Cat | Suspension of Disbelief

Mar

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)

Jazz

Ninja

Oscar

Miles

Ana

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

Posted at 2:14 pm in: General, My Life, Pets
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12/1/2007 -- My Christmas Present from Mama and Daddy!
12/1/2007 -- Storage Solutions
7/28/2007 -- Take Two

Mar

Work Thoughts

I’ve been doing a bit of research into being a virtual assistant. According to Wikipedia:

A Virtual Assistant (or simply VA), is an independent contractor providing administrative, technical, or sometimes creative assistance to clients–usually to other independent entrepreneurs and solo and small business practices, such as that of a lawyer or realtor. Virtual assistants work from their own office (hence “virtual”), thus making it a fairly popular (and growing) profession. It is estimated that there are about 5,000-8,000 virtual assistants worldwide. Common modes of communication and data delivery include the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and fax machine. Although the occupation gives a degree of independence, work is on a contractual basis, and a long-lasting cooperation is standard. Typically 5 years of administrative experience in an office is expected at such positions as executive assistant, secretary, legal assistant, paralegal, legal secretary, real estate assistant, office manager, etc.

This is basically the work that I do at E. Webscapes. Even though I’m technically the Assistant Project Manager, when Lisa first started looking for someone she referred to them as a virtual assistant. In all honesty, I’d never even heard of a virtual assistant until I read Lisa’s post. I thought that it seemed like something I’d be good at and a great way to earn a little extra money.

However, I have LOVED working at E. Webscapes, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe I should look at this whole virtual assistant thing a little more seriously. There’s an intensive training course offered by AssistU - basically it’s a semester long certification. If I were to do this seriously, I would apply to AssistU. But I still don’t know if that’s what I want to do. Don’t really have any resolution on this, it’s just been on my mind, so I thought I’d post it. Thoughts?

Posted at 6:04 pm in: General, My Life
Related Posts:

8/10/2006 -- Thursday Thirteen #23
9/14/2006 -- Thursday Thirteen #27
9/5/2007 -- Works for Me: Brand Loyal Edition

Jan

Holidays, Hospitals, and Higher Learning

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)?

Posted at 3:06 pm in: General, Holidays, My Life, Pets
Related Posts:

7/19/2006 -- About Me
7/28/2007 -- Take Two
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Dec

After the first night . . .

Well, I got my kittens last night! So far, it’s been interesting.

The first thing was that when AJ and I went to the shelter to pick them up, AJ’s little kitten was there too, and they were wanting her to go home last night. This was news to us, but AJ went ahead and filled out all the paperwork and so three went back to my apartment. Ana spent the night with me and the boys since AJ wasn’t prepared to have her yet and needs to do some kitten proofing.

Ana and my boys don’t NOT get along, but even this morning they were still growling and hissing some, so that was a challenge all last night - keeping them all happy and unscared when they were freaking each other out.

The other mishap - around 5AM this morning, one of the boys got up next to me on the bed . . . and then peed. It was so gross. I mean, I was expecting it to happen at some point, but this was the first night, and it was 5AM . . .

So, I immediately stripped the bed and started washing things, and slept on the sofa. I’m kind of tired, and I was running late this morning since I didn’t have my alarm clock in the room with me . . . oh well.

I still don’t have names for them, but we’re trying to figure something out. And they are at home right now (I’m at the box office), and I am sooo hoping they haven’t torn things apart!

Pictures forthcoming!

(Anyone have tips about the peeing?)