glamour shots

from sunday to tuesday of this week i was on the freshman retreat, and miss ruby stayed at a cat boarding place near my house that i found online - great reviews, facebook page with cute pictures of the kitties - i was sold.

i arrive to drop her off and...so, you know how in a christmas carol scrooge is shown what the future will look like if he doesn't change his behavior?  i was shown my future.  the ladies who run the boarding place are crazy cat ladies who talk in baby talk to the cats (her: "ruby tuuuuuuesday!" while scratching ruby under her chin.  ruby: shocked face at me and inner dialogue of "who is this weird lady who is holding me??") and know all the cats' names (she introduced me to many cats as we walked back to ruby's crate) and ascribe human characteristics to them and take in any cat they find (they were bottle feeding 10 day old kittens when i arrived) and tried to pawn off kittens on me (her: "ruby tuesday needs a friend!  you could name her ruby monday!" me: "ummmm...").  but people: I TALK WEIRD TO RUBY.  I ASCRIBE HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS TO HER.  I COULD BECOME THEM!!!!  it was like the warning that scrooge got from the ghost of christmas future.  i can't become a crazy cat lady!!

when i got over the initial shock of these loony ladies, i decided that actually, you want crazy cat ladies running a cat boarding place.  they loved on ruby and she came back happy and no worse for wear.  she is going back there this weekend when i go out of town (one of my new friends invited me and several of her other friends to her parents' vacation house for the weekend!).  me, when picking ruby up: "do you have availability next weekend?  i know it's a holiday weekend...?" cat lady, immediately: "yes.  we'll take her." (then consults schedule to see if there is availability.)

the best part?  THE PLACE TAKES GLAMOUR SHOTS OF YOUR KITTY AND SENDS THEM TO YOU WHILE YOU'RE GONE.

email #1, received 5 hours after dropping ruby off:

Here are a few photos of Rubys first day at the 'Inn' And she is already on our Facebook page.
You relax. Miss Ruby is in good hands 
Herman: Staff Photographer

ruby has never looked so cute!

the next day, i get email #2, subject line "rubys first adventure":

Hi Momma Claire 
Here are some photos I think you might enjoy Ruby, by the way, is doing just fine. She goes around 'hissing' at the other kitties letting them know she is the Boss! She's a cat with 'Cat-a-Tude': That's my kinda'a kitty :) 
Herman: Staff Photographer

you cannot make this shit up.

please note the captions.

1. i ate these photos UP and loved getting them.
2. i will totally be bringing ruby back to this place.  duh.
3. ruby is famous and was on their facebook page twice.  she got some "likes."  i was so pleased.  HA. see: this is how you become a crazy cat lady!  it is so easy!  slippery slope!
4. THIS IS NOT A FANCY CAT BOARDING PLACE!  i feel the need to tell people that.  this is a normal place with average prices.  they are just loony cat people who love my kitty.
5. they have a staff photographer!?!?  (slash retired guy who needs to fill his time.)

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
--Nelson Mandela

a photo a day

Last night's rural Texas sunset!

i'm heading out to a camp in rural texas for the freshman retreat for three days - low ropes course, swimming a lake, bad food, bonding activities with the kids, sleeping in a sleeping bag, etc.  i am told the cabins have air conditioning, though (whew).  ruby is off to a cat boarding place and is blissfully unaware at the moment (sorry, ruby).  full report to come when i return!

what i'm listening to right now

this is pretty incredible - dolly parton singing "jolene," but slowed down.  it changes her voice dramatically!  it's gorgeous!  i may or may not be listening to this on repeat right now.

a kitten a day

today's theme: ruby likes small spaces.

she figured out how to get BEHIND the blinds on my bedroom windowsill and proceeded to sit there contentedly for 15 minutes before attacking the blinds for no good reason and then jumping down.

why lie on my lap while we watch tv on the couch?  fitting into this small space between my leg and the back of the couch is a much better place to nap.

playing behind books on the bookshelf is so much fun!  who cares how many i knock over.  (this may be my favorite picture of the bunch - i love how she is peeking over the books to say hello.)

text message update

i've received two more texts intended for the past owner of my phone number:

"chotey.  aik payment aur please."  analysis: this person owes somebody some money and maybe they speak arabic.  i have decided that some of these words are arabic.

