Esprit de l'escalier

K, quick update…I’ve been engaged for more than two weeks; living in Redmond with a wonderful roommate named Michelle until my wedding in October; I have two kittens (Jackie Chan and Jet Li) but Jet is really sick and living with a foster mom from the shelter until he gets better (if he gets better); Jackie is recovering from a pesky case of ringworm…but doing well; my brother was served divorce papers the day after I got engaged…so things have been weird to say the least. Then three of my other good friends have been having relationship issues too. I hate to feel this way but it seems like all these unfortunate things have been happening to the people close to me right around my engagement time so they haven’t been able to share in my joy. And sometimes I feel like I can’t be happy because all these sad things have been going on. It’s like I’ve got a heart string attached to every person being hurt or going through a hard time and I’m running out of strings to be pulled.
But, on the other hand there are times…like when I’m with Kyle and he makes me laugh or randomly says something like, “Hey Sarah, guess what…you’re going to be my wife!” or times like the other day when Jack fell in the bath tub and ran to hide in his litter box and stood with wet paws in the clumping litter. It’s times like those that make me smile again and thank the LORD for all that’s happening…the good and the bad.

A lot of crazy stuff has been going on and I feel like I’ve hardly had a moment to sit down and process it all. In fact, I’m with Kyle at his office right now and was working on some stuff while he finished some of his work and in a while we’re both going to sit down together to narrate our engagement story to send to friends since we haven’t done that yet. What makes me kind of sad is that all of my best friends are in California and I can’t just swing by their places to show them the ring and share the story in person. I had always imagined that after I was engaged I’d be able to do that. Well, my day will come!
Last night was really fun, Kyle and I volunteered to help out at a Jars of Clay concert at Overlake. We basically prepared and served food to the other volunteers and then helped usher people and answer questions. We only ushered for like two minutes because there were already so many other people ushering. The concert was really awesome and I felt like I was in jr. high again. (Remember when we saw them in concert, Loreanne?) Their first cd will always remain a classic in my collection. I also got a Sara Grove cd. She was one of the opening acts and I really like her voice.

I still haven’t heard back from the vet about Jet. I’ve only called them once since the doctor told me I had to start distancing myself, just in case. I’ve been missing him a lot and I hope he’s improved. I’m going to call tomorrow morning and see if there’s any word from the radiologist. I’ve sort of started preparing myself for the worst and tried to imagine how Jack would take to a new kitten. I know he needs someone to pick on and be picked on by (other than me) – I just can’t imagine him with anyone other than Jet.

Lord be with all those who need consoling and thank you for the joy You’ve blessed us with.

[…]

http://www.kylemadson.com/proposal

Here are photos of the big night. 🙂

I called the vet this morning to check on Jet. He’s still not getting better and they had to run x-rays because his blood work results didn’t show anything out of the ordinary. I talked to the vet and she thinks he may have dry FIP (feline infectious peritenidous). A kitten that I had in the past (a long long time ago) had the wet form of FIP. It’s not pretty and very fatal. She told me that I need to distance myself from him just in case he does take a turn for the worse, because it would “be easier on my heart.” So now I can’t visit him anymore until the radiologist looks at his x-rays and gives the final word.
I miss him so much. Thankfully, however, MEOW cat rescue (the shelter I got him from) said they would pay for everything and I think they’re going to let me adopt another kitten in Jet’s place if he doesn’t pull through. (But let’s be honest, there’s no replacing Jet Li.) But they are going to do everything in their power to help him get through it if it’s possible. There’s still a chance he just has a viral infection.
Please keep him in your prayers.
In other news, Jack is recovering nicely from his ringworm and loves being free from wearing the cone. He’s become very talkative recently and I think it’s because Jet hasn’t been around to chat to. I can tell he misses him very much.

Kyle proposed last night…I said YES!!! (of course) More details to come later!!! God is good!

This weekend was totally awesome. It was so wonderful to see my family. My parents immediately fell in love with Jack and Jet. “Our grandcats are sooo adorable!”
The only bummer of this weekend was Jack’s visit to the vet. Brookfeild Vetrenary Hospital has seen me frequently as of late and we are already of a first name basis. Initially, Jack was diagnosed as having a normal case of ringworm. First of all, for those not familiar, ringworm is not a worm at all, but more like a feline case of athlete’s foot. It’s more annoying than dangerous. It’s common for shelter kitties and I was given a topical medication to treat him.
After I dropped my parents at Sea-tac and said my goodbyes, I thought it’d be wise to set up an appointment for Jet, just to be sure he didn’t get ringworm from Jack. The next morning I noticed Jack still wasn’t improving and I found more skin lesions on him. Although he was in good spirits, I was worried so I took him with me to Jet’s appointment.
This time we had a different doctor (the husband of our first doctor.) He looked over Jack again and determined that there is a 50/50 chance that he could have ringworm, but he wasn’t positive and he didn’t want to give Jack the oral medicine (a more dramatic treatment) until he was sure it wasn’t just a food allergy. The oral medicine has a chance of affecting Jack’s liver if he doesn’t really have ringworm.
So at 7 this morning I dropped Jackie off at the vet for a biopsy. They’re going to take skin samples from four places on his little body to analyze. He said that it wasn’t a terrible surgery (but isn’t any surgery going to be terrible!?). The worst part was that I arrived at the same time as the alarm systems guy, who was coming by to check the alarm horn. What are the odds? Jack was already shaken up from having the nurse crouch over him with a shaver in her hands and then the alarm went off while a slightly overweight man went from room to room checking the alarm lights. Poor Jack! I was just about in tears as I left him.
All I can do now is pray and wait for the vet to call me and let me know how he is. He goes under the knife around 10:30am and I’ve scheduled to pick him up around 3:30 (the earliest they would let me.)

