Cats, Cats and more Cats!!!

I am a cat lover and have been since my mom brought home the first fluffy orange and white tabby "mouser" when I was 3 years old. In fact that same cat, "Muff" aka "Muffy"was with me through most of my junior year of high school. She began as an outdoor cat with her primary mission to track down and kill the mice in our apartment. Muff moved with us to 4 other homes in the course of her life and end her days living the life of luxury in doors. I will admit that when I was growing up I wasn't always as attentive to Muff mainly because she was only in our home to eat in the morning and evenings. While Muff spent her time romping in the yard, chasing bugs, birds and other critters, I would spend my own time playing in the yard, making mud pies and catching grasshoppers. As I got older, I came to appreciate the love and affection that Muff would bestow upon me. She became my confidante, comforter and cushion. She slept on my bed and in fact we often fought over the same pillow.

When I was in junior high my aunt's cat Autumn came to live with us permanently. Autumn was 10 years younger than Muff and often was the annoying little kitten that constantly got on Muff's nerves. In the early years of Autumn living with us, her and I did not get along because of how much she tormented Muff. That changed when Muff had to be put to sleep due to kidney failure associated with old age. Suddenly I found I didn't have my confidante any longer and Autumn was completely my mom's cat.

Neither Autumn nor Muff were what you would call lap cats, in fact one had to be careful to if Autumn was on their lap as she was a skittery cat and would jump ten feet at any little sound and usually she would dig her claws into your legs prior to that jump! As Autumn got older she mellowed somewhat and eventually became my cat, especially when my mom remarried. Steve (My dad), at the time, was not too fond of cats, in fact he pretty much hated them. Autumn was no longer allowed in my mom's bedroom and found herself relegated to my room. The only problem, I was away at college and only came home on vacations.

I have had cats in my life for over 30 years. The only time I wasn't around cats was during college and the first year after I graduated college. Within 4 months of dating Matthew I was introduced to Cinnamon. Cinnamon was a feral kitten born nearby the apartment complexes that Matthew and I lived in and at the time were actually living in a mutual friend's engine. On an evening when Matthew and Gary were going to work on Gary's car, they opened the hood to the car and 4 kittens scattered. We were able to capture 2 of the kittens but the other 2 and "Mama" were too fast. Animal Control had been called to come and pick up the kittens and while I was waiting I fell in love with the one kitten. I had secretly been wanting a kitten for months but my apartment complex didn't allow us to have cats. Eventually I made a decision to keep the kitten and figured I could hide long enough until I had found a new home. Much to Matthew's chagrin, Cinnamon came home with me that night and has been a part of my/our lives ever since.

Cinnamon is truly a fun cat, however Matthew would call her neurotic. She is the typical single person cat and unlike my other experiences with the feline species, she has to be in the same room as me and constantly follows me around. Cinnamon also wasn't a lap cat in the beginning, however now that is one of her favorite spots to hang out! Matthew, much like my dad is not real enthusiastic about cats. He is truly a dog lover; thus there is a tolerance, albeit hostel, at times between him and Cinnamon. Matthew believes it stems from the fact that for each of the procedures (de-clawing and spaying) he was the one to take Cinnamon to the vet and I got to pick her up afterwards, thus she associates every bad thing that has happened to hear with Matthew. Which is possible! I believe it comes from the fact that he is a dog lover and has not patience for cats and their finicky personalities.

Why does it seem that those who protest the most about their dislike of cats, are easily swayed by the desperate meow of a homeless kitten/cat? Both my dad and Matthew have both fallen victim to that cry and have been transformed! My parents, spear-headed by my dad, eventually adopted two stray kittens who were "unofficially" living in their neighbor's garage. As for Matthew and I, we seem to be the ones who were adopted by two stray cats living in our neighborhood, who unofficially sought refuge in our garage from time to time. Now the garage is their permanent home and we feed them on a regular basis much to the despair of Cinnamon. Cinnamon has not adjusted well to the fact that there are two cats who live in our garage. There isn't any direct contact between the three cats, unless you count the window between them. For the last couple of months, Cinnamon has been obsessed with the cats in the garage, especially once they started making an appearance in our front yard at the same time Cinnamon decided to hang out in the window sill that faced the front yard!! Many nights or early mornings, Matthew and I would wake up to the mewing/howling of cats who are fighting. It took a few times to figure out that it was happening in our own front yard through the front window; thus, we have had to take measures to block the view in the window. However it doesn't stop Cinnamon's early morning vigil of hanging out in the den under the now blocked window or the 50 times she runs up and down the stairs to see if she can catch a peek at the "garage" kitties.

Matthew and I have taken to naming the garage kitties Stripes and Tiny, more as a way to distinguish them when Matthew and I shared stories about our interactions with them. Since both of these cats are strays and spend their lives outside, they are dirty!!! Thus last night I made the decision to give them a bath! Crazy, I know but in the end worth it! See our pictures below.

