jendhi

i'm trying to motivate to do homework.  or pack.  i really should pack.  i really should do my homework.  i really don't want to do either. haha.  i also need to defrost my fridge... its like an iceberg.  maybe i don't do anything. 

today i was waiting for the bus on the way home.  waiting FOREVER.  like 45 minutes for a bus that runs every 15 to 20.  a lot of bullsfeet if you ask me.  but anyways, i'm standing there with a bunch of other people (3 others) and this oldish white-haired lady comes walking over.  and she beelines for me and stands right immediately behind invading-my-personal-space close to me.  too close.  and why?  i thought, is she going to try to reach into my messenger bag?  is she going to inappropriately touch me?  and then she leans forward like she's going to whisper in my ear from behind and says "have you been waiting long sweetie?" and i got super creeped out.  i turned and moved away and told her yes and when i turned back to look in the direction of the bus, she was still behind me!  super weird.

well, back to being a bad student.  i'm tired.  i think i'll go to bed early tonight.  tomorrow i do have to start work at 7:30am, leave for the bus at 6:30am... yeah, no homework or packing tonight!

friday after my b.i.l. (bro-in-law) got off work, he and i were hanging out and all of a sudden he sees something out the window.  it was the neighbor's little over a year old kitten that had been missing for over a month!  so we text my sister, she says catch it, and out my b.i.l. and i go to see about luring it back.  we figured it would come for cat treats... but i guess he's been outside for too long.  he just kept crying and slightly advancing but still wary and anytime we moved he would make like he was gonna bolt.  so josh starts tossing treats to it so it smells them, eats them and knows they are food.  i went in and got some canned cat food and we do the same.  we spent like 40 minutes... he came near, then got scared and ran down into the ravine.  we threw some more canned cat food to try to lure him up  but he sat down and looked like it was nap time from the little he had eaten. 

we give up and start to go inside, and he comes back up the hill crying.  this time josh comes out with the bag of cat food and we sit on the patio and toss it near us trying to get him to approach us without us scaring him.  he for some reason comes near me so i slowly reach down, pet him and he wants to be pet so he relaxes and i grab him.  we had my sister's "kittywalk tunnel" up earlier for theo, so we put the cat in there.  he kind of is freaking out, but what cat after being wild for a month wouldn't?  understandable. 

the poor cat was starving and started gulping down the food we had in the tunnel, so josh goes to get a bowl of water for the lil guy (well, he's a big guy, but he's so young and skinny and cute).  i'm on the phone with my sister relaying the story and i noticed the cat is backing towards the door of the tunnel... which josh forgot to lock!  i yell josh! and josh looks and meanwhile the cat is out and down the hill again into the ravine (the ravine is a fenced off area that the city supposedly only has access too... foxes live there ,etc).  so my sister is just not believing us and tells us to recatch the cat.  (her neighbor just remarried, told my sister she finally found the right guy, and they found out he has stage 4 throat cancer, he has 7 year old twins that live with them, she was over at her mom & dad's house that day to make them dinner since her mom just got out of the hospital after having pneumonia... she is just having a real stressful time right now).  so my sister was like get that cat.

so this time i try to lure the cat back up the hill, but he really on guard with me and josh now.  josh hops the ravine fence to see if he can spook the cat back up the hill.  he comes back up but into the neighbor's yard.  i try to walk around but they put up a fence and it's locked... but i can see in.  the cat is still crying and walks over to the dog door he used to use to go in the house and we're telling him "go in... go in" but then the neighbor's llasa apso comes out barking and scares the cat and the cat bolts past josh and he's gone.... this time for good, we fear.

so we go inside, and my sister comes home... all "where is the cat?"  so we tell her and right then we see him back on the patio trying to find the food we had thrown outside.  so my sister tip toes outside, get down on her hands and knees and crawls over to him and gets him!  she wanted to bring him in but josh was like "he's dirty and probably has fleas" so we put him back in the tunnel.  she calls her neighbor, who she said sounded just so stressed and exhausted and we said we'd put the cat in her garage for her when they got home later that night (she said there was a litterbox and food still in there for him). 

so we got out the carrier that my sister's cats go to the vet in and tried to get him to go into it... but he wasn't going and so my sister picked him up and tried to put him in but he starts freaking out.  she's trying to hold on to him but he's scratching her up... i get the blanket and try to use it to somehow wrap him in it but he ends up scratching me, and finally he gets his nails into her neck and she falls to her knees crying trying not to let him go but she has to and he disappears deep into the ravine.  i just got 2 deep cuts on the wrist and 1 long scratch on the arm, but she got 4 deep punctures and scratches on the neck and an assortment of punctures and scratches on her shoulders (like shrapnel hit her).  wth kitty! let us in! let us love you! :)

so we call the neighbor and tell her.  tigger got away (we didn't tell her we had him 1 time already). 

the next day we keep looking outside for him... we left food out there for him.  no sign.  then my sister got a text that evening... the neighbor's son's girlfriend was over and caught him... he was eating happily in the garage.  whew!

my uncle called me today and told me to set my dvr for sunday night at 9pm, channel 101 on directv because he was going to be on.  a show called "hometown heroes" hosted by joan lunden.  he said "they" (which i took to mean the school he works for) are on in the second 30 minutes of the show. 

for some reason i didn't make the connection that he was the hometown hero... i thought it was the school.  but when i found the site describing the 1st episode it says:

A Brighter Future (Watts, CA). Larry Scott, after retiring from a career in corporate real estate, decided to make a difference in education. After becoming Director of Corporate Recruitment at Verbum Dei High School in Watts, the students there now enjoy a remarkable 100% graduation rate.

http://hsus.petfulfillment.com/productdetail.php?productid=1884

Don't let a litter become trash ... Spay or neuter your pet    Encourage cat lovers to spay or neuter their cats by wearing this humorous tee with a Momma cat and trailing kitties, grandkitties, and great-grandkitties showcased from front to back of tee.  A great way to promote the important message of spay or neuter for all to see. 

