The world is just awesome – well, most of it.

It’s easy to be cynical and grouchy (I oughta know, I play that game), but it’s also no great feat to find people doing really cool, generous things. Today I found out about Secret Agent L, a fellow Pittsburgher who has taken it upon herself to do random acts of kindness for people in the city. It might be some money tucked into a bar menu for the next patron to find or a goodie bag left at a bus stop – just little things, “day brighteners,” without any kind of hitch or ulterior motive.

First of all, I love it. And even better, she’s inspired other people to reach out in similar ways. Of course I wish I’d thought of it, but still…makes me very proud to live in this city.

It sounds like such a simple, silly thing to do, but it’s just those simple, silly, completely unexpected things that can make someone’s day and that’s a very positive force. I remember one day I was walking up Centre Ave and I happened to turn my head to look in a store window and I saw a little sticker on the window that said, “you are so beautiful.” Now obviously whoever left it didn’t leave it for me personally, doesn’t know anything about me, wasn’t speaking directly to me, but seeing it there lifted my spirits. I’m sure I smiled and said hello to a lot of random strangers  that day, and maybe that had an uplifting effect on their moods, too.

We all have to start somewhere.

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In other news: I have a job! Yes, I am finally formally employed once again – go me. I’m now an assistant/jack of all trades/extra set of hands/etc at Vanilla Pastry Studio, aka the awesomeist bakery in the city. And it’s not all eating frosting and gazing at cupcakes, either (which disappointed me at first, I’ll admit) – this is serious business and they keep me seriously busy. You would be shocked by the number of cupcakes I haven’t eaten. But I have the opportunity to get my hands in pretty much every aspect of the shop, so it’s been a great experience so far.

Plus the owner actually pays a living wage which is, you know, very sweet. (See what I did there! Ha!)

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News from the home front is not good. The always lovable and amazing Beagle that’s been a member of our family for twelve years (wait…twelve? or thirteen?), the irreplaceable Little Pocket Rocket aka Rocky aka Bucket aka Fat Hound Dog is in a bad way. My parents are doing their best to keep him comfortable, but that’s all that can be done at this point.

Seb is the dog that’s in the forefront of my life right now, but Rocky has always been my # 1. He’s absolutely the best dog in the world and I can’t even imagine a world without him in it. I’m going back east soon to say goodbye and kiss his sweet white face and cry buckets.

Rocketman on his birthday, 4-1-2010.

…The whole thing seems so surreal.

Josie – UGH.

I'm voting her OFF THE ISLAND.

Bitch. Please.

Kinda like furry contraceptives…

If my life was a sitcom episode, this weekend is this one where Daddy’s out of town and Mommy’s stuck at home trying not to strangle the children.

Seriously, if this is what having kids is like, I want no part. I imagine it is and so: NO PART.

Joe took off to have an awesome fun time weekend with all kinds of interesting people and I’m in Pittsburgh with the animals feeling not at all bitter about our situations. Someday soon there will be a blog post in which Joe whines about being forced to be the babysitter while I go off and have awesome fun time adventures! Just you wait!!!!!

Seb is feeling very insecure with Joe gone, so he sticks to me like a smell to a fart (or something). Josie’s…Josie. She’s always this way. It’s just normally she bounds from room to room and then goes to bother Joe, instead of me. I love her, but jeez…what a psycho.

Joe comes home on Sunday. It’s just me and Doctor Quinn and these two nut jobs till then.

I'll be right here, just in case you want me. For anything. And I mean that, absolutely anything at all. I'll be right here. Oh - did you move? No? I thought you did. That's OK. I'm right here. I'm just gonna stay right here.

I'm taking a VERY SHORT break from running around the house like a maniac to sit in the corner and express my EXTREME DISPLEASURE that you are here and Joe is not. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. YOU MADE DADDY LEAVE. I HATE YOU!

In which I take to bed for days.

Thursday I left work early because I wasn’t feeling so hot. Luckily I came home to two considerate critters who just wanted to make sure I was comfortable and taken care of. (Joe wasn’t home, but when he did get home he had THREE LITERS of soup. Caretaker of the year, right there.) I didn’t do much of anything all weekend, except sleep and lay in the SickSac and watch movies. I didn’t have the energy for more than that. (That’s not true, I guess…I did put in a few hours on my thesis.)

La da da de daaaa...

Oh. Human. You're home. What gives?

DO YOU FEEL BETTER NOW?

Shove off, pooch. Hey, Human, how about a nice deep-organ massage?

What an ungrateful so-and-so...

DO YOU FEEL BETTER NOW?

I've chosen Joe as my human. Being sick makes you a lazy slave.

...do you feel better now?

Actually...we both choose Joe.

Whatever. You all bore me.

 

And thus I was magically healed by love and pet dander.

The End.

…sigh.

I am drunk on this fragrance.

(miss you.)