Please pray that all goes well and that Jackie will recover to tip top shape soon!

As far as Jet’s health, as far as the vet’s concerned, Jet is healthy except for some dry skin on his bum (kitten dandruff) which is probably just a result of his shelter diet and transitioning to his new food. The doctor gave me a vitamin E supplement with fish oil and stuff to add to their food for a shiny coat and healthy scalp. They also gave me a special shampoo which I’m supposed to bath him with. I figured I should probably get some of those thick gloves that Eagle handlers use before I get to that task. Once I’ve mastered the art of cat bathing, all should be well. But in addition to that, Jet also had build-up in his ears from the ear mite medicine the shelter gave him. So I also have to clean his ears every few days with this special ear cleaning solution. I won’t even get into the details about that. I’ll just say this – it’s a very messy process. So, with all that in a few weeks, Jet will be one shiny, studly feline.

I had my meeting with the mayor and his side kick yesterday to hash out the last details. I basically made a list of the things I need from him before I can do anything else and I gave him a full hard copy of the book with notes throughout listing what I need for each section. I essentially provided him a “publishing for dummies,” draft of the book complete with a user-friendly outline of steps he needs to take. Then I told him that the project was now taking a backseat to my new client. (Well, because obviously I need to pay rent and feed myself and two kitties.) No pay – no play. I thank the Lord for giving me the strength to say what I needed to say and moving on.
So here I am, (still at the office because I don’t have internet access at home – I’ll need to fix that soon.) working on the contract for my new client. Yay!

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I went with Michelle to her friend’s house for her mom’s birthday last night. It was fun, we had homemade pizza, wine and all the Bailey’s Irish cream we could ever want. We watched “Waking Ned Devine” and Michelle gave me a tour of the house in which she showed me a beautiful antique roll top secretary desk (complete with secret drawer) which I heartily admired. It was a lovely party and I had no trouble at all finding my way home either! Yay! I’m starting to think I’m not as directionally challenged as I once thought.

The office is empty today. I forgot that they switched back to closing the office on Fridays. *sigh* It’s so quiet. I suppose I could be using this time to finish editing the book to get it ready for the meeting Monday. But for some reason I just don’t feel very motivated. So it goes.

[…]

“As author of the collective work, the book as a whole, he or she should sign an agreement similar to the standard author agreement described above.”

~The Chigaco Manual of Style, 15th edition: The essential guide for writers, editors, and publishers.

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

Well, after going a week without internet access I’m now back in the office and at the keyboard again. I’ve missed you all and I can’t wait to catch up and hear your holiday stories. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of my holiday.

Christmas was absolutely awesome. I’m convinced it was the best Christmas ever. Kyle’s family came down to California to spend the holiday with my family. We played games, we laughed and we ate lots of food. It was grand. Christmas morning I made out like a bandit. Kyle got me a really nice chocolate brown blazer from J. Crew, the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition), a special cat’s eye necklace and….two animal print collars and a toy mouse with a promise of two kittens when I got home! I was almost in tears with joy.
In addition to all that, the rest of the family was more than generous too! My parents got me a laptop and Kyle’s parents and grandparents got me some really cute clothes from Anthropologie. Needless to say, I feel incredibily blessed and totally spoiled.

Now, the part you have all been waiting for…last Wed. I went and visited some kitty shelters and came home with two adorable kittens! I didn’t want to call anyone right away until I took them to the vet to get completely checked out (which is why some of you didn’t get calls until Sat.) I have two boys, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Jack is a silver tabby who looks like he fell in a bucket of white paint. He has the smartest green eyes and is very intellegent and really good at hiding. He gave Kyle, Michelle and I quite a scare night before last when he disappeared and we couldn’t find him. (More on that story later.) Jet is small and black with chocolate brown highlights. He has huge amber eyes and will melt your heart when he greets you at the door. He is extremely outgoing and loves people. Although Jet is older, Jack is big for his age and they both enjoy wrestling.
You can hear both of them across the room when they start to purr. They have motors that would put any Harley enthusiast to shame. It was their motors that drew me to them at MEOW cat shelter. I heard Jet purring as I walked by his cage and the lady opened it and he jumped out into my arms. I was sold. Jack was in the same cage, chilling in a fleece bed. He stretched and reached his paw out and looked at me with his big green eyes. Sold again. I am now a happy kitty mom. Hopefully I’ll have pictures to post soon!

So until I have a moment to update again, I must get back to work! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and threw Jesus a memorable party! Happy New Year!