I like to put these, uh, “special interest” topics together, since not everyone is special-interested.

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Car business:

You remember the dealer who said the minivan needed $4500 of work, despite running beautifully and not showing any symptoms of anything being wrong? My since-before-blogging friend Firegirl is a car girl, married to a car guy and friends with other car guys. AND, I have a dad who is the kind of person who READS MANUALS. My crack team of Car People looked over the estimate and said “PSHAW.” Firegirl suggests saving up for the timing belt and water pump, but all the rest of it is stuff that gets fixed WHEN IT BREAKS, not FOR FUN. So that’s a relief.

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Cat business:

Update on the cat-peeing-on-the-bed situation. Several of you suggested ideas such as closing Mouse into the bathroom, or closing our bedroom door, and it all seemed too overwhelming: we can’t keep our door closed at night because we need to be able to hear the kids; if we try to keep anything closed during the day, the kids will open it and forget to re-close it.

But there was a load of cat-pee sheets that kicked me over that edge and made me willing to try it: she peed on a pile of CLEAN sheets I hadn’t even PUT ON THE BED yet. So at night, Mouse is in the bathroom in her beloved linen closet, and we shut the door; during the day, we shut the door to our room. It doesn’t work consistently (the kids DO open the door and then leave it open), but “closing door sometimes” turns out to be less opportunity for peeing on our bed than “closing doors never”—see also “frustrated perfectionism, and the importance of thwarting that tendency.”

Not only has there been significantly less peeing on our bed, today she came into the living room and JUMPED ONTO MY LAP and PURRED, and we haven’t seen that kind of thing in awhile.

Also, in addition to the litter box we put in the linen closet, I’ve put a bowl of kitten food in there (more calories than regular cat food), and she’s gained a little weight, which is VERY GOOD considering she’s been at less than half her usual weight.

Bumper stickers have been…well, I was going to say “bugging me,” but let’s call a spade a spade and say they’ve been PISSING ME OFF. As in, I’ve been having long, one-sided, sometimes not entirely silent-in-my-head discussions with the imagined owners of said bumper stickers.

The first one that bothered me I saw in two forms within the same week. One was an old peeling “IMPEACH BUSH” sticker, and the other was a new “IMPEACH OBAMA” sticker. I realize a bumper sticker lacks room for detail, but could there be room at least for a “for” and a verb? Does everyone realize we don’t get to impeach a president for “not being what we wanted”? There needs to be an actual, legitimate, legally-justified REASON.

The second one I saw in just one format, but both formats (and I’m sure both formats exist) bug me:

THINKING WOMEN
VOTE REPUBLICAN

It would be nearly as piss-me-offy if it were “THINKING WOMEN VOTE DEMOCRAT.” I don’t think I would qualify any woman as a “thinker” if she thought all women should vote unthinkingly exclusively for one party, nor if she thought women should feel pressured by a bumper sticker.

The third one was not actually a bumper sticker but to me goes into a similar category. There were a bunch of political signs up along the side of the road, and one entire batch of signs just said “NOT!” with an arrow, each one put up to point to one particular candidate’s signs. That seems really icky. It still seemed icky after I looked up the candidate and realized I would vote against her myself: it isn’t about feelings toward a candidate, it’s about poor sportsmanship and mudslinging and spending a lot of time and effort to be jerks.

I’ll end, though, with a bumper sticker I saw today that put me in a better mood:

GOD BLESS EVERYONE
NO EXCEPTIONS

Or there’s mine:

(Screen shot from Zazzle.com.)

My mom thought I was kidding about this song/video existing. She thought I was just really gifted at coming up with mid-’80s social-awareness lyrics.

On Friday, Henry and I dropped the twins off at kindergarten, and we were walking back to our car. The path from the kindergarten to the parking lot is edged by a rock wall. And in a crack between two rocks, we saw a baby maple tree.

It couldn’t live there: there wasn’t enough room or enough dirt anyway, and that’s if the person who tends that path didn’t pull it out. So we pulled it out. And we brought it home and planted it in a big pot, and we will see.

I had Elizabeth put her hand there for scale,
even though Elizabeth is not otherwise part of this story,
because Elizabeth happened to be outside
when I realized I wanted a photo for this post.

Car business:

I finally took the minivan in to have the rear door handle replaced. It’s been…a year? two? since the handle fell off. Long enough so I’m completely in the habit of using only one rear door, and may never go back. Still, nice to have it done. Except that they found $4500 worth of other stuff they recommend we have done, too. Our car may SEEM like it’s running perfectly, but it is CLEARLY ABOUT TO FALL INTO A HEAP OF RUSTED, MALFUNCTIONING PARTS!

