Alive and well... I swear

First off, a HUGE thanks to all my friends, Twitter people, The Tens, and FB people who sent me notes and condolences about my cat. It was truly touching and made me cry on more than one occasion. It is greatly appreciated on all counts.

I promise I'll post soon with new food, music, knitting, stories, and the like. I've been a little busy with work and life with now. Then I'll be back to my blogging-ness.

Midnight

I tried writing this post all day, but it was too hard.

For the first time since starting this blog, a post with the tag "Appreciations" hits very close to home. On Monday, my cat Midnight was put down. She had been in failing health for a little over a month, and she just wasn't the cat we all knew and loved. We knew it wasn't fair to us or fair to her. She was just shy of 18.

When I say I'm heartbroken, it's not hyperbole. My heart breaks that my cat is gone.

Last week when rat drama forced me to move back home for a few days, I got to spend some quality time with my cat. I also knew that this was probably going to be the last time I'd see her, so I made sure I said goodbye. And it was.

Monday after I found out the sad news, I went back to bed for awhile to cry (read: sob uncontrollably for a little over an hour) and Ricky rubbed my back and listened to me ramble and cry some more. During this, I came up with a list of my favorite Midnight memories:



--When we first brought her home, her name was Honey. We renamed her Midnight because... well, because she was black.
--Midnight used to like to sleep on my pillow by my head. She'd do this until I got the loft bed at age 22.
--When my mom married Leo and we moved to the house they live in now, Midnight came out of her shell a bit and became a little general and ran the place, keeping Millie in line in particular.
--Midnight was insanely jealous of Millie, speaking of. Any time someone was paying attention to Millie, she'd yell at them until they'd pay attention to her.
--Leo trained Midnight to eat from the counter. She loved yogurt. She also demanded she sit next to him at most meals.
--When I had leftover yarn, we'd make a wand with some yarn at the end and she'd chase it around and try to attack it.
--She killed at least one mouse in the house. Said mouse was left half chewed up in the bedroom. I found it.
--One time when Erin came to visit, Midnight confused her for me, and went over for love. When she realized it wasn't me, she flipped out and ran away. (her former shyness shining through)
--She'd keep Leo company at work and lie down on his desk in front of his keyboard or on his lap. He was so bemused by her I'm amazed he got anything done.

That's all I have for now, but there are 18 years worth. My mom used to call Midnight Mr. Jingles, because she still had all of her teeth and was healthy as a horse at an old age. And now, looking back, this is bittersweet. Then again, even Mr. Jingles passes after a long, full life.

The epic rat drama, a play in 4 acts

"'Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,' said the Rat. 'And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all.'"

FB and Twitter friends have been following all week the story of me and the rodents who have made their way into my apartment. To be honest, I don't really like most rodents and this has been freaking me out all week. So I decided to blog about it. So here it is, my Rat Drama:

Prologue: Sunday Afternoon
I bought Q Tips from Target. This doesn't seem important, but they will play into the story in a day or two.

Act I: Monday Monday
In the morning I went to get a Q Tip from the closet, when I noticed that the new box of Q Tips was now empty and all over the floor of my bathroom closet. Both sides of the box were open and exposed, but as this was above a sandwich press I had used the night before, I thought maybe it was melted. Even still, I threw away the box and all the Q Tips I could reach and then went to work.

When I got home that night, I noticed what I thought was mouse poop behind the trash. I got a little nervous and emailed the landlord that I thought I had a mouse in the place. She said she had never heard of a mouse in that apartment, but to keep my eyes peeled for it.

Act II: Tuesday, aka the day shit goes down
I got home from work on Tuesday and saw that there was more poop behind the trash, as well as nibbles on an unopened tube of oatmeal. I also kept hearing rattling where my pots and pans are. I called Erin to fret about this when all of a sudden... the mouse in question ran out from my silverware drawer and ran behind the oven. I screamed. He then ran behind the couch and into the bathroom. Erin headed down to Salem.

Erin and I then investigated the apartment and cleaned it. We found a lot of mouse poop everywhere in the cabinet, as well as grapes. This was a little surprising, as I had thrown grapes out the night before, but tied them up in a bag. We then discovered the mouse had burrowed a hole into the cabinets and was snacking on my trash. We also discovered that he was stealing Q Tips, tampons, and cotton balls from my bathroom closet and forming them into a nest on a towel. Erin and I filled all holes we could find with steel wool, set some humane mouse traps, and cleaned up the mess and bleached everything. I went to sleep, but very unsettled.

Act III: Wednesday, things go from bad to worse
I woke up Wednesday morning to find in my bathroom the mouse bore a giant hole into the closet through the molding around the door. I took a few photos and panicked and sent them to my landlord. The landlord finally conceded that I had a bit of a problem on my hands and called an exterminator. Ricky then offered to spend the night until I was okay, because I was panicking so much.

