And so this is xmas

And what have you done? I always find myself saying that this time of year. Then I play through the whole song in my head, and basically end up being sad that John Lennon isn't around anymore. Weird, I know.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve. I'm glad I'm here. I've had a rough last few months (and especially last two weeks), but I feel better about it all now. I just needed some time to step back and revel in the simplicity and the silence that is Kewaunee. For as much as I know I'm going to be annoyed with this place in another 36 hours, I'm really happy to be here right now. There's more snow up here than there is in Milwaukee, and even though I don't have my snowboard (or anywhere nearby to actually go snowboarding), it makes me really happy. It's also way more quiet up here. Yes, I'm used to it from growing up here, but it's just relaxing to think about it (unlike a few months ago when the power went out in my neighborhood and I woke up cuz it was too quiet).

At any rate... I just realized in the last 3 hours or so that I'm pretty sure I can recite" 'Twas The Night Before Christmas" by heart. That's not weird, right?

Other learnings from today: my brother Andy actually can read (he got the new Tucker Max book) [this is a joke, we always knew he could read...], you need to stagger your baking pans in the oven, we must have tipped my mom off about the Kindle and she was actually visibly upset when we didn't give it to her right away (we hid it... don't worry, we gave it to her eventually), my cat goes nuts for catnip and attacks me (although she never used to), and my sis and I both stuff our cash in our bras. Awesome, I know! And you know how they say your family becomes more tolerable with age? Well, that's definitely true. If you would have told me that 10 years ago, I would have probably argued with you for a good long time. But now I'm OK with it.

Anyway, I suppose it's time for bed. I hope I don't have any weird dreams like I had last night. I don't remember what they were or who was in them, but they were supremely messed up. Not cool, subconscious. Not cool.

Happy xmas everybody!

On Making New Friends

First off, I apologize. I had 2ish somewhat "regular" posts and then nothing for two weeks. Anyway, I'm back now and have a few life-changing concepts staring me in the face, so hopefully I'll get my act together one of these days, and hopefully one of the positive offshoots of these life-changing concepts will be regular blog posts. You best keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway...

Have you ever thought of how you actually made friends? Like what moment or common appreciation bonded you with another being? I have been thinking about this a lot lately:

1. I had the one-year anniversary of meeting a now very dear friend of mine at Bastille Days a few weeks ago. I remember the exact moment I first saw her come into my line of sight (and the day about 6 months earlier when she warned me not to go into a treacherous closet). We now have regular discussions of cat-lady-ness and trips to Target, not to mention a shared love of Buffalo Mac (mac and cheese spirals + buffalo sauce + some variation of meltey gooey cheese product).

2. I distinctly remember the first time I met a second now-dear friend, which was supposedly the same night that I met the friend listed in #1 above, though neither he nor I can remember meeting on night #1. Instead, we both remember meeting a week later at The Garage, where I attempted to cast him in a movie, but he refused to take off of work.

3. I told the story earlier tonight of how I should have been serial killed (yes, this is a verb) by a third now very close friend whom I met on twitter. Please note that I am not currently, nor have I ever been a zombie. Buy me a beer sometime, I'll tell you the story.

So what brought all of these thoughts and memories about tonight? I was invited to a very lovely Girls' Night by a great person who had decided to plan a monthly get-together as one of her New Years' resolutions. She knows a lot of people, and thinks they're all awesome, and decided to get them all together and rock out. It was awesome.

You know how you meet new people, and you go through the formalities, like where do you work, and are you originally from here, and strain to find some common ground? I did not strain a single bit to find conversation topics with these folks. They were all AWESOME. I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to hang out with them tonight, and will be patiently waiting for the next 29 days until the next Girls Night. yay.

As far as updates on the rest of my life, here goes:

Vegas is HOT. It's a desert. Yes, really. I was there during an "Excessive Heat Warning." That meant that it was hotter than normal in the desert. Why people willingly go here in the middle of summer (which is fairly pleasant in most other parts of our great nation) is beyond me. I liked it, but I will not go back until November, when it is palatable (and the overnight low is less than 89 degrees).

Goals: I'm bringing these up again. Not so much to bore you all, but more to nag myself. I had my wellness assessment today (annual health screening that my company gives us for free) and I'm not terribly thrilled with the results. The diet [re]starts tomorrow. Seriously. Monroe Cheese Days might get skipped this year. I have 1.5 bottles of ranch dressing that might find a new home in the garbage. Deep fried cheese, I love you, but we may have to take a break. This week/end is a wash (mostly because of that ugly pile of wash that keeps growing), but next week I will make my triumphant (?) return to the Downtown Y. (If you want to see something funny, watch how red my face gets after I work out...). I'll also be attempting to do at least a few push-ups every day. Today I did 15. Yes, they were the girlie ones.

