I want my effing cat back...

So the gods of heaven and earth have decided to smite me in some bizarre twist of karmic retribution... My beloved cat Garfield has gone missing. Now I'm not sure if everyone knows but I love my cats like they are my own children. So, I awoke this morning with hope that my beloved would be waiting outside for me to let her inside. When that didn't happen I then put in calls to the local vets because Pella lacks an animal shelter. (Mind you that I cried during all of these calls...disgusting). They put her in the system, then I had call and file a missing kitty report with the Pella Police department. I found this a little ridiculous that the Police department had to be involved. Just goes to show what a small town Pella is, instead of missing persons they deal with missing cats. The bizarre thing is that only yellow short hair cats seem to go missing around this town. Right now including G there are three missing yellow short haired cats. My sister is convinced that some satanic cult kidnapped my cat. I don't care who effing took her, they had just better let my baby go home. AND NOW. Garfield was an incredibly special cat and I really hope that she gets returned home safe and sound. Plus Odie is missing her older sister....

and I am not chocking Odie....it just looks like it :(

Fall is almost my favorite season...

Early fall just may be the best time of the year. It would be my favorite season if only it did not precede the dreaded winter. The weather has been close to perfect and all the little kids are in school so that means that Riley and I can do whatever we want with out other kids around!! Right now my life is full of going to the park, taking walks to the cemetery, and reading outside while Riley is off torturing whatever poor insect crosses his path. And my gardens are doing great so I can look at pretty flowers while I am outside. Looking at it in writing seems fairly boring, and a way it is....but it is also kinda fun.

Right now I am re-reading Sherman Alexie's Lone Ranger and Tonto; and it always surprises me how powerful, depressing and funny he can be at the same time. Some of my favorite passages from this book are:

"He could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly" &

"Well, I told her the doctor showed me X-rays and my favorite tumor was just about the size of a baseball, shaped like one too. Even had stitch marks."

Of course it doesn't hurt that my birthday is in the fall...and who can forget Halloween(the best holiday ever!!!). Now that I am home I get to take Chloe and Riley trick or treating. And decorate with lots of cool creepy things, and oh buddy do we have some great decorations this year. I'm pretty excited for my birthday because I get to hang out with some old high school friends that I never get to see. It will be something different. I am definitely not making another trip to Ia City for my birthday.

A Brand New Day

"We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course." Memoirs of a Geisha

Life is strange sometimes, and mine never seems to turn out "right". It has been more than a year since I left college. Back then I was in a completely different place. I was living life the way I thought it should be lived. The adjustment from living on my own, around all of my friends to living at home with my crazy unstable family, and being utterly friendless threw me. I am not going to lie about that. I have spent the past year in total turmoil, and depression. I fought the path that my life had taken and ended up fighting with everyone around me. I was very unhappy.

I don't know why it is that I am suddenly feeling very at peace with myself and my surroundings. I still am friendless. But now I feel like I am swimming with the current instead of against it. It is not like my life has dramatically improved or that my financial downfall has been resolved. It's just that I don't feel unhappy. I'm still not happy in Pella, but maybe I am a little less unhappy with my life. Perhaps it is acceptance, but I kinda feel like I am alive again.

"Ya-hey' he called out to the movement of the unseen. A summer before, Uncle Moses listened to his nephew John-John, talking a story. John-John was back from college and told Moses that 99 percent of matter in the universe is invisible to the human eye. Ever since Moses made sure to greet what he could not see." Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.