Introducing Pax

Nick and I drove out to Jordan, MN to meet with this adorable couple and their baby and take a look at their two cats.  I loved both of their cats upon meeting them, but one of them was so beautiful and friendly that we decided to take him home to see if he would like us.

Introducing Pax, 3 years old, male cat.

Yeah, he's really cute.  I think we're going to get along just fine.

I love rainy days

My Lia Sophia party was a success.  I made all sorts of food and had a great time baking for 9 hours during my day, and I thought the food came out terrific.  I don't like muffins so I didn't think the muffins were amazing, but other people ate them so I guess they weren't horrible.

I am taking the Praxis mathematics content exam next Saturday.  I am taking a break from studying by writing this blog pretty quickly.  This exam doesn't really mean anything in Minnesota; you don't need it to become a teacher up here.  However, WGU asks that I demonstrate proficiency in math by taking this content exam so I need to pass it for them.  I took a look over the review materials and I don't think it will be that difficult.

Tomorrow I am driving out to Jordan MN to look at a kitty.  I hope it's not as rainy today, even though I do like rain.  I think it inspires me.  Hence today's thought:

My spacing is all off on this post but I like the fonts.  Next time I will have to find my ruler.  Also I really want to go to JoAnn Fabrics and buy some more felt tip pens, maybe in different colors other than black....?

Freud Was Right

Day 2 of missing Bentley.  I miss having him around as company more than anything else.  It is so lonely, and so quiet here.  No soft purring, no stretching, no yawning, no meows in the morning when it is time to feed him, no meowing at the door waiting for me to come home.  I am so lonely and so sad without him.

I have his footprint in clay (see last post), and oddly enough I have two vials of his blood.  This sounds really gross, and I'm sure everyone reading this is uncomfortable with the thought of me having his blood, and I would probably be really repulsed by this in other circumstances considering my vegetarianism.... but it is oddly comforting.  I will probably hang on to it for a little while longer until I give it back to the vet.

I think I am actually handling this pretty well.  I know I could be a lot worse.  No matter how much I am grieving now, it becomes more obvious that I should probably look to get another kitty.  I liked having feline company with me.  While no cat is going to be as awesome or going to have such an incredible history involving feats of gratitude, inheritance, and human kindness (a la Margaret), I know that without a kitty in my life I am going to grieve Bentley even more.  And continue to ask why he had to leave me all by myself.

No kitty will replace Bentley, but I need a new roommate to heal my loneliness.  And I think Bentley is sad he had to leave me by myself, which is why he acted nonchalant and even tried to spend as much time with me as he could on my lap, despite his very uncomfortable breathing situation.

Time spent with cats is never wasted.

-Sigmund Freud

Bentley, 9 Years Old

My best friend passed away last night.
I am doing okay today, not great.  Not as bad as last night.

His x-rays showed huge masses of fluid that concealed his heart, pushed his trachea up against his spine, and compressed his lungs.  He is in a much better place now, and when we said goodbye I know he smiled at me and thanked me for taking care of him when Margaret passed away.  Bentley was the best cat I could have hoped for and I miss him.

Luckily I have great support from my friends and family and I know I will get through this.  It is unexpected by you know how the saying goes...

Death ends a life, not a relationship.

-Jack Lemmon

Diarrhea is the worst

But it's just as bad when your favorite cat in the whole world gets sick and has diarrhea and all you want to do is make him feel better but you can't feed him anything because he is pooping everywhere :(

I also have trouble controlling myself when it comes to taking pictures of my cat.......

Look how sad he is :(

I am not entirely sure why I put only "get well Bentley" instead of "get well soon, Bentley" or something like that.  I had plenty of space.  I just want him to get better, no matter how long it takes I guess.  He is going to the vet tonight, so.... I hope everything is going to be ok.

#23

It is my birthday!

My boss Colleen gave me a cupcake at work today, hence today's post(it).  Flowers are courtesy of Nick, who greeted me at the airport yesterday at midnight to wish me a happy birthday.... and to drive me and my luggage home. 

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days.  I have been visiting my dad down in Texas and we had action packed days full of doing taxes (whee...), going in the spa, running, reading, working, bowling (I went 0-4), billiards (I also was 0-4), drinking, baking, talking, more running, eating tacos, ultimate frisbee....... and there was really no time to post much.  I'm not sure who all is devastated by this, but hopefully these non-existent beings I left desperate for a post will forgive me an will look forward to my next few!

Had a couple of difficult decisions over the weekend too.  It's always hard to leave my family, but I love seeing them so much so it's harder to stay away.  I also made important discoveries about priorities (my mom is always looking out for me), appreciating the little things, and remembering to NEVER do things out of spite (my dad taught me this).  

Tonight is going to be full of putt putt golf, where I will probably lose but I will drink enough not to care. :) 

I Live in the Future

Hi, my  name is Jenni, and I live in the future.
Semantically, this does not mean that I am from the future.  Just that I live there.  In my head.

When I pull a Tobias and reflect on a day's worth of what I say ("Tobias, you blowhard"), I find myself using phrases to depict what I will be like, what I would like to do as an adult in the "real world", and speaking in terms of someday.

At some point, I need to wake up and realize that someday is today.

My dad tells me that every day I wake up, I can start to be the person I want to be, act the way I want to act, and be in the mood I would like to be in.  It's hard to do.  Because I live in the future and all.

Future Jenni is going to be awesome; Present Jenni is "just getting by".

