Scaredy cats

When we lived in Kansas City previously, we had a dog named Molly, who was mostly German shepherd plus a bit of something else. She was super sweet, had a great bark for deterring evil-doers, and stress-shed like crazy. She was also terrified of dogs bigger than cats (which was hilarious since she herself weighed 75 pounds) and thunderstorms. She was so very scared of thunderstorms that she would first try to hide under the bed (but she couldn't fit) and then behind my legs.

Apparently our native Kansas City cats are now scared of thunderstorms. We've had some typical spring thunderstorms going on here in Kansas that started last night and continued off and on through the night. The cats have been unsettled the entire time. Last night the boys fought and cried while Chloe hid, and this morning Eddie hid under my desk when the thunder and lightening started up again.

This picture isn't from last night; Kent took it during the day when the boys were snoozing in nearly identical poses. Even though they have different colored fur, you can still tell they are litter mates.

But I don't WANNA

I have jury duty for sure tomorrow.

Let me rephrase that: I have to be at the courthouse by 8 AM tomorrow morning. I have no idea how the selection process goes so who knows if I get picked or what.

Man, this is coming at a bad time. I may be leaving for Kansas City a week from Friday for a six to nine month contract. I have things to do, people, lists to make, sewing to finish, cats to hug just in case I do go. But I am also in the running for another job so stay tuned for those details if that works out.

What’s been good this job search go-round is that I’m getting a really good idea if a particular job is right for me or not. For example, I knew 15 minutes into the interview with Detroit that no, no, that job was not a good idea for me. I’m leaning that way on another job as well—and I realize that makes me sound both greedy and picky. But if I’m going to take a permanent job elsewhere, one that requires me to not live with Kent on a daily basis, then yes. I’ll be greedy and picky.

I got a lot of sewing done today—no pictures, some are gifts and some of those recipients read this blog from time to time. But! I did master the art of making scrunchies. I’ve never worn them myself, not even when my hair was what counts as long for me (just past my shoulders) so this was uncharted territory.

Random bits

It’s our anniversary today. Eight years and that’s not nearly enough. He's amazing and I'm so very glad to be married to him.

Yes, I have a Facebook page for my cat. I made to cheer up a friend who was going through some pretty bad times. It’s harmless entertainment for her and easy enough for me. So why on earth do some people need to post mean and/or nasty comments on the page? Very clearly the content is rated G and if someone doesn’t like the page, why become a fan?

I have jury duty on Wednesday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to doing my civic duty (by the way, that’s plastered over the envelopes the state sent me: Your Civic Duty!). But this is coming at a really bad time, and if I’m selected I really need this to be a one day case.

We’d bought certificates for massages before I lost my job and we used them Saturday. What a fantastic treat.

I have to brave Joann’s today. That place scares me but their prices on patterns are better than any other brick and mortar store nearby.

We’ve had a last gasp of amazing summer weather over the weekend and it will be beautiful today. Maybe I enjoy it more because warm, sunny weather is rare here.

Snippets

I asked Kent last night what he would miss from our apartment here in Boston. He thought for a moment and said he’d miss how dark and quiet our bedroom is. That was all he could come up with. As for me, I’d miss our clever solution for the litter boxes.


I won’t ever choose to live in a “garden” apartment again. I’m not a mushroom, I need a lot of light.


If I end up taking a job outside of Boston, the cats would go with me. Kent travels pretty frequently and also the trips can be last second so arranging cat care gets complicated. He said if he got too lonely, he’d get another cat. Um no way do we need FOUR cats! I offered to leave Chloe with him should a move occur. She’s the most laid back of our cats and would adjust to being alone a lot. But as he pointed out, she’s really imprinted to me and might die of sadness.


I tried to refashion my pink dress into a skirt—it’s made from a cheap knit and I couldn’t find my stretch needles for my sewing machine. I’d only sewn about six inches and had to stop because it did awful things to the material. I’m not sure I can fix this problem.


I tried making a baked potato recipe where you slice the potatoes almost all the way through, with the cuts running across the short side, and then bake them with butter and some seasonings. They were good but not entirely baked. I think the key is to make the slices really thin.


Last night we watched the first episode of Walking Dead on DVD. While I’ve liked some zombie books quite a bit, this show isn’t something I want to watch. It had way too much of what I call BOO! scary bits in it. I’m not an adrenaline junkie.


Today is the day for going through all of my clothes and purging, purging, purging.

Mish-mash

Let’s see. After spending six hours on the train Saturday and then six hours again on Sunday, I’m ready to not see a train for a while. I liked some aspects of train travel more than traveling by plane (no TSA being the biggest one) but man those bathrooms got nasty really fast.

I’m determined to become good at adjusting my sewing patterns so that I get a really good fit in my clothing. Over the last week, I've looked around online for how-tos, book recommendations, forums about sewing and also blogs. I’ve discovered a handful of well-written sewing blogs with nary a cutesy project in sight and let me tell you, these women can sew. What did we do before the internet? How did people with similar interests find each other??