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Cat business:

Benchley’s eye is healed. He can have his funny collar off, and he’s been bathing himself constantly ever since we removed it. He might have some lingering scar tissue on his eye, or he might not; we’ll have to see.

Mouse is sniffling in addition to peeing everywhere, so I took her to the vet too. Nothing seems to be wrong. Maybe cystitis. Maybe Benchley’s recent problems, which involved him being indoors all the time and available to menace her by existing. Maybe age. Maybe some as-yet-undiscovered thing.

It’s discouraging. I didn’t want to HOPE something was wrong, but our blankets and sheets are starting to fall apart from vigorous daily washing. I’m getting behind on other laundry because peed-on things are soaking in vinegar-water in the washer so much of the time. Yesterday she peed on Elizabeth’s bed, including the pink toile quilt.

And yet despite all this GROSSNESS I still think of Mouse as “poor old girl.” She’s gentle, and she sleeps on my pillow at night—getting up only to pee on Paul. During the day she sleeps in the linen closet, or on the couch. She’s just over 5 pounds now, when she used to be well over 11 pounds. She and Benchley were sharing a cat carrier for the vet appointment, and Benchley got aggressive after the appointment and started hissing and scrapping, so as I was loading the carrier into the car I took Mouse out and put her on the front passenger seat, which I realize it totally anti-recommended so no need to scold. And she just settled in on the seat and looked toward the front, purring, looking just like this:

I pictured myself as a little old lady, taking my little old lady cat everywhere I went in my little old lady car.

Paul bought me two pounds of assorted promotional pens from American Science & Surplus, which went a good long way to repair any lingering bad feelings from our fight from the other day—especially since, unlike a bouquet of apology flowers, these were ordered ahead of time out of pure thoughtfulness, when he hadn’t yet realized he might be motivated to act thoughtful in order to smooth things over.

I wish I could take photos of the pens to show you, but the children have misplaced my camera and it’s been long enough now that I actually ordered a new camera (I bought this one) (and I’m keeping it in my purse where they can’t get to it). You know what would be fun? Dividing a house up like a cow field and letting people choose a square where they bet the camera is, and then having a prize for the winner (maybe some pens!). Except, unlike waiting for a cow to poop, we might have to wait until the kids move out to find that stupid camera.

Anyway, the pens. What they are is promotional pen rejects—the ones that didn’t meet quality control for the promotional printing on the barrels. There are about 50 pens to a pound, so I have about 100 (Miss Zoot will envy my pen riches). I would say my favorite so far is an orange one with black polkadots that says “OMNIMOUNT” and “1-800-MOUNT-IT”. I have a nice big handful of those. But I also have a few red-and-white Iowa State University pens, a whole bunch of pens that make me look like I stole pens from a bank, and a whole bunch of pens that make me look like I stole pens from a CHURCH. That would be a bold move, huh?

Oh, wait, new winner: FUNERAL HOME pens. I think I would prefer NOT to see a promotional pen at a funeral home. Plain black businesslike pens would be better, I think, not only for the dignity of it but because I don’t want to think about anyone PROMOTING a funeral home. But for my own pen mug, I want the funeral home promotional pen.

Speaking of promotional, I hope to have lots of future experiences to prove me wrong, but at this point I’d have to say there are few things as satisfying as owning things with one’s OWN advertising on them. From the expression “Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt” I glean that THE T-SHIRT is a crucial part of fully experiencing an experience. And now I have been there, done that, and paid too much for a t-shirt designed by a total amateur:

I also made a bumper sticker:

Hee!

(Both screen shots from Zazzle.com.)

Anyway, I fully recommend this. It is EXPENSIVE, but then you have your OWN t-shirt or whatever, with your OWN slogan on it! It is super-fun, and it really is startling to see it—I’m sure Angelina Jolie feels the same way when she sees her billboards. And you can do many, many versions as you try to figure out what looks nice.

AND, Zazzle has sales pretty often: I got the shirt when they were doing a deal where it was a 4-hour 50% off shirts sale, so it was still pretty expensive but easier to deal with. If you register, they’ll send you emails about the sales. And heavens, NO, they have not asked me to write this or paid me to talk about it or given me anything for free or ANYTHING—if they had, this would be over on the reviews blog.

