Blibber Blabber

No rhyme, no reason

 

In Memoriam

Pogo died yesterday.  He lived from September 2006 to Memorial Day, 2008.  Such a short life, but he was a lively little charmer; a vivacious, gregarious, inquisitive, smart little critter.  He was a pervert who liked to look down my shirt.  He had a funny ability to scare the cats, and he wasn't afraid to stare them down.

I can't even put into words how much we'll miss him, and how hard it was to let him out of my arms yesterday.

posted by: athenawj at 09:30 | link | comments (1) |
animals, memories, rats

Rats and Cats and Bunnies, Oh My!

The animal dealings just keep coming.

It turns out it wasn't the medicine that made Pogo the way he is.  It's most likely a pituitary gland tumor, which is inoperable.  He's blind, and still unable to hold things with his front paws, but even now I can see him adapting.  The vet said cage animals are extremely adept at adapting to blindness, since everything pretty much stays in the same place, but we've put new water bottles on every level, and a new food bowl that Pogo can just stick his head into.  I'm still taking him out from time to time and feeding him.  He enjoyed a lot of watermelon yesterday.  Mmm, spring coolness. :)

It's pretty much wait and see right now.  Yes, I cried yesterday.  I can't help but feel so sorry for him.  But his brother is taking good care of him, and we are, too, and I'm damn determined to make that sweet, tiny little creature's life as good as I can.

Okay.  Moving on to bunnies...

Let the cats out last night, per their usual, and around nine we hear awful baby squealing.  Run outside, just in time to see Salem drop a bunny only a little bigger than a tennis ball.  Get him into a big basket I have, calm him down, and then hear ANOTHER squeal from outside.  This baby's much, um, friskier than his litter mate, and it takes a good thirty minutes before he calms down (and he also managed to jump out of the tall basket twice.  I've done it before, and let me tell you, baby rabbits are just as hard as chickens to catch.  Rocky would be worn out, too).  Right now, we have two baby bunnies in a covered basket in our small bathroom.

We have to wait until probably Tuesday to take them to Walden's Puddle, the only sanctuary/clinic in the state that takes rabbits.  So, Mr. Calm's off to the store in a few minutes to get them food.

I'm not being cruel, but I'm holding him to take care of them.  I have Pogo, and Kiwi, whom I'm sorry to say hasn't gotten as much lovin' as of late, and the hermit crabs (and I'm happy to say are all fine and accounted for, and Mesh is done molting), and the cats.  To say that I handle the bulk of the animal care around here is putting it mildly, so he and OD (YD is off for a visit with my parents, along with her cousin J.) can handle this crisis.  That's not to say I won't look in on them, because they ARE cuties.

Of course, telling YD that we have baby bunnies put her over the edge, especially since she's been asking for months for a rabbit (NO! NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO!!  THIS AIN'T NO FARM!!).

posted by: athenawj at 06:02 | link | comments (1) |
animals

Did I ever mention here that OD's graduation present is to go to Japan?  Tokyo, and just outside it, to be exact.  She'll be spending the first part with the girl she's going with, and then the last half with a friend and her family.  Total immersion there.  Her only definite plans that I know of so far is that she's going to Tokyo Disney, and a concert.

I am getting presents for her host family.  I am totally stumped.  The custom seems to be to buy individual presents, so I'll have to get one for the girl's teenage brother.  Speaking as someone who has two sisters, two daughters, and two neices, I have NO IDEA what to buy him.  Especially since these have to be small, lightweight gifts that won't take up much space in OD's suitcase.

Any ideas from the gallery?

We'll be driving her to Atlanta near the end of June to take her to the airport, and then she'll fly non-stop to Tokyo.  YES, I'm nervous about my eighteen-year-old flying across the world and spending close to three weeks away, but I'm also excited for her.  What a trip!

posted by: athenawj at 07:23 | link | comments (1) |
kids, memories

Sick Rat

We've been taking care of a very sick rat the last few days; a rat made sick by medicine that should have made him better.  Ever get afraid of possible side effects?  We weren't even aware of side effects, and thought that perhaps age was catching up to Pogo, and that he was developing arthritis.  Nope.

