Reflections on the Fourth

Since yesterday's post was consumed with Six Word Saturday, I thought I'd take a few minutes today to talk about what the Fourth of July means to me.

July 4th means two things to me: picnics and Go USA! birthdays and boys. Yeah, turns out this is a bit of a Sunday Confession.

First, the birthdays. My little brother, Rob, was born on July 4th. As such, of course he thought the big picnics and fireworks were for him. Eventually, he realized that it was odd the rest of us didn't receive such large celebrations. Truthfully, it was fun for me to make the day all about Rob. Even though I haven't spent his birthday with him in years, part of me still feels that the festivities are celebrating him.

Not to be forgotten, the 4th is also about boys. Specifically, fireworks are about boys. On one occasion (I think I was 15), I was invited to go see fireworks with the family of a guy that liked me. I liked him too but he was insanely shy. Short version is that I ended up making out with another guy throughout the evening. Looking back, probably this was poor form. But this other guy was someone I had liked forEVER (c'mon, you were 15 once!) and never thought I'd have a chance with so of course I was gonna go there when opportunity knocked!

And most notably, it was just before attending fireworks with Joe that he proposed for the first time. I say "for the first time" because we were so young, so new together, and he had no ring. We decided to be sort of pre-engaged or something and then he proposed for realz a year or so later, ring in hand all proper-like.

I should mention that it's not that I don't value and appreciate the freedoms are traditionally celebrated on this holiday. It's just that a lot of the politics have really disillusioned me. I liken it to organized religion vs. spirituality. I'm all about spirituality but most churches (and the politics there-in) turn me off. I'm all about my freedoms and the people who have served to ensure them - but the politics make it hard to rally behind The Big Day. Also, anything overly manipulative emotionally (*cough*Lee Greenwood*cough*) aggravates me. I'm also a big fan of "nothing wrong with having a special day but there are another 364 days you should remember the feeling as well". So perhaps that's part of why Independence Day isn't overly red, white and blue for me.

Whatever the Fourth of July means to you, I hope you had a good one.

Six Word Saturday

You know what to do! Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here.

My six words:

Happy Birthday to my baby brother!

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. If you do so in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in the post as a comment.

<a href="http://www.showmyface.com/search/label/6WS"><img src="http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/showmyface/guts/6wsButton.jpg" /></a>

Inspiration everywhere

Every morning, I am greeted by 43 spam emails a lovely quote sent to my Inbox while I sleep.

The message looks something like this:


But on Wednesday, I was greeted instead by this:


It's hard not to feel like even the quotes have given up on me. "Hey, don't send one to that Cate chick - it's a waste of a quote since she fails to be inspired."

Only, I currently am inspired. So SCREW YOU quotes! You can have a punch in the face and an unsubscribe!

ABCs of Kittydom

It's First Fursday! Today, we're participating in our first ever meme. Fun, right?

A - Age: Tonya is 9, Rusty just turned 6. In kitty years, we're both senior citizens. We want a tuna discount!

B - Bed size: Queen, as soon as we can make the humans move.

C - Chore you hate: Cleaning up after myself in the litter box. Snuggling with humans.

D - Dog's name: Better not be any dogs around here...

E - Essential start your day item: 4am songs to wake the humans.

F - Favourite colour: Salmon.

G - Gold or silver: Visa.

H - Height: How tall are shins? I'm exactly tall enough to wrap around shins when humans are on the stairs.

I - Instrument you play(ed): We are both excellent vocalists.

J - Job title: Professional Napper, Food Taster, Inspector of Items on Counters.

K - Kid(s): Neither of us have those parts.

L - Lick or bite: Rusty licks, Tonya bites.

M - Mom's name: Tonya was born to a street-kitty. Rusty came to earth in a spaceship.

N - Nicknames: Tonya - Nonni, Bizzitch, Woman. Rusty - Dude, Stripy, Mister.

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Tonya isn't allowed to stay overnight at the "hospital" anymore so her last stay was when she was fixed. Rusty hasn't stayed overnight since moving in from the shelter.

P - Pet peeve: Humans who close the refrigerator door before we're done browsing.

Q - Quote from a movie: "I'll tell you in another life, when we are both cats. ." - Sofia (Vanilla Sky)

R - Right or left handed: We mostly use our front-footies.

S - Siblings: Tonya had a brother. No idea about Rusty.

T - Time you wake up: 4am. Why don't you humans pay attention?

U - Underwear: Tonya isn't a fan. Rusty likes to nap in the humans' underwear.

V - Vegetable you dislike: Tomatoes and onions.

W - Ways you drink your coffee: Heavy on the cream, non-existent on the coffee.

X - X-rays you've had: Tonya had booty x-rays when she wasn't eating. And both kitties had sinus/head x-rays when they were sick with scurvy a year ago. (Both have very small brains)

Y - Yummy food you make: We are served yummy food, tyvm. We only make hairballs and other pleasant gifties.

Z - Zoo favourite: Lions and tigers.

Hope you enjoyed learning more about us while our human is asleep on the job.

Goodbye, first 50% of 2009!

July 1st. Amazing. Happy Canada Day to my Northern neighbors. And my neighbor across the street. Who likes to complain all the time about what's wrong with the US. I say what's wrong is that he's here and he can GO HOME if he doesn't like it but apparently our women are good enough for him to marry so whatEVER.

Anyways.

The first of the month is when I usually create a Wordle of the past month's posts. Except, I think it's a lying liar because it says Kindle is one of the largest words. Really? I posted about it once and mentioned it about once more.

Instead, I give you a Wordle of my search terms from Google Analytics.



Lots of day, headache, father, week, letter, bugs, booty and sang. Awesome. Nothing too exciting though. Every month I start a crusade to confuse the hell out of Google and every month I give it up by about the 5th.

Speaking of giving things up... I had goals in January. Not only have I made little progress but I've dug myself into a deeper darker hole. Instead of losing weight, I've gained it. Instead of shaking my anxiety I've realized recently that I'm in one hell of a depression. My six words last week (Thanks Captain Obvious, already knew that) were actually referring to my doctor who gave me quite the lecture about the sorry state of my health.

So I need to quit with the giving (the positive) things up. I need to FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. Plan and execute. Organize and do. And that's what I intend to do for the next six months. Or else I'll punch me in the face. Also, I'll expect YOU to punch me in the face.