festus update
dr. jones [my vet-of-choice for both charlotte and festus] said the surgery went well, and that festus was waking up just fine. i'm having him boarded until next friday because i am not up to seeing him suffer at all. plus, i still feel very guilty about this, and probably will long after festus dies of warm and happy old age. declawing him is a wimpy way out, but if the choices were getting rid of him [to a possibly not as caring family] and having him declawed, i chose what i think is the better, if not easier, option. i can take a tiny bit of comfort in that the surgery will allow him to stay with me. given my thoughts on declawing, and my general reaction to those who have this done to their cats, i'll take what consolation i can get. at least this way he still has a home.
charlotte is responding well enough to her partner's absence. she's spent the morning glued to my side [except in the office, which is both festus territory and where her cat carrier is being stored at the moment]. she's spent the afternoon fast asleep on the bed. soon, it will be time to give her the meds. i swear, the neighbors must think i torture her twice a day, the noise she makes. but once it's over and she's foamed at the mouth and groomed herself, she's perfectly fine around me. it's like she knows it's over for now, and that i am no longer the evil lady with the icky cold medicine drops.
...
since i've been back, i've been doing quite a lot around the apt.
the bedroom has been rearranged to a more spacious, bedroom-only setup. it has yet to be vacuumed, and there's a pile of "i'm not yet sure what to do with this" stuff in the middle of the floor. but it's a small pile. i put up the starburst quilt my mother made [finally], and the gecko quilt i made [which my mother bound and finished quilting]. i'd like to get [possibly knit up] a thick and heavy curtain for that window to replace the quartered bedsheet that really is quite tacky.
the bathroom has been cleaned again, with a rearrangement of sink area to better facilitate my morning routine. i have gone through the first aid box and tossed old allergy meds. i added a new box of bandaids. i finally bought a soap dispenser that works, to replace the "nicer" one that only worked for a week, and after that had to be unscrewed to get to the soap. i had been leaving the cap off of it and just pouring soap out as needed, but the cheapo plastic soap dispenser works much better than the "nicer" one ever did. and, the toilet brush has been dethroned; in it's stead, the scrubbing bubbles thingy like my mother's has been purchased. takes up less space, and it's more sanitary.
the litter room has also been rearranged, to make more storage and the old litter box has been relocated [more on that later] to make room for a new one in the litter of charlotte's preference. this one has four parts: a box, another box, a grate that fits in the boxes, and a little rim to prevent the cats from kicking litter out into the hallway [you'd be impressed at the distance litter can be kicked by a determined cat]. there's a process by which you rearrange these layers that means no scoop is needed to clean the box. so far, charlotte likes it, while festus was unimpressed.
the kitchen/dining area was rearranged [sensing a trend, are we?] leaving it more spacious. this involved moving ems's little roll-y deal out from the dead end of the galley kitchen and to the side of the white-shelf pantry. the old litter box with litter of festus's preferrence is on a rug back there. this means that yes, i have two litter boxes to deal with. it also means that the cats can have litter they like and can choose where to go. and it means that i can actually use the bottom cabinets and drawers closest to the end wall, where before i really couldn't. more space = better storage options = room for the stuff sr is shipping me. and it's much less claustrophobic in that kitchen.
yes, even the living room is arranged differently. due to the new futon placement, the blinds on that window are all the way up, and the string is wound infinity-wise around two nails up above. while i'd like heavy bedroom curtains, something lightweight enough to keep the airy feel and heavy enough to get back some of the lost privacy in the living room is a higher priority. this curtain also has to be short enough [like a kitchen curtain might be] so the cats don't feel the need to get through it to see out the window. and no, i can't just leave the miniblinds down, because charlotte at least paws them past the bending point to see out, and that has left a crease in four different slats. miniblinds look cheap [and i mean that in a monetary way as well as in a taste way], but they cost a lot to replace. again, there has been no vacuuming in the living room, and the wicker box by the door has remained unopened. but there is a lot of improvement.
which leaves the room i've been putting off. see, i thought the semester started in mid january. say, the 16th, after that nice holiday. why start school for three days and then get out of wack? apparently, because that's the way we do things. so semester begins on the 10th. a whole weekend and some earlier than i thought. so the office cannot actually wait any longer. it's the one room that *has* to be in good order for a semester to start smoothly. it's where the studying and working is done. it's where the papers are written. it must be ... not as it is currently.
so. the office, resting place of everything that has no better home [no, that is not how i acheived spaciousness in other rooms; everything in those rooms beforehand is still in those rooms now except for trash that has been thrown away and good will items that are by the door.] must be overhauled. papers that have been piled on the desk need to be organized and filed. files that are lacking in organization need to be fixed up. the explosion of yarn and needles and stitch holders/markers, and printed patterns and books that is my knitting stash needs to be separated out from the explosion of paper bits and sketched maps and lists of names and pronunciations and folded sheafs of prototypical dialogue that is my novel stash. both stashes need to be culled from the general office clutter and put where they belong. the real kicker, of course, is that this mythical "place where they belong" has yet to be created.
is it obvious why i put this off? well, it is equally obvious to me that the office as it stands now is no place to begin a semester. for goodness sake, the keyboard i'm typing on is precariously perched atop two stacks of paper of different heights, and the mouse is wound around the desk so that its movements are about as agile as those of a corsetted pregnant lady. it takes several short jogs to get from one side of the screen to the other. i can't even effectively check email in this setup.
and so, the next step in my apt cleanup [which my mother pointed out to me happens once a semester and never gets a touch up until the start of the next semester] must be the office. and this year, my resolutions, such as they are, consist of regular apt touch ups, stairs in the english building, and making/following a menu each week. i can handle these three things, provided i am not too harsh with myself if [all right, *when*] i miss a beat here and there. i'll just dust myself off and hop back on the ride.
discardia's still in full swing, folks! believe me, it's the only reason i've gotten so much done in just three days. go ahead and try it. i think you'll like it.
love and peace.
charlotte is responding well enough to her partner's absence. she's spent the morning glued to my side [except in the office, which is both festus territory and where her cat carrier is being stored at the moment]. she's spent the afternoon fast asleep on the bed. soon, it will be time to give her the meds. i swear, the neighbors must think i torture her twice a day, the noise she makes. but once it's over and she's foamed at the mouth and groomed herself, she's perfectly fine around me. it's like she knows it's over for now, and that i am no longer the evil lady with the icky cold medicine drops.
