What we put our pets through

Could it be? Yes, it's...the...Easter Kitty! This seasonal bit of catblogging was borrowed from a best-of-craigslist posting, offering a carton of used cat hats for free. Here's the link: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sdo/566171148.html. It's definitely worth a look.

I once tried to put a set of reindeer antlers on my old cat Duke. He let me know in no uncertain terms that he was not interested in decorative headwear, and that was the end of the matter. While these pix are cute, to me there's this look of quiet desperation in the cat's eyes that seems to say, "I can't take this humiliation much longer." I can understand an occasional effort to adorn one's cat for laughs -- I mean they do invite ridicule from time to time. But 14 adorable hats??? When people start treating their pets like babies, it really gives me the creeps.

Oohhh am I mad!!!

I got a phone call from Melanie at Geico Insurance telling me that the BIG, FAT STUPIDHEAD JERK truckdriver who took out the whole side of my car back in December is claiming that I hit him and his insurance company is denying liability! Not only am I really angry, I am dumbfounded. How he could even claim that is ridiculous. It would have been physically impossible for me to cause the damage done to my car if I had hit him. I would have to have come from behind him, run my car into the side of his 18-wheeler and then continued to drive for another 10 or 15 feet after first making impact. I'm serious when I say that the driver's side of my car looked like someone came along with a giant can opener and ran it along the side, back to front. In fact, I would have to have driven ahead of him, then backed up for 10 feet, sideswiping him the whole time. Yup, there's me in my Hyundai Elantra, about to take on a tractor trailer.

So Geico is taking it to arbitration. Seems to me all any arbitrator has to do is look at the photos of the damage to realize I couldn't possibly have hit him. I intend to make this guy cry. I intend to make him beg for mercy. And by the way, I have his name and address if anybody wants to harrass him.

A very unsettling thing

Today at work, I needed to find a few facts about a guy who, in addition to being a big contributor to the museum, is also a major NYC real estate developer. So of course the first thing I did was Google him. The first entry was Wikipedia. After that, about 90% of the posts were from the most hateful, vicious anti-Semitic websites. They claimed his collusion in various "Jew Conspiracies" to, essentially, take over the world and profit from everyone else's misery. Now, I'm all in favor of crackpot theories -- they generally do no harm and are often quite entertaining. But this was not that kind of crackpot. We all know in a somewhat abstract way that this kind of hate is out there, but to encounter it face to face was almost like being physically assaulted. I am a fierce supporter of free speech and I understand that that means not only things I agree with but also things I find repellent. I comfort myself with the thought that this is what a mature democratic state is, that people can express their ideas, whatever they are, without worry of being silenced. I just want to keep the people who express those particular ideas as far away from me as possible.

MORE COLOR!!!

It only took me 8 months, but I've finally finished painting my living room. One of the reasons it took so long was because I couldn't find the right color. Well, I finally took the plunge and picked something. Then I had to actually do the painting, which I really don't like (mostly because I'm not very good at it). It took 2 1/2 coats but I eventually got a decent result. Now I have to live with it. It came out darker than I thought it would but it's growing on me. The other half of the room is that goldy orange color I shared here several months ago. I am really loving having intense color on the walls. I used to think it would be very limiting but really, how often do you refurnish your house anyway? This is very cool.

(change of subject)

It seems very trite to say that work has been hell lately, but trite or not, it's true. I had an impossible workload, with 8 (count 'em, 8) proposals due last Friday. Fortunately for me, 2 of them went away for reasons having nothing to do with me. But that still left me with a half dozen major projects with a do-or-die deadline. If it were only up to me, everything would have been done in plenty of time. But the problem is, I needed lots of information and stuff from various other people. And have you ever noticed how Other People don't seem to care as much about your work as you do? Why is that? Keeping in mind that these projects were grant proposals to fund projects at the museum and without the money, stuff doesn't happen. But that still doesn't seem to be enough to motivate people to get their asses in gear. This has been compounded by the fact that my department head, who on her best days could be a poster child for ADHD, seems to have cranked it up a few notches on the wack-o-meter. It's tough because she was a friend of mine before I started working for her. Not a really good friend, but someone I usually had nice thoughts about. Now I want to strangle her more often than not. Of course I'd have to get in line. She seems to have driven everyone in the department crazy. The sad part is, it's hard to really hate her because she means well and she's very supportive and appreciative of everyone in her department. BUT SHE'S DRIVING US ALL FUCKING CRAZY!
In any case, I got everything finished and submitted on time.

(another change of subject)

Now I take a big breath and relax. Now I have some brain juice left for other things, like haning out here. And most importantly, moving my play forward. Very exciting...we're going to be doing auditions in 2 weeks. We're collecting head shots and resumes. Lots of promising women but hardly any guys! What's up with that? Where are they all? Working on ctheokas' film, maybe?