"how much to fix ipad screen" um, my person is a computer technician?  in addition to maybe a muslim escort based on past texts?  the mystery continues.

graduation advice

i love this - "err in the direction of kindness"

raspberry-peach sorbet

i made sorbet in my food processor!  it's from a real simple recipe and was every bit as easy as described.  i'm not an ice cream person - it's too sweet - but i do love sorbets.  thought i'd give this recipe a try.

ingredients in food processor - frozen raspberries and peaches, tiny bit of sugar, salt.  i also added some hot water when the mixture turned out to be pretty thick and hard to blend, so i'd suggest you do the same if you make it.

not pictured: terrified kitten during the 5 minutes of loud processing.

finished sorbet!  it was a pretty good sorbet consistency when it came out, but i put it in the freezer for a couple hours before i ate it anyway.  it firmed up a bit.

making sorbet is like magic!  delicious, delicious magic.

someone else's phone number

i have a new phone from work and new houston cell phone number (let me know if you don't have the number and want it - i tried to pass it along, but may have missed some people!).  with a new phone number comes the remnants of the previous owner's life.  in the past week i have received:

a daily koran verse to pray, via text message, which continues to come every day even though i replied letting the person know the phone number is in new hands.

a text message giving me an address and time and that is it.

a text message asking me if i have any appointments available on friday after 6pm.

i am having a hard time imagining the life of my phone number's previous owner based on these details.  it is so mysterious!

a photo a day

I have the cutest kitten on the planet. This is my favorite part of having a kitten - snuggling!

She does not like to snuggle all the time, though. This was when we were trying to quiet down and go to sleep. Ruby was not cooperating; she learned how to jump from the bed to the dresser, sliding in as she landed across the smooth wood. Seems a liiiiiittle dangerous, but she is not deterred.  And no necklace is safe any more!

a photo a day

New notepads are the best, aren't they? I love buying pretty notepads and brightening up my desk at work. I have to remember that they aren't too pretty to use, though!

a screenshot a day

Oh that's right - I got to meet baby Ryan on FaceTime today!!! So so good to catch up with the new mama and dad and say hi to my new buddy!

back to work!

i went back to work on wednesday and we hit the ground running with a college admissions bootcamp for the senior class.  i may have learned as much as the kids.  i was THAT GIRL checking her text messages all day, though, because BABY RYAN ARRIVED!  our group of atlanta friends loves to send epic group texts, and when mike texted at 3am to say he and kelly were headed to the hospital, a flurry of texts followed, with updates from mike a couple times during the day.  baby ryan was born at 1pm and looks pretty smushy and adorable.  i need to video chat with him pronto, but i guess i will let his parents get their feet under them first.

thursday was ruby's first day home alone while i was at work, and boy was she happy to see me when i got home after 9 hours.  we had 45 minutes of fight-loving, which is where ruby alternates between snuggling and purring loudly...and trying to bite off my fingers ("playing" with me).  pretty adorable.

friday was another work day, with more new faculty meetings and deans' office meetings and student parking organization (one of my duties this year), capped off by me discovering at 3pm that we are 20 spaces short after promising all the juniors and seniors they could park on campus.  oops.  to be continued...  i got an iphone 5 from work (!!) and am making the transition to my new houston number and fancy phone.  ruby discovered the loft in my apartment and gave me several heart attacks as she navigated the stairs (good thing they're carpeted and her claws can hold her up in them because she definitely tried to fall off).  she also discovered that she can go behind the washing machine, into a space that seems too tiny for a kitten.  i guess she knows what she's doing, though.

today was waking up at 6:30 because the kitten did...playing and snuggling with her to make up for leaving her alone so much...a yoga class...a pedicure...and more playing and snuggling.  weekends are the best.

“Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
--Roald Dahl

text message conversation

me: ruby at work

becky: was she going through some student files?  summarizing chapters for you in your world history textbook?  responding to parent emails?

me: she tried to input some data in a spreadsheet but it wasn't the data i wanted.  lots of ====

ruby got to come to work with me because she threw up six times in the first three days i owned her.  this is, as you might imagine, a problem when you weigh only two pounds and are a skinny kitty to begin with.  we went to the vet and had lots of tests run and everything came back normal...she got fluids and antibiotics because the vet thinks it is an intestinal infection/virus/whatever...i had a mini break down because it was so sad to see her so sick (mom talked me down, one of her best skills as a mom)...i brought her to work the next day so i could feed her tiny meals every couple hours...she was the hit of the office...and the antibiotics appear to be working because she hasn't thrown up since!  she's eating lots and growing a fat kitten belly that makes me very happy.  whew.  those were a stressful couple of days.

spring rolls

i made spring rolls!  my friends dominique and justin showed me how to make them this year in new york, and i wanted to make them again - they're delicious and so easy.  i found the wrappers at the fancy grocery store nearby that has a great asian food aisle...

i filled them with udon noodles (i guess you're supposed to use skinnier noodles, but this is what i had in my pantry), cabbage, carrots, basil, and tofu...

and then did a bad, but edible, job rolling them up.  i dipped them in a peanut sauce i found in the same grocery aisle.  delicious!  i'll be doing this again soon.

a kitten a day

she has officially been named: ruby!  becky suggested the name and i love it.  i made a vet's appointment and gave them that name so there's no going back now.

ruby is living up to a lot of cat stereotypes. patch of sunlight?  why yes, she would like to roll around it in.  cuteness overload.

a photo a day

Things I have done today:
Successfully spent the night in the bathroom by myself (with only minimal whining) so my mom could actually sleep.

