This week has been awful but beautiful.
When things get harder, I have to see the magic in the world.
A coworker brought muffins and French butter from Wegmans.
Another coworker came over for a grapefruit margarita.
My daughter and I didn’t see eye-to-eye, but I know she knows I love her and I’m proud of her.
The kittens…
And Nala has played with all her toys, she hasn’t plucked recently and went to sleep without someone in the room with her.
Thank you to everyone who supports me.
This is going to be a crazy lil bit of everything post. I’ll try to divide into topics with subheadings; I want to be good to y’all.
I bought her some new toys. Anything paper, like the one above, is a hit. But she seems to be afraid of bigger toys of heavier materials.
This is a photo of everything I got her:
As for plucking, it gets worse and better day by day. I’ve noticed three main triggers:
The kittens certainly get more tired out since we let them run through the house. They pull they towels off the racks in the bathroom. They scatter the wash in the laundry room. They steal Oz’s food and he’s too big and dumb to stop them.
Some of my past kitten posts:
Tomorrow I get my first fill on my nails. They still look pretty perfect and I can see my natural nails growing in!
For more on my nails:
I joined AAA last weekend specifically because I’m traveling to Washington DC alone this weekend.
My temporary cards haven’t come!
I’m super excited and mostly ready.
I told my work colleagues and they asked if I planned on touring any of the downtown DC sites. I said no, I plan on sitting on my friend’s couch drinking coffee most of the weekend.
The teenager is going out with her dad so I’m on my own tonight for Valentine’s.
Originally I had intended to include “personal space” in this section with books, but I know myself and I’m going to babble enough to make that an upcoming entry.
For part one of my “Witchcraft in the 21rst Century” series: 21st Century Witchcraft: Why I’m no longer “Christian”
For part two: 21st Century Witchcraft: Magic in the Everyday
During two decades of book-hunting, I have amassed (and given away) a lot of books. I also have a fairly extensive collection of tarot cards but that is another topic for another day.
I gave a large amount of books by Scott Cunningham and Silver Ravenwolf. Before the Internet was readily available and put the universe at our fingertips I used to comb used bookstores and new age shops looking for spiritual ideas.
Then I finally ended up on Llewelyn Publishing’s mailing list.
My daughter now has a lot of the Classics, like Buckland’s Book of Witchcraft.
But I kept some in my vintage Crayola stock box that stands beside my bed.
Everything in this photo is precious to me, except the Celtic Myth book. That one was a disappointment though a good reference. I have some characters who worship ancient Celtic gods.
This will be a walk through my day today, a tad random, a tad sporadic.
This will include lots of silly animal posts.
But let’s start with my alarm at 6 a.m. I let myself sleep in because my rest has been irregular. I’ve had mild bouts of insomnia brought on by stress and hormones so it was hard to get out of bed.
I woke from a dream I don’t quite fully remember but I remember when the alarm sounded, I was dreaming that I had reached the end of some sort of tour, while on a trip, and was ordering alcoholic beverages for everyone in my party in French. I think I was the only person who spoke French. And I really was speaking French. I don’t usually speak French in dreams.
Perhaps this stems from my executive director eating a vegetable sandwich on a croissant at the networking event we attended last night.
Speaking of work, today started better and I feel a little less discombobulated about my job. I have an important report due Friday and three grants I need to have ready by Valentine’s Day.
An automated message informed me that my child was not in school. Text to teenager, who left at 7:15 with a heavy backpack. “You in school?”
No response.
(A sign that she is in school and not on her phone.)
“The school just called. They don’t think you’re there.”
She responds. “Sh*t. I must have forgotten to sign in.”
I tell her to fix that and to text me a photo from the school office holding today’s newspaper. She didn’t respond to my comment, though she did tell me she talked to the attendance office.
I had lunch with a friend who always lightens my spirit and has intelligent conversation. I’ve worked so many hours this week, I need to remember to make these connections.
And you always need those friends who give good hugs. A friend who bakes brownies is also good.
