cats

Hello ? Hello ?

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

It’s 2023 !! to be precise, it’s November 16, 2023. So i’m back. And hopefully i will continue to write. It sucks not being to write but as per usual life happened as it always does to everyone of us. I had to vacate the house i was living in 2022 because my landlord wanted to sell and i had to hurriedly look for a place, but it was hard as the rents were going up and so the apartments were gone even before i went to check it out. I finally found a place but it was a tiny studio but i took it because i didn’t want to spend time looking and feared that if i dawdle, this would go away as well. I moved in with six of my kitties having lost the rest of my babies between 2022 and the time i moved. Since then, i lost three more. So now i have one senior kitty (bleu) and two young boys (minnu and sonu). i will post photos of the kids soo

My apartment is immensely small even for a studio and i am swimming in my clothes. I brought all my clothes to this tiny room hoping that i will weed out the unnecessary ones and keep the necessary ones. That didn’t quite happen. On the top of it, i am buying more clothes. i live on 4th floor and this house doesn’t have an elevator as the house was built in 1850s and it’s a beautiful house. i have a fire escape next to my alice in wonderland type window. the window opens on to the ledge of fire escape where i put some plant pots. during nice days i sat on the stairs reading books as i can’t keep going up and down due to my asthma.

However, i am letting my two young boy cats go and roam out as i felt sorry for the kids. I mean, we always lived in a very big house and to transition into this small studio, i myself got really claustrophobic for a couple of weeks, and i can only imagine the little ones, full of energy has no place to move or run. When we first moved in, i put them on leash and did bring them to our yard and walked them. Soon it became a problem for me, as my allergies set in and my asthma kicked in. So i let them go to wander and crossed my fingers and said a silent prayer to God to protect them. But these two kids are really good and taught themselves to watch out for the traffic and i am not sure how far they go, but they are happily wandering. I am keeping their vaccines updated just in case. The window is now open irrespective of the temps and they go out first thing in the morning around 5 am and go in and out all the times , coming in to eat and if the weather is too hot or cold, just sleep and go out again during evening. They adjusted to this life and i am happy to report they come in when i call / whistle so i know for sure they are always hanging about the house even if i can’t see them. They keep bringing me presents, baby rabbits, birds, baby birds, moles or garden mouse; and to my dismay they bring them alive with no scratches or bites. While i am happy they are not killing these critter, my problem now is, i have to hurriedly put on my pants and bring these animals / birds back into the garden to release as i don’t want to keep them and thus keep going up and down the stairs which i desperately wanted to avoid.

The year itself didn’t start off right for me; this house is multi family which means the house was divided into independent apartments and so apart from me there are 7 more apartments and most of them are single with three couples. one of the single guy who lived on the ground floor od’d on some drugs and passed away. We didn’t know this for two or three days and it was really sad because there was a dog in the house and he barked his head off. Finally he was found and for a while there, it was really hard to stay in the house. I was especially ticked off as i just moved in and i spent so much money for moving etc and i am like, i would like to move but i have no money to spend again for moving. But as it usually happens, we slowly recovered from that incident. and the apartment is now occupied again.

We started going back to the office for work and we are still getting used to it. I think i will say good night for now and will catch you up tomorrow.

Good night all you lovely internet people !!

action de grâce 2020

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

so autumn came speaking in the language of colors and i have been away for a while lost in the wonderful world of plants. and with the winter comes loss to make the way for new beginnings. the necessary seemingly never endless grey haze before you fall asleep. where dream and wake is knitted together with fine wool. to keep you warm. to keep you unsure.

days have been consumed with lots of good things, great things and sad things. but here i am, to report on my wee life.

it’s almost end of november, thanksgiving is around the corner and the smell of burning wood in fire places is in the air. mornings are wonderfully fog filled and what can i say, i’m content and blissful.

i’ve lost another kitty sadly and at the same time i ‘m happy to say he had a long and carefree life and he didn’t give any indication that anything was wrong at all. alas, this is the truth about animals as they mask their sickness.  i named this kitty after my human child. we carry little burdens in our hearts. a small funeral procession is carried out with every loss. a funeral that ignites on its own. a sadness that rises like the embers of winter firewood. a past self, the size of our fist. a heart swollen up inside our rib cage. a word so heavy it has no name. something so full that it feels empty. a hollow carcass that beats with our name. and a taste so fickle it fades before the feelings are swallowed. a smell so sublime, it vanishes before sleep arrives. a death so vivid, it blurs all the innocence left behind. a price so huge it takes all goodness to recover. and sooner or later these little flying flickers of daily routine, turn into huge weights over our shoulders. we look down and walk more humbly. we smile quietly and pick words with care. we say goodbyes with a delicate caress and hello with warm embrace. we live life all the time wondering what if ? and price of life that doesn’t exist.

