Hey Sister Pretty

This is Zoey. She had surgery a couple of weeks ago and while she is now perfectly fine, she was a little stinky and couldn't have a bath until her stiches came out. This finally happened yesterday.

So this morning I filled up the bathtub in the guest room, which she knows is for her. When I went looking for her all I found was her back legs.

I talked her out from under the bed and she had her bath. She now smells much better. The thing is, I don't think she's talking to me anymore.

Little Brother

All my life I have had pets. When I was very young, I think for my 6th birthday, I got a puppy. I named her Gina (Princess Gina to be precise - I even made her a construction paper crown). For reasons I'm still not entirely clear about, she was renamed Sage.

Sage and I grew up together. We watched my parents get divorced and traded houses every Wednesday for a summer. We moved to 6 new houses in 3 years. At some point I started looking at colleges but couldn't imagine leaving her behind. In the end she left me. Her life spanned some of my earliest memories all the way through my packing to leave home.

The summer of the divorce, my mom get a cat. She was a beautiful little creature. We found out when she was a few years old that she was a different breed then we first believed. [We thought she was Siamese but she was actually Tonkinese - it's a real thing. You can look it up.] When Sage died, Kaytee (the cat) was very lonely. The vet said she was depressed and that we should get her a kitten. Turned out she didn't really want to be anyone's mommy, but she wasn't lonely anymore. It took her a while to warm up to Willie but eventually they were like two peas in a pod (or two kittens in a drawer).


Kaytee lived to be 18 years old. By the end she was a creaky old lady, but still very sweet. She's been gone for a couple of years now. Two weeks ago, we lost our sweet boy Willie, at the age of 15. This is how I imagine they will be always be.

Hold My Hand

Music from the golden days in your life will always be just that: golden. It can keep you company on a long Saturday in the office. Sometimes it's best played loudly with the car windows open. Some cd's are just so comfortable, you know every beat and chord change and word.

Hootie and the Blowfish eventually turned into a bit of a joke (well, Hootie and his Burger King commercials anyway). I loved Darius Rucker and my roommate loved the naked drummer. Hold My Hand and Let Her Cry were big in the fall of 1994 when I went away to school and they were on the video monitors in the slop house everyday. That was one of the best years of my life and that music was the soundtrack.

This is one of those times when I need to turn my back on everything new and go back home. I have a friend in trouble right now. She's got a scary medical thing going on and I'm very far away. If I was back home (well, three homes ago), I'd be able to take her kids out while she was at the doctor or take her to a movie to get her mind off things. We'd go to dinner and talk about what the doctors said and I'd tell her to stop looking things up on the internet because it only makes it more scary. I'd be able to do something. Anything. I'd be able to hold her hand and tell her it's going to be ok.

I did not grow up with siblings. I have some step-people, but they have each other and don't need me. This girl is the closest thing I'll ever have to a real sister. She's seen me when I was skinny, not-so-skinny, a brat, a saint...we've fought, we've consoled each other's broken hearts. She makes me laugh, she makes me crazy, she made me a Godmother. When my heart was broken and I wanted to hide and never come out into the light, she dragged me to the movies every weekend for eight months. She didn't laugh when I was 17 and wanted to marry a guy whose lifetime aspiration was to become a plumber's assistant. She let me go out into the world and find my own place, but has always let me know that she'd be there if I ever wanted to go back. I've taken her to see parts of the country she may never have seen; she's shown me a life I hope to have on my own someday. She met a great guy and they've brought two beautiful children into this world. I only get to see her a couple of times a year but she is a part of me every day. I love her and can't imagine my life without her. I don't know what is going to happen over the next few weeks, but from across a continent I am going to hold her hand as tightly as I can.