The afternoon went quickly and I decided my teenager and I would have a picnic. I took the leftover pizza from last night and a big old salad and we ate it on my bed with all the animals out, normally (to my chagrin) the kittens are locked in my teenager’s room.
So the kittens ran through the whole house, up and down the stairs, up and down the hall.
And, of course, Nala, the cockatoo, refused to eat salad in favor of pizza. Video of Nala eating pizza
Then I hung laundry and watched Opie, our 3-legged cat, play with the kittens.
Videos:
I opted not to go to the gym as I’m still not sure I’ve recovered my strength. That fall scared me. A lot.
(See Grit and getting published on The Mighty.)
I have noticed my right arm has that vaguely sore feeling like after you get an inoculation. I couldn’t figure out why. Then I remembered, I fell on that arm. And I also noticed a bruise on my elbow. And a new bruise and scratch on my leg.
After teenager and I gathered the trash, I hopped in the shower. I found the teen “trapped” on my bed with an Oz on her back.
And now I’m drinking a double stiff mug of Traditional Medicinals Nighty Nite Valerian tea.
It’s almost 10 pm.
Sobaka has gone home, so I am alone in my bed.
I’ve had a long hard week month. But I know next month will be easier.
I closed Nala and the budgies alone in my room when I went to work, started Sesame Street to keep Nala company and made the decision not to come home for lunch because I can only stay 10 to 15 minutes and that might cause more confusion and anxiety than it prevents.
And Nala seemed fine when I got home but she may be missing a few more neck feathers. I adopted the bird version of a “cutter.”
The teenager had some friends over, and I agreed to drive one of them home. I retrieved Nala after work and introduced her.
But Sobaka got jealous, barked a lot and so when I tried to put Nala on the dishwasher, Nala bit me, hard. I flinched, that’s the best way I can describe it and Nala almost fell off me. We were both disoriented and I felt terrible for not alleviating Nala’s distress.
We had tea together as I did some kitchen chores and then I brought Nala up to the quiet bedroom, leaving the dog with the teenagers.
Harry Belafonte’s “Angelina”didn’t even brighten her mood and that’s her favorite song.
And then I played a trick on her. About 7 pm, I started watching Gordon Ramsay in my room in the dark hoping Nala would fall asleep before I needed to chauffeur the high school children.
At 7:30, I left the iPad playing and crept out of the room in the dark. Nala yelled for me, but I had to go. When I returned an hour later, she didn’t hear me come in the front door. I think she went to sleep!
As if my soft heart doesn’t have enough to deal with, YouTube has been suggesting I watch a video of a kitten name Smurf who was given to a dog as a chew toy. My daughter watched it, and assured me it had a happy ending but I couldn’t endure it.
It just makes me ask again and again why people are so selfish and cruel.
And I said to my beautiful daughter, “That’s why I don’t want to separate those kittens. They are siblings. They deserve to be together.”
She tells me again that the latest kitten (whom we call “Fog”) is terrified of her and that her friend will be the best home. That we can’t afford and don’t need four cats.
She’s right.
But they are cute babies and I want to be sure they have a good and happy life.
Pout.
I did something I haven’t done in a while… I went to work on time. I had been going into the office an hour early every day.
I stayed home. Spent time with Nala. Packed a lovely salad for lunch. Balanced my budget. Did three days worth of dishes. Even vacuumed and cleaned the bird cages.
The teenager came home from school and did laundry.
And on top of all that, work went super well. My new colleague and I approach everything as a team. She has a strong background in non-profit development and I have a strong background in communications so we approach everything from our respective strengths.
And I think the result is ten times better than either of us could do alone.
That makes me feel so good.
I even did a pretty intense little weight training workout before my nail appointment tonight. Short but left me feeling it.
As for my nails… they are so brittle and short right now it makes me sad. But I can’t be sad because my nail polish color is happi.
Author’s note: this post was originally posted last week but somehow got unpublished and republished in the wrong order.
