Nobody Likes a Dead Cat

I’m alive and have a real post going up tomorrow.

Check out my other blog to see a picture of me and read what’s been going on in my life this week!

Then prepare yourself for a request tomorrow!!

I had the most amazing time with Mr.E. at the beach. I will write about that in a bit, I want this post to be here, too, though.

Today I turn 25. At 1:50pm, 25 years ago, my mom (naturally) gave birth to me. Kinda scary to think about. Anyway, happy birthday to me … I’m officially 1/2-way to fifty.

My parents drove up to take me to dinner (and give me boxes and tape and a present!) and mom asked me at one point if I felt old … and I don’t, but I feel weird. “I’m 25 and divorced.” Neither of my parents had much to say about that … I think it made them uncomfortable, but we moved on shortly thereafter. This morning I woke up early and spent a little while thinking about the things that I’ve done in the past 25 years that have made me incredibly proud; I don’t have much material on my mind for REAL mental and emotional health, but concentrating on my OWN mental and emotional health, I thought I’d list some of the things I’m more proud of from the past 25 years.

~I learned to read at an exceptionally early age. I was barely 4 when I read books aloud to strangers. My dad took me to jobsites with him and I impressed teachers by “reading” to them. They assumed that I was going to make up the stories and then I actually read the book to them. I read all the time still; I love to read.

~I wrote a story that was published when I was in 3rd grade. It was a HORRIBLE story about a horse who had trouble walking. I named the horse Sarah. Psychologically there is probably something strange about that. “Readers dream, dreamers write.” I both dream and write … this is a pretty cool thing to me.

~I joined the Talented and Gifted program in 4th grade. I was a smart kid. I still feel like a smart kid most days. (I stayed in TAG until they disbanded it in 8th grade.)

~I started my own business in the 6th grade, selling and teaching about owl pellets. My friend Brandi and I made good money doing this. We collected the owl pellets from her grandpa’s barn, sold them for a dollar a piece (school science catalogs sold them for $4 a piece) and our elementary school principal drove us to other schools to give presentations and teach younger kids about owls and mice. It’s gross, but we made money and teachers thought we were super-cool.

~In 8th grade, I was the top English student in my “neighborhood.” Our grade was split into two neighborhoods (I was in the gold one, and the other was the blue one) and I got to be the top English student. I got a pretty plaque and my parents were invited to a ceremony and I won an award and all that stuff. I still have the plaque and am STILL proud of this.

~In 10th grade I was accepted into the GAPP (German-American Partnership Program) by my high school German teacher. My family hosted an exchange student (Britta) and then six months later I spent 5 weeks in Germany. I loved this time and learned much about myself. I was 16 (my gosh, this doesn’t feel like it was a DECADE ago!) and had an amazing time!

~I graduated high school. I was in the top 10.15%. I was ONE person off of being in the top 10% of my graduating class and actually felt awful having to sit with the “regular” people. That sounds horribly pretentious, but all my friends were in the first row … and I was way back with the H’s. : ( I survived and I know that it was only a numbers game, but still. I graduated high school!

~I got accepted to the only college I applied to; Oregon State University. Looking back I feel DUMB for only applying to ONE school since I was such a good student in high school (and very, very active!). Who knows where I could have gone if I had decided to be brave and GO somewhere!

~In college I was continually on the Dean’s List and honor roll. I was invited to join honor societies (and I think I joined one … LOL … I can’t really remember) even though I barely passed Chemistry. I got one B in my major (German) in four years and am incredibly proud of such a high college major GPA.

~After my divorce, I have survived and THRIVED. I am a happy, strong, capable woman, and I have learned more about myself in the past 11 months than I had in the previous 11 years. I am incredibly proud of myself for these things.

So, yeah, I’ve done plenty of things to be proud of in the past 25 years. I have no regrets and wouldn’t change a thing … otherwise I wouldn’t be who I am. As a birthday present to me; leave me a comment and tell me why you’re proud of yourself!

are these black-eyed Susans?

The title of my journal; nobody likes a dead cat comes from something silly that MissPea once said to me. I was at Mr.E’s house and driving home while I talked to her. She asked me what we had been talking about and I told her “our cats.” I have one dead cat (Moritz) and one cat who lives with the-X’s mom (Max). She asked which cat we talked about, I told her “Moritz.” There was a long pause before she replied; “the dead one? Sarah, nobody likes a dead cat!” and that was that. She doesn’t know about this blog (she does read my other ones though) and so she has no idea that her hilarious line (we use it all the time when we need a giggle) is the title of something important in my life. : )

MissDee is in labor. I spent four hours at the hospital earlier today just hanging out with her. I actually worked on her cross-stitch while talking to her through her contractions and had a nice time. She’s on dose 2 of Cervadil and will be started on Pitocin tomorrow morning if her labor doesn’t continue quickly. She will be incredibly worn out if they don’t fully induce her and so I’m glad that they’re getting things taken care of. It was really great to see her, but it was horrible watching my best friend grimacing in pain. I just wanted to hold on to her and take her pain away … it made me sad; but it means that BabyDee is on his way.

Mr.E. called me last night … he wants to get together tomorrow. I may be with MissDee at the hospital still so I let him know that, but he is acting like everything is absolutely normal. I’m kinda confused by that but am willing to leave the ball in his court. He seems to be playing a game … we’ll see how long I can continue to play with him. He is awfully cute though. *sigh* We’ll see.

I started writing for another blog this week. If you want to know about Portland, check it out. I have only written about two (of my favorite) bars, but I’m going to get paid for it, so I might as well try to pass the word around. I’m linking you to my profile to check out what I’ve written, but you should check out everyone else’s posts if you’re bored.

I also typed out my I’m Reading list as a page here. “I read all the time … and this page is dedicated to the books that I currently have checked out. I may also keep a list of books I’d like to read on this page! Please feel free to leave me suggestions in my comments if you’re reading a book that you think I might like!”

Hahah!

I actually, no, seriously, laughed out loud when I read this comic. I’m of the school that you should avoid the INTARwebES if you don’t like spoilers, so this had me in hysterics. No, literal hysterics. Literally. I cried. Laughed so hard I CRIED. TEEEEAARS of laughter readers, tears! LOL