It's 12:34 am. Facebook.com is addicting. It's a very neat tool. Much more fun than myspace.com.

My best friend, FormerBlondie™ was in town this past week. During her visit, she mentioned that people didn't get her and her hubby.

"He's my best friend. It's like a jealousy thing. We're all lovey dovey and don't have kids or anything to mess anything up and they don't have that".

This weekend, Unfriendly and I signed a purchase agreement for our new home - two story, technically in a condominium community, 3 bedrooms, 1 extra room, two bathrooms, loft area and patio. While the agent was drawing up the paperwork, Unfriendly had to run back to our place to get a coupon we forgot. In the time period that he was gone she asked me how long we had been together.

"12 years," I answered. She looked taken aback.
"12 years?! I thought you guys were newlyweds. You're like honeymooners! You're not sick of each other yet."

I don't quite understand why it's so odd for people in a committed relationship to really enjoy being around each other. Isn't that the point of being in a committed relationship? Granted, every couple has ups and downs. We definitely have worked through some downs of our own and there are days when we're irritated with other things. Instead of taking our irritation out on each other, we really make an effort to warn each other of our bad moods.

FormerBlondie™ and her hubby are the only other couple we know that are like us; we enjoy the company of our spouse (spouse substitute in our case) and we really tend to be silly with one another. There's laughter between the two of us most every day. I couldn't imagine it being any other way.

When you decide to own a pet, you usually don't take into account that your little bundle of fur or scales might develop a serious condition or chronic illness. I certainly didn't.

When Pooky was first diagnosed as being in renal failure, I found via telephone conversation with the ER vet on call. Since it was a holiday weekend, I had four long days to wait for the specialist to evaluate him. Excruciating. Every time I called to find out what his blood work showed for that day, the numbers seemed to tell that he was on death's doorstep. One vet basically said that it did not look good and that I should start preparing.

I fell apart. Then I went online and did research and found the CRF Yahoo! group. Those folks were invaluable. I had felt so alone, and here were folks that were going through the same thing. Through them I found other groups to help me assist feed him properly when he came home, learn about feline anemia and learn about how to control the level of phosphorus in his system.

Prior to this, I was generally the type to fall apart when a pet got sick. I never thought I would be able to ever properly pill a cat, much less stick a needle in one every night. As I got more proficient at medicating Pooky, some of my stress dissipated. Yet, every day for the first 3 or 4 months I would look at him and think that my time with him was limited. Sometimes this made me cry. Other times, this thought would be followed by a feeling of pure love. I'd look at his little face and think how lucky I was to have bonded with him. Whatever time he had left, it was going to be the best.

One day, I stopped waking up dreading that I'd find him dead or really sick again. All of his check-ups so far had been positive. He wasn't getting worse and his numbers reflected what the vet considered to be moderate CRF. He had started showing much more interest in his 'kidney kibble' and was as playful as he was before he crashed.

That changed three weeks ago on a Sunday. I woke up to feed Pumpkin and Pooky, and he didn't run up to greet me. He was curled up on my knitting and had no interest in me or in breakfast. I was half asleep, so I picked him up and put him in our extra room so that he would eat his kibble and not be tempted by Pumpkin's food and went back to bed. As I closed my eyes to let sleep overtake me once more, I realized that something was not right.

I flew out of bed and went to him. He was curled up, third eyelid somewhat covering his eyes and not interested in being petted. I woke Unfriendly up.

"Hey," I shook him awake. "Loki's not doing well".

I didn't cry. I didn't freak out. We tried to get him to eat or drink. No go.

"Ok kid. Time for you to go to the vet"

When we got to the ER vet's office, the doctor that told me 8 months ago that it didn't look good for him was the one who was on duty. I honestly expected the worst from her. She found that he had a temperature and took his blood to run tests to see if he was having a crash from the Chronic Renal Failure. She said he looked really good though. He was meowing and actively curious which was not how he had been when they last met.

The tests showed that his pancreatic enzymes were elevated. She hadn't felt any abnormalities in his abdomen. His treatment was to stay overnight for IV fluid therapy and some antibiotics. She wanted his specialist, who happens to own the ER practice, to see him in the morning and further advise me.

"But he looks great. You wouldn't think he was sick. He's still a little anemic, but his hematocrit is up! And he weighs 11 pounds now! "

He was close to 8 in December. 12 is his normal weight. And in addition to being less anemic, his electrolytes and phosphorus levels were in normal range. My consistency in giving him medicine showed. Her upbeat tone was encouraging, yet the question persisted -why was he sick?

I had missed giving him his nightly fluids the Saturday before. His specialist thought he might have been a little dehydrated and possibly had a reaction, or that he caught a bug and that we nipped it in time. Hard to tell, since he didn't seem at all sick to the specialist.

Damn cat made me a liar! Well, almost. He did have a temperature.

It took him a day to get back to eating. He is back to his frisky, playful, loving self. I'm not sure what his sudden reaction means in the long run. What I do know is that I've become better at dealing with my pets' mortality. I'm proud that my first instinct this time was not to crumble, but to deal with the situation and hope for the best.

Can't. Stand. The. Heat.

