The 8th Nerve

Granted, Casper is a cat and there are people out there who firmly believe that cats have small, water-logged Friskies for a brain and are an inferior type of pet. Despite being a cat, however, I do not put it past Casper to be capable of possessing qualities that humans could learn from. Casper has a very friendly and mellow way about him. Lately, he has had some fairly devastating changes in his life right about the same time.

First, we decided that we shouldn’t let him outside anymore. He loved going outside and even didn’t let a little rain or snow stop him from venturing out. Every morning he eagerly waited for us to wake up, following us around until we finally made our way downstairs to the door. Then, he started coming home with various cuts and missing collars. Then, particularly bad fights started to mean more than one trip to the vet. He started getting in trouble in the neighborhood and we got scared, sent him to live with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air. Sorry, when I talk about Casper getting into fights in the neighborhood I get flashbacks to Will Smith in Hammer pants.

So Casper lost the world, and then not long after, a big hairy beast five times his size invaded the house. Yet, Casper accepts this. He has stopped going expectantly to the door. He doesn’t sit by the door and howl. He doesn’t try to dart out the door everytime we open it (but leave it open long enough and he’ll start trotting toward it with a hopeful look on his face). Amazingly, he is still as content and affectionate as ever. Perhaps I am projecting more onto a cat than he is capable of processing or demonstrating, but wow, what an attitude.

So those times when I feel shortchanged or bitter, I remind myself of Casper who has far more of a reason to be resentful and pissed off. If he can accept what is inherently unfair with such serenity, I can too.

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Nov 30th 2006Pets & Pictures

We knew Lucky likes his routine but we didn’t realize how much until today. Steve decided to let Lucky out in the yard instead of taking him on his usual morning walk. Since we got Lucky, he has only been on the first and basement levels and has never been upstairs. He has never really even shown interest in going upstairs. After not going on his walk, however, he promptly went upstairs, where I must again emphasize he has NEVER BEEN, and proceeded to tip over our garbage in the bathroom and bring some of it downstairs to strew about the dining room. How’s that for a big doggie “F you”? I’m amazed at how calculated that was! We’ll think again before not taking him on his twice daily constitutional, that’s for sure.

I tried Bikram yoga tonight. That’s the yoga where you do stretches and postures in a heated studio. We all filed into the studio and laid out our yoga mats and our towels. Most of the women were wearing two piece outfits and the men were in shorts. While we sat on our towels waiting for class to start I had the surreal feeling of being at a beach on a hot summer day, sunning before a wall to wall mirror instead of an ocean.

Before participating in class I had to sign a liability agreement/disclaimer about injuries and heart attacks and what not. We did a breathing exercise and then a series of stretching, balancing postures for an hour and a half. On merely the third posture, where I had to lean over backwards, I experienced a wave of dizziness so strong my knees buckled. Then all was well until the last twenty minutes or so when a wave of nausea hit so hard I wondered if I should try to get out of the studio while I still could. I probably did not drink nearly enough water.

My top and my towel were soaked. I have never sweat so much in my life. Steve did not believe me when I came home and told him, as he considers my ability to sweat minimally as one of my most mysterious powers. Despite being up late last night and despite being typically drained at this point in the evening during the work week, I feel alert and energized. Yoga is good stuff. Doing the breathing and stretching while also in front of a floor to ceiling mirror had a curious grounding effect. I felt much more oriented and positive to myself. This makes me realize how often I’m getting lost in my head or spiraling into cyclic self-negative thinking.

I’m going to sleep good tonight!

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Nov 28th 2006Everyday life & Introspection & Pets

stormwater permits!

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Nov 21st 2006I Peeved When

“His penis is so beautiful that I want to knit it a hat.”

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Nov 19th 2006I Laughed When

Steve: See, you don’t need a manual.

Me: You think I don’t need a man?

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Nov 19th 2006I Misheard When

What our cats will be doing while we’re out of town with Lucky for Thanksgiving…

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Nov 19th 2006Pets & Pictures

I love this painting. I have a copy of it up on the wall.

