Tag: cats

So close

Today has been Friday – Friday, the 13th, actually, which felt very ironic what with all the gorgeous sunshine and cool air today… until a crazy cat fight broke out in our front yard. At first, I thought it was kids playing. Actually, I thought it sounded like cats moaning and groaning, but kids made more sense, so Is plowed for the kids idea as being more realistic. Then I thought it was kids crying. Then I wondered what on Earth was happening, since the noises weren’t stopping, and crying kids would have drawn a crowd, if not at least their parents, right?!

Sure enough, when I opened the door, my original thoughts were proven correct: two cats were at the end of our walkway, quickly splitting apart, likely spooked by my opening the front door. One cat was just sitting in the walkway, back ramrod straight, acting like nothing had been going on. (Such a cat, I know.) The other was trotting quickly into the dark street. Oh, yeah, I thought, This is most definitely a cat fight. Not kids. Nope. Nuh-uh.

I changed the battery in the front camera, and was bummed to find that none of it had been captured on the camera, not even the sounds, due to the dead battery. After I replaced it and went back inside, only a minute or two passed before I could hear the ‘yelling’ again, though it was not as loud this time. It wasn’t loud enough for the camera to record this time, which was a bummer. I had wanted to share this absurdity with my man and my mom.

Nonetheless, the fight moved farther down the street, and even got some men yelling in the mix at one point. The cats calmed down briefly, then reconvened a while later in our neighbor’s side yard, which I discovered when I started getting ready for bed and was on that side of the house. I went out front just to see if I could see them, but I couldn’t. I could certainly hear them, though, both with their wailing and with there muffled movements when they were actually pausing on the growls for a bit.

Anyway, it was well after all of this that it occurred to me that today is Friday, the 13th, and we had a crazy and bizarre cat fight on our street tonight! Wie cool!

Anyway, happy Friday and weekend to you all!

Thank you for these funs and these blessings, God. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Mad hair day

I somehow love the days
when my hair is all crazed,
frizzy, frazzled, and fried.
Though tamed by a braid
and knot on the side,
it is, somehow, burstingly wild.
On days like these,
each time I see
my hair in a mirror
I smile.
Because, for once, it feels
that my hair reveals
that dame inside,
ever wild.

I am woman – hear me roar

Post-a-day 2021

Actually, inefficiency killed the cat

I just don’t do inefficiency. Period.

Perhaps it is my German blood that flows within me, but I automatically look for the best, most efficient way to do just about anything, whether I’m the one doing it or not, and whether I want to do the evaluation or not. Actually, I’ll often purposely turn my attention away from something that I am not doing, because I know that I, within seconds, will be spending brainpower on developing significant improvements on the effectiveness and efficiency of that noticed activity (e.g. ignoring the guys grinding and paving the streets this past week-ish on the street where I live).

Tonight, I got a little too frustrated for comfort with utter inefficiency. I can accept that other people will be inefficient. However, please, do not waste my time and effort with your inefficiency, people. Please. I just can’t stand it – my brain will not tolerate it for long, as logic defeats your inefficiency every time.

***I reference the second person here as a general idea, not as you, the reader, so, please, accept that I am not accusing you, the reader, of inefficiency. If you are inefficient, however, I invite you to reconsider those ways for more efficient ones. 😉 ***

For me personally, I’m not sure that I do anything in a way that I deem as inefficient. If I have to get up to do something a more efficient way than I would be doing it lying on the floor, either I will get up and do it and then lie back down, or I will rest (if it doesn’t have to be done right now) as I am, and then get up later and do the task when I am ready. I will not do a lazy version of it from my spot on the floor. I just won’t do it.

Now, let’s be real here: I am totally lazy. I do not deny it. That’s a huge part of my efficiency, really. I do not want to waste effort. Ever. And so, I aim to be as efficient as possible, and with everything that I do, so that no effort is wasted. We only have so much energy and effort and time in a day; let us not waste any of it.

So, yeah…, I was extremely frustrated tonight. I wonder what there is for me to improve within myself on this – managing how strongly it effects me, most likely – so I shall consider that specifically and intentionally over the next day or few, and see what comes up.

Post-a-day 2020

Lazy days of love

Today, I hopped out of bed only six hours after I gotten into it, and headed to my friend’s apartment (where I’m taking care of the cat and watching over the place) to meet a technician.

The technician, named Roland, was incredibly sweet, and even a bit fun for that brief half hour of having him in my life – I hope I was able to bring light to his day as he did to mine.

After that, well, I was already at my friend’s place, and the internet now worked, so I finished watching the currently available online one-hour Cirque du Soleil special, while snuggling with the cat.

I then made a brief trip to the grocer for eggs, and then returned to more time sitting on the sofa, cat pointedly on top of me, legs intertwined with my arms and hands…

I watched the film “Moonstruck” at last – she was 40 and he was 22! – and enjoyed the artistry of it, as well as the comedy and the use of Italian.

Otherwise, I spent the majority of the day and evening just sitting there with the cat, napping off and on together – I guess we were cat napping [Can you cat nap with a cat, can you do it in a hat?]… every hour or so, I’d take a bathroom break from our lazy times on the sofa, and I would stop on the way back to see if I could do a pull-up – I had done my first ever strict pull-up this morning, dead hang, arms locked out, feet off ground, no swinging, strict, chin over bar (without lifting my chin either)… a real pull-up(!!!), and the first in my life…

So, I guess I spent today either lounging and cat napping with a cat on top of me, or in practicing pull-ups…

And, somehow, I am going to bed extremely satisfied… the cat was just as bad as I am in terms of needing that physical touch love today, and it was wonderful and wonderfully fulfilling for my soul… and the pull-up was kind of amazing, too, and also very satisfying. 🙂

A good day… a very good day.

