Adventures in Cat Sitting, and Other Diversions

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

I am sitting in the living room of my attic apartment with sweat pouring down my face like I imagine pork juice rolling off a slowly rotating ham. It hit 41 today, and that’s only a start of things to come, as it is only June. It’s official- we’re in hell.

However, you all know how I feel about the weather, so I won’t linger too long there. There are a couple of balls in the air right now, so I have not been too conscientious about updating, so perhaps I should catch you up.

In the news today, our parliament passed the same sex marriage bill! Who said that a bunch of fifty-something suits couldn’t see the future?

My friend, Mike, who went into the hospital with some serious illness that no one was talking about, has been released, though he is still very unwell. The illness? An ulcer hemorrhaged and knocked him out for a couple days. Bad, but could have been worse.

Our Union is still speeding towards a strike, and the Part Time Instructors (professors without tenure, engaged per term) at McMaster may walk for the right to some job security as early as July 20th. Great. (And if anyone from the Union exec is reading this, get off and go write your piece for my freaking newsletter- I assign deadlines for a reason!)

I am finally sorting out the problems in my student loan paper work. I tried to be good and apply, paper-less and early, online, only to have the final authorization form gobbled up by a Yahoo “pop-up-blocker”. It has taken me two weeks to solve this little snafu, and I think I may actually be safe from the student loan monsters. However, I still have nightmares in which giant share-ware “bells and whistles” jump up and eat my dissertation, and then I die. What do you think that means?

This morning I received news about the apartment for which we have applied. The company’s policy is that, as we are students, we are required to have two “adult” co-signers. I tried to explain that, at nearly thirty, this was a little unnecessary and fairly demeaning. However, they stuck to their guns, and I spent about an hour trading fax numbers and negotiating how this will work. At first they wanted one parent to sign for each of us, but my parents live about 45 minutes’ drive from a fax machine (stuck in beautiful, but isolated, rural Nova Scotia), at which they can only send- not receive. I would have to ExpressPost the form to them and have them fax it to me, and then I’d fax it to the company. Oh- did I mention they needed it by Thursday morning? Yeah, so my mum was pretty much out. In the end, I haggled everybody down to each of John’s parents signing- one for each John and I. The company agreed to fax the form directly to PEI (where his folks live), and then John’s mum faxed it back to the company. Extraordinarily convenient, yes? I didn’t even have to leave the house, while when this whole thing started I was planing on having to trek to campus and playing “Name That Fax” for about six hours! John’s mum called us at 7pm to tell us the deed was done! Nice.

And speaking of “trek” (good segue, hmm?), John and I have been baby sitting the cat of the sister of my old thesis advisor, who lives down stairs from me (clear?). So, every day we stomp down stairs at least twice to spend an hour or so with this lovely, fat, horrendously orange tabby named Felix (picture Garfield, not illustrated or, even worse, CGI). This is pretty nice, as that flat is ten times cooler than our attic paradise. We’ve been taking our cat, Fritz, down there to play with Felix and catch his breath. He’s been finding our apartment far too warm, as he lies about on his back, whimpering. So, as we sit down there in the heavenly breeze-and-ceiling-fan atmosphere, we take advantage of her TV and watch old episodes of Star Trek: TNG. Gosh, if I could picture a wonderful afterlife… You see, we got rid of the cable about a year ago, as an unwanted expense, and the only things I miss are news and Star Trek! (The horrible story behind this is that, after we canceled the cable, it was actually cut off THE DAY OF 2004 FEDERAL ELECTION! I died!) So that is how I spend my days this week.

Finally, how I spend my evenings. My evenings are designated for what I like to call my “Water Chores.” I spend about an hour every evening in the kitchen keeping this place hydrated. I fill my “Brita” about a hundred times. I fill the two jugs with fresh water. The water that was left unused from today in the jugs, I use to make fresh ice for tomorrow, and the old ice I put in the ice tub for use in the cat’s water, our drinks, and on foreheads. I fill all 16 water bottles we drink during the day, and make sure the “guest water” is fresh, filtered, and cold. I do this at night, as water pumps use electricity and these days all major appliances are best used after 8pm to avoid brown-outs. Further, too many wonderful Ontarians are out washing their *&#$@! cars during the day, so best leave the water for that wonderful use. Or for that ass across from me who hoses down his DRIVEWAY every day. Gee, nothing like ignoring conservation requests from the government.

In a final note, I do invite anyone who hasn’t already, to follow the “I heart Catherine” link on my sidebar to a great blog belonging to a dear friend of mine- it’s particularly funny this week. Also, Catherine is working diligently on her thesis right now, so I can’t bother her. Thus, I say “hello” to her, in case she actually takes the time to check this thing. The 51-miz-ouse salute goes to her!