...
since i've been back, i've been doing quite a lot around the apt.
the bedroom has been rearranged to a more spacious, bedroom-only setup. it has yet to be vacuumed, and there's a pile of "i'm not yet sure what to do with this" stuff in the middle of the floor. but it's a small pile. i put up the starburst quilt my mother made [finally], and the gecko quilt i made [which my mother bound and finished quilting]. i'd like to get [possibly knit up] a thick and heavy curtain for that window to replace the quartered bedsheet that really is quite tacky.
the bathroom has been cleaned again, with a rearrangement of sink area to better facilitate my morning routine. i have gone through the first aid box and tossed old allergy meds. i added a new box of bandaids. i finally bought a soap dispenser that works, to replace the "nicer" one that only worked for a week, and after that had to be unscrewed to get to the soap. i had been leaving the cap off of it and just pouring soap out as needed, but the cheapo plastic soap dispenser works much better than the "nicer" one ever did. and, the toilet brush has been dethroned; in it's stead, the scrubbing bubbles thingy like my mother's has been purchased. takes up less space, and it's more sanitary.
the litter room has also been rearranged, to make more storage and the old litter box has been relocated [more on that later] to make room for a new one in the litter of charlotte's preference. this one has four parts: a box, another box, a grate that fits in the boxes, and a little rim to prevent the cats from kicking litter out into the hallway [you'd be impressed at the distance litter can be kicked by a determined cat]. there's a process by which you rearrange these layers that means no scoop is needed to clean the box. so far, charlotte likes it, while festus was unimpressed.
the kitchen/dining area was rearranged [sensing a trend, are we?] leaving it more spacious. this involved moving ems's little roll-y deal out from the dead end of the galley kitchen and to the side of the white-shelf pantry. the old litter box with litter of festus's preferrence is on a rug back there. this means that yes, i have two litter boxes to deal with. it also means that the cats can have litter they like and can choose where to go. and it means that i can actually use the bottom cabinets and drawers closest to the end wall, where before i really couldn't. more space = better storage options = room for the stuff sr is shipping me. and it's much less claustrophobic in that kitchen.
yes, even the living room is arranged differently. due to the new futon placement, the blinds on that window are all the way up, and the string is wound infinity-wise around two nails up above. while i'd like heavy bedroom curtains, something lightweight enough to keep the airy feel and heavy enough to get back some of the lost privacy in the living room is a higher priority. this curtain also has to be short enough [like a kitchen curtain might be] so the cats don't feel the need to get through it to see out the window. and no, i can't just leave the miniblinds down, because charlotte at least paws them past the bending point to see out, and that has left a crease in four different slats. miniblinds look cheap [and i mean that in a monetary way as well as in a taste way], but they cost a lot to replace. again, there has been no vacuuming in the living room, and the wicker box by the door has remained unopened. but there is a lot of improvement.
which leaves the room i've been putting off. see, i thought the semester started in mid january. say, the 16th, after that nice holiday. why start school for three days and then get out of wack? apparently, because that's the way we do things. so semester begins on the 10th. a whole weekend and some earlier than i thought. so the office cannot actually wait any longer. it's the one room that *has* to be in good order for a semester to start smoothly. it's where the studying and working is done. it's where the papers are written. it must be ... not as it is currently.
so. the office, resting place of everything that has no better home [no, that is not how i acheived spaciousness in other rooms; everything in those rooms beforehand is still in those rooms now except for trash that has been thrown away and good will items that are by the door.] must be overhauled. papers that have been piled on the desk need to be organized and filed. files that are lacking in organization need to be fixed up. the explosion of yarn and needles and stitch holders/markers, and printed patterns and books that is my knitting stash needs to be separated out from the explosion of paper bits and sketched maps and lists of names and pronunciations and folded sheafs of prototypical dialogue that is my novel stash. both stashes need to be culled from the general office clutter and put where they belong. the real kicker, of course, is that this mythical "place where they belong" has yet to be created.
is it obvious why i put this off? well, it is equally obvious to me that the office as it stands now is no place to begin a semester. for goodness sake, the keyboard i'm typing on is precariously perched atop two stacks of paper of different heights, and the mouse is wound around the desk so that its movements are about as agile as those of a corsetted pregnant lady. it takes several short jogs to get from one side of the screen to the other. i can't even effectively check email in this setup.
and so, the next step in my apt cleanup [which my mother pointed out to me happens once a semester and never gets a touch up until the start of the next semester] must be the office. and this year, my resolutions, such as they are, consist of regular apt touch ups, stairs in the english building, and making/following a menu each week. i can handle these three things, provided i am not too harsh with myself if [all right, *when*] i miss a beat here and there. i'll just dust myself off and hop back on the ride.
discardia's still in full swing, folks! believe me, it's the only reason i've gotten so much done in just three days. go ahead and try it. i think you'll like it.
love and peace.
posted by Rehkmira @ 16:56
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