couple of weeks prior to his passing, i took another kitty to the vet on an emergency visit. here i have to say that i really like my new vets even though they are super busy for my liking and it’s hard to get a regular appointment. i observed that snuggles was breathing funny and so off i took him to the vet. what i didn’t realize was that emergency appointment means the vet would take a look at him between the regularly scheduled appointments and so the kid was sitting by himself in an examination room while i was sitting outside in the car and i think he totally freaked out. and i finally got him home around 4:30 pm on a saturday and i returned to him to give him some food when i saw him flopping on the floor turning blue and trying to catch his breath. i called the vet and after realizing i was unable to help him and i am not going to bring him to a vet in that condition, i said a little prayer and waited on him to die. as he was trying to throw up, i opened his mouth and removed the sticky mucous from his mouth and throat and i think it helped him a bit as he was no longer blue but still lying on the floor. i kept stroking him a bit and read to him psalm 121.  after a few hours he seemed to recover but only the second episode started around 10 pm and i was pretty sure he would die. i mean, to see this kitty in so much pain and my inability to help, is too much for me. at one point i actually wanted to break his neck so as to give him a quick death but i didn’t have balls. so i secluded the kid in another room, in all honesty thinking that he will die, said another prayer, chanted psalm 121 and left him in the room. an hour later i went back to see if he died, and to my surprise the kid was sitting up and i bawled. i quickly gave him his medications and shoved some food into him as i thought if he died at least i did my best. i was up all night and went back every couple of hours to see how he was faring and also to feed him couple of mouthfuls of food. i left him some water, some food and also a litter box. and on sunday at around 8 am i went to give him his pills and also some food but when i opened the door, the kid dashed out of the room made a bee line to the litter box they usually use and had a good pee. he was a bit unsteady on his feet but he surprised me a lot. by sunday evening, he was behaving as if nothing happened while i was dozing in and out of sleep with an eye on him. my kids surprise me to bits. now a days i am bit worried that they are super comfortable with me being home a lot and so i think they may get separation anxiety when i go back to office.

speaking of office, i am thinking of asking my boss that i want to make my job work from home and i kinda hinted at it. i seriously have almost couple of hours of commute each way and as i have no intention of taking public transportation due to covid in any foreseeable future. i probably have to look for another job in case my job doesn’t become work from home deal.

as i reported previously, i have started gathering plants in an effort to duplicate my mother’s garden…  i have a few more plants to go to complete the list. i have other plants like orchids, as well and i am steadily collecting them. but most recently i started collecting rare (and thus expensive) plants and when i say plants, they are cuttings and seedlings. all these cutting and seedlings are costing me a lot of dollars to be honest and i have been eagerly waiting for tax refund so i can splurge on a rare plant cutting which is costing me an arm and half a leg ! i think i will also buy some more orchids to add to my orchid collection.  i have watering schedules for all my plants as i get exhausted watering them all in a day, and i have different day schedules for them.

so i can safely say my portfolio now involves some equity in goddamn expensive plants. and also as these plants are toxic to animals i have make shift terrariums and mini glass greenhouses.  i have joined rare plant groups and learning a lot on these projects. people are so knowledgeable and kind. the most expensive cutting which i purchased so far was $2500 and yes there are plants much more expensive than these…

i have been incredibly happy with my projects and how i’m diversifying my mental portfolio.

read a lot less books than i wanted to as now a days i have less time and also as i started to watch a lot more television episodes so i can polish my french and spanish languages. the important french phrase i learned was “je m’en bats les couilles” which literally means ‘i beat my nuts about it’ which is obviously a bit vulgar and so “i don’t give a flying fuck or no fucks given” would serve the same purpose.

we are heading into another lockdown / quarantine. i started to think of good days and social interactions as to food- for example the other day i said that the last good day before lockdown has last me for three weeks (mentally and emotionally) and the social reunion with my friends on thursday will last me another three i think. you know what i mean ? it’s like okay i had something very good that i can think of for the next few weeks and be happy. taking care of yourself is very important and i will go get my flu shot this week as i’m off work. i probably will cook an elaborate meal and stuff myself while watching some favorite shows. (i have been lazy and wasn’t cooking and have been living on nothing but coffee, brioche, cheetos and diet soda)

the choice is always ours. the pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. ~ william arthur ward

happy thanks giving !!

week 10 – shelter in place

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

summer is here and with it comes delicious fruit and exciting reads straight from my book collections. my cats and i love afternoons in the sunshade, full of cool cherries and a nice glass of cold lemonades for me.

it’s been full three weeks since i blogged, if i were not mistaken as i became a bit bored and super busy. the highlights included one of my friends emailing me out of the blue. apparently his son asked him who is your oldest friend and he remembered me ! mallick was my neighbor and a very dear childhood friend. he motivated me to excel in studies and come to the us. during our summer holidays, while all the kids were playing outside, he and i would be preparing to the next year as he was one year senior to me and he would give me his notes, text books, and so by the time school reopened for the next year, i am done with homeworks in all subjects and i know everything which needs to know. good goddamn times !

i have kind of slacked off blogging as i was otherwise occupied. i’m friends with my colleagues in it (info tech)  and we were chatting about what shows to watch and one guy convinced me i should watch a couple of shows on hbo, so i subscribed to that channel as well. i think once my cable service contract is up, i am going to downgrade to internet only. anyway, hbo came with full series of game of thrones and i never got into that show as i wanted to first read the books. but as the shows are there, i started reading the books and started watching the shows. i thought the first four seasons are great as they closely followed the books and the later seasons were quite stupid. i also realized why the show was popular as there is so much of fucking and tits and cunts galore. the boy and i thought we would rather have the books made into video games as it could be like a strategy game with lots of killing.

