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if you live next door to a graveyard

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Howdy all!
 
I love the internet. Really I do. (I'm batting my eyes and smiling coquettishly as I type that.) But since the internet is getting to be more and more like Mayberry these days where everybody knows everything about everyone, I'm going to be doing a lot more Friends Only posts. If you still want to read all about little ol' me, just comment here and I'll add you. It's okay if I've never met you in the material world; some of the awesomest people I know I've met through LJ. Just don't be a dick and all will be cool.
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Right click and watch this in couch mode. Do it. Now.
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I present to you my new four footed furry familiar, Aleister.
 

 
He has the most beautiful green eyes, which you can't really tell from the photo. Every time I'd try to take his picture he'd come in for a kitty head butt.
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Nyan Waits
 
I lasted over 700 seconds! Actually I find it very soothing, like a cross between a grizzly bear and white noise.
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Saturday Paul and I attended our first Obscura Day at the Dittrick Museum of Medical History in Cleveland. So much fun! The event featured Doctor John Davidson and his Amazing Magic Lantern Show. The second half of the evening was spent wandering around the museum looking at the Cleveland Lakeside Medical Unit's photo archive of WWI injuries in France and some of the antique medical implements not currently on display. I also got to meet an internet friend who drove in from the suburbs of Erie.
 

 
The good doctor invites you in! )
Paean & Dithyrambos:
CocoRosie - Candy Land | Powered by Last.fm
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Some people get visions of Mary in their toast. Some people get the visage of Jesus in some melted crayons. Even the Devil has been known to show his face on a bathroom tile or a puff of smoke to bystanders. Me? I get a manifestation of Priapus in my bathroom sink.
 
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Yesterday I had to do one of the most difficult things in my life.  
 
A few weeks ago, Weedy started to drastically lose weight. When he'd jump in my lap for me to pet him, I noticed his bones were more prominent so I called the vet and made an appointment for him. I knew he was 16, which is pretty old, but he had always looked good and everyone who met him thought he was a much younger cat. Well after some blood work, we found his kidneys were failing and his heart was going bad. I started giving him fluids which helped a little but last week his back legs were starting to twist around and he was having trouble standing. Once he was standing though, he could still get to his food dish and litter box but that quickly passed. By Saturday he couldn't stand up at all anymore and Paul and I knew it was time to say farewell. I had a meeting to go to earlier that afternoon and by the time I got home, Weedy was crying, laying in a small puddle of his own urine in the kitchen. I took him to the tub where I gently cleaned him off with some warm water and baby shampoo, then wrapped him in a towel and held him tightly. He still managed to nuzzle my hands and I fed him some kitty cat treats. My vet was closed until Monday. Paul and I called around and the only 24 hour vet service available cost about $200 to put him down. Even though I didn't want to see Weeds like that, I just didn't have that amount of money. He ended up making it through the night and early Sunday a friend of Paul's told him about this old hippie vet who would come to your home to euthanize for much less than the MedVet. I called him and his wife answered, saying her husband was out of town until Monday evening. Realizing nothing was going to be done, I called off work Monday. Frustrated, angry and exhausted, I fell asleep on Paul's futon. This was when the first strange thing happened.
 
I had a dream I was walking along a lane and this pretty little cat entered the scene. Everyone around me starting calling to it but she came up to me and as I knelt down she jumped into my arms. She had brown fur, then it changed to grey, then to orange, then to tan. Her little kitty ears were encircled with tiny braids and she wore a lace shirt collar around her neck and cuffs on her paws so she looked like a Beatrix Potter illustration. Absolutely charming. Her eye color changed too as she looked at me and she said she was going to make sure Weedy was taken care of and not to worry about him because he would always be happy and loved. Then I woke up. Crazy, huh?
 
I spent Sunday evening stretched out on the sofa with Weedy on my chest watching television, much like we spent most every evening during the week. The Trail of the Pink Panther was on. I think Weedy enjoyed it.
 