To Be or Not to Be...Friends!

I recently read in a friend's blog about how people are quick to point out other people's faults but overlook their own. I guess that is what got me to thinking about friendships. For the past several weeks, I have been dwelling on the roles that people play in our lives. There are people in our lives who are our role models, peers, co-workers, mentors, family members, acquaintenances and finally friends. I have specifically been evaluating the people in my life who are my friends and whether or not I am a bad friend.

Webster's defines a friend as a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard or esteem.

The interesting part of this definition is the "personal regard". Meaning to have a consideration or protective interest, thus I would interpret this comment to imply that one choses to care about the decisions their friends make during the course of their life. And with that care, may also chose to be more judgemental with said friends.


For the past couple of years, or maybe longer, I have had some of my close friendships hit the rocks. Now mind you I don't have a ton of friends, so when something goes terrible wrong with any of them, my whole world is out of whack! Some of these friendships were new and others I have had for 10 plus years.


In one case, I had apparently had too much personal regard for this friend. At the time both of us were struggling with weight and financial responsibility. We had made some tenative plans to get together for a girls' day outing and in our preparations I had mentioned we should pick an activity that wouldn't be very expensive, trying to mindful of both our financial situations. Now this friend was apparently put off by my comment and did a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde routine with me. Somewhere in my thinking I had over-stepped a line, one that I didn't know existed, in our friendship. Now, mind you, we had been confidentes for quite awhile, trying to be each other's support through Weight Watchers and in life. Unfortunately, in the end we parted ways but not before many tears were shed by me and feelings were hurt. One of the parting comments by this friend was to tell me that I was manipulative and judgemental person and that I was a bad wife and friend. (However I am convinced on this one, she went off her meds!)

Second case, I apparently have too high of expectations for friends. A girlfriend from my high school days lives in a large Metropolitian city that I recently visited to attend a women's conference and see my mom. My mom does not live in this town and I was arriving very early in the day. So for weeks in advance I had been trying to make lunch plans with this friend with the hopes she could pick me up at the airport, take me to lunch and drop me off at the hotel in which my mom and I were staying. Never got a response until the night before telling me that she couldn't do lunch and that to ask her to pick me up at the airport was not feasible. Here is the caveat to the story, this friend has traveled to my neck of the woods many times over the past 10 years for work related conferences and each time she came, I was more than happy to pick her up at the airport and spend time with her during her down time. Yet when I need the same favor she is nowhere to be found and how dare I ask it of her. Well I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt after all she and her husband were in the middle of a foster child/adoption. So this last Thanksgiving, I again had to go to her neck of the woods to follow-up on a Customer. I knew 1 month in advance that I would be traveling to her city and again wanted to make plans to visit with her and her family along with my husband. I sent emails, left phone messages at her home and place of employment. I even booked my overnight stay at the hotel in which she works. All to have her husband tell me on the night I hoped to be able to see them, that his mother was coming in and it wouldn't be feasible to see us. Why couldn't she have told me this prior to my trip. Was it so hard to pick up the phone and call me or better yet email me?


Third case, I have too much protective interest and am judgemental about the decisions made by this friend. She and I have been friends since college and I would label her as my best friend. We were in each other's weddings, she introduced me to my husband, I spent 28 hours in a hospital while she gave birth to her first baby and we have been through just about everything together. Both of us were only children raised solely by our moms and both of us are stubborn, to a fault at times. So, as you can see we had a lot in common, which is why we have been such good friends until lately. It seems that as I have grown up/matured, settled into a career and gotten married; that even though she is married with a baby she hasn't really grown up or matured. Everytime I turn around she and her husband were changing jobs/careers or moving. Each time one of these major changes happened it was always because my friend was unhappy. Well after about the 4th move and 4th job change you can imagine that both Matthew and I were concerned that it had to be something more. Why wasn't she happy? She has a wonderful husband, beautiful baby, network of supportive family and friends and loss a ton of weight through surgery. Again I was in a situation with a dear friend that I was going to play the role of judgemental bad friend.

We began to notice that it was always Matthew and I to initate contact or outings, Matthew and I had to travel to see them, Matthew and I would drop things in a heartbeat to lend them a helping hand. However none of this was ever reciprocated. We would make plans and at the last minute they would cancel on us. I began to question things about this friend and at times would even bring up the issues with her. After all, isn't this something you are suppose to be able to do with your best friend. Apparently I was wrong, I can't tell you how many times in the last couple of years I have brought up issues, we discuss them and then they are swept underneath the carpet as if nothing ever happened. You know what happens to dirt under the carpet? It has a nasty way of re-surfacing when it gets windy! So now because of my stubborness about refusing to confront the issues yet again, we have been written off by my friend. We were not told of their 5th move, didn't receive a Christmas card (the all important first family photo kind) and did not receive an invitation to their daughter's 1st birthday party, which needless to say is tomorrow. I even wrote her an email about 2 months ago in the hopes to better communicate my feelings and the issues in our friendship only to have it all thrown back in my face that I am a bad friend.

