Crazy Cat & Christmas Cheese

Hello -- I'm killing a little bit of time between two classes. Normally, I do my Egyptian Arabic homework during this downtime on Monday mornings, but miraculously we were not assigned any today. I could be finishing my other paper, but I don't really have quite enough time to make good progress, and frankly, I'd rather f**k off right now.

I've been taking care of Shauna's cats over the weekend while she's home in Iowa. Yes, that's plural because Shauna got another cat named Finn. His official name is Finnegan, but for those of you who used to work with me at State Department, you are all familiar with Mr. Finnegan. And so I just have terrible connotations with that name. Of course, if you didn't work with me at State, you don't know John Finnegan, and you can just consider yourselves lucky.

Therefore, I can't bring myself to call this new cat Finnegan (as we always called the weirdo John), but Finn suits him nicely. So anyway, Finn is rather crazy. He is NUTS about cat treats. He actually came running so fast from the bathroom to the living room that he literally plowed over the other cat, Niamh, while trying to get to the treat jar. Today, I went to check on the cats, and this little guy had figured out a way to crawl up into Shauna's loft bed (with nothing to jump up onto it from), bury himself under her comforter, and then he actually crawled down the ladder. He had knocked over half the stuff in Shauna's apartment (perfume, CDs) and had pulled several items of clothing out of her closet, such as scarves and belts, that it looked like he was playing with. Anyway, in two words: high energy.

This contrasts nicely with me, as I am losing momentum fast. I have two of my three papers pretty much finished, and I'm trying to keep my interest in my classes piqued for the next 2.5 weeks, but I keep imagining Christmas -- with no homework, no papers, and no tests, and it's almost more than I can handle!

Speaking of Christmas, what's up with the Christmas music already playing on the radio and in public places? If I owned a radio station, I would mandate "no Christmas music until December 15." I also saw some people with a Christmas tree on top of their car last Saturday (which is a bizarre sight in cacti-centric Arizona). I guess some people get into the spirit before I do, but November seems a little premature to me...

Oh, and while we're on the topic of "in the spirit," I just HAD to include this corny photo of my ex-co-worker's husband and his infant daughter. No, she does not read my blog (nor know of its existence), but for the protection of all involved, I will not divulge the source of this picture (who I believe found it as hilarious as I). However, I just had to include it because it has to be the absolute ultimate in Christmas cheese...