Author: Average Jane

Our studio remodeling project is nearly complete and Sunday was trash day. Our contractor brought a long trailer and helped us load up everything in the room that we didn’t want to keep: a huge C-shaped desk, two file cabinets, my sister’s old "woodgrain" dorm fridge, a hideous office chair from the 50s, broken computers, outdated peripherals, orphaned power cords, tons of 3.5" floppies (I didn’t even bother to look through and see what they were), obsolete software and manuals, etc., etc., etc.

The desk pieces were ridiculously heavy, as were most of the giant sacks of trash.

By mid-afternoon, I was so tired that I could barely move. I managed to rouse myself to prepare a truly inferior batch of penne pasta with roasted red pepper sauce, which gave me the energy to make a trip to OfficeMax. When I returned home with hanging file frames for the file drawers my husband had given me (we traded file cabinets), I put one together, filled it with files and then found myself sitting on the floor for fifteen minutes just zoning out.

Now that the most prominent junk is gone, we still have at least eight tubs of stuff that we’ll need to go through, piece by piece, and either put away, file or trash.

Tonight I’ll probably set up my computer and printer in my new office and finish nesting. I don’t know if I’ll go through both of my giant Rubbermaid tubs o’ stuff, but maybe I’ll take a stab at one. Or maybe not. Just thinking about it makes me want to lie down.

Yesterday morning I took my tabby cat, Friday, to the vet. As usual, catching her was a delicate operation. It involved tiptoeing up the basement stairs to make sure the carrier didn’t rattle, silently setting down and opening the carrier, grabbing the cat from the nest of coats in which she was resting, and stuffing her in the carrier as swiftly as possible.

Friday is the most vocal of my three cats about being taken for a car ride. I discovered that she’d stay quiet if I stuck my fingers through the mesh of the carrier door and scratched her chin, but she leaned on my fingers so hard I was afraid I was going to pull them back bruised.

The vet’s office seemed to contain a hundred barking, whining dogs. Friday yowled her displeasure from the carrier in the waiting room. When we got to the exam room, it took a great deal of effort to pry her out of the carrier and she kept wanting to find a way back in.

The vet had no trouble with the exam, shots and claw clipping. However, during the exam she thought she detected a heart murmur. It was hard to tell whether it was a symptom of vet’s office stress or a legitimate health issue, but she recommended some blood tests to rule out thyroid problems, etc. Since Friday is almost sixteen-and-a-half years old, I agreed that it sounded like a good idea.

That’s where the problems started. Friday weighs less than seven pounds, but she’s from scrappy, alley cat stock. She was not at all on board with the idea of having another needle stuck in her for any reason, so even with me and a veterinary assistant holding her, she managed to jerk away before the vet could draw any blood.

The vet tried for neck veins twice, front leg veins twice and a back leg vein once, but Friday just twisted away and got more and more agitated. At some point, she managed to gouge two scratches into the top of my left hand with her back feet. She was stressing out, I was stressing out and the vet finally had to give up.

Once I got her back home, she seemed fine. Unfortunately, we’re scheduled to try again next Saturday.

I really don’t need a special day to meditate on the things for which I’m thankful; I’m aware of them all the time. My husband and I often talk about how fortunate we are to lead the lives we do.

We have each other, lots of close friends and relatives, a house that’s exactly right for us, cuddly cats, engaging professions and hobbies, ample food, minimal debt, and reliable vehicles. Beyond that, there are thousands of little things that make our lives happier and more fulfilling. With all that in mind, any complaints seem ridiculous and petty.

I’d like to give a special ‘thank you’ to everyone who reads this blog, as well as everyone whose blogs I read. You’ve all given me wonderful glimpses into your lives.

For those of you in the U.S. – Happy Thanksgiving! For everyone else, enjoy your Thursday.

It took me 22 days, but I’ve finally hit a NaBloPoMo wall. I keep trying to think of a post topic, but absolutely nothing is coming to me. Thus, I’ll fall back on a couple of links to keep this ball rolling:

• Zamzar – This sounded useful; it’s a free online file conversion tool that handles conversions of the majority of common document, image, music and video file formats.
• Messages from the cats
  – I know everyone’s seen these a bazillion times, but I still think
  they’re funny. I have "Im in ur room steeln ur drive!" as my wallpaper
  right now.

