Rachel @ Blog-Wise is blogging for PAWS Atlanta, and she’s posting stories about people’s pets.  I thought I’d take a break from writing about literacy related things and introduce my pets (which is also #31 in the Day of Blogs Writing Prompts)!

My kittens just turned 1 year old last week.  They’re brothers, and I adopted them from AARF.  A vet who works with AARF found them (along with their sister) in a box at her front door one day.  The vet kept the little girl and gave the boys to AARF.  They had a very hard time finding a home because they are very attached to each other and AARF really preferred that they be adopted together.

My Christmas present from my parents this year was a pair of kittens.  I looked at several shelters before I met my babies.  Once I heard how much they needed to be together, I knew that they should go home with me.  I wanted an orange kitten, so I was a little sad that they were both black and white, and with such angular (part-Siamese) faces.  However, now that I’ve had them, I know that was so silly!  They are so incredibly loving and well-behaved.  They love each other and they think the world revolves around me, LOL!

I named them Oscar and Miles after the jazz musicians Oscar Peterson and Miles Davis.  I can’t imagine having taken any other kittens!

Oscar!

Miles!

Kitten Snuggle!

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

Well, I never thought I’d say it, but there are too MANY cats now!

It all started when we got back from Florida. AJ’s supposed to be getting central heating and air in his condo, so the guy came on Monday to do a walk through, give them a quote, etc. He said they’d start work next week, AJ said OK, we go to lunch.

Then AJ gets a phone call . . . and it’s the heating and ac people. The apartment they were supposed to start work on has water damage and they can’t do anything until the water is vacuumed out. Can they start work on AJ’s condo today?

Well, we had to do something with his three adorable kitties . . . so they came over to my apartment. Yes, your math is right, for this week I have FIVE kittens! Don’t get me wrong, I love them all dearly - they’re my babies! But they hadn’t all met each other, and it has been . . . interesting.

AJ’s kittens actually seem to be adjusting quite well. They love me, and everything smells like me, so it wasn’t too scary. And my place has carpet and his doesn’t, so they are LOVING the traction they can get while running around my apartment. My kittens are another story all together. Miles is very slowly warming up to them. He walks around them, lets them sniff him, he even doesn’t hiss at them too much. He’s just kind of confused.

Oscar is mad.

I was quite surprised by this. As I’ve had them, I’ve come to realize that Miles is the dominant cat and Oscar is submissive. So if ANYTHING, I figured Oscar would be cool with things. But noooo . . . he is mad. He has been hissing at the other cats for even entering the same room as him. He bats at them, growls constantly, and is just not happy. He even growls and hisses at Miles now! And they’ve been together since birth! They are absolutely BFF, but he’s not having it now. And he’s growled and batted at me too.

He’s getting a little better. Tuesday it was intolerable - I was afraid to leave them in the same room alone. Yesterday and last night were better. Not great, but now I’m beginning to think there is hope (where before I didn’t).

So, that’s what I’ve been up to this week! Oh, and I started back to school today. Yay?

And since I’m talking about them, I have to show them to you

They are in age order: Jazz (AJ’s, almost a year), Ninja (AJ’s, almost a year), Oscar (mine, 9ish months), Miles (mine, 9ish months), and Ana (AJ’s, 5ish months)

Won’t you pray for us please? LOL, I love them all so much!

So I was reminded by Karen’s post that I haven’t updated my 101 in 1001 in a while. Honestly, it’s because working 2 jobs and being in grad school is VERY time consuming, so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on it. I’m also a little sad, because there are several things on my list that I don’t think I’ll be able to do by September. I console myself with the fact that I made this in college with no idea of where I would be in two years, so I had no way of knowing that I would only see my parents for a weekend here or there every four months or so (so how can I possibly #8 “go to concerts with Daddy?”) or that once I left Wake I would lose a lot of my ties to the school (I need the library to #25 “make the Parables DVDs,” but I have to have a current student with me to do that, and most of the people I know have graduated).

