Kitty Love

For the last few days, this is what I have been coming home to. The orange cat never leaves the balcony and belongs to my neighbor. The black and white cat just hangs out on the ground or on the bottom apartment's balcony and I have no idea who it belongs to. Every once in a while they will meow at each other but other than that they just hang out starting longingly into each others eyes all the while driving my dog absolutely insane!

They are meowing to each other right now...

Editor's note: this is now the 3rd time I have posted this, read it and found an typo. This post better be error free now!

A conversation about kids...

The other day I was at work and I witnessed this conversation. I have to admit I was completely shocked and said nothing because I couldn't actually believe that anybody would ask this. I think Shannon will probably enjoy this one.

Character #1
Name: Jane*
Age: 28
Bio: Single Mom (dating a loser about 15 years her senior), has one 7 year old son who is bipolar. He is a little out of control most of the time but in general a good kid. She has no education past high school and even that was a tight squeeze.

Character #2
Name: John*
Age: 49
Bio: Divorced dad of 2 boys, ages 6 and 9. He went through a nasty divorce and has still managed to to raise his kids to be respectful and well behaved. He has a good education and many sucessful careers.

Last week I gave Jane permission to bring her son to work. School ended Wed. and his day care camp didn't start until Monday. She couldn't get a babysitter so I said it was fine. Wed. just before noon we (me, Jane and John) were in the office and the phone rings. Apparently it is the school telling Jane her son has been "suspended." It is the last day of school but she still had to go pick him up. Before she leaves she says to John "How do you get your kids to behave?"

John: Ummmm...what do you mean?
Jane: Your kids are always so quite and nice when they come here, how do you get them to behave...How do you train them like that?
John: How do I train them? Ummm, I, ummm...
Jane: My son is always so rowdy and embarrassing, I mean he makes fart noises and runs around and makes messes. I just don't understand. Am a horrible mom that I can't train my kid to behave well in public.
John: I think my kids just don't want to disappoint me so they behave well.
Jane: Does that mean my son wants to disappoint me? I mean what else could it be. Even his doctors tell me I am not a good mom and that I can't control my kid.
John (and me): ------- (awkward silence)
Jane: I just don't understand why he acts like that, shit he is so embarrassing.

That was really the bulk of the shocking conversation. Admittedly, this doesn't come off quite as shocking because you can't hear her tone when she is saying this, but she really wanted to know the secret to training her kid like I train my dog.

*Names have been withheld to protect the stupid and the unknowing (that I am writing about them).

Is there something in the water?

What the fuck is happening around here lately? It seems like just about everyone in my life is getting pregnant. Today alone I have had 2 people, a friend and my boss, tell me that they are pregnant. On top of that my good friend Shannon is pregnant. I just pray to god my sister doesn't spring something on my this weekend when I see her (although a little niece or nephew would be nice). Are they putting something in the water water these days or is everybody just getting a hell of a lot more action than I am?

Ice Cubes.

I know what you are thinking, how can Ginger right a blog about ice cubes. This is more of a commentary on MY ice cubes. I have a strange phenomena happening in my freezer. First I should clue you all in, I am not one of those novel modern people with a built in ice maker, I still use ice trays. Anyways, every time I make ice, I fill up the trays, put them in the freezer and leave them to freeze their little hearts away. Nothing odd here, I know. Next thing I know, my ice cubes have icicles sticking upwards out of them (are they still icicles when they stick upwards like little peaks?). I'm not talking about about little bumps on my cubes, I am talking about 2 inch icicles sticking straight up out the cubes. I have no idea what is causing this but after I get over the amazement of it, I am a little freaked out about why this is happening. Maybe I should buy a little spy camera and stick it in my freezer?

Possibly the best show on TV...

I am house sitting for a few days which means I get to pretend like I am up to date on the current tv shows on all the channels except the fuzzy ones I get on my tv with my old fashioned rabbit ears (i.e. I get to watch cable tv). Around 11:30pm last night I was channel surfing when I came across a show on Lifetime called "Gay? Straight? or Taken?". This is probably the best show on t.v. for 2 reasons: (1) you get to see some pretty girl get screwed out of the hot guys AND a cool vacation because her gaydar isn't finely tuned and (2) you get to see the look on the guys faces when the stupid girl with the broken gaydar tells the straight, single guy that she thinks he is gay.