I still haven’t stuffed the duct tape me yet. I need to get over to Joann’s for the cotton batting along with some other sewing supplies, but I really don’t like to go there. The crafter moms scare me. Plus Joann’s isn’t really a place for getting good fabric or patterns any more. These days the store is full of little knickknacks and Look! No Sewing! kinds of projects.

Kent is in London this week. Last week I told him I was not at all pleased he and his co-worker were heading over while those riots were going on. I asked him to make entirely sure the important meetings they were flying in for were really going to happen. He also realized that where they’d planned to stay was not a great spot since some of the unrest had been going on there. So they moved their hotel to one by Heathrow. Kent said if rioters come out there, then they are beyond bored because truly there’s nothing out there except the airport and a couple of hotels.

I'm very low energy today. I’m still wiped out from the weekend and also from the unrelenting rain that we’ve got in Boston right now. The cats have been sleeping most of the day too and that’s always a snooze-inducer.

Random thoughts that don’t add up to anything coherent

• I leave today for Hawaii (again) and get back Friday night.
• Kent leaves Saturday for Europe (again) and gets back Thursday.
• I don’t like this pattern.
• But it’s better for the cats since we haven’t solved the cat sitter issue.
• Wally hissed at Eddie loudly and constantly for three days—day and night, no kidding.
• I keep thinking I’m hearing Chloe snore, but it’s Eddie.
• I have my suitcase out in the living room so I don’t wake up Kent, and Wally has done his best to unpack things, starting with the socks. That cat is obsessed with socks.
• Coffee is good but sleeping till a more civilized 5AM would be far better.
• I didn’t get Christmas cards out this year; by the time I was actually home enough to consider doing so, it was far too late.
• The snow from last weekend’s blizzard has almost vanished (except in our patio which is a heat sink). The temperature yesterday reached 61F.
• I’m going to show the picture I posted of the snow in our patio to the class participants in Hawaii. Hey, they get excited over leaves that have changed color.
• More than a few friends have commented that 2010 was awful for them and they are hoping for a better year this year.
• 2009 remains on record as the worst year for me and I hope never to repeat a year like that again.
• No New Year’s resolutions for me; I generally don’t wait until the first of the year to make changes. I’m way too impatient for that.

Do you make New Year's resolutions? If so, what are they for 2011?

A Tale of Manners

This story is from Tuesday when I flew through JFK on my way to Philadelphia. JFK isn’t my favorite airport to fly through for three reasons.

First, JFK usually means I’m on a small plane which means no jetway. Instead, passengers walk down the cramped, tiny steps of the airplane, and then walk outside for a bit to get to the terminal. These planes are so tiny that all bags bigger than normal-sized purses are gate checked, and passengers have to collect their gate checked bags outside at the bottom of the plane stairs. When it's cold as it was on Tuesday, being outside is just awful.

Second, I’ve had one out of the last four flights there leave on time. Two were entirely canceled and the one I’m writing about was 90 minutes delayed.

Third, the gate serves multiple planes at multiple times so you can have four or five flights’ worth of passengers milling around the gate area and shoving forward with their boarding passes in hand. The crowding just adds to the annoyance and confusion.

On Tuesday I initially noticed this woman partly because of how she was dressed (red cowboy boots, black skirt, red sort of fleecy-capey-drapey thing—very distinct) and mostly because she was sort of high strung. She paced a lot, and told everyone around her tired she was, she’d just returned from Europe and was eager to get home. She wasn’t belligerent (yet) but she was agitated.

Then our delays started. They weren’t announced over the PA system, they just appeared on the flight status board. This board stands on the floor and also displays 15 to 20 other flights and it’s in the same area where all those passengers were milling around. So it’s hard to see.

Once the cowboy boot lady realized we were delayed, she got pretty aggressive with the gate agent, demanding more information and a reason for the delay. All the poor gate agent knew was that the flight crew hadn’t yet arrived from their inbound flight. That wasn’t good enough for the cowboy boot lady and she just got louder and angrier, and started infecting others around her. The gate agent had probably six to eight irate people berating her within 15 minutes. At one point, I seriously thought they might turn violent.

Finally the cowboy boot lady took off and announced to us all that she was going to go have a drink at the bar while she waited for the plane. I happen to know this bar pushes double shot drinks by offering a slight discount, and based on what happened next I’m pretty sure she took advantage of that.

We finally boarded and taxied forever out to the runway (another feature of flying through JFK). We were second in line for take-off and actively taxiing and here comes cowboy boot lady stumbling up the aisle to the lavatory. She made it in there and from the sounds of it just puked her guts out. She’s lucky the pilot didn’t go back to the gate and kick her off the plane.

I think she filed a complaint with Delta because I got a survey asking me about the delay and the ground crew. I was happy to fill that one out since what happened was not their fault and in my opinion, they showed admirable restraint in dealing with an out of control illogical screamer.