remember our life?

ahh i've had an uneventful couple of days ! but i'm still gonna write a thing !

i'm pretty swamped at work- i was out for several weeks, and on vacation right before that, and i am taking on a bunch of new projects and responsibilities now (which include a surprise event tomorrow and an event next week)- but if i don't take a minute to like, think my thoughts, i will probably go insane.

last night mouse came over and we went to get coffee at the green line. i have to interrupt myself and say that i'm giving up caffeine for lent. it isn't ACTUALLY for lent, because i am not a practicing catholic and the tyranny and evil of the catholic church makes me sick to my fucking stomach, but i'm still "a catholic" in the way that people who grew up in the catholic church are- real superstitious and preoccupied with the saints and junk. but, anyway, i'm switching to decaf for now in hopes of switching to no caffeine, because i've gone from barely sleeping to not sleeping.



anyway, i met up with mouse and we went to the green line and had a good talk about ancient history. he's been listening to the hardcore history podcasts about ancient rome (which probably explains why he changed his facebook picture to a bust of caligula, but that could also be the fact that he is like a vegan caligula. minus wine. minus incest. minus vomiting. plus 8 hours of sleep a night.). it was pretty interesting, and boy, he sure taught me a lot about claudius.



facts about claudius
- super dumb
- ....or was he?!?!?!

in other news, or non-news, my cats still fucking hate each other. well, maybe not HATE. roxy jr. seems to really want to be friends with pizza- he follows her around and tries to sniff her and stuff, and she freaks out and hisses and runs away (or attacks him). here's a picture of him coming to say hi and her trying to run away:



i am slowly coming to terms with being a single person with two cats, and it isn't bad so far. i'm conscious of seeming like a "cat person", but in reality i'm an equal opportunity "animal person" who just happens to have cats. if i had a turtle i'd talk about it and anthropomorphize it and dress it in clothing just as much !

i cannot write another interesting thing right now because i'm so swamped with work. i might do some hanging out/movie watching tonight (unfortunately i have to miss ryann's show at the bean, but you should go !), but i'm mostly going to be working from home and possibly eating cream of wheat.

p.s. maybe i should get a turtle

sooooo on friday they announced a major restructuring of my department (basically half of the department- not my half- is being moved to another group, and my half is changing names and taking on some events from a different area) in a meeting that i missed. i didn't have the energy to be anxious about it all weekend but now i'm back at work and everyone is whispering about it and that is making me anxious. we're having a meeting at 11 to "discuss our questions and concerns." my concern is not so much what is happening but like, if i will still have a job at the end of the fiscal year. it's like... 99% likely that i will, but my worry is that my job will change so much that i will hate it. oh well, can't do anything about it now.

i had a very full weekend ! friday was the opening of mike and jeanne's art show at part time studios in fishtown, so mouse and i went down there. their show was sea-junk themed and everything both of them made was absolutely stunning.



i'm really proud of both of them. fishtown is... weird, i basically never go there and didn't even realize this block was there, but there was a little block of galleries and junk (including the fabled coffee shop that biz lives over ! where i... saw two of my coworkers? it was like seeing bugs bunny in real life or something). fishtown is full of weird people who look like aliens who heard tell of earth hipsters and tried to emulate their look without the use of the earth internet, so there was lots of weird flapper clothes, giant feathers in peoples' hair, and slouchy socks. i also saw at least two bolo ties. the gallery was pretty crowded because it was first friday, so i got to very briefly see and barely talk to a lot of people i like. here are my two favorite things from the show:


unfortunately i don't have a full picture of this, but it is a beautiful melusine by jeanne


a leviathan by mike !!!! my actualllll favorite of his was this tiny fiji mermaid but this is my other favorite

afterward, mouse and i went to whole foods and i came home, where i went to bed surprisingly early to avoid cleaning my apartment for company this weekend.

on saturday, i procrastinated so hard i actually played windows solitaire (i use cumulative scoring so i end up in the hole, and always think one more game will get me back in the black), but ended up doing an okay job cleaning my room and getting my laundry together and getting some of my junk off of the couch. my friend brian from connecticut was in town, and luckily was up for a bunch of stationary back pain fun. we got indian buffet and gelato and then watched the naked gun, which i just realized is available on netflix instant !