Paul and I had one of our very rare fights last night (I clean when I’m mad, so probably Paul has mixed feelings about our fights). Then this morning I woke up queasy and feeling like I was fizzing with Teh Krazy, and then I thought, “Huh, this is just how I felt when….” And then I took a pregnancy test (I will keep these things on hand until long after menopause: it is well worth 80 cents for peace of mind), and it’s negative, so I guess I’m just a regular mess, or possible a PMesS. So anyway then I shopped for small expensive handbags I have no intention of buying.

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Mouse is still peeing out of her box about once per day. Two nights ago I woke up at 4:00 in the morning and noticed her doing some pre-pee prowling on our bed, so I took her down to the basement and stood there in my bare feet in the middle of the night, putting her in her litter box again and again, petting her and speaking soothingly. Then I gave up, and she followed me back to bed and peed on Paul.

So last night Paul and I switched sides of the bed, and have you ever tried to do that? It seems really weird. I kept waking up feeling like everything was all strange, and now the lamp is on my side. Anyway, I was wondering if Mouse was peeing ON PAUL or if she was peeing on that side of the BED, but last night’s test was a bust because she sniffed around for awhile and then went out to the hallway and peed on a pair of pants one of the kids left there.

Could we get a little fresh breeze in here kthanx

On one hand I’m reaching my limit, and on the other hand “reaching my limit” doesn’t really mean anything because I don’t want to put her to sleep and that’s pretty much the only option sitting around at the limit. If she had other issues I would consider it, but she’s a very good cat. She’s been a very good cat for 16 years. I don’t want to stop the CAT, I just want to stop the PEEING. We’ve talked about it with the vet several times now, and she’s been tested but she’s fine, and we got her a Feliway-knock-off collar, and we’ve gotten multiple litter boxes, and we’ve put a box aside for her in a secluded place, and we’ve put a box on the main floor in case she’s having trouble with the stairs to the basement, and she seems accustomed to the new cats now—and sometimes things seem better and then they seem not-better again. And she IS peeing MOST of the time in the box (or, as Paul says darkly, “or somewhere else we haven’t found yet”). We have a vinyl mattress cover on our bed, which I hate, and we’ve taken our down blanket and our quilt off and replaced them with cheap blankets that are easier to wash cat pee out of.

Anyway. I guess I don’t have any point to that. Just venting/complaining. Mouse goes back to the vet in November for blood tests anyway, so that’s another chance for them to find something. The vet also mentioned cat prozac, except Mouse doesn’t seem UPSET or anything now. She just keeps peeing on our stuff. And maybe she’s just kind of old and needs a cat-sized Depends.

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(image from Amazon.com)

I read The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman and liked it. I feel very invested in her getting back together with Jimmy Kimmel. I mean, assuming they’d be happy together—I don’t mean they have to get together if they had a bad relationship. But it SEEMED good, didn’t it? And I felt sad when they broke up, and I’d feel happy if they got back together and were happy and had babies if they wanted them and so forth.

The playdate went as well as could be expected. Which for a non-socially-anxious person would probably be “It was AWESOME! We got along GREAT! I like the mom AND the kids, HALLELUJAH!!!”

I do like the mom. She’s ten years younger than me, which. I mean. Some of YOU are ten years younger than me and I don’t have any trouble thinking of you as peers, but it’s the flip side of the problem I more often have, which is when moms are ten years older than me. Ten years is a GAP. There are times I feel it more than others. This time I didn’t feel it much, but I wondered if SHE did. Her husband is three years older than her, but he’s still seven years younger than me.

But I like her. She swore appropriately and cheerfully several times when the kids were out of earshot, but then creatively non-swore (“That’ll really sssss” for “suck”) when they were nearby. She was interested in talking at least for awhile about baby names. From what I could tell in an hour and a half, her parenting doesn’t clash with mine. She’s comfortable and social, which can be helpful: she assumes there’s no awkwardness, which can make me less awkward in response.

The kids got along, although Elizabeth and the other girl excluded Edward, which left Edward crying in the sand, which was a little embarrassing and also hard to know how to handle. But that went okay. In fact, the only real issue was that I got sand on my feet and had to chop off my feet because OMG SAND ON MY FEET AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Speaking of awkward, after Henry and I dropped the twins off at kindergarten (both still sandy from their park time in the morning), we went to the music store to buy a music book for William, who has decided to take clarinet (it doesn’t seem like two whole years since Rob chose clarinet, but here we are). And the guy who owns the store came over to help us, and Henry said, “Hey, that guy has girl hair!”

