Proof of Procrastination: Decorating Diaries

If I needed any proof other than my incomplete bathroom to document how repairs are dragging out, now I have it. My cat Olivia is terrified of strangers.  Not only will she not come near them, she will literally not come out when people are in the house.  Close friends of mine who visit often have never seen her.  She will go without eating before she will show her face when a stranger is around. When my mom visited for a week, she would only come out a night, after we all went to bed.

Which is why I almost fell off my chair when she came strolling into the breakfast nook this evening to eat her dinner while the tile guy was still in the house.  And not only was he in the house, he was being kind of loud.  There was a saw set up outside the front door, the front door banged as he came in, and noise issued from the bathroom as he maneuvered tile around in there.  

She looked at me like, "Hey. Wass up?" and ate some food and gave herself a little bath before wandering into the next room.

WHA--????  Okay, if my CAT is used to your presence as a common occurrence, you have been in  my house waaaaay too long.  Get out.

Speaking of which, my split personality showed up again this morning.  I placed a phone call at 10:30 am to announce that it was, indeed, 10:30 AM on a Monday and why was there no one in my home working on my bathroom? My voice mail said exactly that, along with the oft-repeated announcement that I wanted this job DONE. I asked her to call me and haven't received a return phone call, although the tile guy did show up about 10 minutes after I left the message.  (Luck). And he did stay until 6pm tonight.  I don't know if that's out of the goodness of his heart or guilt at being late or my contractor called him and said, "You need to stay."  And frankly, I don't care. 

I want the job DONE.  And get out. You're freakin' my cat out. 

It Warms A Mothers Heart

I arrived home today after a long day (16 hours) and an even longer rainy drive home. (Tip to NC drivers: When a car approaches and you see their headlights in the distance, that's the time to dim your brights. Not when you're almost right on top of me).  As I hung my coat up in the front room, I noticed Lucy in her new favorite resting spot--on top of our new bedroom comforter. The comforter is folded over and laying on the front guestbed, away from the dust of the renovations.  We just discovered last night that this is Lucy's new hangout spot.  Actually, Blair discovered it.  He saw her on the comforter and said, "Hey, you're not supposed to be on there" in the cooing voice pet owners use when we're pretending to be upset but we're really not. But then he gasped and I heard "Oh my God.  Look at all this hair."  Apparently Ms. Lucy has been making herself at home there, unnoticed, for some time now.

Anyway, I get home and decide I need some kitty therapy so I walk over to pet Lucy. It takes a few strokes before I glance behind us and notice Olivia, curled up in a little ball beside the comforter, keeping an eye on Lucy.

 SO SWEEEET.  My babies!  You have to understand. I don't have cats that hang out together.  I think Olivia would like to, but Lucy barely deems to tolerate her. So it was so touching that both of them were curled up on this bed, just like buddies.  It improved my mood instantly. I cooed and fussed and gave Lucy kisses. "Your little sister loves you," I told her. "Doesn't that make you feel good?"

She said nothing in reply, but I think she understood me.

As for me, it's almost 11:30 PM but I think I'm up for awhile.  I'm extremely tired but also wired just from being on the go for so long today.  I'd love to run a hot bath but it would wake Blair up. Given the amount of construction dust that has drifted into our bedroom from the bath (the cats are writing "WASH ME" in the dust on the floor with their paws), we have moved to the upstairs bedroom until renovations are complete.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go check and see if the Tile Guy was here today.  Then I think hot tea and a book and maybe--finally--sleep. 

Rejected Cat Toys

Came home from a writing session today with my friend Bernie to find that the cats (or "cat"--I'm pretty sure I know who the culprit is) had decided to drown one of their new Christmas toys in their water dish.

The toy is a cloth covered triangle with tufts of ribbons shooting out from each corner of the triangle.  I'm not really sure what it's purpose it... I vaguely recall the plastic it came in saying something about being a tug of war piece.  Well, the battle is over.  The toy was soggy and floating face down when I spied it.  Lucy sat innocently nearby.

"Why did you do this?" I asked.  "If you don't like a gift, you politely break it on accident like Mommy and Daddy do with the stuff Daddy's relatives give us.  You do NOT put it in your water dish to rot."

Lucy did receive one holiday gift she's pleased with.  It's a colorful stuffed square of material that feels like a bean bag when you pick it up.  You warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds and it's a warm mat for kitty to curl up on.  Not that Lucy would know this.  She hasn't moved her ample tushie off the mat since we opened it.  Every time we move near the mat, she leaps on it to cover it up.

The floor guy (yes--progress is being made on the bathroom!) was here the other day and as he walked into the room instead of running as usual, Lucy curled tighter on her mat and glared at both of us. 

"Oh for Pete's sake, no one's going to steal your mat," I told her. She gave me the evil eye and a follow-up look that said, "Move along."

Life with cats is never dull.

Local Humane Society

I did get a call back from my local Humane Society, responding to my request to volunteer some time.  I'll be attending their monthly meeting next Monday at the Eden library and find out what I can do to help.

I live in a rural, economically depressed county in North Carolina.  Many of the people here earned good money doing factory work.  Notice the past tense.   A lot of the plants have closed down or drastically reduced their work force and people are hurting.  Add in to that our county doesn't have a bus line and transportation is a huge issue.  It's at least a 30 minute drive to the bigger cities and with no car or no gas money for a car, finding work out of town is not an option.

But the people in this area are fantastic.  They give when they have nothing.  That neighbor-helping-neighbor thing really happens around here.  People know and greet you by name.  When friends come to visit and we maybe run some errands, such as dropping off clothes at the dry cleaners, they stare as I just hand my clothes over and drive away.  "Don't you need a ticket?" they ask.  "Don't you need to give your name?"  No, they know me.

When we first moved here, there was a historic home that had been converted into a gift shop.  We had browsed the store one day before X-mas, and wanted to come back and buy a few items but the shop would close before we could get there from work. So the owner left the items we wanted out on the back porch and told us to just leave the money in an envelope when we came back.  How often do you find that??

Getting back to the Humane Society, my point with all of this is that even though our county doesn't have much money, the spirit here is strong and I think great things can be done. People are always willing to help if you provide them with some passion and direction. Right now, abandoned animals taken in off the street are held an average of 3 days before they're put to sleep.  That's unconscionable.  We need a shelter where animals can be taken to and adopted from.

There was an article in today's paper that our county is trying to raise money for a homeless shelter.  Would it be farfetched to suggest the two groups -- the Humane Society and the Feed the Homeless society--combine forces for one large building vs. trying to run 2 separate campaigns to raise money for land, supplies, and labor?  The services could be run independently, but it seems to make more sense to work together and pool funds for one large building than to compete with one another.  And who knows what sort of cooperative agreements could be worked out with funding, volunteers, etc?

What do you think?  Am I missing something major for why that wouldn't work?  Or is it an idea with potential?