Meow.

I’ve come to realize that I take a lot of pictures of my cats…  Especially lately…

Crazy cat lady? Probably.  But is that really a bad thing?  Probably not.  Hemingway (who had 30 cats– and named them all) once said, “A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

He isn’t the only famous person who loved his cats.  Edgar Allen Poe, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, Cleopatra, William Pakepeace Thackeray, Victor Hugo, Marie Antoinette, Alexandre Dumas, Winston Churchhill, and Queen Victoria (among countless others) owned and wrote about their cats.  Is it a coincidence that all of those people are either queens or authors?  Probably not. 😉 

Anywho, I have a top ten list for you today about why I love my cats…
1.  They sleep constantly — much like me
2.  They’re relatively self sufficient
3.  They’re fluffy and adorable and perfect to cuddle with
4.  Despite their moodiness, they are completely loyal
5.  They’re full of personality
6.  We understand eachother (eventually I’ll teach them French 😉 )
7.  They keep me company when I stay up all night writing
8.  They appreciate yarn almost as much as I do
9.  They catch bugs for me
10.  Because they’re completely kickass. 🙂

In other news, the apartment is FINALLY unpacked and in order and my class finished up today — 4 1/2 weeks of NOTHING.

Life is Good.

La La La

I’ve had this horrible cold for the past few days and it just moved into my chest. Summer colds blow. Humidity… Yuck. I’ve been hiding in my bedroom with the AC on high. The cats have been hanging out in there because the rest of the apartment is disgustingly hot and humid. I also bribe them with treats. 😉
We dragged the flat screen into the bedroom and I’ve been watching obscene amounts of Victorian Era miniseries. I’ve started thinking in Victorian era language. Don’t mind me, just call me Jane. 😉 My favorite so far has been based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters. I haven’t read it yet, but I like the story and might pick it up over winter break. It has a happy ending. 🙂
I’m finishing up a 3 book series on Josephine Bonaparte and then I really need to start on my fall semester reading. My goal is to get at least 4 of my novels read in the next 5 weeks. Can I do it? Probably.
This semester is going to be so crazy. I’m really looking forward to my classes though. I’ve got a great mix that will probably result in an intellectual overload by mid-October. 😉

Next up: rereading The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. 🙂

From Bella’s Bathtub

She looks all cute and cuddly... until you're not looking...

Bella, for those of you who don’t know, is one of my 2 cats.  She’s a year and a half old, has grey, white, and black stripes, and is quite fat.  Like most cats, Bella thinks she is better than everyone.  She has this way of looking at you that makes you feel like a complete idiot…

slightly terrifying...

After feeling bad about yourself and questioning your existence for a few minutes, you realize a fat, fluffy cat has evoked these ridiculous emotions and you move on with you life.  I’ve learned some of my best cold-hearted stares from Bella.

Anywho, Bella, much to her dismay, had a bath today.  In fact, she’s gotten big enough that she’s moved from the kitchen sink to the actual bathtub.  She sulks through it, all the while glaring at me.  I’m sure if she could talk, I would be exposed to an impressive string of profanities. 😉
Afterwards, true to form, she sprints from the bathroom before I can catch her and just take a guess as to where she ends up every. single. time.  My pillow.  She curls up on my pillow and licks herself dry.
Therefore, Bella’s bath day has become synonymous with  laundry day. 😉

She'll get over it eventually 😉

Today’s bath product:  Furminator Deshedding Cat Shampoo (and it smells fabulous 🙂 )

Technology?

I have fabulous news!! My beautiful, new iPhone 4 has arrived and I love it!

When I got my first iPhone a year or so ago, I wasn’t so sure about it.  It had so many capabilities (some awesome, some completely unnecessary) and was a little intimidating.  Soon enough, however, I grew to love and even (*gasp*) be slightly dependent on it for directions, entertainment, and communication.  It was probably a slight blessing when it got stolen by one of Chicago’s infamous miscreant youths on the train earlier this summer (and thereby proved the CPD really is useless…).
How is that a blessing, you might ask?  It showed me that life goes on just fine sans technology… or something… 😉

This has only been compounded since I offered my computer a glass of white zinfandel  last weekend.  It didn’t care for it, unfortunately, and is still drunk and passed out on my dining room table.. Light weight… 😉  Life goes on, right?

