I’ve noticed that Zuzu is starting to do a few things that Sugarplum used to do. These are things that Zuzu never did before.
Some of these things are charming — like how she’s begun sleeping with her paw thrown over her face like Sugarplum used to do.
Some of these things are not so charming — like kicking both litter and poop out of the litterbox.
Sugarplum’s dying. The cancer has metastasized, and is now in her lungs.
There’s not much I can do for her now but keep her comfortable, love her and wait for her to tell me when she’s had enough.
At least I don’t have to worry about how stressed out she’d get by a potentially cross-country move, since she’s not going to last that long.
Been some time since I dropped by this place. I’m still alive. I can’t even say I’ve been terribly busy lately, what with having graduated library school and gotten laid off sometime in May. I *can* say that I’ve been wiped out by the heat and not really all that interested in writing. I don’t even read many blogs anymore, just a handful, and a lot of them are design blogs.
I’ve spent the summer looking for a permanent library gig, and it’s going well so far. I had nothing, nothing at all for months, but this month everything’s started happening. I’ve got some local interviews, and some on the West Coast; any of them would require me to move from my current apartment, if not from New York, so I’ve started packing up. All things being equal, I’d rather not have to change cities and buy a car. I like my life here.
From what I’ve been hearing from some of my references, the potential employers who’ve been checking up on me don’t seem to really understand what it is I’ve been doing for the past ten years since I jumped off the partnership track — even though I’ve told them in the interview, and on my resume, etc. It’s like they don’t understand that you can practice law even if you’re not employed by a law firm as a full-time associate on a traditional path. Well, at least a couple of them have now been educated by my references. This won’t really be a concern when I go for the next job, because I’ll have a track record as a law librarian, which is something they’ll understand.
Personally? I’ve been using my time off to focus on fitness. I looked back over my logbook, which I started in January, and I haven’t really been going to the gym as often as I’d like to think I do. A lot of that had to do with injury, but a lot of it was just mismanaged time — I’d get a late start to the day, and then didn’t want to start a workout at 8pm when I had to go to work in the morning. But now I have not a whole lot else to do, since it’s been so hot that a lot of the outdoor stuff I’d like to do seems unappealing. The gym, however, is air-conditioned (though the weight room’s unit’s been out). I’ve also just — like, this week — started running again. It’s going well so far, though I know from experience it’s not until week 5 or so on the Couch to 5K plan that things start really going haywire with my ITB. My plan is to do each week twice, and hope that’s enough time for my body to adapt, and to foam-roll the living fuck out of my lower body.
Dating’s sort of not been happening. I’ve gone on a couple, but reluctantly since I don’t know if I’ll be here in a month. Nothing’s come of them, but they were pleasant enough ways to pass the time.
The pets are both bad and good. They’re all currently in good health, but Sugarplum had cancer surgery in April and just wasn’t healing, and wasn’t healing, and wasn’t healing. Every time it looked like her wound was closing, I’d go to check on it and there would be A GIANT HOLE IN MY CAT. The vet even did a second surgery to clean up the edges, but it still wasn’t healing, and he started taking it personally. Finally, they decided she has really poor circulation and needed to be treated as if she’s diabetic. So she spent three weeks at the vet’s office in a sterile cage, getting compresses and wound care and mainlining antibiotics and — strangest of all — snuggling up to the staff. Amazingly, when I picked her up, the giant hole was down to nothing, and she was indeed all cuddly, for about a week. Then she became the crankypants I know and love.
We have A Situation with Miss Zuzu here.
Since I moved into this apartment, over a year ago, I have not had one uninterrupted night’s sleep. And why? Because Our Girl here agitates to be fed at the first hint of light, no matter how late she gets her evening feeding.
This agitation takes the form of nipping, running over my head, meowing loudly, knocking things over, tearing up any paper left around (which is quite, quite loud when you’re trying to sleep), jumping on my nightstand and rattling the lamp, getting the dog antsy and generally being a pain in the ass.
I tried to ignore it at first. I’m sure the guy who lives downstairs didn’t appreciate it when she would knock the remote off the dresser and onto the hardwood floor just above his loft.
At 5:30 in the morning. Continue reading ‘What we have here is failure to communicate’
Life interrupts. Pardon the lack of posting, but I’ve been working full-time and taking two compressed summer classes, which is like taking four regular classes. And I’m taking four in the fall, too, trying to graduate early because who the hell knows if I’ll have a job past August.
The pets are more or less fine, though Sugarplum, on top of everything else she’s had to go through this year, has had a mammary tumor removed. The edges are clean, but the tumor is highly malignant, which means that if it shows up in her lungs, that’s pretty much all she wrote.
The tomato plants, so promising in early June, have suffered terribly from June’s wet, cold weather. I don’t think they’re showing signs of blight, but they’re mildewed and the leaves are falling off. I’ve gotten a few large-cherry-sized tomatoes from them, but nothing to write home about. It’s going to be a lousy year for tomatoes in the Northeast.
Since I’ve made the decision to graduate in December instead of June of 2010, I’ve begun poking around looking for jobs in law librarianship. While I can’t really begin looking in earnest until October because I won’t be available until January, the market looks pretty decent in that there are, actually, jobs available if one is willing to relocate. I’ve also got 11+ years of legal research experience, so I’ll definitely have an advantage over anyone who’s coming right out of law school/library school who doesn’t have that.
Another thing I’m finding out is that either jobs are scarce in New York, or people hang on to their jobs forever so there are never any openings, and if there are any openings, they’re not advertised. But I’m very willing to relocate, at least within reason (like, I don’t want to get stuck somewhere with miserably hot weather, lots of fundamentalists, and no city life as compensation). I’ve also been told this is a terrible year to be looking because nobody who was ready to retire can afford to now that their 401(k)s have crashed, so they’re staying put, which means nobody else can move up, which means the entry-level jobs don’t open up.
Hope springs eternal, though, and I’m headed to the AALL annual meeting next weekend in the hopes of at least networking if not actually snagging a few interviews. Got my suit, got my reasonably-priced hotel not far from the convention site, working on getting business cards, and my shoes are in the mail.
So Miss Sugarplum is having Health Issues again. This time, it’s some kind of abdominal mass that barely shows up in an X-ray but is pushing her intestines and stomach out of the way (and is thus responsible for the vomiting and diarrhea she’s had lately; literally, she puked 15 or more times today and I suspect she’s been barfing when I’m not around, though I don’t want to ask what happens to the stuff that doesn’t just dry onto the floor). Tomorrow, she goes in for an ultrasound to see what’s what. With luck, it’s a cyst that can be drained. Without luck, it’s a tumor. Either way, it’s $500.
UPDATE: Well, the mass appears to be neither a cyst nor a tumor but a lipoma, since when it was aspirated, fat came out. So it’s still there, and she’s on a special diet now, both to get her to lose weight so the lipoma shrinks and because the damn thing is pressing up against her bowels and pancreas, and the vet wants to treat this as an irritable bowel/tetchy pancreas issue as well as a lipoma. I just bought a case of food, too, but luckily the nice folks at the local pet food store will let me exchange any unopened cans, and I’ll just stock up on Junebug’s food instead.
Oh, and did I mention the mammary tumor? When she stabilizes, she’ll need to have a mastectomy. Perhaps the vet can get a skidoo.
Recent Comments