Attack Of The Killer Cats

Okay, so maybe not actually "killer" but the rest of the title is true.

This morning around 5am, I couldn't sleep so I got out of bed and went into the living room. A couple minutes later I heard Sammy (one of my dogs) barking and crying in the spare bedroom (doesn't that make you think of narnia?). I went in there to see what the problem was and saw a flash of fur run behind a chair. My first thought was that I had a giant street rat (they are bigger than my dogs) in my house. I "calmly" picked up Sammy in one hand and Gracie in the other and closed them in my bedroom. I then went back into the spare bedroom (narnia) and cautiously looked behind the chair, only to find a very terrified cat hiding there. I coaxed it out and let it run outside before sitting down and thinking, "What the heck just happened? Why is there a cat in my house and how long has it been there? This is very strange!" (Another strange thing is that my roommate slept through the entire ordeal.)

All day long I kept thinking about that cat and how weird the situation was.

Flash forward to 8:30pm this evening.

I was sitting on my couch reading a book when I heard a cat outside. Unfortunately, both of my dogs heard the cat as well and both took off after it. After a moment I walked to the front door, opened it to see what was going on and a cat streaked into my house, being chased by both my dogs. Again, "What the heck just happened? Why is there a cat in my house?..." The cat quickly ran back outside, only to jump up into the undercarriage of my truck. Again, I picked up Sammy in one hand and Gracie in the other and shut them in the house. I then proceeded to coax the cat out of the undercarriage of my truck and onto safe ground on the other side of the fence.

Okay, so maybe "attack" is not the best word for the title either, but you have to agree with me that these are weird circumstances, right?

Is it some kind of new club?

There is something strange going on around here. Lately I have seen so many guys peeing on the side of the road and I don't understand it. The other day at about 2pm, there was a guy standing on the side of the road, facing traffic and peeing. He was exposing himself to everyone around and it was disturbing. Definitely not what I wanted to see! Two nights ago, on a quarter mile stretch of road, there were four men peeing. Last night my dogs starting barking and when I walked outside to see what was happening, there was a man peeing right outside my house. What is going on?!!! It's weird.

Not Quite Myself

I haven't really been feeling myself since I was in America. While I was there I ate way too much fattening American food and it has left me feeling rather sluggish all the time. I am usually pretty comfortable in my skin even though I don't fit into the world's standard of what comfortable should be. But right now I am not comfortable. So, I have decided that I need to start a regular exercise program to get myself feeling better again. This is a lot easier said than done for many reasons. The weather is the biggest hindrance. It is hot here, all the time. The only time it is not blazing hot is in the wee hours of the morning and there is no way that I am exercising at 3am. True, I could pay money for a gym that is air-conditioned but my finances are low and there are no gyms close enough to my house that I would actually go to. So, I decided to pick the coolest part of my waking hours and make a commitment. This means that when I get home at night at 10pm, I am exercising. Luckily I just moved into a safe, gated community and if I jog around the perimeter of the neighborhood, it is about the same as running a lap on a track. Unfortunately, even though I am now in a safe neighborhood, I don't feel great jogging by myself at 10pm. I have solved this problem by bringing my two dogs along. They love it and it is good exercise for them as well.

So, here's to my new exercise commitment. Hopefully before long, I will feel comfortable in my own skin again.

The Danger of Harry Potter

Those of you who know me well, know that I absolutely love Harry Potter! I have read the books so many times that I have lost count and I have all seven books in mp3 format on my ipod. Well, I have recently discovered that Harry Potter may in fact be dangerous for me.

The other morning I was driving my truck and listening to Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone on the cd player. I was driving along completely engrossed in the story and pulled over to the side of the road to park. Unfortunately I was paying more attention to Harry than I was to the road because suddenly I felt the truck lurch downward on the left side. I had driven the left front tire of the road and into a ditch just wide enough for the tire to wedge in. I slowly reached forward, turned Harry off and said, "God, what do I do now?" before getting out to look at the damage. The so-called ditch was actually a gutter the width of my tire and about a foot and a half deep. There was no way to drive out of it. I stood there staring at it, wondering what to do when a truck loaded with about 15 construction workers pulled up next to me. I said, "Thank you God!" to myself before saying, "Korh tote ka. Korh tote ka." (this translates to I'm sorry and is the polite way to get someone's attention) to the men. I nicely asked them if they could lift my truck out of the ditch for me and within five minutes the problem was fixed. God totally took care of me and there was no damage to my truck except a slight dent in the front bumper from the wall next to the ditch.

The moral of this story: it is not safe for me to listen to Harry Potter while driving or doing anything that requires my full attention.

It feels like...

What is the deal with weather stations saying what the actual weather is and then saying, "but it feels like..." I don't want to know what some stranger or machine thinks it feels like.

For instance, today the temperature is 95 degrees but it feels like 105 degrees. I have to disagree with the latter part of that. It doesn't feel like 105 degrees, it feels like my skin might start melting off my body soon. It feels like I have lost 10 pounds in sweat during the past two hours (if only that were true). It feels like a miserable day to be moving into a new house and unpacking.

And this is still considered winter in Thailand. I think I want to move to the North Pole next. God, do you think you can send me there next?