So what have I been doing with myself lately without my phone and without my computer?
Welllllll….. I dug out my old CD player and some old CDs (Nsync is making a come back, you’ll see 😉 )
I’ve been unpacking, cleaning, reading, knitting, writing… and I’m loving it!

Its obviously the summer of socks.. =)

You know what else I’m loving?  The WordPress Blog app! 😉

Love Vandals

I have a guilty pleasure to admit to.  As much as I love reading people.com, I think I might enjoy reading the Frisky even more…
While absentmindedly skimming it yesterday, I came across a page called “Love Vandal” and it brought out the sappy, hopeless romantic in me for a few minutes… 😉

Here are a few of my favorites for your viewing pleasure…

"I want to know what sets your heart on fire so I can be all that and more. I love you."

Love Banksy's work. There's some in Chicago as well... We'll save that for another post though as its not quite romantic enough 😉

=)

❤

I think I take that last one a little too much to heart sometimes…  😉

Night!

18? Please….

Today’s Topic:  The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

You knew this was coming.  It was only a matter of time before I formed my hard, concrete ideas…

I read all four books just after the first movie came out in 2008.  Didn’t really want to, thought the whole idea was kind of stupid. Vampires?  Please.
But, any book series that influences an entire generation to read and discuss literature couldn’t be all bad, right?  So I picked them up just as I was coming down with a nasty case of mono and threatened to infect my roommates if they disturbed me.  And of course, like the rest of the female population, I was hooked on sparkling vampires, ripped werewolves, and a klutzy girl who is so average that she could have been me.  Surprise…
As time progresses however, my opinions on the series have begun to morph.  I appreciate and admire Stephanie Meyers’ talent for creating such a remarkable world, and even greater talent for being able to get it all down on paper.  They are very well written.  BUT…

After seeing Eclipse, I can’t get the idea that these characters are just kids out of my mind.  She’s completely promoting the idea that an 18-year-old girl knows exactly what she wants out of life.  Few people in life really know what they want when they’re so young.  When I was 18 and 19, I thought I had my life completely figured out.  I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  Thank God for my parents who fought my headstrong ways until I settled down a little bit.

Now, I’m in my 20’s and I fully except the fact that I have no idea where my life is going to go or what I want to do with it.  I have a minor outline of what I want, but I know that I’ll change, people will change, opportunities I never expected will arise, I’ll make choices I never thought I’d be able to make.  That’s the way it should be.  We have our entire lives to make concrete decisions, to think we know everything.  Our 20’s and 30’s are years to explore and open our minds to all the possibilities life will give us.  Its likely you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for if you just give yourself permission to live, to experience, to re-experience.. You know.

I know, my positivism is exhausting and you’re thinking, Jess, shut up!!
😉
Sooo, I’ll leave you with that.

She’s a man, Baby!

I. Smell. Like. A. Man… Baby… 😉

Let me explain before your mind starts to run wild with the crazy ideas that I’m more than capable of.  I haven’t been hanging out in a gentleman’s club, not gone on any hot dates, nor am I exploring the possibility of a gender change (Kudos to you if you’ve been doing any of those, though 😉 ).

Alas, I’ve finally tried my black tea flavored bath dough.  Its great! – for your dad, boyfriend, son, brother, etc.  Not so much for me.  I’ll stick to my pink grapefruit.
Being the tea lover that I am, I thought for sure a black tea scent would be fabulous.  I’ll stick to sipping my peach tea (which I bought in Beijing and am currently out of, curses!).

I’ve been drinking a lot of jasmine tea lately until I find a replacement peach tea.  Every time I drink it,  I’m instantly transported back to Beijing and Xi’an, where jasmine tea was present at every. single. meal.  Sans sugar of course, which forced me to become a fan of unsweetened tea..  Since I hated Beijing, I like to focus on Xi’an.  Such a beautiful city.

Flowers get me every time...

Anywho, the summer is half over and I have no idea what I’ve been doing with myself…  Reading a lot.  Class.  Work.  Being lame.  I’ll work on changing that and get back to you.  😉

Night!