Okay, that really was just a couple. I tried to find a third, but it wasn’t to be.

Come back tomorrow for some Thanksgiving-y goodness (I hope).

This morning, I took my six-year-old niece to school and stuck around for "Grandparents and Special Friends Day." I guess "aunt" falls under the "special friends" category in this instance. My sister told me that my niece was so excited that I was going to her school that she couldn’t sleep last night. Aww.

When we arrived at the school, the principal greeted my niece by name and shook my hand when I introduced myself. We went to my niece’s classroom and I sat in a rocking chair in the corner while she hung up her things and sat down at her desk to begin coloring what looked like it would eventually be a 3-D raccoon dressed as a pilgrim.

I joined the class in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and then made my way to the auditorium after the morning announcements. It was packed. Most of the attendees seemed to be grandparents.

The children put on a choral program of African folk songs and I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t sink a little when I picked up the program and counted 17 different songs. Fortunately, the songs were short and the music director got the kids from each grade on and off the stage pretty efficiently.

When my niece got on stage with the rest of the first graders, I saw her scanning the crowd for me so I waved when she looked in my direction. She waved back.

Her class performed their Ugandan folk song and Zulu "amusement song" with enthusiasm and many hand gestures.

I was tempted to duck out after her class had filed off the stage and my niece had given me one last wave as she walked by, but instead I politely listened to the other half of the program and left after it ended.

It’s been many years since I last sat in a first grade classroom and it was a treat to get to see my niece with her classmates. I’ll be sending her a nice thank-you note for inviting me.

This morning I volunteered at a not-for-profit spay/neuter clinic. A friend of mine has been volunteering there for a while and asked if I’d be interested in joining her in the cat post-surgery recovery room.

The clinic operates one day per month in the location where we went. The surgery is performed by volunteer vets and veterinary students. At each session, they spay and neuter as many dogs and cats as time and resources allow.

The recovery room had four long utility tables with towel-wrapped cats arranged around the perimeter. I was a little surprised to see that all of the cats’ eyes were open even though they were unconscious. I commented to one of the volunteers that the cats must feel kind of uncomfortable when they wake up after all that time with their eyes open. "I blink for them," she said, and demonstrated by lightly pinching one of her cats’ eyes closed.

It wasn’t long before I had two crashed-out cats in my charge. My job was to trim their claws, clean out their ears, check for tapeworms, sponge off any blood with hydrogen peroxide, turn them over every 15 minutes, and keep them wrapped up and warm. The warmth came from tube socks stuffed with rice that had been heated in the microwave.

The cats were as limp as wet dishrags and it was delightfully easy to handle the claw clipping and ear cleaning. One volunteer kept a timer and would announce every quarter hour, "Time to turn your cats."

At first I turned them over towel and all, but eventually realized it was easier to just unwrap the towel, turn the cat over and re-wrap.

Most of the cats belonged to people, but a significant number were either feral or up for adoption. Those cats were the most likely to have fleas, ear mites and worms. Asleep, they were all equally pettable and easy to work with, but the volunteers were always advised of which ones were feral and likely to get aggressive when the anesthetic wore off.

As the morning wore on, my cats woke up one by one and were put in their carriers and replaced with new boneless kitties for me to clean up, swaddle and pet until they awoke. The two volunteers to my right were kids and they’d periodically ask me to clip their cats’ claws for them. One of their cats was soaked with pee and I had to wash my hands about five times to get the smell to go away.

After about four hours, some other friends of ours arrived and we took the opportunity to pass the care of our final cats to them and go home.

I do a lot of different kinds of volunteer work, but I found this experience to be particularly satisfying. I think it’s going to become a regular part of my monthly schedule.

It’s been a very low-key day. I slept late and ran some errands. It’s now 6:30 p.m. and I’m bundled up on the couch with the laptop, a cat, and "Running With Scissors," of which I’ve read 243 pages since I woke up. I think it’s safe to say I’ll finish it shortly.

Earlier today, I got tired of hearing our kitchen sink dripping, so I unscrewed the aerator, took it to the hardware store, bought a new one, installed it and…watched the faucet continue to drip unabated. That’s about the time I gave up trying to accomplish anything today.

I didn’t want to skip out on my NaBloPoMo obligation, though, so here’s today’s post. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that tomorrow’s will be much better.