break it down

Here is the deal. I typed this up Sunday morning. Early. Like crack o' dawn early. I didn't post it yesterday because I didnt have time to go back and read it and fix it if it was a total mes, so I was going to do that today. Which I did not have time to do, either.
So here it is. Messy. Rambling and full of typos. And probably off by a day (like when I say yesterday, that's really the day before yesterday--ya' dig?).
Actually, my blog is probably always this much of a mess hahaha. I mean, there must be 18 kajillon parentheses in this post. And elipses. Yay me.

My suggestion is that you just move along, to be honest with you.
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Ok, let me see if I can do some catching up here. This will probably be long and rambly. Move along, or grab your beverage of choice.
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Friends. Let me start with an update about friends. At some point this past year (do not make me scroll back through my own blog to find out when or to make links for you...I mean, I don't flip back through the pages of written journals regularly, either), I was kvetching about not having friends. Or having them, but not spending time with them. I was having all of my days filled with solitude, or MyFavoriteKid, or old folks that I would visit at the convalescent hospital when I volunteer there. All good activities and people to spend time with, but totally out of balance with my need to also have time with friends.

Well, I don't know how long ago that was, but let me tell you -- I made one very solid concerted effort to change things -- and it has worked. I now set aside time for friends, I have people over, I go visit people, I speak to people on the phone regularly, I go on outings with friends, I go to group events, I have even tried very hard to make new friends (someone should remind me to post about TheMostImportantGuy placing a personal ad to find friends for me----hahaha. It was hilarious).

Anyhow, it has been good. Very good. My life feels much different and much improved. I have also learned (again) quite a bit about the need to acutally DO something if I really WANT something (novel concept).

So out of all the things I wanted to do to improve my friendship time, the process of finding new friends here in the new neighborhood since moving up here last summer, was proving to be the most difficult. I wasn't really connecting with anyone through school functions or through MyFavoriteKid's buddies (in fact, all of the friends he made at school last year? None of the parents spoke english. Planning playdates was sooo much fun). I couldn't find a knitting group here that met at a time I could go. And I was making acquaintances with neighbors, but not anyone I would totally connect with. But then a couple of weeks ago, I met Bridget.
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Bridget. (excuse me, let me get more coffee. maybe you should, too) (ok, back. yum) So I'm in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago and I round the corner to get cat toys, which are way down the other end of the very long aisle. Just as I round the corner, the lady who is standing at the other end of the aisle, directly in front of the cat toys, looks up, points at me, in that, "hey! I know you!!" style, and starts waving. As I approach, I realize I know her from somewhere, but now sure how or where. She, on the other hand, is talking like she knows me. I just let her talk for a bit until I can try to figure it out.

Now, this gal talks as much (more, actually), and as openly, as I do (and that's no easy feat). She's got streaks dyed into her hair (so do I) and is wearing braided pig tails (I'm in a ponytail). She's wearing a quirky t-shirt (so am I). They just moved into the area last year (so did we). They came from the East Bay (so did we). She hasn't been able to make new friends up here (me neither). She has an 11 year old son in 6th grade (so do I). She had her first son when she was a bit older (me too, so we're very close in age). Their family just rescued 2 kittens a couple of weeks ago (we rescued one, too), hence us both being on the aisle with the kitty toys. She works very part time, and has lots of volunteer jobs (me, too).

And so there we are 30 minutes later, hanging on the cat food aisle, and we're laughing and talking and exchanging phone numbers (and we both still have cell phone numbers in our old area code), and we're wondering if the boys know each other from school, and we're making plans to get them together, but if they don't hit if off....well, screw it...we'll be friends without them...but hey, wouldn't it be cool and easy if they were buddies, too.

I still don't recall meeting her before, exactly...but she's talked long enough for me to figure out that it had something to do with back to school night at the middle school.

So we play phone tag during the week and both of us leave rambling chatty voicemails, and then on Wednesday she brings her kid over after school. The boys know of each other, and have a mutal acquaintances, but never really hung out. They hit it off instantly, and we barely see them for the rest of the afternoon.