Other than that, all seems pretty good for right now. Bridgi touched down at O'Hare today from Deutschland and I'm more than a little excited to see her. I bought hazelnut coffee and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce to welcome the ex-pat and her bf back to The Good Land.

Speaking of The Good Land, I'm still pretty much infatuated with this city. Are two Milwaukee tattoos too many? I'm beginning to get a very vague idea of what my next tattoo will be, and kind of want to incorporate "The Good Land" into it somehow. Maybe. Putting that one back into the circular file.

Looking forward, I'm going to be in DC for the weekend. I'm pretty excited to see my friend Joe and to (finally) check out the Newseum, and may also have an impromptu reunion with my old car dealership boss from 2004. That's a looong time ago. Still looking forward to it.

As for now, I need to go to bed. I hope I don't have any crazy dreams about trippy 90s triangle carpeting like I had last week.

Any ideas on how to avoid deep fried cheese and ranch dressing are welcome, as are any thoughts/memories on making new friends.

Cat and Mouse - Update

Hopefully this is the last time I will have to write about this situation. After my initial mouse encounter, I called the landlord who called the exterminator people who were able to come out that very day. A very nice man named Bobby walked all around and assessed the situation and said that he thought they were coming in from the floorboard crack (that the cat was still intently watching).

Bobby set some poison in these special locked-box things so the mice could sneak in and get it but the cat could not. After explaining in graphic detail how the poison works to dehydrate the mice, and how I may have deranged, dehydrated, confused mice wandering around my apartment in search of water while in the process of dying, he suggested that I called my apartment manager and ask to have the baseboard sealed.

So I called my apartment manager and thanked him for getting Bobby the pest control guy to my apartment so quickly, and informed him of the suggestion to fix the baseboard. I was told that they'd get the maintenance folks out there as soon as possible.

So, in the meantime, I went to trivia night at Hooligan's and came back a few hours later. When I returned, I discovered that my cat is very good at math. She somehow measured and found what was pretty much the exact geometric center of my apartment. And what did she use to mark this geometric center? You guessed it! A dead mouse! I am certain that this mouse was not the same mouse from the night before, as the first mouse was a wee little baby mouse, and the now-dead-center-marking mouse was a full grown (probably) momma mouse.

It was also quite apparent that in the 24 or so hours since the first mouse incident that my cat had evolved as a huntress and had beat the crap out of this second, larger mouse. She may or may not have been aided as the mouse may or may not have already been deranged/disoriented from possibly already consuming the mouse poison. But I'll still give the cat credit for the kill as the mouse had some puncture wounds and looked as if a few bones were slightly out of place. And the cat still continued to paw at the now-lifeless mouse body as I walked on my tippy-toes and tried to figure out what to do with the mouse.

I wanted to pick up the mouse somehow and put it in a plastic bag for disposal. I didn't want to sacrifice any of my cooking utensils so I thought for a minute... what could I use? Chop sticks came to mind, I had a few extra pairs from my last visit to Noodles, but then I'd be down a pair of chop sticks. What else? Digging through a kitchen drawer turned up a plastic fork from a past carry-out. The mouse was shoveled into the plastic shopping bag, the fork was tossed in after it, the bag was tied in about 30 knots and taken swiftly down the stairs, out the door and into the dumpster.

I came back inside and washed my hands for about 15 minutes. ICK.

The next day maintenance visited my apartment and sealed what we think were the problematic cracks in the floor/wall. At least, I think they got them all because there haven't been any crumbs of the mouse poison near the poison box things. Also my cat hasn't killed any more mice (a pretty good sign).

So now I'm breathing (and sleeping!) easier. Special thanks to Shoreline for their prompt response to the situation. In 1.5 days I had mouse bait put down and all of the holes sealed. Not a bad response time!

Cat and Mouse - Literally

I woke up at 2:30 AM to the sound of my cat knocking something over. No big deal, right? Then I heard a little squeak. And then another little squeak. I thought, "No way."

Yes way. My cat had discovered a tiny gray mouse. In my apartment. Eep!! I couldn't believe it. I stood on a footstool as I peered around the corner to verify that yes, indeed, this was a mouse, and no, I was not having one of my dreams again. After about 10 minutes of watching the cat bat at the mouse (not attack or kill, as one might expect a cat to do), the mouse scurried back into the kitchen and apparently disappeared into a crack between the floor and baseboard near the radiator. And the cat has been on steakout ever since:

The landlord has been called, and I requested box traps instead of snap traps, because I'm pretty sure that the cat would get caught in the snap traps herself. Hopefully this is the last time I have to write about this!

Addition:
I would also like to point out that I live in a relatively nice and well-kept apartment in downtown Milwaukee. It is not unkempt or filthy by any means!