Let’s start with the kitten…
Mistofelees is still on our sun porch. The teenager has her room 100% clean and ready to accept the new member of the household though she and the teen have not worked out an agreement for when she will sign her lease.
The two have been playing, footage of which can be seen here: Playing Kitten
Some of our other neighbors are feeding her braver siblings and hope to catch them because they know of a potential home.
And then there is Naughty Nala. She was mad at me from the time I got home from work yesterday until I came home today. Refusing to step up, refusing to come out of her cage, biting me if I went near.
But today she seemed to forgive me for going to work. She stepped up beautifully and snuggled like a sweetheart chattering away.
She stood on the dishwasher while I made dinner and while we ate. To reward her, we fed her sweet potato fries which she loved. Video here: Nala is a Sweet Potato Girl (that’s a pun, referring to Tori Amos’ Cornflake Girl.)
If you don’t know the song, let me take you back to my college days: Cornflake Girl
The gym is really crowded.
The teenager asked to go to the gym and I didn’t want to go but I went. All I did was 10 minutes on the bike. But I came and that is something.
That’s enough for me right now.
As a parent, I told the teenager I would never say no if she wanted to drag me to the gym.
My yellow budgie, Peek-a-Boo (whom we nicknamed Boo-Boo), had an episode of night fright last night and woke me up at 4:30. I had gone to bed shortly after nine, so I had trouble falling back to sleep.
I ended up doing some writing for work. When the house is still and your mind is fresh, it’s amazing how easily ideas flow. Even if it is 5 a.m.
I packed my yogurt, fruit and granola parfait for lunch, substituting some chocolate Fontina brand Christmas cookies for breakfast. Lunch didn’t happen until 1:45 so that didn’t help my fatigue.
NALA
But I got some amusing text messages when my daughter got home from school. I had set Nala up with her new toys, fresh fruit and romaine and Hulu set to hours of Sesame Street.
My daughter went to check on her, which says a lot about how far their bond has come as a week ago my teenager was afraid of Nala and vice versa.
Today I got a text that the teenager planned on offering Nala tea. This photo followed:
And it looks like Nala did not pluck today. Now Nala was also glad to see me when I got home, though we had a disagreement about where Nala was going to sit while I ate dinner.
I think Nala thought my plate was her plate. So I ended up with a pretty pointed beak stab in the middle of my middle finger.
DINNER
The teenager says she’d like to lean toward vegetarianism. So we’ve reduced the amount of meat we buy.
Last night’s dinner was homemade mozzarella that my neighbor received as a Christmas gift, spinach, a Pillsbury flaky buttermilk biscuit, two poached eggs and imitation bacon bits.
Tonight’s dinner was “Greek Night.” I made that up. It’s a mess of stuff from the cupboards. But it doesn’t qualify as vegetarian, only pescatarian.
I made a green salad of chopped romaine lettuce, two kinds of olives, the mozzarella again, and avocado. I added two prepared Greek Salads from Lidl: one a giant white bean salad and the second a tomato-based lentil salad. I also served “calamari fries” from Lidl, which are basically thick chunks of potato somehow mixed with calamari.
The teenager had her salad with light ranch dressing. I had mine with a Whole 30 approved balsamic vinaigrette. I made a salad for lunch tomorrow (but didn’t include the calamari). That’s the featured photo for this entry.
Well, now for the amazing part of this entry.
BEDTIME
Last night I tried to put Nala to bed at 6:30 and sit downstairs so she could sleep. Just like a baby, she screamed for Mommy. I returned to my room, and watched TV on my iPad in the dark just load enough so she knew I was here.
Tonight I put her to bed at 6:30, left my pink night light on, covered her and went to the gym.
When I came back an hour later, she didn’t even rustle. I’m tiptoeing around my room as not to wake her.
Goodnight, Nala.
The last couple days got a little busy, in a good way. I know we’ve been talking a lot about the kitten and a lot about three-legged Opie. I thought I’d share this video of Big Dumb Oz.
He looks a tad menacing here.
Believe me, he is not.
