Fun!

08-06--> 08-11-06

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was not as boring, so I am much happier! Well, to be honest, the first 3 days of this week were actually very boring, as I waited for maintenance to come and fix a few more things in my apartment. It was quite annoying to just sit here in the apartment just waiting for them to show up, but I got loads of cleaning done.

On Monday morning, I somehow managed to ‘kill’ my vacuum brush. Originally I thought the belt broke, so I opened it up to fix it and found a melted ‘end cap’ on the brush… so I ventured to the local mall to get a new brush. This is the second or third time I went to that area, but up to this point I never actually entered this Ghost mall… It is pretty much an empty mall, the parking lot is empty and it is really bizarre and weird. In any case, the inside of the mall is not at all bad! I actually enjoyed it! Yes, it has plenty of ‘for rent’ places, but I truly expected a 1973 style mall on the inside and was much surprised!

Later on that day I met with Vega’s and KC’s new pet sitter! Oh, she is wonderful! I am so very happy that the vet recommended her to me. In any case, we chatted a bit and she met the furry-trouble-makers and in all honesty I didn’t think KC was going to greet her, because he is a ‘scardy-cat,’ but… he did! That’s when I knew it will be okay. So now I am feeling much better about leaving them here when I go home, and I’ll give you updates when I come back.

On Tuesday morning I was still waiting for the maintenance people to come, and they didn’t… not too much of a waste of a day, because I did a bunch of reading and some cleaning.

Wednesday morning I talked to the people in the office and asked them to please, please make sure that the maintenance got there that day, and they promised me that they will. Before maintenance got here, my friends Matt and Erica came by-- They have begged me for about a week to buy their microwave from them. I finally agreed to, and so they came in bringing it and also visiting my abode. When they left I cleaned the microwave, and now it looks brand new! The reason for hesitating on buying the microwave originally, was that I don’t use it all that much; I mainly use my toaster. But… now that I have it, I love it.

Finally on Wednesday afternoon, maintenance came, and the guy painted my balcony, fixed the door, fixed something in the bathroom, but because he had a medical condition, he couldn’t paint the wall next to the stove (he couldn’t move the stove). So I told him I understand, and don’t expect him to do it, but that he needed to find someone to do it for him because I just couldn’t possibly be at home for another day. He couldn’t find anyone who’ll do it, so I called the office once again and asked them if they could find someone. They were great, and within the hour, the guy came back with another guy, they moved the stove, painted that wall, and in 10 minutes, all was well.

That night I decided to go on a big walk around my new apartment complex. I figured I needed to know where everything was. In the last leg of the walk, I saw Vega outside. It felt like my heart just dropped-- Why was she out? Did she figure out a way to run out? Did I not shut the door properly? I started calling her, but she wouldn’t come, so I went after her, and then realized that it wasn’t Vega, but a cat that was practically identical to her! Even the little square on the nose! It was a stray kitty. So naturally, I called it and tried to have it follow me—it was interested in me, but not all that much, so I went home, grabbed some kitty food and the carrier and went out to get him. When I got back there, there were two cats instead of the one Vega-look-a-like. So I knew there was no way I could catch them, and I just left them the food.

On Thursday I went to a local animal shelter, because I wanted to volunteer with the animals before I started being busy again. They were happy to have me, and I had a good time doing physical work—washing dog dishes, folding dog laundry, but also loving playing with the kitties in their cat room and playing with one little dog. I stayed for about two hours, and then headed home again. When I got back home, I made sure to take a shower straight away so my cats wouldn’t get any bug from there, and then I realized my carpets smelled really funky. OY! For now I am just using ‘fabreez’, but if this doesn’t get better, I’ll have to get maintenance here again.

Today, I visited Triple A, because tomorrow I will be driving to Washington DC for my friend Azadeh’s wedding reception (they had a small wedding about a month ago, and now they are doing to big reception for all their friends). It is so exciting! I can’t wait to see her, her family and her husband whom I never met!

After Triple A, I ventured to the Bank, and then to CVS. I am starting to learn where everything is now, but it is still really confusing! The roads are all curvy and twisted here, and I am definitely not used to it… (I love Phoenix’s logical grid!)

In the afternoon I returned to the animal shelter and volunteered there for two hours or so—I did a lot of the same things I did yesterday. It was good. I am planning to keep doing this until I go home in two weeks, and then once rotations start, I really hope to do it once a week if I could, just for an hour or two. We’ll see… By the way, my friends laughed so hard when I told them I am volunteering at the shelter, and they all have a bet going that by the time December comes I’ll have another animal at my house. And they are right, it is very hard for me to go there and not want to take the animals home with me. I have fallen in love with a little cat that doesn’t have eye lids—she is so sweet! I hope someone adopts her soon. I have also fallen in love with a big orange cat… and all the dogs… But, the idea here is to help them by volunteering, not adopting at the moment :o)

All and all, I have been fairly good about doing psychology readings in the morning. It’s only thirty minutes, which is nothing in comparison to the hours and hours of readings I was doing a month or two ago, but, since I’m on vacation, this is the minimum I thought was needed.

Vega and KC have been going outside on a leash. I know it sounds funny—a cat on a leash… But in my old apartment complex we had a big hall where I felt quite safe with them not being on a leash (I was always with them, naturally). Here, with all the open outdoors and wooded area, I am very scared to let them out without a leash. On the first few tries it actually went okay, with them being just minimally terrified, but now they don’t quite like it too much any more. We had a breakthrough tonight though! Vega sat next to the door and asked to go out, and so I put her harness and leash on and we went out. She knew exactly how to go down to the bottom floor, and then she went to the grass and ate some grass! She got really scared when she saw a neighbor’s dog through their glass door, and so she ran up the flight of stairs really fast, and because I wasn’t going fast enough, she was pulled back and fell down a bit (she is completely okay, don’t worry). She is something else that cat! I still can’t get over how she knew exactly how to get down and then how to come up to the correct apartment again! KC got taken outside my apartment without really wanting to, and he just sniffed around and then asked to be let back in.

Well, besides the weather being absolutely gorgeous and the fact that at the moment it is colder here at night than it is during the winter day time in Phoenix (which is just way too cool!) that is basically it…

Have a good weekend!

Reut