Progress! And sad kitties…

Saturday was a long and exhausting day. I volunteer at my school’s organic garden on (some) Saturday mornings and this week had agreed to drive the van up there, so despite being hungover and tired couldn’t just stay in bed like I wanted to. It was a gorgeous day for gardening and I brought home a bounty of veggies, including zucchinis, beans, a pepper, squashes, basil, thyme, broccoli and rhubarb. I also had two beets but I knew I was never going to eat them, so I gave them to someone else.

When we got back to the city, I figured I would head over to the new place and do some work ripping up carpets. The carpets were a nasty shade of orange-brown in the living room and office and a very dirty off-white in the bedroom. And they were hiding beautiful hardwood floors, so I knew as soon as I looked at the apartment that they would all be coming out.

Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera, so the only “before” shots I have were taken with my phone’s dinky camera:

the living room – blech

the office – blech blech!

the bedroom – blech blech blech!

Pretty gross, right? It all came up surprisingly easy. There were a few spots where the carpet went under a door jamb, so that will have to be torn up more carefully, but for the most part all I had to do was tug and it popped right up. It took me an hour to get all of the carpets pulled up in all three rooms. Not bad!! I spent another hour rolling up the carpet and picking up what I could of the padding underneath. The rest will have to be swept up or scrubbed loose, but it’s a start.

I had three “after” images, but apparently two of them got swallowed between my phone and the online album.

the living room – dirty and dusty, but a floor emerges!

I’ll still have to go back and pull out the tack strips and clean and polish the floors. Another couple hours, I think, and the whole project will be done. Then I can start moving! Very exciting!

Afterwards, I went out to grab some lunch/dinner with a friend who lives nearby and then I fell into bed and didn’t move until 7am Sunday morning. I watched a few episodes of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, moved some things around, and then went next door to work on Thesis for a few hours.

When I came back, my (now former) roommate had stopped by the collect Cosby, leaving Josie all alone in the house. I think that was the first time she’d been totally alone since she came to live with us last April. She was absolutely crazed.

I’m not sure if it was an insecurity thing (“oh my god the house is empty! They took Cosby away! I’m next! What’s happening to my life?!?!?!?!”) or a joyful celebration thing (“finally! Alone with my human! All of the attention is mine! ME ME ME ME ME!”), but she followed me everywhere all night long. If I stopped, she stopped. If I went into the kitchen to make dinner, she sat in the kitchen watching me. If I sat down to watch some True Blood, she sat on my lap.

Poor little Josie. Her whole world is upside-down! I’ve heard reports that Cosby is the same way – he cried all night, apparently. At least Josie let me get some sleep.

On the plus side, though, I don’t think we’ve ever snuggled as much as we have in the past twenty four hours.

If I explore this side of the room, you won’t disappear, right?

Such sweet sorrow…

Yesterday one of my roommates moved out. There’s still traces of his stuff around the house, but for the most part he (and his Puggle) are gone. We’ve been friends for ages, so I know I’ll still see him, but it’s sad just the same. It took me a long, long time to warm up to his puppy and I even miss the little pooper.

Also yesterday…I signed a lease! And got keys to the new place!!!!!!!!

Afterwards I went to say hello to the new apartment. It needs some serious work, but I’m excited to get started. I think this weekend I’ll put in some time ripping up carpets and spiffing up the wood floors underneath. I’ll take pictures. Exciting stuff.

This morning, my other roommate’s cat woke me up bright and early. Cosby is funny in the mornings, very loud and obnoxious until I get up and put food in his bowl. Today I just wasn’t having it. He started in on me before 6am (how uncivilized!), crying and whining, crawling all over me, rubbing on my face. Now I have a funny knot in my back that I’m sure is a result of twisting and squirming and trying to get away from him.

When I did finally get up, I was pleased to see Miss Josie was not taking part in Cos’s antics, though clearly she was not pleased to see me. She was stretched out on the floor, looking stern and disappointed, weak with hunger I’m sure. Poor darling.

I wonder – when we live alone, will Josie take over Cosby’s role?

One unhappy cat…

Poor Josie had to get dunked last night. She slipped out the back door when my roommate took the puppy out to do his business and wandered around for a few hours. Josie’s a former stray and loves to be outside, but I try to keep her in due to the massive amounts of poison ivy in our backyard (and because it looks like a jungle out of Jurassic Park the backyard is where all the kitties want to play) and my severe allergy to it. This is second time recently that she’s sprinted for the door. (Darling, I get it: you want to be an inside-outside cat. Just cool your jets for a couple more weeks!)

So she got a bath the second she allowed me to catch her. Poor little girl. She screamed like I was killing her (possibly the most upsetting sound in the world) but only clawed me a couple times. I know it sucks to be forcibly bathed but I just can’t have her spreading poisons all over my house.

She was pretty pissed off (understandably). But this morning she came right up to me and let me pet her and purred like usually, so I guess she’s decided to let me live.

I’m hoping in the new place I’ll be able to let her outside like a real cat. We’ll be living on the second floor but maybe we can make it work. She was content for a long time to just sit in the window and watch, but I think she’s telling me loud and clear now that she’s unsatisfied.

Josie says “jump,” I say, “yes ma’am!”