My daughter is still obsessive-compulsive about the new Cats movie. Since she lost a field mouse in her room last night, I suggested maybe she clean today.
Somehow I told her that if she got her room clean I would gladly take her to Cats again. Even though I would rather go to the dentist.
But that’s how much I want her room clean.
And so far she’s done five or six loads of laundry, found a pile of dishes and probably emptied the vacuum cleaner more times than she can count.
And she’s filled two 30 gallon trash bags.
I may be spending tomorrow at Cats.
I spent my morning picking up a little, hanging out with the budgies and watching the roomba vacuum.
Then I spent about 90 minutes working on my budget through April and paying bills.
I have been contemplating buying a computer so I can work from home this winter when it snows.
But it’s just so hard with the price of Apple products on the rise. I need to research some refurbs.
I thought maybe it would be fun to visit a bird store. So I googled that. Bird Mania on Emmaus Avenue.
Our first stop was Double Click Computers between Bethlehem and Nazareth. They were once the only Apple service people in the Lehigh Valley. Then the Apple Store moved in at the Lehigh Valley Mall.
My first computer was a PowerBook 165 in 1994. I’ve never owned anything but Macs. I’ve had the first Mac Mini prone to overheating. I had a Performa. I had iBooks, MacBooks, and MacBook Airs. Even the one shaped like a toilet seat. I had a G4. I had a tower with a built-in Zip drive.
I feel like I’ve had all the Mac products. I had the first Time Capsule, which also overheated. Though I never had an iMac. Or did I? I might have had a hand-me-down.
So it was fun to consider buying the new MacBook Pro. But the $1400 price tag scared me.
But they had dogs. 3 dogs.
They were a lot of fun and apparently they keep children from banging on the computer keyboards.
Next, the birds.
Most of the birds we saw were sold or boarding.
There was a boarding macaw that was very adamant about screaming. And an African Grey that talked quietly. Another bird that said “whatever.” Several that shook. I don’t know whether it was anxiety or fear. A lot of singing and a lot of squawking.
I saw a green bird named Beetle and an African Grey named Dorian and thought “wait a minute.” I was at Three Birds Coffee House and Beetle and Dorian were on vacation.
“Excuse me,” I asked the staff, “are these birds from Easton?”
Sure enough, I had found where the birds were vacationing. Maybe next time the owners can let me watch them.
I wanted to see cockatiels.
But a cockatoo made a move on me.
Her name is Nala. Her feathers were a tad matted, and she had plucked herself in some spots. She kept reaching through the cage.
So the teen wanted to see if we could handle her. As in pet her.
The staff warned me that she always seemed pleasant but she wouldn’t “step up” and she bites.
But she agreed to let us try.
Nala came out and sat on her cage door and kept trying to bite me and wouldn’t “step up.” But she let me pet her and play with her. And scratch her head and under her wings.
But she kept biting me.
The teenager refused to touch her.
I noticed she had lovely orange cheeks and orange under her crown feathers.
But I had to say goodbye.
The staff person said they had a boy who was a bird whisperer and he couldn’t get anywhere with her. I took that as my solace and my consolation. Then the staff member added, “but she really seems to like you.”
Wow.
My family had a cockatoo, probably 30 years ago. So I know how demanding and needy they are. And expensive. So I asked, “how much are cockatoos going for these days?”
“Because she’s older and bites, she’s $600.”
Sorry, Nala. I’m a single mom.
The staff member gets a towel to corner her. They start this dance around all the cages. I feel terrible. I step close. Nala now will “step up.” And she perches on my shoulder.
Look at her.
So I pet her more and try to kneel by her cage. She gets on the door. Refuses to go in. And plucks out one of her white and orange chest feathers as if to say, “you can’t leave me.”
Heartbroken.
We ended up at Taco Bell. And the teenager made this funky but delicious concoction of two parts Diet Pepsi and one part Mango iced tea.
The Friti burrito gave the soft taco just the right amount of crunch.
Angel Ackerman 