All things to keep in mind when I make my new 101 in September (yes, even if I don’t finish this one, I still intend to make a new one, and you may see me revamp some of the current items for the next time). Just because I don’t get finished by the deadline doesn’t mean that a lot of these things aren’t still important to me. And honestly, many of these goals were stretch goals to begin with (see me rationalizing?).

Anyways, back the (very) few that I have completed now!

#34 (Get a pet)- I have two of the most adorable little kittens ever sitting on my bed snuggling with each other. This one is done

(Photo take 5 minutes ago.)

#62 (Switch all lightbulbs to CFLs)- I actually did this when I moved into my new apartment in July
#66 (No more plastic grocery bags - only canvas) - I started doing this last year and actually made a habit of it around New Year’s. Every once and a while I forget to bring my bags in, but not usually.
#91 (Organize recipes) - My recipes are very much more organized now, though I can tell this will be an ongoing effort for me . . .
#95 (Attend 5 year high school reunion) - I wanted to go to my 5 year high school reunion, but I couldn’t go back to FL because of school and work. This made me sad, cause I haven’t even spoken with a lot of my high school friends in YEARS. So . . . I guess I’ll try for the 10 year?

So now I’m more than halfway finished - woo hoo!!! I’ll be honest, I’ve done a lot more than I thought I would! Here’s hoping that I can achieve the rest!

To appease the masses, I bring to you . . . an update.

Yes, I have been a very sucky blogger the past few months. Grad school + job = NO FREE TIME. Pity me, please?

OK, so last I spoke was when Nana passed away. I was in Georgia for about a week helping with funeral arrangements and the like, then I came back to North Carolina.

My kittens did great while I was gone (AJ watched them for me), and they also gained names! I named the one with more white on his face Oscar (for Oscar Peterson) and the other one is Miles (for Miles Davis). There will be more pictures to come, though they haven’t grown AT ALL since I got them (which, I shouldn’t say that too loud - they are precious and adorable, I like their size now, LOL). They love to cuddle with me and they are SO GOOD together - I can’t imagine ever seperating them. I feel bad because I am gone so much of the day, so I don’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as I want to, but since they have each other, I know that they’re doing just fine. They just really like to cuddle when I come home!

The next week was utter chaos because it was holiday at Starbucks, so crazy busy, and I also had one week to get ready for Christmas. AJ and I had a lovely Christmas on the 21st, and on the 22nd I had Christmas with his family. On the 23rd I drove to GA, had Christmas with MY family, and then drove back on the 26th.

On the . . . 29th? . . . I woke up at about 3:30AM with really intense pain in my lower right abdomen. I could barely stand up, and it made me throw up it hurt so bad. I was able to get to the computer, saw that the right side is the appendix side, and decided I didn’t want to risk it. I called AJ and woke him up and he got me to the ER. It turns out that I had a ruptured ovarian cyst, so the next week I was off my feet a bit and then taking it pretty easy. I feel much better now, but man that hurt!!!

Classes started back on January 4th, and it has been NONSTOP since then. At the moment my rotation is in the development office, and it’s very time intensive. My schedule most days is something like this:

Rotation: 8AM-9:30AM
Class: 10AM-2PM
Rotation: 2PM-4:30PM
Work: 5:45PM-11:45PM

Note that I get about 8 hours off . . . and those are the sleeping hours . . . try fitting homework and sanity time in there. I’m exhausted. Luckily, there are only about 4 more weeks of this rotation and then I switch to something a little more laid back, so if I can just hang in there.

I’m getting really tired of school. As I go through all my classes, I realize that I’m not really learning a ton. I don’t say this to be cocky, I just got a really great undergrad education, and my instincts are usually pretty good. If it weren’t for the darned three letters that I need to get a job (MFA), I probably would be just fine to have skipped all this. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’ve only got about a year and a half before my internship, and while that’s technically still school, it’s really a job too, and it will be in an office somewhere (or something . . .)

I have missed being able to be online. I feel like I’m losing a little bit of myself because of all the craziness. Summer will be a welcome time. How is everyone else doing (is anyone even reading my blog anymore)?