the other important thing which happened and kept me busy was, i have taken up working on a research project for nasa as my friend recruited me. so now i’m working on two projects apart from my regular work. here i must pause and thank god, that i get paid a lot, i mean a lot, at my current full time position for doing nothing. and i don’t feel badly about this as i used to beg for more projects at work. so here i’m getting paid a lot, for doing almost a couple of hours of work per week. and this is perfect opportunity for me for diversifying my portfolio during these times.

i have worked on my garden and planted all my darling bulbs. my babies are increasingly clingy to me to the point if i am leave the room they follow me around. i, on the other hand, became quite comfortable ordering things online and wearing masks when going out. the one thing which i have to take care of and i haven’t found a good solution yet is taking my cars for inspection as that would involve me staying there during the inspection which could last hours. i used to drop the car off and get a ride back home but with our current situation i am not planning to get into someone else’s car.

i’ve been watching “the adulterer”, a dutch show (walter presents) and this lady who returns home from prison says, “it’s the smell that i missed” which got me thinking.  it is true isn’t it ? how do i say “the smell of the people you love is something you know innately & is deeply comforting & while i’ll never know my own smell (and i am quite positive, i smell like cats) i hope that it’s nice & learning someone’s smell means that you just … know it for like, ever, even if you can’t clearly articulate what it is actually like” without sounding like a huge creep, like jean-baptiste grenouille (peter suskind’s book the perfume)

but i think when you love somebody you learn to recognize their smell, and this smell makes you happy. because you relate to them. it reminds me how i’d give my cats my clothes when they are to spend a night or two at the vet hospital so that they can hold onto because they learned to love that smell. i think there’s nothing creepy about the visceral sense of known and safe and loved that comes from the smell of home.

like i loved my parents and the time we would spend together in our home in india. with the iron gate which made the teensy squeak when opened or the slight catch of my front door that much more appealing, the comfort of familiarity wafting out to greet me, and i realized i recognized it.

yes, but at the same time, it can be tragic too. when they finally decide to leave you behind, their smell lingers behind them along with your memories of them, only making you miss them more. you smell someone similar and turn around hoping its them, but its not. the place you know that they used to be, their smell slowly dissipates from there and when it’s finally gone, you know they are too. a scent can be like a ghost.

i am a work in progress and i am ok with it. my sciatic nerve started calming down and the pain is bearable. i will soon start some heavy duty workout challenges to control the ever expanding tummy.

evenings now a days are blissful and my twin boys and i go out to enjoy the evening fresh air and watch the world go by. the more i let nature in, the more i indulge it, give it time, sit amongst the nature, be the silent observer, the more i connect with it, almost at a spiritual level. like i could sit here on the grass floor of my backyard and it would grow over me, the brambles intertwining between my legs, the birds nestling in my hair. it all just feels incredibly peaceful, to be one with everything, feel everything, not to think, not to worry or question, just to nurture the life around me.

i strive so much for happiness, tranquility, for paradise in my life, but what if i were already there ? what if i have already walked far beyond the pearly gates and have just forgotten what came before. and would that change everything ? if god stood in front of me and said ‘hey there, you’re here, you made it, have fun !’ would i do things a little differently ? so as i lie on the grass in the cool part of the evening here, with nothing more than my cats, the sun and the birds and the greenfly walking over my skin, i ask myself, is hell just a place that i create because i feel like i don’t belong ?

i feel like a preacher and this feels like a sermon. i feel guided by higher presence, and right now, in this moment, i feel a little peace.

week 4 – shelter in place

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

pink moon

only to the moon will i tell all my secrets. this week’s highlights in some pictures. there was pink super moon and because of the weather,i took this shot of the moon on 8th i think.

some of the excerpts from my kids photos. my kids finally stopped judging me silently for staying home 24 / 7 instead of going to work and toiling to bring home their roast chicken; my kids though eyed me suspiciously, soon realized the benefits of me being home, like they can get food every two minutes.

i have taught my baby girl skittles to play the ipad mouse game and she taught the other kids…. well there isn’t much to the game but you do have to whack the mouse and i taught her that and she immediately learned as she is immensely smart and i swear to god she actually understands human language more than a few words like the other pets. i am also convinced that despite the language barrier, if i send her to school, she will master the program within few months and graduate with honors. i am immensely proud of that kid.

my boy sonu (the black kitty) is the best son a mum could have. zz, the tiny moron, still does the “i want my mum” routine where he regularly forgets that i’m upstairs and cries his heart out, and as he can’t hear on account he is deaf, i have to go and bring him upstairs (and he sleeps like this with one hand on my body);

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one day instead of getting up and run to the head of the stairs to let him know i’m home, i asked sonu, my lovely son, who is resting beside me, to go get him; i went, “sonu love, could you go bring him upstairs” and off sonu went and brought him upstairs which really surprised me to be honest. i thought this may be random thing but then again a couple of days later, mr. forgot-mum-is-home-so-i’ll-cry resumed crying, and i asked sonu again, and off sonu went to bring the boy upstairs. and this time around sonu wasn’t even in the same room and so i had to actually call him loudly. it made me tear up to be honest as sometimes i feel the emptiness of not having a human child (that is till i meet an actual human child and then i don’t regret not having any kids) as i think, my babies make it up thousand fold !

