Cat Care for the Mentally Stressed

Welcome to today's lesson on caring for your cat that you got from the Humane Society. I'm glad you could all be here, in whatever mental state you're decided on today. I've prepared a few brief notes on how life will be with your very own brand new kitten!

Kittens are a dream. They are cute, energetic, cute, unbalanced, crazy and cute. But they're not always cute...

Remember a full nights sleep? Falling asleep, dreaming of the brewing coffee in the morning? Remember being awoken by the soft chatter of birds mauling worms in the morning? Forget it. You've just got a two month old kitten who's never been alone before. He's going to need to be within line of sight of your face the entire night, cause if he isn't, he will cry. He's clingy, and wants to push his nose up inside your nose as far as possible. Yep, that's right. at 4am. I even prepared a selfie of him in the act.

Plus, this perfectly innocent and cute cuddles at 6am may include the poor kittens back feet being covered in cat poop and kitty litter, resulting in the quick and unceremonious changing of the sheets at 4am. (I was asked, while I relayed the story to Shelby, as to why I didn't go sleep on the couch. Honestly, I have no idea)

Having grown up with cats, I claim that I thought I was prepared for one. I thought I knew how to raise a cute little kitten from 2 months, to the old and tender age of my parents cat who's running on 18 years right now. Nope. I have been in for plenty of nights of intense clawed cuddling, cleaning up cat poop off kitten paws, and cat jerk tendencies.

The first few nights of having little Atticus was pure hell. A lot of emotions were running around my mind; I had just left a job that I loved everyone I worked with, but wasn't getting the motivational push to pursue anything, I was dealing with those motivational lackings, and poor Atticus looked just like a cat I had with my parents that had passed away suddenly a few months prior. So we're all just going to look over the fact that I was already emotionally unstable and mentally stressed.

Then I got a little thing that breathed and I had to take care of it.

He cried and mewed so much. If I wasn't in constant view of him day or night he cried. If he somehow wandered to the foot of my bed, or god forbid, the FLOOR, he would cry and cry, searching for me, waiting until I called for him. As soon as he got to within pouncing range of my face, he would go quiet, and... pounce. Then he would dig his nose into my neck, finding the warmest spot, and cuddle there for a bit, then cry, then sleep. All night I had to deal with that, until 5 or 6am when he would finally wake up for good. Queue that for 3-4 nights before I politely asked and forced Shelby to spend the night on the futon with him, while I locked my bedroom door and cranked the fans onto high.

It's still be a while since I've woken up later than 6:30-7am, which I guess is good. Early to bed... early to rise.....

Atticus Poopy-Foot Crosby. His middle name is obvious once you realize that he had some stress poop, up until almost he was 3 months old. A ton of antibiotics and a good kitten biscuit diet fixed that. But man, the fear of him jumping onto the bed, or you with that foot covered in you know what was just too much. I'm so glad he's gotten over whatever was going on. That poor guy. He knew it was a problem, and when it happened he'd either rush to you or just cry until I came over to wipe his foot off. I think thats why he is so attached to me. We have the unbreakable bond of poopy-foot cleaning. Though Shelby's had her time cleaning his foot too, Addy and I remember that first time, 3am, washing off his foot in the sink. He didn't even try to get away from the water, he just let out his little kitten mew, and I washed that little foot.

This one always makes me laugh "Nappers"

This is his "I heard you come home but I was napping" look

Where was I?

Oh yeah, enjoy your new cat... though you'll yell at them, chuck them off you when you're mad, and accidentally scare them. They will love you and find whatever whey they know to show you love. It might be as little as not biting you as hard as everyone else, or being the biggest cuddler in the world.

Cape to the Cod

So basically I had forgotten my camera exists until about an hour ago. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few pictures I took while Zachary and I visited Cape Cod this summer. So here is our trip to Cape Cod in no particular order.

Cape Cod is pretty.

-S

Baconless Vacations.

It took me until the flight home to realize we hadn't had any bacon on our little trip to Cape Cod, and another 12 hours to realize that we, in fact, had had bacon during this trip.

Anyways, I love the title, so I'm going to work with it. Not having bacon on a vacation would be the worst thing ever. It'd be like going on vacation on Cape Cod and not going on the beach, which could have happened. Bacon is just the treat you want with your pancakes and coffee in the morning, while overlooking a garden, or waves crashing on the beach. Bacon brings people together, even if just for a moment. I think you could forge treaties over a pile of bacon.