I am no longer equipped to handle temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. My grad school 'bureaucratic' orientation was this past Monday. At one point while I was waiting for a bus to get to north campus to go to the grad school office, I seriously thought I was going to spontaneously combust. Tuesday and today were a bit better because I was in class from noon until 3 pm so I avoided much of the crazy high heat. I'm still pretty exhausted though. Out of Shape + Depth of Hell Temperatures = Tired Glitzy.

Job From Hell Loses Another

I recently found out that a cool co-worker of mine from Job From Hell put in her notice. I e-mailed her a congratulations for breaking the chains of oppression and got an e-mail back from her asking if I could call her ASAP. It turns out she's going to be working at the same company where I work, same floor, same head manager.

I'm really excited.

I've gotten a bit used to usually being the only female programmer. I am la seule on my current work project. In MI, there ended up being a bunch of us by my last year. At Job From Hell, there was only one other. In my classes, I'm the only gal in the first class, and one of three in the next class.

On the one hand, I kind of don't mind this. In general, I tend to get along better with guys than I do with girls..or at least with girls in my own age group. Guys don't do that bitchy / catty thing and usually don't have ulterior motives or say one thing to your face but another behind your back. I can count my true girl friends on one hand and I've known most of them all for more than ten years. Unfortunately, none of 'em are in GA.

On the other hand, I do miss having local girl friends. There's a totally different dynamic with a female friend vs. a male friend. And for some odd reason, it's been tough to make and keep any female friend after finishing undergrad. There's only one in MI and she's so busy with work and her son that it's hard to keep up with her.

My co-worker friend will not be programming on my same team, but she will nearby and we have a bit of a 'survivor' history together. Hopefully she'll like the place enough and stick around for a bit.

Today has been a pretty good Sunday so far. I have accomplished THINGS. I have cleaned my car, added the appropriate amount of air to my tires and applied Rain-X to my windshield. Consequently, why does it always rain after I clean my car? I can only sigh and pet the purring bundle of orange fur on my lap.

I'm planning on getting this car stereo installed today. My little Saturn SL2 still has the factory radio. Tuner only. I didn't get the $200+ dollar cd/cassette/tuner that Saturn offered because I figured that with that much money, I could get something NICE.

I never really put in the effort to look for one until now because I really had no need for a car stereo that had anything more than a tuner. My commute in MI was maybe 15 minutes. Running errands did not take a ridiculous amount of time. I was barely in my car. No need. Money saved. Huzzah!

GA is a different animal. Since I live in Metro Atlanta, I encounter traffic. At the moment, I live 2.5 miles from where I work, so luckily, no traffic there. Not really. There are some back-ups at a couple of stop signs and people who spaz out and forget the concept of right of way which, while irritating, does not fill my soul with an anger that would certainly amount in someone's death if I had a fire arm. My commute to Job From Hell caused that. Job from hell also had something to do with that, but I digress.

Since Unfriendly and I are planning on moving slightly farther away from work and school is currently 60 miles away from my apt, I've decided that now is the time to get an actual stereo. And it has a USB port! Joy! I can listen to my many, many mp3s, litter my car with cds and jam, jam, jam.

My dearest friend, FB™ is currently not feeling well.

So for you who are gnashing your teeth while all four pets whimper since Momma's NOT HAPPY (well...maybe 3....I don't know if Stinky understands the universe outside of Glorious Kitten Universe) , I present:


The original (I believe) housed at the MoMA in New York. I realized tonight that there are tons of pictures I took at the MoMA that I haven't done a darn thing with. Foolish Glitzy.

...at least, I felt that way today. Almost a month ago, Unfriendly and I were in Melbourne, FL for his younger sis' wedding and I thought I was going to melt into a puddle of goo every single time I went outside. Apparently 7 years in Michigan was sufficiently effective at wiping out 22 years of withstanding Miami, FL summers and doing crazy stuff like wearing black or funky tights whenever I could. It takes insanity and heat tolerance in order to be a Goth in FL...though at that time, I think the term was 'Progressive' or 'Vampire'.

School starts next week and I'm pretty excited. I got my immunization paper work back from the doctor's office today and after that gets processed at UGA , I'll be able to register. I'll actually be a grad student.

Unfriendly and I took an impromptu trip to Athens a couple of weeks ago so that I could do the drive to campus (60 miles one way, folks) and get an idea of what possible fuck-up-itry parking held in store for me.

On Saturday, we hit a couple of bars and brewery and heard an Atlanta band called One Atom 12 at a club called Tasty World. They were surprisingly good. I didn't have cash to get a CD and it didn't look like they were equipped for plastic.

I also had tiramisu to die for at La Dolce Vida on Broad Street.

The next day we walked around campus, checked out the bookstore and student center and found the building where my classes will be held. It was a bit of a rainy day, but MAN was it hot. I am so not equipped to handle heat above 80 degrees anymore.

So, this past weekend I purged my closet and armoire of anything I hadn't worn in a year and got myself to Goodwill as soon as the bags were full. I already had two little shopping bags of clothes from last year that never made it there.

I don't really own any trek across campus clothes anymore. I have jeans, which were fine in MI but are way, way too hot for GA summers. I have work clothes which would just end up getting sweaty and gross. I have work out / bum clothes which just look faded and bleh. So now that I actually have space in my closet and drawers, I'll be able to do some actual back to school clothes shopping... so that I can sweat in my new clothes...

...wait a minute...