Posts tagged with "Dolly"

The Shedding Ritual

Over the sum­mer, I’ve fall­en into the habit of wak­ing up (at a rather lux­u­ri­ous time). The first thing I do, whether I’m employed or job­less, whether I’m at school or on break, is go to my com­put­er, turn some music on, and check my e‑mail. As a result of my late ris­ings I’ve got­ten into the habit of brush Dolly in the morn­ings. Ever since the weath­er began to warm up she’s been shed­ding fur at a faster rate than she grows it. She wakes up with me in the morn­ings and jumps in front of my mon­i­tor. I’ll get a quick nuz­zle and sor­ry stare if I’m try­ing to read an impor­tant e‑mail. She’s unable to sit still as I brush her, and ends up pac­ing on my desk between stretch­es. I’m afraid that I’ll have to dis­con­tin­ue our morn­ing rit­u­al when I find a job, since I usu­al­ly wake up with just enough time to get to school or work, and the shed­ding sea­son brush­ing process usu­al­ly ends up tak­ing upwards of ten min­utes. Perhaps extend­ed unem­ploy­ment isn’t so bad after all.

Talking To Cats

I had the plea­sure of tak­ing care of Nala while Trolley and Wheaties were home for the long week­end. She greet­ed me with loud protes­ta­tions, angry that her care­tak­er had left her alone in the house for two days so far. Alas, it was only me who had arrived, a stranger she had­n’t got­ten com­fort­able with yet. She fol­lowed me around at first, and watched as I filled up her food and water dish­es. After a while she real­ized that I was the only one com­ing. “Where is my slave?”, she demand­ed, and ran off to sleep under the kitchen table.

I tried to talk to her, to let her know that her com­pa­ny would be back in two more days. I asked if she was alright, if she was bored or sleepy or ener­getic.

It felt…a lit­tle odd…to be so ver­bose with a cat. I con­sid­er myself to be a sane per­son. At the same time, I real­ize that cats can­not answer back. A strange lit­tle para­dox.

I find myself in the same sit­u­a­tion around chil­dren. When a kid asks me a ques­tion to which the answer is beyond his com­pre­hen­sion, I don’t know what to say. I become rather embar­rassed that I’ve been placed in such a sit­u­a­tion. Do I tell this child the truth, or do I give a sac­cha­rine answer? Do I attempt to shed some con­scious­ness on a child’s life, or do I let him/her remain in a bliss­ful child­hood igno­rance?

Any deci­sion can be thought of in a bad way. I nev­er know what to say, so I gen­er­al­ly don’t answer back.

I still talk to Dolores though.

For there can be no judge­ment there.

Essays, Rock Climbing, Etc.

I was­n’t going to write today, but the gen­tle light from the set­ting sun, along with the mild, wind­less chill, has affect­ed me in such a man­ner that I wish only to speak of the bound­less beau­ty that the weath­er can pro­vide. I’m remind­ed of the spring walks home from Ashley’s house, feel­ing the cool air through my hair with the pale orange sky above my head. Pure con­tent­ment.

Progress on my essays has not been going well. I have spent the last half week on geol­o­gy, and still have less than two pages done. I wish the ter­mi­nol­o­gy was­n’t so mar­ket based. Fuck.

I was able to go rock climb­ing for a sec­ond time with Trolley, Cristina, Aaron, Wheaties, Nick, Greg, Amanda, and Simon. It was great to have so many peo­ple go at once, so that we could just won­der around and see how oth­er peo­ple were doing. I was able to scale three more walls that I was­n’t able to last time, which were all 5.6’s. The tips of my fin­gers were raw at the end from belay­ing so much. My fore­arm strength is cur­rent­ly the first thing to give, so I was­n’t very sore the next day. We head­ed out to Perkins after and pigged out on good food. What a great fuck­ing time.

I was able to ask Simon about his tongue stud, and he told me that out of all the pierc­ings he’s had (ears and eye­brow), the tongue was the least painful by far, due to the fact that the nerve end­ings are all on the sur­face of the tongue. Once the spike goes through the tongue, noth­ing is felt after­wards. New infor­ma­tion that I’ll have to con­sid­er.

Tuesday. Brideshead Revisited. Jeremy Irons is one sexy, sexy man.

Dolores has been extra cud­dly these last few days, and I’ve been wok­en up by her turn­ing a few times, before nestling on my legs or stom­ach. I feel bad that I feel so con­strict­ed every time she set­tles down, caus­ing me to toss and turn. It’s as if itch­es only come once a cat has found a pil­low in your lap.