Let's step back. Shelby and I went to my homeland, Cape Cod. It's the little arm shaped peninsula, in Massachusetts, that juts out into the atlantic grasping on to the only warm water north of Virginia. I spent 20 years of my life there until I up and moved to Utah for no reason. But that's a different tale. Shelby and I piled into a jet and flew to Boston and got to sleep the first day at 3am, which was AWESOME.

Then it rained. For 2 days. So we sat, on the couch, staring out the window, tears streaming down our faces as we imagined a sunny day at the beach. We did a few trips out to see the sights, and do some shopping in the rain.

The rest of the week was mostly sunny and included boat rides, beach days, farmers markets, lobster, chowdah and relaxing. For the most part.

Shelby is such a trooper. I hadn't been home in 7 months and people constantly wanted to see me, meet the strange blonde girl I had by my side (Though they all knew who she was through instagram and facebook). I was used to seeing so many people whenever I'm on the cape, I never stopped to think about a stranger in a strange land meeting so many strange people. I think it all came to a crescendo on Friday night, when a huge batch of the family came over for a cookout, and Shelby got to see first hand how "crazy" my family is. But she powered through it, which made it see to me that she had no problem jumping in the pack. It wasn't til about noon on Sunday when I realized how exhausted she was from meeting 20 million people. It was really hard to see her dealing with that, so we took the last night off, went and had a date night.

So always have bacon on your vacation, don't worry about diets and veganism, just eat Bacon.


- Z


More Pictures.

Mary liked grass.

The Parental Units on the boat.

My Brother and I with Ice Cream.

The Amigos met again, sans one Amigo.

The Long Flight Home.

Milcreek Shenanigans

Once upon a time my family plus Zachary went up Milcreek canyon to roast marshmallows. It was a perfect summer evening where we skipped rocks and sang campfire songs (I lied about the campfire songs). The adventure was coming to an end when my mother and Zachary decided it would be a good idea to play Chubby Bunny. Like the good citizen I am I immediately pulled out my camera, and what I captured was pure gold. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy!

Hahaha! Your welcome.

-S

One Year

So in case you all were wondering (which I am sure you were) Zachary and I have been dating for a whole entire year now. A YEAR PEOPLE! Since we have been dating for such a long amount of time I would say we are pretty much experts on relationships now, so I decided it would only be fair to give you all some words of wisdom on dating, and how to make a relationship last.

#1: Find a human you like that also likes you back. It would be even better if you guys had stuff in common. You know, so you have stuff to talk about and such.

#2: If you like each other and get along, stay together. If you don't, find someone that you actually do like and start over.

Really, it is as simple as that. One of those times it will just stick, and you will just know. Be patient. It will happen sooner or later. Just let life work itself out. You will be glad you let it.

So yeah, there you go. The wonderful wisdom of Shelby at its finest. I hope you all can find someone as wonderful as my Zac, because he truly is something else. Mostly because he let us celebrate our "anniversary" wandering around the farmers market, eating food, giving me candy bars, and watching movies together. Does life get better than that? I don't think so.

Proof that we went to the farmers market, and ate food. Also, this was the best piece of toast I have ever put inside my body. It needs to be a staple! Rye bread, goat cheese, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and honey. Yes please!

-S

Too many chargers..

I'm always on the phone, even at work...

It's been a while since our last post. But it's been for a good reason, Shelby decided to leave me behind and go on a super sweet adventure in Costa Rica, where she river rafted, ziplined, parasailed, watched soccer games, saw foggy volcanos, and all this other jazz while I stared at the creases in my palm hoping to determine when I'd get another job.

But today is not about her, or me, or even my odd body build. Today is about the influx of data intruding on my brain each and every day.

To get to this point today, where I am sitting calmly writing this post, I have probably spent over an hour wasting time since I woke up. I've been checking social media, doing factual internet searches, browsing reddit, and checking up on people that live worlds away. Heck, even my morning ritual is to grumble and claw for my phone to turn off the alarm, check facebook, instagram and reddit, then get up and get my coffee ready. While coffee is brewing, more internet, more information, more useless knowledge... more more more more more.

I have chargers for all my devices all over my house. I could probably take 4 steps in any direction around my house and end up in range of a plug for my phone. I am wasting so much time on my phone that I need to plug it in and recharge it, but all the while not letting me recharge. I'm still glued to the screen, checking to see what new movie fact is real or not, new pictures of batman from the next movie, what kind of money I wish I had to buy cool things. I never stop, even when my phone it like, "Dude, I need a second to breathe." But I don't listen to it, or remember I should step outside and just lay in the grass.

