on the cat-walk

Today i had a very moving experience. It was one of those things that for some reason you just feel like you have to share with everyone. like every person in the world should experience this and you wish you could all experience it together. perhaps in a perfect world this is what would happen, but as we know my life does not constitute perfect. or worldly.

Here's what happened:

I had a Dr's appointment today. they called me yesterday to inform me i had this appointment. BUT when i called last week because they simply stopped refilling my prescription (that's generally their kind and courteous way of telling me it's time for another appointment), they mentioned nothing of the sort. in fact, i was told that since i hadn't been there since 08, i must schedule a new appointment, the earliest being oct 16. she also preceded this with 'well of course they wont refill it. you haven't been here since 08. i guess you need an appointment . but you're NOT GOING TO LIKE IT." (wtf?) i 'd also like to point out that this is medicine i have been taking for like 5 years, so really, what do they think has changed? they just want my 90 bucks (thanks for not taking health insurance!). so then she schedules me for this one, and proceeds to call me to remind me of an appt i apparently already had scheduled. unfortunately i had work and class and did not find this out til post 5pm. so i had to call in work and say i was goingto be late or these people were going to charge me for the appt anyway and blah blah.

i was annoyed.

but i went. because i need me some drugs. the doctor's great. just his administrative people are less than stellar. but anyway. the whole ordeal left me annoyed. BUT WAIT.

here's the interesting part of what happened:

i go to walk out the main door of the building only to find that i might hit a woman with the door. so i slowly open it and say excuse me. lady turns around to look at me and my eyes look from her eyes to her hand to the leash she was holding to the HUGE CAT ON THE LEASH.

let's talk about this. I say excuse me to woman. woman mumbles something seemingly friendly. i cannot ignore the fact that this short ish, mid 40s woman is holding a leash that is attached to a collar that is around the neck of a fat fat fatty cat. in a parking lot. outside an office building.

how did this woman come to be here? why is this cat tolerating the fact that it is leashed? i did not think cats stood for that sort of shenangins.

seeing as i cannot just ignore this ..this .. miracle? is that what it is? i just don't know what else i could call it. So i say ' my! what a well-trained cat! i've never seen a cat on a leash before. i didn't know they would tolerate it'. to which my new friend replied by telling me the cat was 15 years old. i am not sure if that was supposed to be an answer to my comment, or simply a fun fact.

all of this was done while i was still moving and walking away towards my car. by the time i get to my car i see her strolling this cat over to what is presumably her friend's/ family member's/lover's car. but now she is weaving through the parked cars slowly, and SINGING to her cat. i am not sure what. but she is roving through a big parking lot, cat on a leash, singing.

america.

that right there is just the heart and soul of america. and i am honored to have been part of it. i wish them well. they seemed like a nice, if slightly unique, pair.

as i explained previously, this was a moment i felt i needed to share. and if you were so lucky (or unlucky depending on how much you like or dislike my asinine commentary on life) you may have recieved a text message about this beautiful moment.

here are some of my replies that i think are quite telling of both me and the content of many of these blog posts, i hope the author's don't mind:

Tony: " :) your life has so many bright spots"
Simone: "hahaha thats great, you always run into the best people"
Jenn : "I wish you were actually being taped for candid camera in that moment so i could see the look on your face when she began to sing. or just looking at the cat"
Danielle: "Dear lord, thats amazing. Only could happen in your life though"

clearly my friends agree that things like this happen to me in order to somehow improve my life. fate. glorious glorious cat on a leash fate.



video: apparently lots of people put cats on leashes. wtf cats. you should all be ashamed.

tornado watch? really nj?

" ITS RAININ' SIDEWAYS!"


I see it has been a while since i last posted. which is odd because i feel like i have had many many stories i have been meaning to write here. hopefully i will catch up. not to mention my ongoing quest of transcribing my journal from last years european adventure. but today i had an interest life experience. one of those things that really make you grow as a person i think. let me tell you this tale.

i wake up to my schnauzer alarm clock. it's been quite unbelievable lately. her internal clock is essentially lined up to wake me up 15 minutes before my internal clock and external alarm clock tell me its time to drag myself out of bed. at first i thought perhaps she just wanted to announce it was raining, but then when i stumbled downstairs all squinty eyed and yawny, she actually went outside when i opened the door. there was thunder and everything.. she was legit.

i then get ready, my lights flashing the whole time i am in the shower. i smartly (aka lazily) decided that it was not important to really dry my hair as it was raining and i might get wet (future insane understatement). i drive to work at brookdale, and decide against every instinct in me that i should choose to park close to my building on campus rather than park in the super far lot and be bribed by the free coffee they are handing out there to entice students and faculty to use that lot. parking is insane there. apparently community colleges are really on the rise. obama is all about it.

so .no free things. sigh. not that i really even like coffee that much. but i could have filled up my free mug with free coffee. so i park in the close lot, sorely missing my potential free potables... and then i close my door and go to get my umbrella. but whats this? oh! my window is down. all the way.

