The cat came back....

Some people are dog people and some people are cat people. It's just the way life goes.

I've always fancied myself a dog person. My parents are dog people and I grew up with dogs. Lots of dogs. There was Mr Gatsby, Limo, Tess, Vegas, Boots, and of course Boomer. My parents had dogs long before they had me. There was even a horse in there at some point and a few goldfish here and there. But never did we ever have a cat.

So, answer me this, how on Earth did we all suddenly end up cat owners?

It started with Kitty.

Years ago some people moved in across the street from my parents. They had a cat named Sidney (his name is Kitty now).

Sidney was an inside/outside cat. He ruled the street. And like most animals he took an instant liking to my Dad. My Dad is one of those people that animals flock to. He's never met an animal that didn't like him. It's a gift, truly.

So Sidney would come visit my Dad when he was outside and my Dad would often call Sidney if he didn't see him. The cat would come to him.

Well, eventually the people that owned Sidney got a dog and had a baby. Sidney spent less and less time inside with them and more and more time outside in our driveway with my Dad. We started leaving water out for him and always welcomed him (to the driveway) with open arms.

One day the people across the street moved and left Sidney behind. By this point his name had officially become Kitty (later he would also be dubbed Shithead). Besides an internal disgust for anyone that would leave behind a pet, nothing really changed. We began putting out food with the water by the front door and made sure to go outside to visit him. He's sort of an independent cat and really could not care less about human contact (except for my Dad's attention), but still.

Then Kitty got in a fight. And he didn't win. So, we took him to the vet. A few hundred dollars later, plus a tube in his side, and follow up vet visits, he was living in our basement. My Dad had put a litter box down there for him, we moved his food and water down there too and someone got him a bed. Once he recuperated he became an indoor/outdoor cat.

Most of his time was spent outside, which might have been because at the time we had Boomer and Boots and while Boomer could have cared less about him Boots wanted to eat him (which I think she did one day to Paul the Possum), but nonetheless he was now welcome in the house. And we no longer had to leave his cat food outside (which was good because there was this whole ordeal with Paul the Possum who would come out at night to eat Kitty's food, it was only an ordeal for me as at the time I was coming home semi-late from working at a restaurant).

Well, it happened again and then again. Kitty loved to fight, but Kitty never won. So more surgeries and more money later it was decided that Kitty was no longer allowed outside.

Ever since then Kitty's been living in the house and longfully staring out the window. But he's safe, he's fat, he's loved, and he's spoiled. Without a doubt, my parents are now cat owners.

About three and a half years ago Jamie and I moved into our house. A few months after we moved in, our upstairs neighbor moved in. A cat owner. He introduced us to his cat named Pablo. We were indifferent to Pablo until we got to know him. Much like Kitty was, Pablo is an indoor/outdoor cat who prefers to be outside. Therefore we got to know Pablo. He'd always be on the porch or in the yard whenever we would go outside.

Pablo is a sneaky little dude too. Right off the bat he would jump up and sit in either my lap or Jamie's lap (usually Jamie's). We instantly fell in love with him. He's spunky and has tons of personality. But like Kitty (at first) we would not allow him in our house. Unlike Kitty, Pablo had a cat door and could go in and out of his house whenever he wanted.

Eventually Pablo started sneaking in or meowing at our door for us to let him in. So we did. He's too cute and too sweet to ignore. One time we even bought him cat food. A year ago I bought him a water bowl. We had the perfect situation. We got all the rewarding parts of having a cat without any of the responsibility.

A few weeks ago our neighbor told us he was moving. We were devastated at the thought of losing Pablo. So I jokingly asked the neighbor if we could keep him.

So, now Jamie and I are also proud cat owners.

I still want a dog. I miss having dogs. But for now, I'm pretty content with Pablo. And Kitty.

Oh, no.

Check out the pic.

Any idea what's going on there?

Think about it.

Here's a hint. That's my bathroom.

And no, those are not roaches (or any kind of bug or poo).

And yes, Jamie is OK.

Happy guessing.

I'm hosting a Facebook contest right now to see who can identify WTF is going on. Once someone wins I'll explain what happened. If you want to enter to win a prize (a real prize), visit me on Facebook (click here to check out my page, and be my friend while you're there).

I hope this isn't considered blasphemy...

I, like most people yesterday, was very saddened to hear about the passing of Dame Elizabeth Taylor. As so many media outlets have said, she truly was a real Hollywood star and a legend. I don't mean to tarnish her image nor insult her in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I have nothing but respect for her. Her marriages, her charitable work, and her talent and beauty are things that no one, especially me, can shake a stick at.

Of course, in the days after the passing of such a well loved talent there are going to be numerous tributes and articles printed in her honor. I don't know what I can say, that hasn't already been said, to pay tribute to such an extraordinary person, so I'm not.

However, in browsing through some of the online tributes to Dame Elizabeth, I came across a photo of her. I have no idea when it was taken. And I am in no way diminishing her talent or beauty, but I couldn't help but think of one thing when I saw this particular picture...

SNOOKI!

Listen, is Snooki the next Dame Elizabeth? No. Do they look alike? No. But, BUT, in this picture? Yes. There definitely some similarities. Picture Snooki with her signature pouf (instead of the ball cap) and I think you would find it hard to disagree with me.

Snooki, like Ms. Taylor, is always looking (Snookin') for love. Both are famous (Ok, maybe one is more infamous). And, both have a fan in me.