i continued to watch “walter presents” and for once, i found a tv show (icelandic) “the cliff” really worth watching and didn’t giggle at all like i always do. i also watched “the killing of the sacred deer” which made no fucking sense and i may also have thrown up a little in my mouth.  there is a new mystery featuring david tennant, my favorite doctor (doctor who) but it is in goddamn installments and i must wait every week.and oh, i purchased (from amazon) all the miyazaki (studio ghibli) movies as i never get tired of them and i enjoy watching them over and over. as also i enjoy reading adventures of tin tin (and i own the entire set of books) and asterix (again own the entire set), i sometimes wonder if i got stuck in my childhood and of course it doesn’t surprise me a bit on account of lost and traumatic childhood where it’s not so much of parental stress but mostly of society. that story for a non-quarantine times.

this weekend, we enjoyed my sunny, quiet backyard during this time of distance. reflecting on my own mind, which i have silenced with a constant business. as difficult as this all had been, i am looking to stay positive and focusing on healing. reopening my mind and challenging it without expectation.

i have spent such a long time standing in place, only moving forward when propelled and prompted. the past might continue to splinter me here and there, but i’m no longer young and naive to remain still and fractured in my little corner of the world. we wander around often blindly like our eyes still feel the sting from the voices who told us we were too much and yet not enough. our backs hunched and our hands covered with burned loves and still questioning how to stop the tremors. the young years have crippled us, left us mad and doubtful right in the margin between an old memory and a blooming possibility. you’re going to survive all of this, i urged quietly to my wrists, lips pressed against the scars. listen, i used to only know how to dissolve so quietly that no one else can feel it, but i think i’m learning how to compromise less and expand more.

sunset kisses

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

current exhaustion level: just tried to put glasses on when i was already wearing glasses, momentarily sporting two whole pairs of glasses on my face and only dimly thinking, something feels off….

finally it’s september ! ah september, the doorway to a season when i come alive ! it has finally cooled down enough for me to have the windows open all day and that has well and truly been (nearly) the only thing keeping me sane this week. but it’s got hot and humid again today. in a preemptive action, i started another course of prednisone. i think i have come to an understanding with this as i actually like breathing really well because of prednisone and am controlling my appetite, by skipping dinners or eating only fruits.

life is going as slowly as it could. i’ve been spending way too much time with humans lately and frankly it’s pissing me off. currently reading “girls burn brighter” by shobha rao and it is set in my home state (where they speak telugu) and boy i tell you…  today i came to a place where the girl is getting tortured because her father hasn’t yet paid the remainder of the dowry and i just was so upset, i had to slam the ipad shut and physically take myself out of my cubicle and had to take a walk to calm the fuck down !! then i went and ranted to mike as i was telling him that i was waiting to borrow this book. mike has recently joined out company and he still has that excitement of a freshly employed, and his eyes glow like dark marbles. he is a bit different and he impressed me when he told me that he gets up at 5 am so he can go work out and then read !! reminded me of my husband as he used to wake up at a god awful hour like around 2:30 – 3 am and go bicycling for couple of hours and come home and read till it’s time for me to wake up and he would bring me a cup of coffee to wake me up ! dude, i miss you so fucking much !

the other day “not ross” boy commented “i want to grow old with you but honestly achievement unlocked” because when we just rolled up to petsmart, he (and i realized) that we are accidentally wearing pastel pink outfits. umm, not sure what i should feel, and am i in a relationship now ? aargh ! i don’t wanna be in a relationship (throws a tiny tantrum), i like being single and not having to interact with any of the relatives !? and also can i get a free house in florida ?

the boy is considerably younger than i and i have absolutely no issues with that but i still think he should sire some kids but he detests children. a handful of days ago, i was coming home having discovered entirely new route which not only cuts my commute by 10 mins (driving) but also takes me through crops and open fields and i get to see sunrise every day and i’m happy and blissful to breath in fresh air and watch the skies and sun; but i digress as usual, anyway, i saw some sky divers in one of the open fields and i mentioned this to the boy and he immediately wanted to go and jump. on one hand i’m envious because the day i was supposed to go and jump out of a plan was the day (valentine’s day) i found out that i was pregnant; but i’m like “boy, i’m thinking of making you the step-papa for my kitties” and he said he wouldn’t mind being a dad to them. but i am just looking for a step-dad for my kitties as my husband will always be their dad. anyways, the boy went and jumped and i sulked on the ground.

now that summer is over, i started on my fall / winter self-care. here are a few of favorites : spraying some lush eau-de-parfume or eau-de-toilette after my shower / putting on a clean bra / undershirt and feeling super clean / dressing up just to go to a favorite french cafe on the weekends, ordering a nice croissant and chocolate cake and eating it in a small park near my house / putting on my favorite songs and listening to them on my bed while drifting off to sleep / going to those used book stores and browsing all afternoon (also, i would love to be kissed by ze american boy in a book store) / wearing agent provocateur panties / having orgasms. often. / eating home made fruit salads  / drinking tea and watch leaves fall / after dinner, walking around my neighborhood with my music on and peering at people through their windows

buttons (featured in one of my photos) is currently in that extremely hyperactive-kitty-cat-play-fever mode where if he sits still he’ll die and the slightest move on my part is met with tiny bites and swats and scampering and ten-foot vertical leaps and this is somehow both heart-meltingly cute and aggressively annoying BECAUSE I WAS JUST SITTING HERE MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS PLEASE DO NOT SLAP ME SIR….

sir !

sIR !