Thousands of kittens and puppies are born every hour in the United States.  While these baby animals are adorable, the fate of most of them is tragic.  Spaying or neutering our pets is the most effective way to reduce the vast numbers of animals who are born only to die prematurely and without a family who loves them.  Visit humanesociety.org/spayday for more information on Spay Day USA 2008.

ah, tuesday family dinners.  normally it's me, my parents, my (gay) uncle, my great-aunt peg and her two friends, dolores and roberta.  tonight (like the other crazy night previously posted) my uncle loco d came (eek) and so did his wife (ok).  tonight we all got along... but i was seated on the less controversial (or more cordial/polite) side of the table, so who knows what i missed. 

my (gay) uncle was driving me home and mentioned with how much my loco d loves our family but will never be able to accept a gay, like my dad who has always loved him regardless, and he's so tired of being "the gay" in the family.  and i said well, according to loco d, my sister and i are godless and doomed, so we three are all looking at a hot eternity of damnation in his eyes... let's just chalk it up to him "loving" us but not knowing how to love us, and pretty much ignore anything he says.

[intermission.... minutes, almost an hour... goes by]

i had a whole stream of brilliant thoughts, but then i had a phone call from my mom and well, now i'm not sure where i was going.... or who i am.... or if i'm from this world...  but i think the subject title is lovely and expressive.

(side note having nothing to do with anything: i just got a book in the mail today: violence in war and peace: an anthology.  can i just say... super stoked!!)

i used to have my own blog and blog regularly, then i stopped... then i started up here.  then i decided i miss my old blog... then i was trying to blog the same thing at both places cuz i don't know who reads what where.  so in case you're interested... here is my usual, regular blog (well, i'm working on the usual, regular part):

http://www.nanalog.com/darkness/

and meanwhile, i'll do a little of this and a little of that here and there til i figure out what i want to do, or get so lazy i stop one or the other.  :)
 

ah... family night dinner at the country club.  usually its a lot of fun.  tonight... well, not so much.  normally my great-aunt's 2 friends join us... not tonight.  normally my aunt's dementia (or alzheimer's) isn't so bad... no so tonight.  normally my uncle loco d doesn't come... not tonight.  so many things in misalignment, i should have known something would go crazy.

it all started off well enough... then my uncle went into some catholic retreat he went to at the church he goes to.  said "jenny, one day you and your sister are going to have to start thinking about spirituality" and i said "we are spiritual, just in a different way than you are" and he said "i don't know... helps to believe in god and his power" and i just let it drop.  i mean, how much can you really argue when someone is thumping a bible so hard and so loud?

then he continued with the story (it was an all male retreat) and how he thinks that women working creates so much stress on marriages and on raising families today and women should just really stay home.  and i said "i beg to differ there" and he said "well, it's a good thing your mom stayed home or i'd be afraid to see how you and your sister would have turned out"... excuse me?  and i said "just fine thanks" and he said "i don't think so... i was watching from the outside, and its a miracle you both survived and made it" so i said "that's the problem with watching from the outside, you're on the outside and your view is distorted".  but again, thump thump went the bible, and that combined with the fact that the cloud he's on is so far above reality, i imagine it's hard to hear... so i let it drop.

but my mom did not.  and crazy kicked in.  and crazy was let loose. 

i kicked her so many times under the table until she said "jennifer, stop kicking me" and scooted out of my reach.  my dad actually got up and touched her on the shoulder and said this is not the time or place to have this conversation and she still was sticking to her guns.

then my uncle said "are you going crazy?"

uh oh.  words that you never say to my mom.  because they're true.  because they set fire to the gasoline tank of crazy inside her.

one funny part was that she said "funny how you are the ultimate judge, being so catholic".  goooooooooooal! hahaha.

i told lalatxu and she said i should have been like "right on mom!" for sticking up for me and my sister... and maybe i should have.  but i'm kind of tired of being the topic of discussion like we were in college and i heard we were in high school according to my other uncle who went to talk to the principal about my sister and her drug problem, which by the way was totally nonexistent.  looking in from the outside, not always the best perspective.  and i love how no one talked to my parents or talked to us.  they just formed their opinions and started rumors.  that's the best way to help people you want to help, right?  i think it's in the bible somewhere... i'll have to ask my uncle loco d.

so i spent friday with lalatxu and her husband g-dub.  we had lunch after lalatxu got off work (i was her last client) and then did stuff around beverly hills (where we ate lunch - brazilian food yum!).  so at one point she told me how nice and long my hair is getting to which i replied "meh" and she asked if i don't like it or what my problem is.  i said it's because it's always getting all matted homeless style and i hate brushing my hair because it gets big and poofy and when my hair was shorter, i never had to brush it.  (really, i'm extremely low maintenance.)  so she told me "you need to treat your hair like a weave girl" hahaha.  she's probably right.  in costa rica her weave and my hair were crazy messes.  hmmm.