And it is truly a blessing after my struggles last night…, I am extremely grateful for the experiences I had today… I knew I would be okay, and I was today. 🙂

Post-a-day 2020

Cat stretches

My friend’s cat has been staying with an old flat mate of hers the past few weeks, because my friend’s brother was visiting, and he’s very allergic to cats.

Sunday, though, the brother went home, so the cat was brought home, back to my friend’s place.

The rest of the week, however, my friend is out of town, so I am staying at her place to watch over the cat and her dog.

Since being back at home, my friend said, the cat has been super lovey, getting on top of her to snuggle just about every time she sits down anywhere.

Tonight, as part of my regular stretching routine, I was stretching my legs….

Except that, different from every other night, tonight I have my friend’s cat rubbing all over my legs, my face, my arms and head… every chance he gets, he is either rubbing me or snuggling up and lying down on top of me.

When I was doing one particular stretch on my back, he shoved in between my arms and leg to get to my belly and lie down… on another, that was kind of a lunge-like stretch, he kept walking in circles around me, popping through my legs constantly and putting his head into my face….

Silly cat… stretching… 😛

P.S. Yes, I know this can be a totally iffy scenario of various doubles entendres (it’s French, so I pluralized it in French, because I felt like it), and I made an effort to steer as far away from that as possible, but it still sounded silly to me on the end, so I felt a need to mention that. 😂

Post-a-day 2019

Hipster Imposter

We went to a donation-based fundraiser yoga class the other day, which was focused on raising funds for a certain local pet shelter, while giving practice to some newer yoga teachers.

The class took place in a brewery.

I did not always understand what the teacher wanted me to do, and the people around me weren’t always too helpful with what they were doing, so I was behind at times, and I did some guesswork at times.

I generally feel that yoga teachers keep students in downward dog for far too long – like, I’m about to pass out by the time they start to mention maybe moving out of the position… and this is just about every time.

This brewery yoga class was no different, and even a bit worse at times on the downward dog front, so I regularly switched into child’s pose or baby pose, and then returned to downward dog whenever the teacher began whatever was next.

I also breathe so much more slowly than teachers seem to believe long, deep breathing takes… approximately three to five times slower.

I did a decent job of everything, especially considering how I didn’t know what was going on throughout half the explanation time, because I didn’t know the names of postures, and the teachers kind of took a while to clarify what I was supposed to be doing.

The class was enjoyable, nonetheless.

There were discounted draft beers afterward.

I, of course, drank my water, but we hung out for a bit so my friend could mingle with her friends, and I could be distantly social,… kind of like being social by association.

At one point, a yoga teacher came up and talked with us.

“I really like your practice,” she said directly to me.

…..

I graciously accepted the comment and, I imagine, compliment, and aimed not to laugh or be ungracious or ungrateful.

Since then, I haven’t really stopped wondering what on Earth she could have meant – I mean, did she like how I basically did my own thing every time we went into downward dog?

Because that’s kind of the only thing I did differently that could potentially be a positive….???

Haha

I have no idea, but the comment was positively hipster, and it alone made me want to burst out laughing.

Yes, I know that I am all sorts of hipster with all sorts of things in my life… I’m just not that level of hipster, you know?

But, who knows?

I did just complete my yoga certification exam today, so, I’m well on my way to achieving yet another level of hipster in the very new future… oh, and didn’t I buy a bright red scooter just the other day?

So, I guess I’m not exactly an imposter…

Like I said, I’m hipster, but I’m not beyond finding the hilarity of hipsterhood, and laughing heartily at it all. 😛

Post-a-day 2019

Fleas bit me

I have been in a state of near-panic most of the day and evening today and this evening, because fleas appeared last night in the room where I have been staying, and have transitioned from only seven last night to over fifty grabbed today, and a whole section – call it a herd, if you will, because I do – of them discovered just tonight.

Suffice to say that I am anxty, nervous, and I feel like I might break down in tears at the slightest additional provocation.

God, heal this space and me as I sleep tonight.

Please.

Post-a-day 2018

rainy days hold my heart

There’s something about rain that makes everything in life seem okay.  Sure, when the rain is more like a torrential downpour that includes flooding all around town, things don’t seem so great.  However, regular rain, rain like early this afternoon, with sunlight still visible here and there, that kind of rain is the perfect rain for life.

I never feel like a trapped kid on rainy days; I always feel almost liberated due to all of the creativity and possibility of life indoors for just one day.  Board games and reading and art projects are a few of my favorite things, and rainy days tend to put them as the likely activities, removing the social expectation to be “more productive” with one’s time than sitting about, doing silly but fun things with ones one loves.  Perhaps, too, I enjoy the fact that I can be certain that I am not “missing out” on anything out in the world when it is raining, because no one else it out doing anything either.  Perhaps…

I remember a day a year and a half ago, when I lay on the floor with my cat, just hanging out while the sky released its water.  We even went and sat on the covered walkway right outside the apartment door, watching the rain and the clouds together, smelling the sun-touched rain and its clouds.  That was a beautiful day.

 

Post-a-day 2017