Used the litter box - hooray!

Eaten my breakfast so fast I threw it up. Oops. 

Scared myself with my reflection in the mirror. 

Attacked my mom's toes. Toes under a blanket are VERY exciting. 

Insisted on cuddling in my mom's neck whenever possible. I am adorable. 

Aaaand it is only 9am. More fun to come!

(This blog will probably feature miss kitty a LOT this week.  I promise to calm down eventually!)

a photo a day

This little one came home with me today! She likes to explore and meow, but most of all she likes to snuggle and purr. She's pretty awesome already.

Stats:

2.1 pounds

10 weeks old

No name yet. Suggestions, please!

july: 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24

books i was supposed to read this summer and didn't: the world history textbook i'll be teaching from next year.  oops.  yes, that's right: i'm teaching world history for the first time - asia, africa, europe, the americas, australia...from 1400 to the present.  this makes me nervous, because when i taught US history it from was 1600 to the present...for one country.  while i'll have no problem finding content to cover this year, i'm nervous about deciding WHAT content is worth spending our time on.  and, you know, i'm not exactly an expert on world history.  eek.

instead of reading that textbook, i read these books this month!  i'm excellent at avoiding work i don't want to do...

the college admissions mystique, by bill mayher (because i'm going to be a college counselor in my new job!  this book was the assigned reading for the college admissions "bootcamp" i'm currently attending in connecticut, and i actually really enjoyed this book.  see!  i did do SOME required reading this summer!  i don't imagine many of my blog readers are going to college themselves soon or have a child about to apply to college, but if you know anyone who does, this book is a great overview of the process.  a little dated - he talks about getting applications on CD-ROM from different universities and filling them out on your computer.  woah.  but some things, of course, don't change.)

a visit from the goon squad, by jennifer egan (i was going to start out this little review by saying that this book had too many characters and i couldn't figure out who anyone was or how they knew each other and it was very confusing.  but no: i am not going to blame my brain for not keeping these characters straight.  i read all the game of thrones books and they have a majillion characters and i have no trouble organizing them in my mind.  i am going to blame this author for very little character development...i didn't care about these people or their lives or how they were connected.  and who the hell is the goon squad?  and why do we change time periods so much?  and why does the future suck so badly?  i almost gave up on this one several times, but stuck it out...and you know what, i can't recommend that you do that.  so there.  whew.  feels good to get that off my chest.  i'm interested, though: have any of you out there read this?  any positive reactions?)

code name verity, by elizabeth wein (this was my book club's pick this month, a young adult novel about two british girls - a pilot and a spy - who are stuck in occupied france during world war 2.  it had a great story line, but the book is written as journal entries, which i think rarely works perfectly to tell a story. while reading this book i often thought that there was NO WAY that someone would write such-and-such in her diary...but the author had to have them do that to explain a character or advance the plot or something.  that annoyance aside, a good read!)

a history of the world in 6 glasses, by tom standage (this is the summer reading book that rising 10th graders at my new school read before taking world history, so again: i did SOME work this summer!  the premise of the book is that you can tell the story of world history through six drinks that affected society: beer in mesopotamia, wine in the mediterranean, spirits in the british colonies, coffee in england, tea in china and the british colonies, and coca-cola in america and then around the world.  interesting premise, cool information...slightly bizarre that we assign a book that is 50% about alcohol to 15 year olds, but whatever.  history nerds among you might enjoy this one!)

the yonahlossee riding camp for girls, by anton disclafani (this is a new-ish book that was getting a lot of positive press, so i got it from the library.  it takes place in 1930 in blowing rock, nc - near where i grew up! - which i didn't know when i got the book but made me like it even more.  the main character gets sent to boarding school because of some mysterious wrong that she committed at home, which the author doesn't illuminate until 2/3 of the way through the book.  i keep thinking that this wrong was going to be minor and i was going to be pissed that it took so long for the author to tell me about it, but it turned out to be worth the suspense and a good book overall.  a quick read, too, but well-written.  i'd definitely recommend it!)

“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?”
--Henry David Thoreau