I was still in bed when I called the vet first thing Monday morning and they said they performed euthanasia after 6pm when the other patients were gone. Hearing Weeds meowing in the kitchen, I knew it was the right thing to do but it seemed so awful to finalize 6:15pm as the time we would be there. I can't describe how horrible that made me feel. When I got up I saw that Weedy had somehow flipped himself over to his other side. After his impromptu bath a couple days before, his fur was shiny again and a little curly. His paws were velvety white. I gave him a handful of kitty cat treats and he started nibbling them as I made coffee and eggs. After breakfast he seemed to nod off and I called my grandma to tell her what was going on. Around 11am midway through our chat I got a call from the vet saying they had no more appointments that day and if I wanted to bring him in I could. We set the time for just after noon. I called Paul to tell him we were meeting at the vet's at 12:15.
 
I took a shower, got dressed, and definitely went light on the eye make up. It was about 11:45 then, so I held Weedy on my chest and we lay on the sofa for a while longer. A little after noon we left and I carried him down the alley to the vet office at the end of my block. He was meowing, looking around and sniffing the warm spring air. It was a beautiful day.  
 
Paul met us in front of the vet's. We went in and waited for a minute. There was another lady there and she kept remarking how wonderful my cat was to just be able to sit on my lap like that. Then one of the vet techs popped her head out of one of the exam rooms and told us they were ready.  
 
We put him on a pink towel and the vet came in to give him a quick once over. She said it looked as if he threw a blood clot and that was what made his legs stop working. She shaved a little spot on one of his front legs where the needle would go in.
 
Then she gave us a minute to let us say our good-byes. Paul and I both started weeping.
 
We held and petted him as she gave him his injection.
 
Not five seconds later, he was gone. The vet left the room and turned off the lights and we stood there for a minute with our little lion man. Paul covered him with the towel, we wiped our eyes and walked back to his apartment holding hands. I don't think I could have made it through the day if it weren't for Paul.
 
The other strange thing was my conversation with my grandma right before I got the call from my vet. If you know my grandmother, she is a dog person. Even though she made friends with an old lady barn cat that lives with my uncle, she always said she thought cats were sneaky and they scratched you and she didn't trust them. She also never, ever, ever under no circumstances allowed an animal in the house. So when I was talking with her and out of the blue she said "You'll never guess what I was doing when you called!" She was right. 
 
"Are you baking a pie?" 
 
"No!"
 
"Are you gardening?"

 
"No! Those are things I always do."
 
I started laughing and finally said I gave up.
 
"I'm sitting in the family room petting my new kitten!"
 
I about died, she was so proud of her new little friend. She said she never had a cat before and didn't know any good cat names so she decided to call her Miss Kitty, which for a first cat name is pretty damn wonderful. Grandma also acted like I said a filthy word when I asked if the kitten was staying outdoors.
 
"Oh, no! She's staying inside with me. She's so smart, she's already using the litter box."
 
I asked her what her kitty looked like and she told me -- gray and white with long hair, which is exactly the kind of cat Weedy was.
 
Once again, my dreams and my grandma and the strange workings of the cosmos made one of the saddest days of my life a little more bearable. Coming home after the ordeal to find Weedy's food and water dishes still full and the kitty cat treats he hadn't eaten was most devastating and I started sobbing again. But I packed up everything to donate to Cat Welfare and that made me feel good. Last night was lonely... I kept thinking Weedy was going to come over and jump on my lap but he never did. Now I'll see little tufts of his fur and know I'll never get to pet him again and the tears start all over. And then I get to thinking about how long it's going to be before I adopt another cat because as painful as this was it doesn't compare to how good it feels to have the undying love of a sweet little kitty. I'm sure Weeds will send me a good one.
 

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To Whom It May Concern,
 
With the whole birth control debate going on a question occurred to me that I haven't been able to find an answer for. I'm hoping I can go right to the source of my question, so here it is:

 
Does The Christian Science Monitor provide health insurance to its employees? I can't imagine every journalist, copy editor, admin, proofreader and operations person on your staff opting out of health care and that being a moot point.
 
If so, is there any resentment toward the government for making you provide health coverage to non-Christian Scientist? Is there an official stance the church takes?
 
Please email a reply to me. Everyone I've asked has been very curious as to the answer!
 
 
 
Dear Tamara,
 
Thank you for being in touch and sharing your comments.  The Mother Church does offer its employees (including Christian Science Monitor staff) a standard health benefit plan, which does include women's health coverage. It also includes coverage of spiritual care.
 
Thank you for your readership of The Christian Science Monitor.
 