Present Jenni could be cool too, but she's like the lonely, ignored Harry Potter under the staircase because she hasn't reached out and like, saved lives and is awesome at quiddich and starts contraband study groups to combat the most feared and dangerous wizard in the world.... wait, this analogy fell apart somewhere.

Future Jenni says "Someday is tomorrow"

Procrastinator Jenni says "I'll start today tomorrow"

Present Jenni says "I am schizophrenic?  Why am I talking to myself so much as different people?"

Das über klassy

I was reminded today the important skill of staying classy.  I witnessed a cashier at the grocery store get yelled at by a customer who said that the cashier weighed her fruit incorrectly.  The woman called the cashier "incompetent", "a minimum wage dips**t" and multiple other obscenities focused around this woman's line of employment.  The cashier stayed calm and did her best to answer this yelly, obnoxious woman.  Once the woman left, I checked out with my garlic powder and bags of flour and asked the cashier if that sort of confrontational incident happens a lot.  She looked somberly at me and said "no, this is my second day as a cashier here."  I simply replied, "it will get better, I'm sure" and gathered up my things.  On my way out, I stopped by customer service, pointed at the cashier, and told them "that cashier is a great example of customer service.  I hope she is rewarded for taking the high road." and left.

Here's to you, cashier lady.

Stay classy, San Diego.

Anchorman

Breadsticks & WP7

I made Olive Garden breadsticks from scratch.
They were so buttery, garlicky, and delicious!!
And surprisingly easy.  It was also my first written recipe.  I can't wait to serve these at my bakery, maybe with soups or something, or maybe as take-home goodies for dinner!

On a slightly unrelated note, I took the Windows Phone Challenge today.
Nick and I stood in line for 2.5 hours this morning, but it was worth it because he's a really nice person and bought me chocolate milk :)
So we both ended up losing to the Windows phone guy, but I get a free Windows phone in exchange for an old Palm Pre Plus.  Windows phone looks pretty nifty, fast, and colorful............... if only it had swype, it might be a contender for my personal cell phone of choice.

Dramatic link

Why on earth would I watch this video!!???????????????

I cried just looking at the words in the link!

Stoic Cat

Stoic is a pretty cool word that is underused in daily conversation. 

I Really Should Read The Book

No post yesterday?  Here's the reason why...

Also, found out from this movie that fruits that look like blueberries are poisonous, which is unfortunate because I am planning on making blueberry pie in the near future and now I will be scared to eat it.

We sat in the very front row because we got to the theater a little late.  I felt nauseated the entire movie; the director decided to make a lot of "running through the woods" and "shaky camera" and "hallucination fuzziness" types of shots which didn't help.  But when I could keep my eyes open, it seemed pretty quality.  I'm really thankful we didn't spring for the IMAX experience.

Anonymous Beaver

Nick and I found some trees on our walk yesterday. It looks like a beaver went to town on them. Pretty cool. We are planning to check back in about a week to see if he made any more progress.

There are a few trees that the beaver seems to have knocked down, but we don't know what he plans on doing with those trees...?

Also, Nick mentioned that these bites look pretty fresh, and you can see all of the wood chips beneath them... we think that we stumbled upon a new project for the beaver and that he was just there last night.

Dear anonymous beaver, what are your plans???  I must know!

Challah

Here's what I was going to post yesterday.  I made challah.  Not nearly as emotional as finding a dead mouse but much more appetizing...

It came out pretty nice but I must say that the first dough I made I completely eff-ed up the recipe and the dough was so sticky I couldn't even knead it at all.  I kept adding flour until I realized that this was going to taste like an eggy brick.  After an hour of feeling horrible that I wasted a whole bunch of ingredients, I decided to give it another go.  Great success!

I was trying to think of good challah jokes but.... didn't come up with any.  When I googled quotes about challah, I only got this lame quote:

“For about 15 minutes, Doug Flutie was the toast of New York-not just the toast but the challah and the pita and the croissants, too.” -  George Vecsey

Who the hell is Doug Flutie?  This is a boring old post.  

________

edit: I asked Nick "who the hell is Doug Flutie?" and of course Nick knew off the top of his head.  He's apparently a quarterback who threw that hail mary pass for Boston College which is like "one of the greatest plays in football".  The quote makes more sense, but this blog post is still lacking any relevant oomph.  Sigh.  Sorry guys.

Not Mickey Mouse

I was going to triumphantly blog about the challah bread I made last night... but instead I am going to gross everyone on this Saturday morning by posting a horrifying and unexpected experience I had.

I decided to go running this morning since it is almost 50 degrees outside (whaat) and sunny.  I put on my running clothes, put my hair in a ponytail, got my iPod+Nike all hooked up, and went to put my shoes on.  There was something in my shoe though, and of course I thought it was one of Bentley's toys (which I have found before in my shoe).  So I went to fish it out.....

.... and it was a dead mouse.  Like a real dead mouse, not just a Bentley toy.

GROSS.
I freaked out, started crying like I just found out Carlos on Desperate Housewives is blind, panic-called Nick...  I don't know how a mouse got in here!  And then how it died!  It looks like it was mauled or bitten or something because of that huge black mark... unless it has the black plague, and in that case I am going to die soon so someone please just award me a certificate in teaching so that my life is not all for nothing.

I think Bentley killed it.  Nick suggested that he died of old age, which is much worse because that means I was living with a mouse who decided one day to croak and then freak me out for the rest of my life.

I can never wear shoes again :(