Several hours later, and Bridget and I know all about each others family and childhoods, and interests, and I am telling you: this woman and I are cut of the same friggin' cloth. I am not even kidding. Except she doesn't knit. But I can work on that ;-) hahahahaha

I also finally figure out how we met on back to school night (because she reminded me). The parents met in the gym that night, but had to cross the campus to tour the classrooms. The pathway was closed for construction and they had us detouring over wet grass. I was in my wheelchair, but also holding crutches, and I was fine on my own but would have been better if someone could carry the crutches, so I turned around and basically handed them to a total stranger (that would be Bridget) without much discussion (which is unusual for me because usually I am stubborn and wont accept help or ask for it either). She just took them and handed them back after the grass with very little discussion about it. I like that.

Anyhow. We exchange voicemails the next day, Thursday, about how cool it was to hook up. And then comes Friday morning, Halloween, when Bridget becomes the bringer of the chaos (and this is only half of the chaos...there is a whole 'nother half brought by our kids, but that might have to wait for tomorrow, because this damn post is already too long).
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Chaos. So it's Friday morning. I have just gotten MyFK off to school, the phone rings, and it's Bridget.

"Ooooh my god!! I have a kitten in the car! EldestSon was at the bus stop and their was a stray kitten, and the bus was coming and he didn't know what to do and so he called me and MADE me come down and get him and so I did, and oh my god...he is SO cute...and he meowed and he ran to me...and he is in my car...and, oh my god....you have to see him...I am just around the corner and you have to see him."

"You are trying to get me to take the kitten, aren't you."

"Nooooonooooo...but you just have to see him and I only have a minute because I have to help out at the school with the Halloween parade and I need to get my costume on and...ooooh, he is sooooooo cute....."

"Fine fine FINE (laughing). But I am still in my pajamas, though."

"I haven't brushed my teeth and I don't have any underwear on yet."
(I love this woman. Serioulsy. I have only known her for a few days, and we're already talking about underpants hahaha).

SO. She comes over. Kitten is a.dor.a.ble. I know, they all are. And they all grow up to be CATS. Shut up. I mean, just look:





So he's cute, and she has to go to the school, and there is no way her husband will let her take in a 3rd kitty. And maybe the neighbor will, but who knows. Well, silly me can't stand the kitten being left alone while she goes to the school, so I have her leave him with me. I set him up in the den with his own cat box and some food and water, and he is soooo friendly and sweet and filthy, so I clean him up some, too. Bridget comes back in a couple of hours and picks up the kitten and takes home the extra cat box, and whatnot.

Later that evening, I am slated to go to her house. The boys are going to go trick-or-treating with Bridget's hubby, she and I are going hand out candy (we're both in costume), and when the kids come back, I am going to drive them to the Middle School Dance (that's where Phase II of the chaos comes...but honestly, it's not really chaos. It's drama. Or pre-teen angst or something. More on that later, like I said).

While I am at Bridget's house, I go visit the kitten, who is in the garage (we'd both been keeping him separate from our own animals because he probably has worms and lord knows what else). The kitten is totally freaked out. He runs up to me and jumps on my like he is dying, and it really is a little cold and damp in there, and big and lonely, and the trick or treaters outside making a racket are totally freaking him out.

You know where this is going, right?
Yes.
The kitten is back in my den. *sigh*

Ok, so TheMostImportantGuy drives up to spend the night in the den with the kitten because he is crying and lonely, and if I leave my own pets alone in the rest of the house, they are whining and freaking out. Come Saturday morning (yesterday), I am on number 2 on the wait list at the vet for a cancellation, but they probably cannot see me 'til Monday. Meanwhile, I am trying to get this all coordinated to somehow not screw up my trip to the yarn store and spending time with FRIENDS (see, nice little loop, eh?).

I have no idea if I am keeping the kitten. I won't let my pets get physically near him yet, but they have made visual contact, and it has not been good. NewBlackKitten hisses at dog and starts flipping out, and Gaara (the existing cat) growls at NewBlackKitten. It could get ugly.

So we shall see.
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Ok, I am officially sick to death of typing. And I'm also out of coffee.


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If you made it this far: I told you. What a mess. Thanks for sticking it out, though ;-)