Monday, December 29, 2014

Crazy? Nah, I'm just a cat lady.

Since getting another cat two years ago (and before I get started, those of you who know me are aware that I only currently have one cat- by 'another' I mean 'another in my lifetime'. Continuing now.), I've found that many, many people have taken to referring to me as a 'crazy cat lady'. So let me take a few moments of your time to educate you on what, exactly qualifies one as a 'crazy cat lady', and why it is that I am absolutely not one, thank you very freaking much.

Hey, also- let us take a moment to wonder why on earth no one calls a single guy with a cat 'crazy'. Same bacteria, for pete's sake. So a guy with a cat he dotes on clearly has no issues. Another example of the media being absolute twits to women?

Maybe so. But...moving on.

Educational point: So the term 'crazy cat lady' was basically coined because of a bacteria cats carry (See the following link for details). This bacteria tends to latch on to people and cause personality things like OCD to flare up, and make someone 'crazy'. So the media latched on to it, and bam- 'crazy cat lady'.


See: Crazy Cat Lady Syndrome

Anyway. So yes, I'm depressed and yes, I'm single (as this other article indicates, these two things can often cause a devotion to the pet in question), so thanks to this incredibly stupid spin the media put on it...clearly I'm a crazy cat lady. Right? Right?

Wrong.

I'm not crazy. In fact, I'm unique and eccentric, but not certifiably crazy. My being devoted- as they say in these aforementioned articles- does not in any way mean I'm crazy. People use, as I've learned in recent years, any shape or size of animal to deal with their emotional needs. Small dogs can be therapy dogs (and I'm just as guilty as anyone of wondering why a tiny Yorkie had a 'therapy dog' vest). Emotional therapy is a thing that's more necessary than many realize, and if it takes my owning a cat and devoting myself to it- my emotional well-being is what I'm dealing with, so don't put me into that stereotype, because there's a lot more than meets the eye.

So a crazy cat lady I am most certainly not. But a cat lady? Definitely.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Let's Get Back into the Swing of Things, Shall We?


So I haven't written anything here...since February, if Google is accurate in their timeline. But today I got something in the mail, and I had to write about that...because how often does someone have something this goofy and random to write about?

I'm a landowner!

What's that, you say? Owning land is pretty common now, really- whether it's land you inherited from your grandparents, their grandparents, or your own parents. It's land. I think these days it has a bit less sentimental value than it used to (think Little House on the Prairie and how Pa sowed the land, planted, had to stay there on his claim for months until it was really and truly theirs), but just the same...it's pretty substantial. You own land, and you have something to build on, plant on, just make snow angels on in the wintertime. Whatever you want.

Today, in the mail, I received a part of my Ten Days of Kwanzaa or Whatever from Cards Against Humanity. The company pulled several very interesting stunts revolving around the holidays, one of which was actual poop you received in the mail (oh, the people who I imagine were steamed about that- though thankfully it was just the people who were steamed and not the actual poop. Eew.). The Ten Days of Kwanzaa or Whatever consisted of ten days (accurate) of random things in the mail. Actual custom printed CaH cards involving your name, an interesting breakdown of some legislative information, and....a piece of land. Not literally, of course, as said land would not fit in an envelope.

But Cards Against Humanity acquired themselves a lovely little private island for something like $200,000, and in a fairly hilarious gimmick, gave people who had purchased the Ten Days subscription exactly one square foot of land. So I could stand in it, build a card house on it, plant a teeny flag on it...whatever I want. Tax free, even...so my only major obligation is to keep it tidy.

I'm somewhat tempted, as a new landowner, to hike myself over to Lake St. George in Maine, where my square foot is located, and do yoga in my tiny square foot. Yoga that involves standing up, because I can't very well be rude and do a <insert yoga pose here> on both my square foot and someone elses'. Trespassing is something people take seriously, these days.

But all the same, I own land now. So. I can check that off of my bucket list. If I had a bucket list.