So I was immediately torn: do I act like it’s no big deal, or do I die outwardly as well as inwardly? I went with Option A, saying absently, “LONG hair, Henry, yes.” And the guy said to Henry, “Yep. How’re ya?” Then the guy went into another room, so while the cashier was ringing up our purchase I lectured Henry about how some girls have short hair but it’s NOT BOY HAIR IT’S SHORT HAIR, and some boys have long hair but it’s NOT GIRL HAIR IT’S LONG HAIR, with the intention that the cashier would overhear and perhaps report to the guy that “the mom was really embarrassed and also not at all the type of person who would refer to long-haired guys as ‘looking like girls’.” She kept chuckling, so I thought to myself “Success!”

Then as we left the store, Henry saw the guy again and said, “Hey, there’s that guy with girl hair!” Oh god. I mean, what is the right thing to do in this situation? Should I apologize to the guy, possibly making it into a big deal rather than a nothing deal? Should I act exasperated and say “GEEZ, Henry!”? Should I say, “Henry, dude, are you kidding me? that is AWESOME ROCK-STAR HAIR.” And I ask this knowing YOU know I can’t go back in time and do it over and can only do what I DID do which is to say “Henry” in a reproving tone of voice (with just a TOUCH of “Geez!”) and continue to take him out to the car, where I delivered the lecture a second time, adding a chapter about how it is rude to comment loudly about other people’s appearances, er yes, unless of course it is Mommy saying “Oh, I LOVE your shirt!” or whatever, so in fact why don’t you just play it safe and not say ANYTHING AT ALL until you come of age?

It seems to me (and it makes sense to me) that bloggers talk more often than other groups of people about social anxieties. So much, in fact, that I’m a little tired both of reading about it and of writing about it. BUT: it comes up so often, and affects so many areas of life, it’s not so much “writing about social anxiety x 5” as it is “writing about how social anxiety is screwing up my ability to call a doctor who could help with social anxiety x 1” plus “writing about how social anxiety is complicating the decision of whether or not to attend BlogHer x 1” plus “writing about…” and so on.

Today it’s “writing about how social anxiety is complicating my children’s social lives x 1”. Elizabeth is in kindergarten, and she’s socially comfortable at least for now. And she BADLY wanted a playdate with another little girl she knows and likes. And I REALLY DON’T WANT TO ARRANGE IT, NOR DO I WANT TO PARTICIPATE. I mean, REALLY don’t—as in, I would rather let a spider walk on my hand. BUT: I am aware that one of my responsibilities as a parent is to help my children arrange things they’re not able to arrange for themselves, especially when those things are actively good for them. And so. I waited for a brave moment and I pounced on it.

It helped x 1,000,000 that I had the other little girl’s parents’ email address from the class list: instead of Phone Hurdle plus Playdate Hurdle, it’s only a Playdate Hurdle. But this morning is the playdate, and I would rather be doing almost anything else. Going to the grocery store with three children? SURE! And they can’t sit in the cart? NO PROBLEM! And they’ll drink coffee first? WHY NOT! And a spider will walk over my hands while I’m shopping? NO BIG!

It won’t be as bad as I think. I might even enjoy parts of it. And certainly the relief when it’s over and we’re driving home will be glorious, and I’ll be so glad I did it for Elizabeth’s sake. And then she will want me to arrange another one.

You know what you can do, if your printer is out of paper but you don’t feel like putting in more right now because you’d have to move a bunch of stuff out of the way of the paper drawer first, but the “paper” light keeps BLINKING and BLINKING? Hit the “job cancel” button right near that blinking light. Possibly this will work for you, too, and ideally it will not be the case that someone else in your family got halfway through a print job and didn’t notice and you just canceled it for them. Because ANOTHER thing you could have done would have been to put a sheet of paper in the manual feed, just to get it over with and also not lose the print job, and someone might point this out to you in an irritable tone of voice.

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I empathize SO HARD with Marie Green’s post State of the State, about what it feels like to have a difference of opinion with a spouse about a desperately-wanted baby.

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Happy cat news: the vet said that the most we should hope for at Benchley’s follow-up appointment today was that his eye was not getting WORSE—but as it turns out, it’s even looking BETTER. He’s lucky to be a young and healthy cat, but also he’s just plain lucky his body happens to be working for him on this. I won’t detail some of the gross things the vet said could happen with eye injuries, but suffice it to say I came away from that discussion feeling like bodies were fragile and random places where the body’s own immune system could end up being a bigger problem than the original problem. Benchley goes back again in a week, but the vet said she feels very encouraged we’ll see good results and won’t have to call in The Cat Ophthalmologist. Did you know there were ophthalmologists for cats? You do now.

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I got a coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts this morning, and every time I get coffee at a restaurant I realize how weak I make my coffee at home. Because WOOOOOOOOO.