Mosaic Life

My, what white teeth you have

This picture always makes me laugh. Monster is such a cool cat. I’m realizing that I kind of like him just the way he is. I’ve been around calmer, sweeter cats since we got him, and it’s just not the same. You can rough-house with Monster. He’s resilient and seems to have endless stores of energy. And there’s some part of me that thinks it’s wickedly funny when he acts especially viscious.

A couple of weeks back, we had some friends over. Stephanie and I were talking, and I picked up Monster during the conversation. He promptly hugged my arm with his claws and bit me with his usual snake-like manner. She was astounded. “What a mean cat!”
I couldn’t help giggling.

I guess it could be cool to have a sweet, loving cat at some point. And maybe we’ll get another cat once we have a bigger place and more time. But for now, I like having our viscious little beast.

Only problem is that I’ll blink and it will be Monday

Woo, it’s Friday. Know what that means? That I’ll get more sleep in the next two days. It also means that I have to prepare for a speech and an exam on Monday. Boo.

I ended up being able to visit my sister in Auburn last weekend, despite the “winter weather” warnings. It ended up snowing there, but not nearly as much as in Atlanta. When I got home on Sunday, there was still snow on the ground, though mostly it stuck to the grass and trees. Oh, and some neighborhood kids borrowed some snow off of my Honda and made a snowman, which remained in the same place (next to my car) until Wednesday. At that point it was more of a block of ice than snow. 

I had a great time visiting my sister. To some of my friends from highschool, it may seem strange how excited I am about becoming an aunt. See, my sister and I weren’t that close back then. We were more like acquaintances. She’d come home every now and then to get clothes. I spent most of my time with kids from the youth group at church or with my small group of close friends (i.e., fellow “non-conformists” who rebelled in a safe way that wouldn’t negatively affect their futures and considered themselves smarter than at least 75% of their peers. Yeah, lame, I know). People at school would express surprise when finding out that she and I were sisters (she was a senior when I was a freshmen). I remember the line of questioning. “You’re Brandi’s sister?” “Yes.” “Half sister?” “Nope.” “Step-sister?” “No, real sister.” “Oh. Wow, you guys are nothing alike.” “Right.”

But that changed when I moved to California. We talked on the phone more often and grew closer. We have a very similar sense of humor, and as the years passed since we’d been in high school, it seemed like we had more in common. And now she’s one of my closest friends. It’s what my mom wanted since she and my dad decided that Brandi should have a younger sibling. It just took, oh, say 20 years to happen.

Real quick

Things have gotten busy. It snowed Wednesday, and my lovely campus with its Harry Potter-esque buildings was covered in a thin blanket of white. It’s so mesmerizing to watch snowflakes fall. I know northerners are all like, woo, big deal, snow, but I get all excited about it and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Plus, some of you northerners with your snow have nasal accents. That’s right. I went there.

It’s supposed to snow again early Saturday morning, but I may go visit my sister (weather permitting) in Auburn for the weekend, where the 5 degree difference in temperature will result in yucky rain rather than pretty snow. My sister has now developed a cute little pregnant belly, which makes it seem all the more real that she’s going to be a mom soon. It’s exciting stuff!

Anyway, I got my hair did yesterday. It’s short, but my hair grows fast so it’s fine. I’m still trying to recover from a horrible haircut I got in July of last year. Did I not mention the bad haircut? It was bad, so bad. I went to supercuts (I know, I know, but I’m cheap and I was thinking, how could they mess it up? Oh, they found a way) and I believe the hair butcher thought I said “I want the front to look early nineties, and I want the back to look like a 12-year-old boy’s haircut from the nineties in the back.” After his assault on my hair, I tried to stop myself from hyperventilating. For months afterward I tugged on the back of my hair muttering, “grow, grow!” And now it’s finally gotten to a nearly-acceptable length. I will never go to a place that charges less than $35 for a haircut again. Lesson learned. Painfully learned.

Okay, this was a longer post than I intended. Gotta go. Have a good weekend.

Funhouse mirrors

It’s the weirdest thing.

If a guy weighs 125 pounds, he actually weighs 145.

If a guy is 5′4, and stands at the same height as me, what with my being 5′4, he’s actually 5′8.

If a guy has the same size foot as a girl, his foot is actually at least 2 inches longer. And that’s not just because guys’ shoe sizes are different than girls’ shoe sizes.

Seriously, am I the only one who has noticed this difference? I’ve always sort of gone along with it, I mean, if that’s what it takes for a guy to feel good about himself, I’ll allow the extra weight and tallness or at least not call him on it. And for the record, this isn’t just one guy that I’m talking about. I can think of at least 3 guys off the top of my head who do it.

So what’s with that?

A new semester

The first session of my spring semester classes began last night. So far it looks good. There are only 12 students in my Public Speaking II class, so I don’t think it will be terribly intimidating. I’m sure I’ll get more comfortable speaking in front of people with practice, as I was in my speech class a few years ago.

I think I’m really going to enjoy my class on Plato’s Republic. The first book had some pretty good parts, though the string of questions made it a bit of a choppy read (I know, I’d best get used to it with Socrates). I love how people have the nerve to ask Cephalus (who’s a bit long in the tooth) questions like “how does it feel to be really close to death?” or “can you still make love to a woman?” I’m not sure if that’s a culture thing or what. I mean, you usually don’t mention death to old people. You tell a 90-year-old that they’ll be around in 20 years. And their sex life is pretty much the last thing you want to think about, let alone ask about.

So anyway, good stuff.

Do-gooding

We’re sitting at Panera Bread in the mall, eating sandwiches that are surprisingly tastey and surprisingly the same (tomato-chicken-something or other). A homeless man approaches.

Homeless guy: Can you spare some money? Anything you got? I’m really hungry.

Brandon: Here you go. (Hands him his bag of chips.)

Homeless guy: Hmmph. (Frowns at chips, turns and walks away.)

Ah, it always feels good to feed the hungry.

Take that, electric company

According to the news, it was 18 degrees this morning with a windchill factor of 8 degrees. And yet, we have not used our heater yet this winter. Heat rises, and since we’re on the third floor and apparently have neighbors that don’t like their apartments’ temperatures to sink below 85, our apartment hasn’t been as cold as you’d think. Plus, we get a lot of sunlight. That’s not to say it doesn’t get cold.

It’s not so much because we’re cheap that we don’t use our heat. It’s more the principle of the matter. During the summer months we paid $160 a month to cool our apartment, and we figure that it will equal out if we save energy in the winter months. So, we pile on the clothes, use our little heater fan in the bedroom, and use more blankets. The cat has been forced to actually cuddle with us, as we provide him with heat and love. He’s not so much into the love part.

It’s 2008!

Ah, a brand-spankin’ new year. So far, it’s been good. I’m hoping it stays that way.

I can’t complain about 2007. I was officially hired at a job that I really enjoy here in Atlanta. We made a lot of new friends. We moved from a completely crappy apartment into an apartment that we really like. We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I enrolled at Oglethorpe to continue my education (so far keeping a 4.0 GPA—we’ll see if that lasts). We found out that we’re going to have a new little niece and nephew in the Spring of this year. And last but not least, we got Monster.

So anyway, happy new year! May this one be even better.