Do you sense a theme here? I do! I'm a bad friend! Yes, I am judgemental, over-bearing/over protective and dang it I have some very high expectations! I mean well and will mostlikely over-step my bounds, but that is what I believe friends are suppose to do for each other. I never said I was perfect and I certainly didn't say I wouldn't make mistakes along the way! In fact, I believe I will make many more mistakes or bad judgements before this journey we call life is over! I just hope that I have friends in my life now who care enough about me to tell me when I've screwed up and can do it in a way that tells me I'm still their friend good or bad!

Ugh! Computers!!

Some days I really hate computers!! My office computer has been on the fritz for several weeks and I finally registered a complaint with the IT dept the first week of January. When our IT rep came in to review the issues with my computer, I was told that I would have to wait in line as there were several other computers ahead of me due for major maintenance, including the President's computer. (Interesting, we just bought him a new one a couple of months ago! Hmmm...) On February 1st, I moved to a new office location and somewhere in the move and getting set-up again the computer actually crashed! (so much for being at the bottom of the list!) I once again raised the complaint with our IT dept. This time I was told I would still have to wait because our IT rep was doing a complete overview of our computer needs and the review wouldn't be completed for a couple of weeks. So basically for the last 3 weeks I have been lugging my laptop computer back and forth between home and the office. This hasn't been too much of a problem until this week. Sometime between last Friday and yesterdat, the sound went out in my computer as well as the internal wireless card. I again registered a complaint with the IT dept, luckily our rep was scheduled to be on site today. After working on the darn machine for 1 hour, he came to the same conclusion both Matthew and I had the previous night, the wireless card went bad as did the speakers and/or sound card. Thus the cost to continue to fix it would cost more that buying a new one. So as it stands now, I will be getting a new desktop that is suppose to arrive and be set-up this Friday and a new laptop has been ordered for me and should be here in a couple of weeks. Now I have to prep for a new computer, which means transfering all my files and personal programs onto an external hard drive so that I can install on the new laptop when it arrives. This takes quite a bit a time, especially when you weren't expecting to have to do it!

I have to wonder what exactly did we do before computers came into the workplace and our lives? There is not a single task that I do now with my new job that can be done without the computer. Hmmm...

Rainy Day Activities

What are your favorite rainy day activities? Besides, sleeping in, mine are reading a good book with a nice cup of tea or coffee, watching sappy old romance movies, and lazying around in my pajamas. Well, yesterday Matthew and I embarked on the ultimate rainy day activity! It did not include a day in pajamas, although I might change my mind next time! It did not include sleeping in or reading a good book. It didn't even include watching sappy old romance movies, wait does Juno count? But it did include a nice cup of coffee and tea (that was eventually spilled on my non-Louis Vitton purse) and 12 hours of movies aka "The Best In Picture Oscar Showcase". This is the second year that Matthew and I have embarked on this journey with our friends Jodie and Richard and it has become kind a bit of fun!

The local AMC theaters, (in select locations only) play the five movies nominated for the Oscar's Best Picture category. The cost is very reasonable to see five movies back to back, when the going rate for any movie is $10 and you can do this all for one low price of $30, now that's a deal! Couple that with free refills on Popcorn and Soda and you are set! I won't bore you with the movies we watched as they were not that memorable and Matthew and I are still scratching our heads on why these five were nominated, because as a whole they weren't that entertaining! I kind of liked Atonement and Juno was hilarious, but not Oscar caliber, and you can forget the others!

In preparation for this year's activity, Matthew and I decided we would sneak in our own candy, which eventually lead to our own beverages. (Jodie, next time we need a cooler!). Matthew went on Friday night to the local CVS to pick up some candy. I had requested M & M's and Twizzlers, which are my favorite movie going candy! What my husband actually brought home, caused the cashier to ask him if he was doing his Easter baskets already! That is a lot of candy folks. He had, the items I had requested, plus Whoppers, Milk Duds, Red Vines (because Twizzlers are not real licorice) and Robin's Eggs. Why do you need two types of chocolate covered malted balls? (Matthew's answer: you need the shiny hard candy shell!!)

