Return to Meowee East: Jump on youuuuuuu!

random humour:

Woke up early today because of stoopid day shifts last couple days, and getting up early for movie on weekend.

My mother asked for a Return to Meowee East update. There hasn't been much to tell.

Minion:

- is super obnoxious to humans when trying to

(a) suck their ears (rare settling-for-arm-because-ear-not-allowed)

(b) chase things on the computer screen

- plays plays plays then suddenly collapses in a nap [below: play, then sudden collapse on foot]



- eats a lot, loves softies, and Snappy Tom treats
- is super obnoxious to cats when trying to (a) chase them, (b) jump on them.

She Who Must Be Obeyed:
- accepted the kitten quite soon
- but tires of being jumped on
- enjoys how often kittens need to be fed, cause she gets fed too (though we feed her a much smaller portion)

I think once the kitten's older, and less PLAY I MUST JUMP ON YOU! and their energy levels match more, then they might settle in as buddies. Cause Haley does like to play, but ease. Ease!!

I'm in charge of the water cooler!

50 Questions - Where were you when?

I think we need more of the 50 questions, but I'm gonna skip the boring ones.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

I was working at my present bookstore job. We were doing a remerch, so I was in the business department before store opening, shifting books. A staff member's mom called her son at the store to tell him what she'd just seen on the news. It sounded like a one-off accident at first (a small plane) so we were surprised, but went on working until the news about the second plane came in. Our store is next to a sports bar, so we all got there before the rest of the business lunch crowd, to see what was happening on TV. The bar was totally packed by the time we left. Veddy sad. When I went to bed that night, I kept thinking about people still trapped alive in the rubble.

I was also doing a remerch when Katrina hit, only this time I was doing overnights. Fernando and I had watched a show a year or two before about how if a big enough hurricane ever hit New Orleans, its bowl shape would fill with water and it would be a horrendous disaster. So we both took the warnings really seriously, and were watching CNN constantly. When I went to work Monday night it seemed the worst was over, and when I got home again at 7 AM Fernando told me about the overtoppling of the levees.

I don't remember about Haiti, though. I probably just read about it as I did the daily net-surf. Surfing the Net isn't very memorable, except when the Tsunami hit cause I remember it being early New Years, surfing the net after partying with my peeps.

I wonder what other "where were yous" I have. I was dusting an old person's livingroom during the Oslo accords hand-shaking-on-the-lawn. I think I was in my teenaged bedroom when the shuttle blew up. In my mother's livingroom when I heard about Israel invading Lebanon. What else am I missing?

The Pogues doing Maggie May

Did I post this before? It's just so durned good. If only I could hear it over the ear-licking cat purring in my ear!!!

Whatever!

I finished Scapin last night and decided to read another French book. While brushing my teeth I chose, without much thought, Comment faire l'amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer by Dany Laferrière, a top Quebec author, and a Haitien immigrant. Not sure I chose wisely, though. Not sure it's what I'm in the mood for over my next long weekend. May need to just read that one a little at a time (the chapters are short) and pick something else for Serious Afternoons on the Couch.

Mae is hopefully going to lend me the Rome series for the weekend, since I'm in a Caesar kind of mood.

In other news, "Dr" Laura is beyond foolitude at this point. To say that your first amendment rights are being violated because you're afraid of losing sponsors... give me a break. But beyond that is What She Really Doesn't Get -- that the "philosophical point" she was making (that how come HBO comedians can use the N-word and others can't) was racist. And just a reflection of the racist way she thinks. Ya what-ev-ah.

stories

Oh my days, there are so many good books in this world. Kobo often has discounts on random lists of books, which is how I found this one. It's by a Nigerian author, attempting to tell the story of a Nigerian email scammer but from their point of view. And I love the cover. I had to buy.

In other book news, I want to share with you some passages from the sheep mystery (Three Bags Full).

This bit made me think what a funny Babe-type movie you could make of this book--there's a perfect movie-type visual humour in this scene. Two women are sitting around talking, and the sheep are eavesdropping, trying to get clues:

As if they heard a sound, they [the two women] both turned their heads to the beautiful sunset sky above the sea. For safety's sake, the sheep looked the same way, but they couldn't see anything special.

In this scene the sheep are eavesdropping on a man and woman in their dead shepherd's caravan. For context--their shepherd used to read sappy romance novels to the sheep, usually with a heroine called Pamela. So the sheep often refer to the Pamela books when trying to understand human behaviour. And they LOVE having stories told to them:

"I could tell you stories. Like Scheherezade in the Thousand and One Nights."
"I wasn't really planning to stay quite that long," said the man. "On the other hand..."
Silence billowed out of the window of the shepherd's caravan, dense and heavy as hot breath. The sheep looked at one another. Perhaps it was getting interesting in there after all. As if at a signal, Maude and Heather started bleating. "Stories!" they bleated. "Stories!"
It was some time before Miss Maple had restored peace and quiet. "Even if they are telling stories in there," she said, "how do you expect to hear them if you're kicking up such a racket?"
But the sheep didn't get to hear any stories. No more was said inside the caravan. The sheep were not surprised: they were familiar with the situation from the Pamela novels. When the mysterious stranger--and without a shadow of a doubt, they had one of those here--was left alone with a woman you could expect the story to trail off into nothing. The man and the woman stopped talking at some point, and that was the end of the chapter. You never found out what happened next. It was a mystery to the sheep, because something had to happen. Human beings didn't simply disappear. Usually they turned up again in the next chapter, alive and well. All the same, there were these gaps in the stories.

still falling

Had four days off. I still don't feel recharged, but I have another long weekend (making up for stat days I haven't taken yet, and some overtime.) I feel like the sign of my unrechargedness is that I again took a Transportation Tumble. Last time it was on the steps of the metro, this time I was getting off the bus and my left ankle twisted. I collapsed to the ground (in the rain) like the finale move of a ballet jazz recital. It was alright during supper with Swiss Girl (presumably due to her excellent company), but now it hurts so much I had to take Tylenol. Meh meh meh.

I mostly read this weekend--finished the sheep mystery, which got really good. And I'm almost done reading Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin. I remember trying to read Molière in high school and finding it too hard to understand. Maybe it's modernized--I don't know, it's a free version I got somewhere for my kobo.

Alright, off to bed at the ungodly hour of 1 AM cause I have a day shift tomorrow.

Oh wait--while killing some time I dropped in at a dvd store to see if there was anything nice, and found a BBC series I'd never heard of. It's The Age of Kings, from 1960s, and it's a 15 part miniseries going through all the history plays of Shakespeare. Fun! It was "event television" -- the sort of thing everyone stayed home to watch. Looking forward to watching it.