help! Seattle cat needs a home!

Nadine's cat needs a new home as the family is moving to Singapore. Nadine wrote on her blog, "I really hope we don't have to take her to a shelter or put her down. So heart wrenching. If anyone knows of a good place for cats, please let me know. Also, if anyone knows someone who wants a cat..."

This is so sad! Please forward this to friends who might be able to help, especially if they're in the Northwest. Here's Nadine's description:

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Xiti is a 16 year old cameo (cream) Persian. She's in good health. She's a gentle indoor cat and not one to climb much on things. Great lap cat, loud purr. A little shy and will prefer a quiet home. That said though, she super gentle and just stays clear of my toddler when she is trying to "pet" her.

My husband* has had her since she was a kitten. We are very sad to be leaving her but we will be moving to a different country at the end of the summer and don't think she will weather the hot temperature, long flight and quarantine period well. We'd love her to find a good home.

Here are some pictures of her.

She will come with litter box, litter locker, bowls, brushes, mats, beds and any of the kitty accessories that we have.

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help people!

*that's Nadine's husband in case you weren't reading carefully

last stand, I wish

so it's coming down to the wire. I have to finish everything by August 7. I'm close enough that it could really happen, I'm almost there.... but.... I was doing so great for a while there but all my stuck-ness has returned with a vengeance.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but my therapist (OLIF)'s theory on all my troubles is pretty straightforward: my mother never grew up and took on adult responsibilities, and I don't want to either. I want to just lie around the house as an eternal teenager. (It doesn't help that interactions with reality make me so anxious) So I sabotage anything that would create adult responsibility in my life and require me to grow up. Makes sense.

So the last month or so since my trip I've been feeling much more grown-up, capable, responsible, etc. But now I feel so stuck and can't bring myself to want to snap out of it.

OLIF says it's the recalcitrant child's "last stand"; I said, "I wish!" -- if only I thought it were the last stand! He corrected himself and said it was one in a series. Anyway it's the last stand for stopping me from getting my certification. I just feel terrified. I said I thought that I manufacture these huge obstacles and stick myself behind them because stuck-ness somehow feels safe to me in some sick way.

Writing about it helps. There is nothing to fear in being a grown-up, having responsibility, maybe making some mistakes. I can handle it. It's not a near-death experience every day, even though in the past I lived as though it was. But I know how to do it differently now...

Most of all I owe it to myself to get out of this hole and get on with my life.

Any messages of encouragement from friends would really be useful at this exact point in time.... nothing major just let me know you're out there rooting for me.

Thanks for being there anyway, even those of you who don't read regularly and might not see this.

OK. back to work.

inspired by Ang

Ang posted this really great post about things she used to like and now doesn't, things she used to not like and now does, etc. Here is my response....

Things I used to like but don't anymore:

• school
  
• reading fiction (truth is stranger than, and more interesting too!)
  
• cramming a weekend with non-stop social activity
  
• sweet alcoholic drinks (peppermint schnapps, bailey's & cream)
  
• fried eggplant
  
• wearing long skirts with high-top converse sneakers
  

Things I didn't used to like, but now do:

• avocados
  
• eggs (both these are a texture thing)
  
• really cold weather
  
• being alone sometimes
  
• watching TV
  

Things I didn't like in the past, and still don't like:

• peas
  
• being imitated in a mocking voice
  
• Israel invading Lebanon
  

Things I always liked:

• Madonna (so sue me)
  
• lying around the house all day
  
• uh... I dunno... ice cream?
  

500

This is my five hundredth post. I couldn't think of anything truly momentous to post in honor of it, so herewith I give you five hundred dots.

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Doesn't seem like much, does it.

wow. done.

So.... I just finished & printed out a paper that was originally due in January 2002. It's been hanging over my head all that time. While writing it I went through all kinds of emotions--shame about how long it took, frustration with myself, fear of the future (after I get certified and maybe get a job or start subbing). And now it's done.

It's weird to look at it now; even at 25 pages, it seems so small and insignificant compared with the amount of space it's taken up in my head and my life. It's like getting a terrifying tumor removed from my body and finding that it's the size of a pea.

Huh.

i volunteer

so I just heard on the news that it will soon be illegal to take a minor across state lines to get her an abortion without her parents' consent. I just wanted to announce that I am available anytime to take any minors anywhere they need to go to get an abortion, especially if it's illegal, so if you know anyone who needs one, send her my way.

also, in the last week when I have been out of touch at the convention of the socialist organization to which I belong,* it seems like the news approach to global warming has shifted from "it's not happening, it's not happening, la-la-la-la-la-la-la I can't hear you!!!!!!" to making jokes about it.

I suppose the shift must have happened more slowly, but somehow I didn't notice it until tonight when I heard two news anchors making jokes about getting over to see the Alps before all the glaciers melt, and how all the Alpen skiiers will have to take up water-skiing. Ha very ha.

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(as I said to one of my Flickr pen-pals, a guy from Slovenia, "I'm packing to go to Chicago for 12 days (for the convention of our socialist org--you'll know we've had a successful convention when you see that the US has become a socialist country; it should happen in the next week)."

coda coda*

....which is another way of saying, couples therapy has been really successful and we are just in a really good place right now. it's like starting over, except so much better. i know i've said that before, but i just wanted to reiterate it. because it's so unexpected and so wonderful, and it keeps getting better and better.

hope you're in a good place too, today...

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"coda" meaning "Closing section of a composition. An added ending." not any of its other meanings. referring to this post being an added comment on the final statement of the previous post.