He went from alert and perky to falling down from levels in his cage to the floor, unable to hold food, and almost blind.  According to Mr. Calm, the vet looked very nervous when he brought Pogo in, and hasn't been charging us for the gas (to put Pogo out for a few minutes) and water injections to help flush out his system.  Don't get me wrong- I don't blame the vet for it, although it seemed to me this morning, by his comments, that he may blame himself.  These things happen.  You just can't tell, and Kiwi didn't get sick.

So, I've been holding my baby in a towel (because the water injections make him PEEEEEE) and hand feeding him chicken and other good stuff, and got him strawberry Ensure this morning to try to put a little weight back on him, and right now he's snuggled in an old towel on the bottom of his cage.  I'm about to go feed him again, and see if he can hold food again.

I'm worried, naturally, but hoping that he gets back to normal soon.  Like his brother, who's bounding around the cage and climbing the walls like he got a second leash on life.

So, that's what I've been up to.  Hope life's been better for ya'll. :)

posted by: athenawj at 15:52 | link | comments (1) |
animals

Harvard Whipple

"Jump"

"Bus Stop Muzak"

"Allergy Attack"

These are my entries for the drawing exhibit.  Sent all my stuff in yesterday, and I'll find out at the end of June if I made it.

I almost ruined that first one yesterday when I was coloring in the circles.  I always check the side of my hand to make sure there's no ink on it, but I didn't think to check the side of my friggin' arm.  So I ended up with two faint half circles of red down at the bottom of the picture.  Luckily I was able to cover them with white coloring pencil.

Color's shitty in the pix.  I really need to reset my white balance.

posted by: athenawj at 06:16 | link | comments (2) |
art

Pomp and Circumstance

Yes, it happened.  I'm now mom to a high school graduate:

Don't worry.  This crappy Polaroid isn't the only picture I have of her.  My kids are totally used to how mom has to use two or three cameras for pictures.

Her school may not be tops in the county (although it's third for "test scores", and has one of the best graduation rates), but I guarantee you that their ceremony is the best in the county, maybe even the state.

Remember the end of "Fame"?  Yes, this is Fame, LIVE.  The ceremony was at the Opry, and they played to nearly a packed house.  Art was placed on pedestals in the lobby so the fine arts students wouldn't be left out of things.  After a brief intro by the principal, and "The Star Spangled Banner" played by a guitarist with "08" on the back of his guitar , we were treated to an hour-and-a-half of performances: African dance, theater performances, a song or two by the Senior Chorale, an orchestra performance (with my own OD on clarinet), lyrical dance, a performance from the Pop Ensemble, and mixed into those were speeches from the salutarian/salutorian (I don't know how to spell it!) and valedictorian.  My favorite performance, besides the one my daughter was in, was a performance by the drama seniors of "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss.  Because Oh!... these kids will go places. 

The only time I cried, and the tears were free falling, was when a teacher got up to make the farewell address to the seniors.  Her father died one week ago, and she left them with four points of wisdom from  her father.  One was "Be happy".  Oh, yes-- be happy!  I'm not being sarcastic.  We forget how sometimes, when it's right there in our reach.

OD was fourth from last to be called (oh, to have "W" as the first letter of your last name), and we all whooped and hollered when she was called.  She didn't rush across the stage, and she didn't fall down in her heels, either. ;)

And just before the diplomas were handed out, what did they play over the pa system?  "Fame".  Heh.

My graduate went to a party afterward, and now she's passed out on an inflatable bed in the living room (her aunt and cousin are on her bed).

