Cat Update

So, we're instituting some new rules based on some advice I got from some friends.  No more cats in my bedroom at night.  I need my sleep to function and if I have to use ear plugs to get over their whining at first, so be it. 

Feeding time is a set time or times I guess.  Then the food goes up so no one will try to eat anyone else's food.  And I need to find a way to trim Cleo down.  She's got arthritis (well she is like 12) and I think she would be better off trimmer.  She doesn't do much anyway so she really doesn't need to eat a whole lot.

And I'm getting a water bottle.  When the fight or hiss at each other, they're getting hit with a spray of water.  I've actually seen them legitimatly fight today.  Not cool.  I will not let my life be run by a couple of narcissistic, drama queen cats.  I'm the only one that gets to be a narcissistic drama queen in my apartment. :)

Cats...no not the musical

So I have two cats now.  I used to have one but then I moved in with a girl from church who needed a roommate and I was looking to move to a new place when my lease was up, so it worked out.

Except for the part about her being allergic to cats.

So my ever loving bro and his wife took my cat.  They already had a cat so we hoped they would get along. It was temporary til I got a new place of my own and would take my cat back.  They did not get along well at first but eventually came to a mutual avoidance.  My bro and his wife got a dog, who likes to terroize the cats not long after.
Fast forward 2 1/2 years.  At 2 yrs old, I finally am okay with the dog, but he still terroizes the cats.  Plus my sister-in-law is expecting, so no more caring for the cats.  (Pregnant women are to avoid contact with cat feces due to fecal bacteria and such).  My bro was looking to pass back my temporarily placed cat.

So I moved out to a new place.  It was hard leaving my roomie.  We get along well (two weeks and I miss her), and have many shared interests.  She's influenced me in ways: like I'm actually paying attention to the US Men's open with Nadal and what's his name and I've become bolder in sharing my faith with strangers.  I've influenced her: she likes Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel and has a white board by her door to write down people to prayer about.

I do enjoy my new place.  I was only there a few days before I trekked to my bro's to get the cats.  Oh, yeah, since I was taking back my cat, could I take the other cat as well? I thought, "sure! I owe my bro and sister-in-law."

I didn't think it'd be too big a problem.

Wow, was I wrong.

They don't get along but manage to ignore each other most of the time.  My cat hisses unexpectedly at the other cat despite being around her for nearly three years.  My cat also seems to eat both cats food.  Which led to some vomiting this morning.

Honestly, I'm torn.  There are moments when I love having them.  When my cat will sit on my lap and demand attention, when my bro's cat sleeps by me on top of the covers when I'm in bed.  When I see either contently sitting at the bay window overlooking the lake or see my cat curled up on her small chaise (yes it is a pet sized chaise, I found it on sale and knew my cat would like it)

But then there's the lack of sleep for me.  They're nocturnal after all, and it's not a big apartment.  One likes to eat at night, one roams around and loos for the other''s food to steal.  One likes to meow and wake me up at 3am like everyday.

I'm committed to these cats I guess.  or maybe I should be committed....hmm.

I love my CrackBerry...I mean BlackBerry

I think I am addicted to my Blackberry.  

I love having Facebook at my finger tips; checking the latest news at the NY Times is easy with their app.  Local news apps abound.

I'm not much into games.  Literally I have one game-solitare.  

But I can check my email almost anytime, anyplace.  (Except at work.  I get really poor reception in the lab.  Which is probably a good thing.)

Now I have developed the "phantom vibrating" sensation.  I think the phone is vibrating when, in point of fact, it is not doing anything.

The only thing worse that the "phantom vibrating" is checking your pocket and realizing you don't even have your phone on your person. :)

Computer still down

My computer is still toast.  There has been a lot of craziness in life the last couple of months.  Not a lot of time to think, let alone blog.  Hope my brother can fix my computer....

Pain

There is a great song by Greg Long called 'In the Waiting'.  It's a song that has been really helpful for me in the past when I was going through hard stuff.  Check out this link to hear it.

Here are the lyrics.

Pain
The gift nobody longs for, still it comes
And somehow leaves us stronger
When it's gone away

Pray
I try and pray for Your will to be done
But I confess it's never fast enough for me
It seems
the hardest part is waiting on You
When what I really want
Is just to see Your hand move

I want a peace beyond my understanding
I want to feel it fall like rain
In the middle of my hurting
I want to feel Your arms as they surround me
And let me know that it's okay
To be here in this place
Resting in the peace that only comes
In the waiting

Time
Time to let it go and just believe
Trusting in what no one else but You can see

Free
Freedom from the fears that close me in
When I can't get beyond where I have been, but then
Again

The silence doesn't mean that I'm alone
As long as I can hear
That I am still Your own

It's a beautiful song and it encourages me so much.  I remember that I'm not alone.  Even in the silence God is with me and I am His.

Do People See Jesus In Me?

Today was a really cool day.  A friend and I trekked to the main branch of our city's library, just to hang out and read.  It is a really neat building; there is a very large new building built right next to, and attached, the original library.  The juxtaposition of the now main, and modern portion of the library nestled behind the classic architecture, which now houses the fiction sections, is very beautiful and poetic.

And people talked to me today.  Complete strangers.  All I had to do was make eye contact and smile. It was amazing how that little double action brings such big results.

Someone asked me to watch his stuff at the adjacent computer station while he was up.  Another gentleman, walking through the library with a couple women complimented me on my hair.  One of the library employees stopped to chat for a moment; warning me of the impending snow, sharing the fact that she was from Panama originally and they didn't get weather like this.  75 degrees all year round.  I told her I was from further north so I'm used to worse than this.  Then she said I looked like the prettiest girl.  I was so touched.

But I don't think the compliments were really meant for me.  Why did I look these people in the eye and smile?  Because I want to love them like Jesus does.  I want to see what He sees when he looks at people.  And I think these people saw me catch their eye and saw me smile and saw Jesus in me.  I don't know how to explain it.  They saw the inner joy I have that I can't keep to myself.

It's the kind of joy that makes me smile.  The kind of joy that slows down to let someone enter the highway from an entrance ramp.  The kind of joy that wants to overlook the outside cover of a person and dig into the pages of their book.

I said it already but it's amazing when you look a total stranger in the eye and genuinely smile.  Not a polite, required by etiquette or social norms and customs sort of smile.  A genuine smile that recognizes the divine in that stranger, that sees the reflection of our Creator in a person worthy of love and attention and my time.

My time is not my own anyway--it's God's.  How better do I use it than in His service to simply love His people?

Lord of the Dance (Not the Irish guy though...)

Revisiting my old WOW CDs...this is a classic Steven Curtis Chapman song for me and I was singing it at work today. Truly engergizing!