SIR !

my cats always make me a partner in their crimes. the other day after i got home and fed my kitties, and just after sundown, sonu was in super hyper crazy nocturnal predator bug-eyed mode and there i was indelicately lounging about on my bed, watching news or some other shit, and this boy just rocket launched himself face first in my no-fly zone. i literally got pussy slammed !

‘seize the day’ they say. and idid. i kept it in your eyes. those staring, unblinking, kind eyes. that poured with your love for me. i hid details of our conversations in your laughter. so that the next time you laugh by yourself you can taste this moment. the waves crashing over grey shores and taking with them the soft light of the sun setting over our lives. another day had passed. yet, that moment couldn’t be encompassed by time. it still remains untarnished in my memory. i go back to the ones i’ve left with to make me last for the rest of my days. i’m using the soul you’ve given me to last for another day. day after day. i didn’t know it was possible to yearn for something as much as i yearn for you. the way you looked up to me like i was the only one you wanted to talk to. how you already knew what i was thinking. how you shared with me your days like a way to seize the day, in my memory. till the time it fades like every frivolous thing. but i’m still holding on to the last flicker burning the candle wick, drowning under the september night. hoping the same sun rises once again.

minnu, sonu and the great outdoors !

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

is there any thing prettier than cats on leashes ?!?! my boys argue every weekend to let them out and when i do let them out, they run off when i blink for a second. so got leashes for my twin boys, and started training them to walk on leashes. over dramatic kitties as they are, they flopped about like fishies out of water, walked backwards, etc. but they finally figured out they can actually walk with the leashes on. my labor day weekend was completely dedicated to train my kids to walk on leashes. it’s actually fun because, now that fall is around the corner, i want to take them on walks in the hills and in the parks ! i hit a bit of a snag in my plan, as my two boys want to walk in different directions. for now i’m going on walks with one kid at a time (to end of my street that is) – so here are the kitties on leashes, feat. minnu (the striped tabby) and sonu (the very pretty midnight black boy) – so today’s walk was a bit short as it was bloody cold out and grass was wet ! my poor kitties’ feet were super cold, so i brought them back in 🙂

(2019/09/07)

 

summer in the city

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IMG_0985

here’s my kitty girl petals, absolutely gorgeous and grateful. animals are so grateful when you attend to them and ease their pain and sickness. i have been showered with affection, once their fever, pain, feeling uncomfortable has left them. it actually pains me physically when they are ill, as they can’t tell me how much of a pain they are in and where exactly it hurts. so i think whatever money i spent on them, is worth it as long as they are well.

i love this song ‘summer in the city’ – i think it’s cool and applies to me in every way especially now in my present condition. but recently i found myself in american boy’s office (he has been a pest since a couple of weeks on a little matter which, in my opinion, was no big deal). but there i was sitting in front of him, and for the first time since i have known him, i was not actually annoyed as he has this knack of driving me up the wall. i was thinking of this song all the time i was speaking with him, even though, i completely forgot the lyrics, i finally realized i actually associate american boy with summer or vice versa.

when i’m sitting so close to him i can feel his breath i wonder if he knows i’m going to replay this moment in my memories for the next few moons or for the sound of his laugh is a sunday afternoon. his sparkling, devilish eyes make me delirious the witty, back-and-forth banter exhilarates me the sultry smile we secretly share is enough to convince my exalted mind to give it all up for more of this bittersweet paradise of lust and laughs where it’s so hard to read his charming words and clever spurs how could i ever decipher what this energy between us is (i’m content in my ignorance so long this ends in a kiss) every fiber in my body tells me i’m not allowed to feel anything for him but don’t they know that telling me i can’t makes me want to even more so much so that it (you) (this) consumes my every waking thought as he, calm and charm, play me like sport  but that’s just it even if i lose the final score the game was worth it. and more. but gosh, i love me orgasms on a regular basis & i can’t wait for him till he comes to his senses. lol,*wink*

so for the  boy’s sake i’ve been rewatching poldark series as he didn’t & also as the final season is upon me, i would like to refresh my memory of the storyline – i say this because, this weekend was quite hot and humid, and boy and i, tho briefly ventured out for a game of tennis, soon we locked ourselves indoors (my asthma flared up again and i’m yet again on another prednisone course). protagonist ross and his wife demelza are constantly going through these problems (if you watch it you know) & i have a little summary as well to fill you in. anyway, getting back to the point, the boy took a shining to demelza, and a week or so ago, after a night of marathon sex, i opened my eyes, turned to the boy as he was lying next to me in effulgent bliss, and the first words out of his mouth were, eleanor tomlinson (demelza poldark) has nice red hair, may be you should try red hair. now, i’m not a very jealous person, but what with my feminist thinking and all,  i would never change who i am even if i want to look dazzling. i wanted to slap him, but i believe in punishing people in a subtle ways, and so i started calling him ross (that’s not his name) and imitating demelza, i am currently going ‘yes ross’. ‘no ross’, ‘tis okay, ross’ and he is begging me to stop, but i think, i will continue for another couple of weeks.  