Thanks to a few guests at the party, certain characteristics of this painting were pointed out to me. Now I’ll never be able to see it in the same way again. Before, I saw a beautiful lake and autumn.

Now, I see a giant woman sporting a ‘fro and bending over to feature her rather prominent backside.

How? you ask? How is such a thing possible? Look at it again. A lake, a mountain, islands, colorful trees. Do you see it?

First:

Then:

And now I have passed on this unfortunate and rather disturbing image on to you. I think this is an example of what my friend Jen meant earlier today when she was talking about the phenomenon of vicarious trauma.

Speaking of vicarious trauma, Jen and I went to the mall earlier and wandered through stores filled with Christmas decorations and hordes of shoppers. Holidays have really been changing in the last few years. Halloween is becoming a big holiday celebrated by all ages, not just kids anymore. And now Christmas starts weeks before Thanksgiving. Christmas decorations are even appearing on front lawns in the neighborhood.

I wonder what drives this- commercialism and/or a society looking for celebration in an increasingly stressful world? Or does extending the holidays only fuel more stress for everyone? I find myself thinking about the holidays and starting my Christmas shopping list a lot sooner than I normally do.

I guess Christmas is here. As consumers, we’re going to have to bend over and take the extra weeks of commercialistic frenzy. Preferably while sporting a ‘fro.

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Nov 11th 2006Everyday life & Friends & Pictures

WHY am I linked on the most complete database of hotels in Greece?? Gotta love the internet.

I’m not much for fashion. I generally stick to sweaters and jeans. But I can’t help noticing there is a very disturbing new fashion trend out there. Lately, I have been spotting long belted shirts and tight jeans with boots going up over the OUTSIDE of the jeans. I really don’t want to relive junior high. I’m not going anywhere near this one, but I’m worried that it might sneak into my wardrobe anyway. Like the capris. When the capris first came out, it just looked awkward. I didn’t want to walk around looking like I outgrew my pants. But the capris just stayed and everyone was wearing them and after a few years, I finally got some capris. Somehow, the unnatural and odd became acceptable.

I’m not going to let the 80s trend capri me. I will not allow the appalling to become attractive through the forces of media and peer influences over time. But I do need to worry about the entirely unconscious influences. For example, when I put on jeans from the bottom of my drawer- the jeans from when Friends first came out and I still purposefully tanned in the summer- the waist is shockingly high. It’s not even comfortable, it feels so high and goofy. Clearly, I have been unknowingly subject to influences concerning the waist height of my pants. Plus, now the majority of my jeans look very bland in the ass. No designs on the back pockets. I like the ‘design on the back pockets’ trend however. Sure, why not.

Some things I did successfully resist. I never did the tube top, ever, and I never did the one shoulder strap and I’ll never put on a skirt whose hem is uneven. In junior high, however, I would have killed for the perfect pair of tight stone washed jeans that, most importantly, were tight at the ankles. In junior high, my fashion store choices were limited to either Ames or Ben Franklin (it used to sell clothes, not crafts, remember that?) and the perfect pair of jeans eluded me forever. I had to fold over the bottom of my jeans and roll them up and then fill in the gap with double layered, color coordinated socks.

The DC sneakers are really popular with high school kids around here. Somehow, poofy feet became cool.

I’d really like to meet the individual who decided that would be cool. The very first person to roll up their pants and double their socks. The first person to encourage fat poofy sneakers. Who the hell comes up with these things? Who enforces the trend? And why, when enough people do it, does it start to work its tentacles into your brain and distorts your vision and you participate as if you freely chose to do so? I’d really like to do a research project on how fashion trends operate and delude entire populations of people into looking like idiots.

The Crocs are the first fad I’ve seen that literally everyone of ALL ages and genders is partaking in. I have no idea how that happened. I have yet to try on some Crocs. They look very rubbery.

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Nov 7th 2006Everyday life & Introspection

Jen announced that she was cooking a ham.

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Nov 5th 2006I Laughed When

little fucking pug!

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Nov 5th 2006I Peeved When