it kind of fell apart from there because, as you know, there is basically nothing good on netflix instant, but it was fun. i ended up actually going to sleep early, which is sort of a bummer because i go to sleep at 4am on work nights, but i slept for like ten hours, which is unheard of. i think it might be due to the fact that roxy jr. didn't sleep in my room and it was raining so it was like super dark in my bedroom.

oh yeah ! i introduced pizza to roxy jr. on saturday too !



they are not really getting along yet- lots of hissing and growling, though surprisingly pizza seems to be the alpha (do cats have alphas?) and roxy jr. immediately backs down. no real fighting or confrontations, but no grooming and cuddling yet. oh wellllllllll.

on sunday, i met up with brian, christina, nick, and sandi at local 44 for brunch. christina had gone up to nyc to see wild flag with nick and sandi, and then brought them back to see wild flag here. local 44 was kind of disappointing (righttttt after i updated my yelp reviewwwwwwww)- bland bloody marys and the removal of vegetarian disco fries from the menu was pretty heartbreaking. nothing really looked too appealing on the menu, so i chose the new menu item replacing the disco fries with eggs on top that i had last time- weird spicy french fries with eggs on top. i'm not sure why i got this because i'm not really wild about french fries, but it was pretty gross- the fries were super super super super salty, they didn't taste hot at all, and they were pretty dessicated. also the eggs were the size of peanuts.

i tricked everyone into going to cvs with me afterward to get cat supplies, and i also treated myself to some nail polish-


rimmel hot cocoa, purple rain, and steel gray

and then came back home and hung out with nick and sandi while christina napped, and then *i* napped, and then they all went to see wild flag again (i'm bummed that i didn't try to go to this- my back was so messed up when christina strongly urged me to go see them that i thought i'd never be able to go, but it looked fucking amazing and i love mary timony and ahhhhhhhhh). after they got home i had some wonderful drunk bonding with them all, and then watched futurama in bed until it was time to go to sleep- 2am, still pretty early !

so, overall, good weekend. not much on the horizon this week except lots of work, hanging out with mouse, maybe going to ryann's show at the bean if i can make it (the walking junk is still pretty tedious), introducing jeanne to roxy jr, blah blah.

p.s. i love nick and sandi
p.p.s. work is stressful right now

nothing's ever gonna make me plan tomorrow

first off, let me say that jonthan richman did a cartwheel on tuesday night.



the show was great, as usual (though jonathan seemed a litttttle off, maybe melancholy or something? i know that sounds hilarious because i'm talking about jonathan richman, but... not his usual melancholy), and he really warmed up toward the end of the night. he did two encores and played a good mix of new songs and old songs (assuming that the songs i didn't recognize are all new, which is a pretty fair assumption). the highlight for me was definitely the very extended version of "when we refuse to suffer". his sincerity and weirdness are like.. the best thing in the universe.

incidentally, the show was the longest i've stood up in about a month. it was really rough at first and my leg actually went numb- i thought i was going to have to sit down or go home or something, but after about an hour, the pain passed... and my back feels better now than it has in weeks. i still can't really bend over and certain movements will catch me off guard, but i feel like... 75% better.

oh. i forgot to upload that jonathan richman solo mix. i'll do that when i get home.

i had a doctor's appointment yesterday and took the afternoon off after that, and ended up going to the green line for a few hours to read and work on some work stuff. i ended up running into my old buddy eric, who talked to me about:

- his cat
- making animated gifs
- skateboarding
- stephen belafonte (a guy he grew up with who dated someone in the belafonte family, changed HIS last name to belafonte, and married scary spice?)



i'm sort of frustrated at work right now. i was out for like nine million days because of my back (and a week's vacation before that), and i'm super behind on everything, and i keep getting new projects dumped on me. someone is quitting (more power to her, i would not blame anyone who isn't on my team for quitting) and i have to take something of hers over that is going to be confusing and annoying for me. and will also require me to wear nice clothing occasionally and rub elbows and crap. ugh.