Matthew and I left our house early as we were to meet Jodie and Richard at 10:00 a.m. We stopped for breakfast and Starbucks and made our way to the theater. Since we got there early, we decided to eat our breakfast in the car, thus we would only have to sneak in my Starbucks, as the candy was buried in my purse. We met Richard at the door and made our way to theater 21, our home away from home for the next 12 hours, which was smaller than last year's and learned that they were not offering free refills on the Soda this year (hence Matthew sneaking in beverages). We found our seats, thanks to Richard some of the best in the house, Center - Center, then he and Matthew were off and running to get lunches, more Starbucks and beverages. Then it was everyone's turn to use the restroom and get our Popcorn and 1 Soda before the shows began. No sooner had I returned to my seat than I hear this loud "Crap" from Jodie and a desperate plea for more napkins. It seems in all our bustling, she had knocked over her chai latte tea and proceeded to flood the floor beneath our seats and the row below us, including giving my purse a good splash. (Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but it sure seemed to take a ton of napkins to clean up that mess!)

All in all it was a good day with Friends, movies and sushi! I definitely believe that this will be a tradition for years to come! Here are some pictures below to commemorate the day!

Credit: Photo By Jodie Noblett

Credit: Photo provided by Jodie Noblett
Credit: Photo Provide by Jodie Noblett

Credit: Photo provided by Jodie Noblett

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As Dilbert would say...

Many of you are familiar with the comic strip "Dilbert" created by Scott Adams. Well this funny little comic has come under recent scrutiny and attack in the news because an employee posted a comic strip in his office that depicted the company's management as "drunken lemurs". End result = he was fired! How many of you can relate? I can! Not only to this comic strip but to the specific strip that was posted. (Especially lately, but we will get into that in another blog.) I love the "Dilbert" comic strip for many reasons:

• It's hilarious.
  
• It most often directly correlates to a similar problem I am having at my job.
  
• Makes fun of engineer types - whom I work with on a daily basis.
  
• And it makes the stuffy types in my office laugh.

So here is an employee who has found something to be humorous to him and he felt would be something uplifting to share with his fellow co-workers because the truth hit a little too close to home! What has happened to this country? I can see how this comic may be offensive but to take it as far as to say that an individual is a not a team player. Oh please! Heaven forbid, its a comic strip, people intended to be funny. If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at? Gone are the days when one could laugh at the stupid things about your job, company, or co-workers. Maybe that's why we have some many people jumping off bridges or shooting up their workplace. Sometimes stupid decisions are made by management and there are consequences to those stupid decisions. All I can say as a manager, is that I am glad they don't pay me to make the stupid decisions.

Kudos to Scott Adams and his ability to make us laugh at corporate America and our management who at times do act like "drunken lemurs."

Welcome Aboard!

So today I am joining the crazy world of blogging. WHY? I still don't know but thought I would give it a whirl. I find that each and every day when I come home from work, the first thing I do is check out all my friends' websites or blogs to see what's new! And before anyone criticizes me I do get home before my husband (at least most nights) which is why I am not greeting him with a kiss before I am playing on the computer!!

This is the year for firsts. I have a dear friend, aka Jodi, who has introduced me to scrapbooking. Yes I know that sounds weird! This is not your traditional scrapbooking by any means! This is way easier and so much faster! I have learned how to digital scrapbook. Yes, folks that right, digital scrapbooks are the future. In a little over a couple of hours I managed to put together a lovely scrapbook on a trip that Matthew and I took to San Francisco that was 21 pages long. Can you do that traditionally? Nope not by any means! Now I have always wanted to do traditional scrapbooking but let's be honest, who has the space, time and money to store all of those supplies? Not unless you are lucky enough to own a big enough home and can dedicate a room to that hobby! With digital scrapbooking everything I need is right on my laptop computer and I can take it anywhere with me. How cool is that?

Another first is quilting. My wonderful mother-in-law, and yes she is wonderful! Makes the most beautiful quilts, napkins, table runners, Christmas stockings, etc. that I decided I needed to learn from the master. So with her assistance, I have purchased the necessary tools: fabric, a rotary cutter (no scissors needed), a rotary board and ruler. I chose a simple table runner pattern that she had made for me a few years back and started on my journey. It is a bit time consuming with all of the cutting however I managed to start and finish my first runner in about 8 hours.

The next first is a new job position at my company. I have been working for 9 plus years at a small family owned aerospace company in Irvine. When I first started with them it was a temporary assignment while their Sales Administrator was out on medical leave. She did not come back so I was hired as the receptionist and about six weeks later, I was promoted to the Sales Administrator position. I have worked my way up in the company to be a Manager for my dept, which now has two other employees! Yippee for me! Well, my boss began working on me about a year ago to really push me in a new direction that came to fruitation at the end of December. I will be moving into an outside sales role, with a new title, new office and did I mention in a different building. My task for the first three months of this year is to completely train my team that I am leaving behind on how to do all things Sales Administration, which is way easier said than done! The transisition has been anything but smooth; however,in about 6 more weeks it won't matter because I will be on to bigger and better things (or so I am told!)

I hope that you will come to find yourself checking out my blog as often as I check out yours! In the mean time! God Speed!