All the best,
Bronwen

The Christian Science Monitor
Customer Service Team

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Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself. This particular set of questions is courtesy of [info]helios137.
 
1. Quick, you have seconds to respond. Jesus H. Christ is walking into town from the southern route, with an army of apostles and cherubs busily buzzing overhead. While, coming in from the North, Cthulhu and his assortment of dark gods are slithering into town. Whom do you greet, swear loyalty to and why?
 
This reminds me of the time the KKK held a rally on the Indiana Statehouse lawn when the Indianapolis chapter of the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam showed up to counter-protest. This also happened to occur on the very same day as a Gay Pride parade that ended up, you guessed it, at the aforementioned statehouse lawn. I imagine I'd do what I did then: follow the great masses to the point of convergence and take a bunch of photos of the ensuing craziness. I'd greet everyone but not swear loyalty to anyone mostly because I really don't swear loyalty to anything other than my own conscience. Also stuff like this needs to be documented and I'm just the citizen photo-journalist to do it!
 
2. Where is the oddest place that you have ever been?
 
I had to think about this one for a minute... It could have been the one vacation where I was taken to this wild west theme show where they fake hanged three or four outlaws in front of dozens of kids. Fun for the whole family! I'm sure there are places more strange I've visited but those don't come to mind right now.
 
3. You are in the Amazon jungle when, by sheer chance, you come upon an enormous spider web with one of your ex-boyfriends (from the past five years) trapped and securely fastened. You see a big ass spider leisurely approaching its lunch. The ex-boyfriend does not see this. What, if anything, do you say or do?
 
If by this point I'd have gotten over my fear of anything possessing more than four legs, I'd take my machete and slash him away from the web, then smirk and ask if this makes up for completely ruining his life and if he still thinks I'm stupid and worthless. I would also had to have gotten over my disgust for self-absorbed, narcissistic assholes, which is a little more difficult than overcoming arachnophobia.
 
4. What has been your most favorite and/or most spectacular run-in with the supernatural?
 
Well the backstory and relating symbolism is rather complex but I believe the ghost of my mother undid the nightlamp on my headboard one night when I was up late reading. I had to get up early the next day but didn't want to go to bed. Anyway, the lamp turned off, somehow came unscrewed from the headboard and fell on my head. Basically I believe it was my mom telling me in her very specific way to go to sleep already.
 
5. You are on an archeological dig in Egypt when all of a sudden the sand below your feet gives way. You find yourself alone in an ancient secret chamber where you discern (thanks to your Rosetta Stone hieroglyphics-made-easy! DVDs) that you can select any god-like superpower. Which super power do you select and what do you do with it?
 
The power of transmutation since it suits my Gemini traits (kind of like the Wonder Twins but not quite so mediocre).
 
6. What would be your absolutely favorite three course meal?
 
Course 1:
Assortment of fine cheeses with fresh figs
Beluga caviar with blini, chopped egg, creme fraiche and capers
A salad of fresh romaine with crab, English cucumber, hearts of palm, Kalamata olives, avocado and dressed with fresh snipped herbs, fresh ground white pepper, lemon juice and hazelnut oil
White burgundy
Course 2:
Rack of lamb cooked medium rare with chimichurri sauce
Steamed couscous with chopped apricot, dates, carrot and slivered almonds
Roasted artichokes with lemon tarragon rémoulade
Tempranillo
Course 3:
Creme brulee infused with vanilla and cardamom
Ethiopian Mocha Harar espresso
 
All of this would be consumed during an early summer evening on a terrace overlooking the ocean, right around 72 degrees with a slight salt breeze coming off the water just as the sun was going down. You can hear music and laughter from a carnival happening down the street several blocks away. Little paper lanterns are strung and by the time the main course is served are glowing above where you sit, mingling with the luminescence of the full moon and casting you and your love in the most beautiful, perfect lighting. Everything is flawless and you wish this would last forever. In a way, it does.
 
7. You have been possessed by a malevolent spirit, but one which does not wish to harm you. If you have the choice, do you choose to be exorcised?
 
Well of course I'd evict the jerk. There's barely enough room in here for me!
 

Paean & Dithyrambos:
Steve Von Till - Willow Tree | Powered by Last.fm
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