in other news, that cat still hates me. he spends a lot of time hanging out on my bed with me, and occasionally approaches me to be petted (or pets himself on me), and after 30 seconds he's still like I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE WE HAVE TO GO OVER THIS AGAIN. he does have a cool snaggle tooth though:



i worked out cat food costs (based on 3/4 a cup of dry food and 2 pouches a day for pizza, and 2 cans a day for roxy jr.) and ended up with $150/month. that seems kind of insane? my grocery bill/food bill for myself for a month is like $120-$140 and that includes eating out and stuff. i guess there's two of them and one of me, but between them they weigh like under 30 lbs. and that's not even factoring in stuff like flea medicine and litter !!!!

jeez.

i have a meeting right now, but i'll write you guys something good tomorrow.

the arrow goes straight through my heart

i just microwaved an EVOL bean and rice burrito for lunch (i've had zerooooo appetite since hurting my back and i'm forcing myself to eat at least breakfast and lunch at work) and tossed the wrapper in the (pretty full) trash can, and a coworker came up behind me and picked the wrapper out of the trash and started reading the ingredients.



i asked her what she was doing and she was like, "i just wanted to see what you were eating." 1) why? 2) why not ask me like a normal fucking personnnnn? (so i can tell you to mind your own business).

anyyyyway. i had a crappy day yesterday, so i came home from work and put in some requisite time with pizza- we watched the simpsons on the couch and stared at each other and then she walked on my collarbone and put her butt in my face. i'm pretty psyched that she seems to absolutely love the wellness pouches (the cans are all pate, but the pouches are chunks), butttt sort of disheartened that she seems to have stopped eating her dry food in favor of the pouch. wahhh. my plan to supplement the pouches with dry food might not work ! anyway, after that was taken care of, i retired to my room to read john bellairs books and pet roxy jr..


that pillow looks gross, but it's a cream colored pillow ! it isn't a yellowed white one

1) he is obsessed with this scar on my leg and licked it obsessively a few times.
2) when i was taking some aleve, he obviously remembered what treats sounded like and got all excited to get a treat, and i felt so bad- all the treats i have are crunchy and he has one tooth. i wet one down for him and he didn't seem interested, so i gave him a spoonful of food.
3) he slept behind me on the bed, by my butt, and i farted and he tried to bury the fart :(

things are still a little icy- for most of the night, he slept curled up under my bed, peeking out a little. i kept my hand over the edge and scratched his face while i was reading, and he occasionally growled and gummed my fingers in rage. i think i'm going to keep him in my room til the weekend, and then introduce the cats- i'd like to be at home all day for their first couple of days together.

as i mentioned, i'm on a john bellairs kick. after reading a bunch of depressing stuff about world war II and genocide, i need a break, so i got a collection of the best lewis barnavelt stories (not my selections for 'best', i just got some 'best of' books). i have always loved lewis the most because he is a little fat wimp who cries a lot, and rose rita pottinger is one of my favorite characters ever.


VENIO

i might pick up a few others for super cheap from the last word, if they have them. ideally i'd like to read them alllll again.

i need to sit down serrrriously and make myself a to-do list. i have a few tasks that i need to get done, and i feel so overwhelmed that i can't get everything in order ! i'm going to make a quick work to-do list (which i won't share with you because none of you care about what i do and it would require boring backstory) and a home to-do list. which i will bore you with.

not fun
- clean room
- clean up livingroom
- order catfood on amazon
- get stuff ready for integrating cats this weekend (which requires moving a bunch of my shoes to make room for a new litterbox)
- pick up laundry
- drop off rent
- get new pillows
- try to cook/eat dinner

kind of fun
- possibly start an ugly zooborns blog, suggested by christine
- possibly start a photos of people heismanning their pets blog
- update history blog
- take more pictures of pets
- buy myself some nail polish :( specifically interested in zoya shawn



and sephora by OPI leotard optional



- get some other john bellairs books
- go to the library
- hype jeanne and mike's art show here tomorrow !

hmm what else? mouse and i are going to see jonathan richman tonight. last year he played at johnny brendas, which is okay but annoying to get to, and tonight he's playing at the church. i'm pretty excited- his last show was one of the best nights in recent memory.



i've been listening to the jonathan richman solo mix i made for a friend to psych myself up- i can upload it for you guys tomorrow if you want/care.

okay, gotta go !