happens to be the oldest friend I've managed to hang on to from those early days, who prefers to drive and has made several trips to visit. Only it's a lot longer than 6 hours. More like 9.

Low and behold, a job popped up here in the Metroplex where I live. She interviewed for it. Twice. They offered her the job and...well...I got the pleasure of helping her move in last weekend. The three of us 'old' friends, and I can say that because we've known each other forever and we don't really consider ourselves old yet, all feel sort of the same way; we're old enough that we can't afford to not keep our friends close. I'm inordinately pleased she's here. It's a better career fit for her, she's got family and friends and, well, I guess that's it. But it's amazing. And glorious. And I'm just tickled pink.

I've lost several good friends over the past few years, mostly due to the changing dynamics in our friendships, but the friendship with these two friends is the stuff mountains are made of. It's such a nice feeling. I believe in friends almost more than anything else. Certainly more than job security. Even more than the idea that what you buy this week will not be discontinued at the grocery store next month. And much more than the consistency of the weather in Texas.

So an excited welcome to my friend Marian! Huzzah! I'm thrilled you are here and only 20 minutes away. I foresee many, many happy times to be shared. More makeovers at Neiman's. More bbq at Riscky's. More wine. More talks. Yep, I'm a happy camper!

Now Jypsy wants to ease Midnight the cat into your life. But yes, get settled first. Start your job tomorrow. Learn your way around to all the good shopping spots, grocery stores and movie theaters. And invite me over a lot. Hugs!