on poldark: i know this is a historical fiction set in 1800s in cornwall but is anyone else just getting sick of how flat the characters in poldark are becoming ? every single episode, no matter what ‘lessons’ they have learnt in other seasons, they just behave and interact in exactly the same way like they did in the past.

like, morwenna is always this meek crying girl (when she was with drake she was sad bc it wasn’t ‘correct’ that she loves a boy of a low-birth, when she was married she was sad because, obviously the man was a brute and a monster and a sex addict, then she was widowed and she was still sad, then she was free and got married and was still sad. i’m blogging because of my ptsd but she can have some range of emotions other than just being on verge of tears for every scene,

demelza is always complaining, playing victim and losing faith in ross or herself (despite multiple times them having the final ‘we love each other revelation. seriously, she has almost left him…what, four times now ?), oh dear god, give it a fucking rest.

ross is always being rash and making stupid decisions & at a drop of hat runs to his family home trenwith or to elizabeth thus enfuriating george, not that this ass needs an excuse to get his feathers ruffled about ross.

george (antagonist) is just always being evil, (was there actually any point to the whole madness thing if he is just going straight back to full force evil george again ? and dear god, george ! why are you so jealous of ross ?

dwight is just this voice of reason, even when he makes such stupid impulsive decisions like joining the navy on a whim etc….  caroline doesn’t even have enough screen time to be repetitive in any way

like i feel we are just watching these cogs turn round and round and nothing ever really changes or develops. any serious issues like death or ptsd seem to be stuck and then just swept under the rug and kind of ignored. the characters never learn. they never change.  may be humans never change no matter what age or how technologically we all develop. and don’t get me started on the whole tone of this season and how every ‘good character’ naturally has the modern view of opposing slavery completely and not being racist at all, even though this is the 1800′s… ugh.

i watched the second game of patriots (football season is upon us again lads) against titans because i had to record the game and surely when i was checking the score in between the poldark they were at 8 to titans 17 and this morning when i checked the score fully expecting them to have lost but, goddamn, they won ! my boys won and yes i know it’s just preseason but hotdamn !

well, i am off to bed and i love being asleep and i love being in bed but i hate going to bed because it requires so many small rituals and bedtime activities i wish i could just automatically transport myself into bed the moment i get sleepy already with my teeth brushed, in my pajamas, phone set down to charge, alarm set, entire body marinating in an artisanal mix of 24 herbs and spices and sealed in a sous vide bag, etc

bonne nuit !

anatomy of a cat mum

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

(with photos !!)

this weekend is gorgeous and on friday when i was coming home, i made plans to go to peddlers village for a peach festival. so saturday morning when i woke up, i decided i will go to church and come home, and then go to the peach festival. but of course, it wasn’t meant to be as my girl petal’s is constipated and i couldn’t bear to watch her suffering so i took her to the vet to get her going again (she got an enema) and this took care of my entire saturday.

hopefully sunday, i will try and get to the peach festival.

one of my boy cats, z pack (photo below), is incredibly sweet and wants nothing more than to be within a 2 ft radius of me at all times, gently chilling in my orbit. he is also very, very dumb and to make matters worse, i’m semi-positive that he is also deaf. (i say that because he was a rescue cat – actually i was blackmailed into taking him in by one of my church members – by telling me that if i don’t take him in, he would go to a shelter.) anyway, usually my boy cats are very very needy for their mum.

a couple of weeks or so ago, it was a slow lazy sunday morning so i was reading, not making much noise or moving about. meanwhile, z pack goes downstairs to stare out of the french doors and when he was done staring out, he sat at the bottom of the stairs, and he starts yowling like his lil heart broke. i jumped out of my bed and go to the top of the stairs all worried like, and wave my hands to attract his attention (remember he is deaf) and then asked him “z-pack, what’s wrong ?”

kitty zips back up the stairs and just oozes onto my feet, purring high-powered lawnmower style. when the realization hit me at once

this. boy. this itty bitty kitty boy !

he couldn’t see me for ten continuous seconds, forgot. i was actually home. and immediately burst into tears  !!!!

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(z pack: i just took a shower & getting dressed (still naked) when he demanded he wanted cuddles)

indeed, my boy cats are dumb and needy little men. comparatively, the girl cats are super smart, to wit, i give them canned (fancy feast) food (one can per cat) on paper plates as i can’t be bothered with cleaning etc, some flavors are tastier, me thinks, than others as they lick their plates clean. because the paper plates are light, they tend to move away from the cats when they are licking up their food. so in one instance, i saw my kitty girl skittles weighted the paper plate down by putting her paw on it while my dumb kitty boys were chasing the plates about.

though they be stupid, they are velvety soft and excessively affectionate and they are all extra good made for hugging !

my cats still haven’t grasped certain things: showers are wet (the boys try and get into my shower while the girls circle thinking that i may be in danger of drowning) / thinking like a ninja doesn’t make one a ninja / my feet are friends and not chewy toys / clumsy fat kitties can’t fit behind anything expensive esp electronic devices as their mum doesn’t get extended warranties / biting is only nice when it’s mutually consensual / closets and cupboards are not that exciting / there are better places to nap other than my head / i have fed them not a few seconds ago / also, when i get up it’s not for feeding them / gravity always goes down ?? / people who don’t like cats should be left alone when they visit their mum

it is super hard to get a still photos of some cats more than others – for example sonu (below), he is completely in love with me, but he tries to hide it. he comes, sneaky like, when i’m lying down; he would look at me sneakily from the stairs when i am in the kitchen; but he wouldn’t let me take one good photo of him – i’ve so many photos but none great