The premise of the show is that a girl thinks she is going on a dating show (I am sure she knows up front but whatever...) with 3 available men. In the first few minutes she gets a call on her cell phone from a woman saying "one of them men you are with is my husband, and if you choose him, we get your trip." A few minutes later she gets another call from a man saying 'one of the men you are with is my partner, if you choose him, we get your trip." Then she spends the rest of the show trying to decide which one is the straight, available guy. If she picks him, they get some fancy schmancy vacation. If she thinks either the taken guy or the gay guy is actually the straight single guy, they get her fancy schmancy trip.

Now maybe I am just in amazement of the plethora of t.v. shows on that I never get to see but all I know is that last night the straight single guy wearing the pink polo shirt didn't look too impressed when he got called gay.

I am so pathetic.

Ok, I am at the point in my dating life that my mother and grandmother are now trying to pick up men for me...mind you in ways I tried to pick up guys when I was in high school.

I just got back from dinner with my mom and grandma. The entire meal our waiter was looking at me and smiling at me and flirting with me...and yes, Shannon, I was flirting back. Anyways, I am pretty sure the only reason he was flirting was because I had a low cut dress on and my boobs are huge and therefore he has an excellent cleavage shot from his vantage point but then again, I was the one with the big boobs wearing the low cut dress so I didn't really mind. For those of you who don't know, I like my boobs. The are big but not that big, and well...ok, I will stop talking about my boobs and get back to my number 1 reason for why I need to date more often.

The end of dinner comes and my mom, who always likes to point out to me when waiters flirt with me (which happens on a regular basis for some reason...Maybe because I like to order drinks, appetizers, dinner and dessert and I normally leave a pretty decent tip? Maybe I have just found my target audience...don't you like that I had an entire offshoot inside the ()'s? Anyways...), points out that the waiter was flirting with me. My grandma then proceeds to say "Should I write her number on the receipt?" Seriously, have I got to the point where my mother and grandmother are my wingmen? I need to start dating more, that was truly an embarrassing moment. And no they didn't leave my number because by that point I was too embarrassed that I just had to get out of the restaurant. But he was cute and if I have him as a waiter again I might consider slyly slipping my number into the check.

Decent people still exist.

This morning I thought it would be a good idea (for both my lazy ass and my incredible bored dog) to go for a hike instead of our normal morning walk around Huffaker park. Since this was kind of a spur of the moment idea, I just went up to Galena Park. I actually love going here because it is (a) always cooler than anywhere around Reno (b) there is a pretty clean stream for my dog to swim in and (c) people generally don't care if your dog is off the lease.

So my dog and I are happily running around the forest (ok, the dog is running, I am huffing and puffing my way up the very small hill...somehow I always feel more out of shape in the morning than I do any other time of the day). A little over half way through the hike, my dog, who up until that moment was chasing a mouse or something my human eyes could not detect, stops and sits down it the middle of a batch of bitterbrush bushes. Odd, no yelp, no cry, she just sits down....then all the sudden she tries to stand up and then the yelp comes. I have no idea what I am going to do when I have kids. Generally I handle situations like this very well but I tend to over-react a bit when my dog gets hurt! I run over to my dog, who still won't stand up. Now my dog is the type of dog who is more concerned with playing than with the fact that she hurt herself...I have seen her running around fetching sticks with blood gushing out of her foot while I try to stop her from making it worse so so it concerns me quite a bit that she is just sitting there. My first thought is maybe she got bit by a snake but then I realize that I am pretty sure I am not in rattlesnake territory so then I worry that she broke her foot. I finally succeed in getting her back over to the trail and she immediately sits back down. I look all over for blood or bit marks or broken toe nails or bones sticking out the side of her foot and nothing. Nothing at all.

Then all of the sudden in the distance I hear a little girl say "Mommy, there's a puppy, I want to pet the puppy." Around the corner comes this woman and her little daughter. The second she saw me there with my dog, holding up her hurt paw and me sitting on the ground trying to inspect it, she stopped and asked me if I needed any help. All the little girl wanted to do was pet my dog until the mom said that it was hurt. Then both the mom and daughter (she was probably like 5 years old) asked me if I needed help carrying my dog down to the parking lot. I was so concerned with trying to figure out what was wrong that I just said i think it was a sprain and that we could walk down the hill but the woman just kept asking me. Finally I thanked her and told her I thought my dog would be fine (I had no idea) and her and her daughter left. Sometimes I forget how many decent, caring people there still are in the world; the type of people who will help you change a flat tire, or carry your hurt dog 1/4 mile down a trail. It's nice to know that decent people still exist and that they are teaching their children the same values they exhibit.

I am home now and my dog is happily chewing on a bone I gave her. She is still a little limpy but I think her paw is ok.