Wednesday night we filled the hole in the bathroom with steel wool. When doing this, Ricky noticed that there was a mouse-sized space between the shower wall and the closet, where the mouse was probably hanging out. That night, at about 4am, we were woken up by the sound of the mouse crawling around and scratching in the wall by our heads. I started to cry and Ricky checked on the bathroom to see that the mouse had pushed the steel wool out of the hole. Ricky then stuffed more in there and we went to bed, unsettled and nervous.

Act IV, Thursday is when the shit hits the fan:
The exterminator met us Thursday morning and was weird and a little creepy. He then sealed all the holes with copper wire and foam and set traps in the kitchen, under the stove, and in the basement. Then he got to the bathroom and saw the hole in the wall and the mouse poop on the floor. This is how the conversation went:

Exterminator: Do you have pets?
Me: No... why?
Exterminator: That's not mouse poop.
Me: Oh God, what is it then?
Exterminator: I don't want to alarm you, but you have a rat in your house.
Me: EEEK!!!

The exterminator then set rat traps in the bathroom and kitchen as well as in the basement. He told me to be extra vigilant and check to see if I see anything out of the ordinary or more signs of the rat. I then tried not to cry.


So yeah, that's where we are. Ricky and I will be on the hunt for the rat, and hoping he's not going to do any more damage or die in my apartment.

I don't even know what I was running for - I guess I just felt like it.

Image from Time Magazine...

I read online today that JD Salinger - author of the novel Catcher in the Rye - died at age 91. This isn't surprising, but more sad and a moment to reflect on his influence on literature and society. I quote this from the Washington Post:

Salinger was writing for adults, but teenagers from all over identified with the novel's themes of alienation, innocence and fantasy, not to mention the luck of having the last word. "Catcher" presents the world as an ever-so-unfair struggle between the goodness of young people and the corruption of elders, a message that only intensified with the oncoming generation gap.

Novels from Evan Hunter's "The Blackboard Jungle" to Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep," movies from "Rebel Without a Cause" to "The Breakfast Club," and countless rock 'n' roll songs echoed Salinger's message of kids under siege. One of the great anti-heroes of the 1960s, Benjamin Braddock of "The Graduate," was but a blander version of Salinger's narrator.


I didn't read Catcher until I was in my early 20's, so perhaps it was a bit too late for me, but I did appreciate his themes of alienation and innocence. My youngest brother Sam read my copy, and it definitely resonated far more with him.

I feel like his legacy will be just as much tied to Catcher in the Rye and even Franny and Zooey as it will be with his rejection and seclusion from society. The society that Holden Caufield grapples with Salinger eventually rejects outright, fighting every attempt to be out of the limelight.

It's been real, JD Salinger. Enjoyed your book, as did countless others.

Where have I been?

I spent more time at this bench in Forrest River Park than I did being a blogger... my b.

Yes yes, I thought I was starting the year so strong by posting a lot and outlining goals and blah blah blah... then last week was crazy at work, and I disappeared. My bad.
I'll update you on some things in the last week:

--I played bocce in Forrest River park, which was awesome. Reminds me a bit of golf since we went through a course. A great workout.
--Began sewing project #2.
--Finished lace scarf #1, started lace scarf #2.
--Finishing tan sweater (yeah... THAT tan sweater)
--Bowled and it went really well.
--Danced up a storm at my old company's work party.
--PLAYED BEATLES ROCK BAND (thoughts in a later post).
--Had long but good discussions with my boyfriend about us and life.

Oh, and I found an amazing coffee shop near my work.

So... yeah! I've been busy...

One slight note of left-leaning bitterness

I saw this tweet this morning... and I am convinced that people like this are the reason Scott Brown won:

Really - how can you not like Scott Brown as a candidate? He has a really cute dog named Snuggles! :)

To end on a good note

I've heard from many reliable sources that 2010 is not the best year ever. A morning radio show I enjoyed got shit canned. My cat has some newly discovered health problems. Yoga is proving to be more difficult than imagined. And now today... Ted Kennedy's seat goes to Scott "I drive a truck" Brown.

Readers of HPFS will know that I may lean more towards... well, not Scotty. So this is not how I hoped to end my day. I will say, though, that I saw Coakley at North Station this morning, and it was quite exciting.

He did win it fair and square, and I think it was a wake up call to my party that we need strong candidates to keep the awesome of 2008 alive. I could continue on, but I try not to get too political on this blog since I feel there are far better blogs out there for that voice, and I am more suited for posts about Salem food and culture, concerts I go to, my dog and cat, and singing the praises of the local Sonic.

But that is not to say that I am disappointed and sad. So instead of ending today on a sad note, I wanted to post some of my favorite songs of the week.

Elliott Smith - LA


Belle and Sebastian - If You Find Yourself Caught In Love