One day down...

I have been trying to get a chance to post all weekend. It was a very trying weekend emotionally. I finished the move completely (with the help of my dad and mom) and had to let go of a lot of things in what has in effect been my hometown all of my life. Now I know that letting go of this stuff was good for me, but that didn't make it any easier. I could go on for hours about the events of last week, and who knows maybe I will at some time down the line, but for the sake of brevity on this post I am going to skip it and just leave it at I had some epiphanies that put things into perspective. I talked it over with Cjristina and still feel that I might owe some apologies to my loved ones, but I can't decide which is the best way to go about it, and the fact that I am really taking the time to analyze and reflect shows promise that things might be changing for good. Anyway, I started reading my horoscopes again the other day (I was frightfully behind) and found some frighteningly accurate ones. I thought I would post them just for posterity. I will do that in another post so you don't have to read them if you don't want to though.

My grandpa's cousins from Alabama (that would be my second cousins once removed???) have come out to visit. They drove their motorhome all the way out here and just arrived yesterday. I haven't seen them in at least 8 years and I just love listening to them talk (they have a great accent and funny sayings). While there are cultural differences in the way we were raised they are wonderful people. Cousin Charles reminds me so much of my grandpa though I am told that he really looks like my grandpa's brother "uncle ernie" and Cookie is just the sweetest lady (no cookie is not her real name). I am really glad they took the time to come out and visit. As it turns out I guess they have been discussing my "situation" with my parents (my mom will tell anyone who will listen from what I can gather) and I was told this evening at dinner that he had been planning to bring out a shotgun and an ax and give my ex the choice of which one he wanted him to use when he went to talk to him. He said that he pressured my aunt's husband enough that he finally married my aunt. I just looked at him and said, I appreciate the offer but I don't really think I want to get married so that won't be necessary. I did tell him that I would add him to the list of people that had volunteered to be part of my "possee" if I ever changed my mind. Then I overheard Cookie asking my mom why I wasn't more upset or crying. I have come to realize that my emotions are stabilizing and I am actually dealing with things. That makes me prouder than anything that I have done in the last 3 years.

On another note, I started my new job today. I had to be there at 8 am and my parents live about a half an hour from where I work so I really was not looking forward to getting up at 6 am. It really ended up not being so bad. Luckily my mom has my dad in the habit of getting her coffee every morning and I benefited from that so I woke up a little faster than usual. The drive is very rural and at 7:30 in the morning it seemed like I was seeing the land with new eyes. I was very nervous and had Nora Jones playing to calm me down. I found a really cool song that I didn't even know about on the drive and listened to it over and over again. Anyway, I got there exactly on time and was so proud of myself but when I walked in there was no one there. Turns out my entire class are overachievers and got there at 7:30. D'oh I can't win! The trainer was really nice and made me believe that I wasn't late and that it wasn't a problem that I was exactly on time so I felt more comfortable. Then came the 6 hour barage of information. By four o'clock I thought my head was going to explode (which is good because I am so used to be bored at work :-)) and was very excited to hear that because we were so far ahead they were letting us leave early. I really have a very positive feeling about this job. I can see it going places, but than again it is only my first day. I remember how excited I was about BloodSource but in comparison the atmosphere (at least in the training class) is nothing like that. I know the true test is when you get out in the general population but everyone is so organized and connected (in regards to communication) at this place that I can't help but believe that this isn't another dead end road which is a good feeling for me right now considering the situation.

So after work I had to go pick up the princess from the groomer. We had an appointment for her to get shaved and I was worried. I have never seen my baby without her coat and I didn't know anything about this groomer that we took her to except that they did a decent job on her last time (but it has only been 3 weeks and this is her second haircut but thats our fault we should have just had her shaved to start with). As it turns out they didn't shave her down to her skin, they used an attachment. Before I went there though I stopped at the bank in Oroville. Now let me specify while I technically live in Oroville I am way out on the outskirts and am actually much closer to Chico which I much prefer. The people in Oroville must have been inbreeding for about 20 years because EVERYONE there has the IQ of an amoeba. I swear, my cat is smarter than most of the people there (and has more teeth....) Its BAD and every time you go into that town you have a problem. Why I listened to my mother this time (you know I rarely do) is beyond me but I did and stopped at the bank in Oroville. I was just depositing my final paycheck and a personal check. Now I would expect the personal check to have a hold put on it, but the other check is from my EMPLOYER....the same employer that has been direct depositing stuff into my account for over a year. After waiting for about 5 minutes a girl opens her window and says she'll help me. She deposits the checks THEN as she's putting them in her drawer informs me of the 7 business day hold they are putting on my check. It is getting late and I still have to pick up the cat (had to stop at the store where I couldn't get a cell phone signal except to RECEIVE a call. Whenever I picked up they couldn't hear me so mom got worried and kept calling back) so I was like "whatever" figuring I would have to fight with the telephone reps later. Now I have NEVER had a problem with Washington Mutual and I was determined to stay with them because of how good they have been to me but now I'm having second thoughts if this is the crap I'm going to have to deal with. ANYWAY I headed over to pick up the kitty and went into the office. Had a problem with the door which made me feel retarded. She called the lady on her walkie talkie (I guess they don't have a working phone system?) and she told her how much to charge me and said she'd be bringing her over. It kinda irritated me when she referred to her as "the kitty" rather than "dorito" because they weren't exactly busy, it couldn't be that hard to remember the cat's name....but I let it go. The lady brought her in and I peeked in the cat carrier. MAN she looked small. I am used to A LOT of fluff and she was scrunched up in the back of the carrier and looked very pissed. Well the lady tried to get her out of the box and dorito was having none of it. She started hissing and biting the lady which I thought was odd because she is a pretty even tempered cat normally but I thought "hey she had a traumatic day its to be expected" Then I heard how the lady was yelling at her. I didn't want to get in a fight with this lady, and I have raised my voice at my cat but the key word is she is MY cat and I was standing there and she didn't even let me try to get her out. When I finally got her in my arms she looked at me with a very scared look and I saw that while she was cut short it really wasn't as bad as I had expected. When we got in the car she let me have it for about a minute howling so loud, but after that she was fine. I think she just wanted out of the box and wanted me to know she was NOT happy with what we had done.

I was concerned because she clung to me when I held her and cowered in the back of the box when we put her back in so I suspect some type of abuse. She didn't look tranquilized but I still don't think that I will take her back to this groomer. In fact I plan to do as little as possible in the town of Oroville and will find someone in Chico to take care of her. When I got her home and let her out of the box I did see that they actually did a really good job with her. They didn't butcher her tail, and she is even all over. I also noticed that she has lost A LOT of weight, which is good cause I was afraid of how funny she'd look without her coat and with all that fat. I am attaching some pictures for you guys to see. My baby is beautiful no matter what she "wears" :-)

Hope everyone's week started on the right foot (not literally the RIGHT foot but a positive note :-)) More to come soon....