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(sonu: look how annoyed he looks !)

sunday: woke up late as usual a bit groggy as my night was disturbed with z pack sitting next to my head and purring with his high powered lawn mower purrs – that kid doesn’t understand that he should purr softly…  i let out minnu and sonu for a few minutes into my backyard as they love eating grass, but once i blinked he hopped into my neighbors yard and thank god i had my pants on and so i chased him a bit from my side of the fence wondering if i should wake my neighbor up when minnu got spooked and came back into the house. i think i probably won’t go to peach festival but instead will go to gym and work out a bit and may be after lunch go to chester valley trail for some hiking / walking and take in some nature. (bonus photos of buttons (orange), another kid who doesn’t let me hold him to take photos and minnu (the kitty who actually loves taking photos with me)

 

june

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

if a june night could talk,
it would probably boast it invented romance ~ bernard williams

bonjour a tous ! it was not so very pretty day but i got myself a bagel, a coffee and a book. weatherwise, it’s super muggy and a bit warm and on account of me being allergic to everything under the sun and including the sun, i didn’t venture out after this little trip.

i have been quite busy and occupying my time with gardening and cats as to love a cat or a flower is the most delicious form of escapism. the honeysuckles near my bedroom window started blooming and they scent my night air swirling together with gossamers of my dreams of the future and wisps and sighs of my past.

life became a blur and i am reminding myself to be still and not become a blur as well.

excuse me while i frolic in the glow of sheer happiness of my boys les warriors win the nba championship and hear me do a war cry of victory. there was a time, when i was sitting in a japanese/thai restaurant in ardmore with sandalwood on the night of game six of warriors v rockets, refusing to go home as rockets were leading 3-2 and i was so afraid that warriors may be done as they sucked for the last few games. i sat there petrified to eat even but there was a tv in the restaurant and i could clearly see the score and warriors were already lagging and my heart sank further still; but sandalwood is like i guarantee you that warriors are gonna win tonight and you must watch the game and he finally convinced me to leave the restaurant and so we packed our foods which just arrived much to the wonderment of the waitress and we raced home and yes, warriors won that game and they tied the series; and on the final game where there was 50% chance of warriors to win and again i was so terrified but sandalwood was  again supportive and told me that i should watch the game as it’s all about greatness achieved through competition and boy, was i glad to watch them win. and when they were in finals, i had no doubt that they will bulldoze cavaliers and yes and yes, my boys were brilliant and i especially loved the little facial expression of “yes” on durant’s face after he pulled the team into lead in game 3. everyone assumes that i like curry, but i actually like durant more and if i were to choose between curry and durant, i would go with durant as a romantic partner because i love strong, silent types.

in summary i don’t know about warriors but i am emotionally and physically drained but it was a glorious journey to reach the cup.

at the office i have squabbled and debated with my colleagues pete and tom as they were super fans of lebron james and i, just can’t stand him. they have this tendency to like pretty much everyone i despise. and for the record, i have no clue why i detest lebron so vehemently… i stand corrected, i think i know why; it’s because he was given a god status and i think he is so overrated and yea, that ticks me off…

i have started a gardening project after almost killing a variety of plants in the office. i would buy these little potted plants and bring them to office only to find them near dead in a couple of days (not my fault, i hastily add. it’s just that the office environment not conducive to any living organisms) and i would hurriedly bring them back home to nurse them back to health. even my cacti died. so i got a few baby spider plants from someone and now waiting for their roots to flourish so i could pot them. i brought some seeds to office and now my little seedlings are poking their itty bitty heads out of the soil and i am carefully coddling them. i really hope that they would thrive and that i could slowly transform my cubicle into a garden full of greenery and throbbing with life.

people break so easily along with their dreams and hearts. the suicides of kate spade and bourdain was awful news for me to hear. severe depression leads you to a place where pain is just too great to be awake filling you with despondency and paranoia and utter loneliness. truly it’s a hard disease to cope with not only for the person who is going through that but also to the ones in their lives.

i have made no progress what so ever on my grand plans. if i can be real with y’all for a second, the past few months have been a bit difficult of my entire fucking life second only to those right after my husband’s death. i’ve been hit with like twenty different curve balls and all at the same time, and again and again and again. i’ve realized many things like who your friends are and who i can count on, ventured out of my security zone, my family’s and my personal traumas and my oh so many allergies; i have to hold people up even when i was not able to hold myself up; but the good news is i have finally forgiven myself and come to love myself and i have wept over how precious the life is and all those lives were of my loved ones… i have wept at how we all are evolving at such a rapid & terrifying rate.

wept inconsolably when saying goodbyes to the nba games on tv and the goodbyes to my precious warriors. how i said goodbye to my best, best friend who came to visit me and, my face puffy, breaking out in hives, and cried all the way back to my home, in the mist. i have been so lonely countless times, but i have — & this is where it comes — i have never felt so tremendously proud of myself. in my entire life. there has never been a point where i felt like i am capable of anything, & i feel that now. truly, more than anything. my sense of self is so strong, and i know that this may be a momentary feeling, that i may be basking in a new-glow, a feeling of hope & opportunity like you would find in a new language, a new place, a nuevo-scape that one have yet to understand, and master but i am ready to immerse. i am ready to become. i am ready, so ready. i want to engage as intimately and meaningfully in a place, with the people that mean something to me, & i will glow, and the ones i love around me will glow, and we will be so brilliant under every single sky.