perhaps i should have told you. my car window is broken. it broke a few weeks ago, when pretty much everything in my life went wrong for a week. it just decided to not go back up. but it costs at least 200 dollars to fix because apparently they have to take apart the whole door. thats poor. thats just poor planning. i would have planned better. so since its breaking, you might catch me casually stepping out of my car, locking it, and then casually taking a Fonz like hand and giving the window a swift lift where it generally stays up until i start driving again (note: it is so stupid to lock it since all you have to do is poke the window and you can essentially walk into the big gaping hole that creates and steal all my cds, directions, atlases, strange wooden jewelry, pennies, pens that don't work, and library books...more on the strange things i keep in my car later. they'd have to pop the trunk to get to the oversized polyester khaki pants (not even mine), childrens coloring book, and bagged container of motor oil that i keep in a shoebox).

it's been slightly annoying driving with your window slowly rolling down on its own. particularly when you are driving to CT and throws off your hearing and does some weird helicopter noise type reverb that makes your head want to explode.

however, its a bit of a problem when it rolls down while in the parking lot of your workplace during a rainstorm. i'm sorry. thunderstorm. or as i will find out shortly thereafter in a text TORNADO WATCH. (WTF THIS IS NJ WHY WHY WHY.) i think, no problem. i'll just fonz it. so i shove it up and am about to 'heeeeyyyyy' when it just immediately slides back down. this happens three more times. balls. on the last try i manage to coerce it into staying up juuustt long enough for me to walk away from it going ' oh its staying up i fixed it out of my hands just ignore don't turn around don't look at just go inside'.

so i am slightly wet by the time i get into work. i am immediately told there are free bagels in the kitchen. i still get excited. which means everyone else gets so excited. they fight to see who can be the first to tell me when there is free food just so they can see my original excitement. but this was SERIOUS. i say NO i cannot eat this food now. there are real problems to be had. and of course they all stop what they are doing and get immediately overconcerned. like 'omg someone is hurt' concerned. because i didnt immediately run to the food. i think this tells a lot about me as a person.

they all band together to get me tape and they offer plastic. luckily i also keep one of those dress cover plastic bags in my trunk o fun, so i was all set. they wish me well and i go out into the storm.

the window was miraculously still up, that is, until i opened another door to try to fix it. down it slides. quite quickly acutally. so i just laughed. nearly maniacally. so i have my plan: tape the inside of the window on the top and sides so it stays up, then tape the plastic around the inside just in case. i take a lot of time to do all of this. and it looks quite beautiful and classy. then i get out the other back door being pretty proud of my awesome work. go around the other side, and see that the whole window has rolled down again.

balls.

this has to be done from the outside now. mind you it is literally raining sideways now. i didnt need ollie williams to tell me so.

so here i am trying to hold my umbrella, hold up this rather slippery window of death, hold the tape dispenser, rip the tape, and tape the window to the door frame, when some kid drives by with his stupid flat brimmed sideways yankees hat. he slows down, puts his blinker on, and starts to look at me like he is annoyed that i am not pulling out.

omg kid.

CLEARLY I AM NOT BACKING OUT. MY LIGHTS ARE NOT ON. MY CAR IS NOT ON. I AM NOT IN MY CAR. I AM PHYSICALLY HOLDING A WINDOW. I HAVE A HUGE TAPE DISPENSER HELD BETWEEN MY KNEES. I AM TRYING TO HOLD AN UMBRELLA IN MY ELBOW PIT. MY PLASTIC WINDOW IS BILLOWING IN THE POSSIBLE FUTURE TORNADO WINDS. GET OFF MY BACK.

so i just politely look up from my labors, politely smile, politely shake my head, and gesture with my tape dispenser, that despite what it looks like, i am not, in fact, leaving so he can have my spot.

just go to parking lot one, get your free coffee, and chill the eff out. OR GET OUT OF YOUR CAR AND HOLD THIS WINDOW.

he did not hold the window. but he did give me a dirty look when he left.

i manage to get this window back up with the use of patience, gentle hands, and and a lot of backing away slowly saying while silently encouraging the car.

by this point i have just abandoned the idea of the umbrella. i go back into the office and its like i just returned from the war. OH MY GOD people yell . WHAT HAPPENED to you? you are soaked!

i then inform them that is raining

but didnt you have an umbrella? why didnt you have an umbrella? look at you! why didn't you ask for help? frank would have helped you? i would have helped you! i got your back. you porr thing! your pants are soaked to the knees! did it work? how is it? oh my god. OH THE HUMANITY!

i sighed. wetly. pushed the dampened hair out of my eyeballs. squeaked my rain boots. 'i've done everything i can. it's all up to the window now. all we can do is wait.'

the room grew tense. they quieted down. they knew what i had to do.

i squish my way up the stairs. the wet pants slapping against my boots. my umbrella clicking as i drag it up the stairs dejectedly. i take off my trenchcoat feeling like i have just lost an epic battle, and drape it on my cubicle.

then i did the only thing i could do. i stumbled over to the staff kitchen and drowned my sorrows in free bagels. there wasn't much drowning left to do. i was very wet.

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BUT WAIT! unlike most of life, this story has a happy ending! i get back out to my car to find out that my repair job held up fantastically! and there was never a tornado! i even press my luck and decide to try to drive it over to the other building where the computer lab for my Desktop Publishing class is...and it stayed! isn't that great? oh wait. i still have to pay 200 dollars this weekend to get it fixed.

ok so it was an almost happy ending. at least the water didnt get it and make it all mildewy. then we'd have a repeat of the poor plymouth neon and the stench o death. more on that later.

i think we should all take a moment and marvel at the importance of windows that work. I bet this never would have happned in the neon. not when you physically crank the window up and down. sigh. i miss that little tyke.