I've come to this realization a few times, the enlightening thought that I am taking in so much information, that the majority of it falls out the other ear. I forget dates, I forget why I'm driving a half hour across the valley, I forget what Shelby's favorite color is (Hint: It's sea foam, I do actually remember that). And I'd like to blame the fact that I'm constantly skimming articles, facts, details about my life and others, and not taking anything in. I'm just reading the words of the article, and not really taking it in but the facts, I form no opinions of what I read. Nor do I give anything back. I never share my thoughts, my feelings, my worries, in life or online, except in small bouts of when I get "real" with twitter. I bottle it all up except for the occasional vent session with Shelby. So here is this blog, my outlet, of humor, stories, and maybe sometime in like 40 years, I'll share some emotion. Here, I'm forced to talk, forced to at least write about SOMETHING, even if I never post it.

So while I've been cutting back on my social media intake, and reddit surfing, this blog will never be a problem, this is the outlet. The tap to my brain. And I can't wait to actually remember an idea I want to blog about, before it fades away to the abyss of my mind.


Shelby's so cute... Just thought you should know. So had a bad sunburn from the beach day, but she has so many more freckles now!!!

- Z

A Coffee Affair

Can we, for a moment, think about that the cup of coffee you had this morning, or yesterday, or the one you'll have in the morning.  Think on how it has been lovingly cared for throughout it's entire life! The tender bean is carefully grown on coffee farms in tropical climates like: South American, Central American, India. The bean is then picked at just the right time, and roasted on site or shipped to a roaster, also very carefully. Beans from all over the world are grown and make their way to roaster here in the United States. Beans that will be roasted lightly for a soft taste with all the caffeine, or burnt to a crisp for Starbucks normal brews. Each batch of coffee is cared for, roasted and sent around the world, to be ground up and end up in your morning caffeine buzz.

Except for Instant Coffee....

If there is one thing that God had no choice over, it was allowing the devil to take this tender beverage, served hot or cold to millions around the world, and give it the kiss of death that only a dehydrated cup of coffee could offer.

I mean seriously, anytime you are given a spoonful of powder and a cup of boiling water, you should probably throw to the ground and run in the opposite direction (See: astronaut ice cream, dehydrated beef stroganoff). For the foul tasting liquid tar that awaits you is neither comforting or enjoyable for any participant.

Except my dad.

For as long as I can remember, my dad has had to morning routine of making a cup of Folgers Instant Coffee. He swears by it, and will probably have it til the day he dies. Now, I began drinking coffee at the tender age of 14 or so, to make the miserable experience of waking up as the crack of dawn... more pleasant. This became the daily ritual: awake from deep slumber, accept sacrifice of the day, boil some water, add Satan's whisper to the water, douse in Half/Half and copious amounts of sugar, drink with a bowl of sugar... err cereal, and go about my school day.

This went on for 4 or 5 years.... Or more... I have pretty much blocked out what I drank from 2008-2011. All I do know, was that it was awful Folgers instant coffee with an intermixing of "good" drip coffee, or some done with my parents old Moka Pot... that I burned on a regular basis. I was without good coffee, but had no idea of it. I was in my dreamland, my sheltered world of instant coffee and drip.

Until Panama.

I got hired to go down to Panama to assist on a natural history shoot for a museum down there, lots of work, gallons of sweat, but the coffee..... oh man, the coffee. We resided on a coffee farm for the first week we were there, and everyday was perfection from a coffee ground. I don't think you could get it any fresher. It was an eye-opening experience both in taste and caffeine intake. There was a good version of this brown liquid, one that doesn't even need cream, or sugar. Something that just was... good. I had the ultimate coffee epiphany that I think everyone has, that moment when coffee is more than just a caffeine buzz, when it becomes a tasty drink. Hot, cold, milk, or sugar. I could have it any way and it was still incredible.

Every now and then I get an order of that coffee from Panama, or through the cinematographer Tom, who's father-in-law coincidently owns the coffee farm.

What I was doing.

Who I was drinking coffee with.

Random Picture. The Best Steak I've ever had.

From that point on, good coffee, and making it well, was my obsession. Now, my morning ritual is: awake handsomely, rush out of bed, put water on to exactly 200 degrees, burr grind fresh coffee to coarse, put grounds in french press, pour water, steep, more water, time, depress fully, add dash of half/half, DRINK. Yeah, it may take more time, but at least it's not instant....

If you're going to spend 10 minutes a day on drinking something, don't let it be instant coffee... let your taste buds love you.

- Z