evening thoughts

/ mycatisafrenchspy / Leave a comment

i’ve been sad for a few days now,  as sunday before last, i lost my very pretty baby girl bastet. on friday (april 6) evening when i got home, there were indications that she had been vomiting and when she saw me, she cried aloud. and i knew her heart is giving out when i touched her and her temperature was down and her paws were cold. it was a hard but i decided to let her die in my home and in my arms as i know it would be futile to run her to emergency room and subjecting her to all kinds of torture. so i sat with her and let her sleep on my chest. she finally passed away sunday morning around 3 am. and she still looked beautiful. i kept her in my arms till the rigor set in and i went to bed.

as a mother i want to keep my babies safe forever and i know life is not like that. i am glad to say, i have and will provide the best possible care for my kids knowing fully well that they will all leave me. but i count my blessings and am learning not to be greedy and let them go without being selfish and subjecting them to unnecessary torture (like taking them to vets) because i want to hang on to them .

i am silently thanking god for the thorns as well as the stars he placed in my life.

and of course, the whole of last week i moped around a bit.

now that the spring is in the air, i am attracting unwanted attention as usual. and they do get drawn to me like a moth to the flame. i mean, i am not making fun of them because they are attracted to me, but i get cheesed off royally because of their lack of romance or paying me compliments… for example, they expect me to get wooed when they say “you are stunning”, “you are amazing”, “you are beautiful”…. and usually i’m a cold bitch and i would give my standard reply “fuck you” and now a days i have this guy at the trolley station who says the above things and also if i am wearing flyers jersey (they won one game) and lost two so far (i know, i know i cry every time and it’s exhausting), he goes “ooh flyers”…. i mean, come on ! my iq isn’t in single digit to fall for that crap… and he tries to talk to me but he is as deep as a rain water puddle and he gives me migraines. i probably have to change my trolley stations and soon…

i think i may be a little too hard on some people. maybe i’ll stop. there are times to be a cold bitch and times to forgive and forget. i feel like lately i’ve been too stressed out to differentiate.

now a days i have a lot of time on my hands and i have analyzed and found that careerwise, staying where i’m is not gonna work for me long term. for one i don’t think the department would provide me with opportunities to excel and i’ve bleated myself hoarse asking for some projects, to learn something new and acquire skills and then i realized i’m wasting my time and i’m not suicidal and so i’ve started making lateral moves into a different area.  probably soon or in couple of years, i should move on to a better position. and i’ve plenty of time on my hands.

i’m also getting influenced to start thinking “out of the box” by this novel “the martian” and it is fantastique. it gives a brand new perspective about what to do or what not to do when you find yourself all alone.

and i’ve made a great friend at work and she is awesome and keeps questioning my thoughts when we meet with each other once a month and thus keeps me on my toes. we keep pushing and teaching each other to excel in our careers.

also my former boss paula wasn’t pleased when i told her i wanted to do mba as she still wants me to finish off my ph.d. and start a biologics company. but i need time for that as i’m just now getting stronger. and so for now, i shelved the mba idea to see where my lateral moves would take me.

sandalwood got me an engagement ring and i am like “dude, did you see me wearing any jewelry except for my belly button ring and occasionally a nose ring”. he said he bought it for more of a traditional reason and i was like on your knees please.  i never wore my wedding band except on my wedding day and jace never wore it as well.  and i don’t think, i will start now. or may be i will wear just that one piece and i will totally be naked. i keep telling sandalwood “please sit back and watch me fall in love with you”

i told him i may not be in love with him right this minute, but before i love him again, i will make sure i will carry the same heart as his and even though mine is broken, i will stitch them together with his kind words. he told me that we should recreate the pheromone that moths use to attract other moths. and how if we touched that chemical it would stay in our bodies for ten years. when i teared up and became small, he told me that we would go somewhere quiet and let the moths turn us into dust.

every time i visit him and if the weather is nice, we would sit on  the step of his fire escape, and he sipping his wine. across the streets through the thick of  leaves and then the cracks in the branches, you could hear music playing. some soft and sad songs. the place always felt a little too far away. one night we went inside, and the bassist was a boy who i think about often, who knows what kind of music i like. he smiled baby smiles at me while he played and i thought about magic, about coincidences, about how sometimes the most important place in the world is somewhere you dream about from a fire escape across the street.

sandalwood is back on the road and i miss him. i miss the american boy somedays as well. this irritates me to no end to find feelings lurking in my heart for him. i know it’s hard to choke and kill your feelings no matter how pissed you are with someone and i’m trying to wean myself off him. it’s a bit hard as well, because we both are on the same floor and for my part, i’ve mastered the art of avoiding him…

i guess eventually i’ll get better at goodbyes, but this time and sometimes i’m finding them in parts, in fragments, in some nights saying too much with words that spiral and others spending too much time understanding different ways to communicate. so many words tonight, beautiful little fragments of all that is before and after

what turns to stone is inside you and too often we carry these weights within us.