I hope you don't think less of me for this. But come on, look at the pics! You have to admit, it's sort of uncanny, and very funny. Ms. Taylor was Jersey Shore Chic before Snooki was even alive to cruise the boardwalk looking for the perfect gorilla (or cocktail).

And really, from far away, with your eyes squinted, that picture of Elizabeth Taylor could easily be Snooki.

R.I.P. Dame Elizabeth Taylor. I hope one day I will be so lucky as to be compared to you.

The Times They Are A'Changin'

Or so says Bob Dylan...

While I don't like to point out the obvious - that being how absent I've been - I do want to address why that is and some invaluable lessons I've learned.

First of all, if you could see the admin page of this blog you would there are about five entries I started and never completed. Some of them are straight up rants, and a few are totally irreverent things I was thinking about (like why Burger King decided to stuff a burger with other things like cheese and peppers. What? It's no longer good enough to put these items ON the burger? They need to IN the burger? Also, if you're serving a stuffed burger then I highly doubt you are making it fresh, which leads me to believe your burgers are frozen. But I digress).

If you've checked the blog out in the past few months, you might've seen some posts that are no longer here. That's what I want to address, sort of.

In this day and age of living our lives within keystrokes and clicks of each other I am fully aware of what is and what is not acceptable and what can you get in trouble, and all the gray areas that we try to navigate every day. I've read articles about people not getting hired because of something they innocently (or not) blogged about. I've seen the stories on the news about the teachers that have been fired for posting pics on Facebook. My favorite example of that is the poor teacher that had a picture on her Facebook page of her in Germany (I think) holding a beer. This, according to her supervisors, was a fireable offense even though she was clearly on vacation and showed no signs of being drunk or inappropriate. She had all her clothes on.

So, basically, it's a slippery slope.

I also know my constitutional rights and freedom of speech is one of those.

So let me give you the condensed version of what happened and what I learned.

A while ago I posted an entry about something that annoyed me. I never, ever mentioned any identifying details, like who I was talking about, where the incident took place, etc. I understand slander and libel and want no part of either. However, someone saw the blog post, assumed a few things and it led to some very uncomfortable conversations that I had to have. My name was cleared and apologies were made (to me), but still. I took the post down. I didn't want to and I certainly didn't want anyone to assume that my removing the post was any sort of admission of guilt, but I did it anyway. I never want to hurt someone's feelings.

Then I posted something about taking down the post (kinda like what I'm doing now) and I slammed people for insinuating things and causing unnecessary drama in my life. Then I took that down too. I'm not sure why, except that this blog is about me. Call me selfish, but it is my blog. I write it for me. In the world of iThings and YouThings there is a reason why we have gone from Generation X and Y to Generation Me. So I took the post down because I wasn't so much talking about what was going on in my head, but instead I was bitching and sort of in hopes that the person I was talking about (again, I'll never tell who and you'll never be able to figure it out) would see it.

Then I realized it didn't matter.

Then I realized that people might be reading my blog and I didn't want to come across as a psycho.

So, I learned a great lesson. We have to be more careful than ever these days. We're always being "posted" or taped or observed. While personal freedoms and freedom of speech will always be very important to me, it's still uncool to be mean and unkind.

I will do my best to continue to learn and grow, and hopefully the next time my blog becomes fodder for people it will be in a positive light.

Or at least they won't assume things.

That darn election.

Maybe you know this about me, and maybe you don't, but I love to vote. I've voted in every election since I was 18. No matter how big or how small I am at my polling location ready to cast my ballot.

So of course I voted on Tuesday. It's my civic duty!

I did my research and was totally prepared for just about everything on the ballot. Later Tuesday night we watched the results come in.

Now, I'm not going to tell you who I voted for, nor am I going to admit affiliation with any particular party, but I am going to say this.

If was I an Independent or Libertarian I would be realistic that my candidate probably wouldn't win. I would therefore do my research and decide which candidate I would want to win if mine wasn't going to. Then I would vote for that person. Why? Because it's almost always (I'm not doing research to get facts) either a Republican or a Democrat that wins.

It brings me to my conclusion that not voting for either a Republican or a Democrat is throwing away a vote.

For instance, if everyone that voted for Monds in the Governor's race voted for Barnes or Deal, there probably would've been a run off race. Basically a vote for Monds in this past election was a vote for Deal because it was not a vote for Barnes.

Does that make sense?

OK, I don't like talking politics. It's a private thing, and I find it incredibly rude when people ask "who did you vote for?" Instead, just ask "did you vote?"

On that note, this post is done. I don't want to get into politics. I have three rules I try to live by, especially in social settings - NO PREACHIN', NO POLITICIN', AND NO PEDDLIN.

And the beat goes on...

Change is one of the few inevitable things in life, like taxes and death.

Recently there were some changes in my life. Mainly in my work life, but it's amazing how that life, the work life, can spill into "regular life."

Most of the time, these changes don't make sense, and aren't up to you, but they happen. I think we get so freaked out by them because they are out of our control, and that's scary. But we have to accept them and trust that they are for the best.

So, that's what I'm doing. I'm not trying to understand these changes. I'm accepting them and finding the good in them. And like Sonny & Cher once said, "and the beat goes on."

Also, any excuse to post a pic of Cher is good with me.

Also, you should Google image search "Cher." Lots of awesomeness.

This is what's been in my head since July 4th...

Since July 4th when I went to see Phish I have had this song stuck in my head. It's one of the few Phish songs I know. I only like the waaa, waa, waaa, waaa, waa, etc. part. Enjoy!