I have been sad alot about OD's graduation, but last night I didn't feel that.  Besides being incredibly moved by the teacher's words, I didn't cry.  I was excited and ecstatic for OD.  She's done with high school, and in three months she'll be in college.  And after that, the possibilities are endless.  I hope she gets to experience everything she wants.  I'm sad that she's moving on, but I'm excited for the life she could have.

posted by: athenawj at 06:35 | link | comments (1) |
kids, memories

"Inverness: In Honor of Gordon Ramsay: 'Stop staring, you donkey!'"

I'm not sure I like this one as well as the others, but I've been wanting to draw that waiter for months.

I decided this one will go in the solo show.

Planned:
*Try to get into the drawing exhibit in town.
*Enter a beach picture in an exhibit out in CA.
*Do a "blue" themed picture and send it for possible inclusion in a gallery show in KY.
*Make two-three pictures for the Tomato Art Fest.
*Maybe try to get included in a Halloween show in NY.
*And then there's all those pesky entries for the fair!

And those are my tentative plans through September.  And then make stuff for the holidays for the gallery here in town.

posted by: athenawj at 06:28 | link | comments (2) |
art

Feeding Time

I think this is the last piece I'm going to create for my solo show.  I found that a local gallery is accepting subs for a drawing exhibition, which is right up my alley, but the deadline's May 31 for an August show.  Gotta get crackin'!  So much else to friggin' do, too... ain't that the way, though? ;)

posted by: athenawj at 06:22 | link | comments |
art

Art!

Last evening was the Saturday Art Crawl, and a damn good one, at that.  Nearly every gallery we went to had an amazing artist, and two that I completely fell in love with.  I even told one of the artists that: something like how every once in awhile you stumble across art that just immediately grabs you, and you can't stop looking at it.  Well, something like that.  I don't know, I got a little drunk.  I haven't been drunk in seven years, so that was fun, too.

Steven Knudson was the artist I spoke to.  His watercolors and oils are absolutely beautiful; stark and dark and strangely beautiful. 

The other artist I adored was Laurie Lipton.  I love finding people who draw, and make a living at it.  And the details she injects are incredible-- her pieces are the kind that you could own, and months later you'd still be finding new things in them.

Check out the links with their names.  Wonderful stuff there.

posted by: athenawj at 07:01 | link | comments |
art

I've come to the decision that YD is going to be home-schooled from now on... well, after she finishes this school year.  It's partly "I-can't-take-it-anymore", and partly "I'VE-GOT-to-do-something-to-help-my-child".  Disgust with the school system and her school in particular is a big part of it, too.  And safety.  Not the least is how she's had three things stolen-- two right off her person-- in the last two weeks (cell phone, backpack, and thirty dollars).  No, the school will take the reports, but they won't do anything about it.  Neither will the police.

Anyway.  She's out of there.  I'm tired of the way races cannot get along at this school (which floors me-- my daughters went to a middle school where THEY were the minority, and everyone got along just fine, but no one can in a more equally mixed school???), there are gang fights on a weekly basis, they cannot take textbooks home (when they friggin' get them to use, two months into the school year), and frankly, the teachers are not up to snuff.  This is the largest school in the state, and too many kids like my daughter are lost in the system: left to flounder on their own and eventually fail.  Her guidance counselor has been a bright light among all these dark spots, and has tried to help her in any way he can, but he's got one thousand other students to help.

No, I'm not putting all the blame on the school.  YD is partly to blame for her lack of interest and resulting lack of good grades (come on, child, you can't dress out??).  But I can't let this go on, not if I care anything about her.

I've spent the last week looking for secular homeschooling.  It's SO friggin' hard to find, but I think I've found some good programs.  And she hasn't been officially told yet, though I know she has an inkling, since we discussed how out of range private school prices are (though I don't really think that's the appropriate route for her, either), and she resignedly said, "You're gonna homeschool me, aren't you?" last week.

The problem seems to be between me and Mr. Calm, who stares at me blankly when I talk of my searchings and findings.  He seems to think that we can find another school.  And I'm of a different thinking.  I get the feeling he thinks she's just going to buck up at the last minute, but I don't want to wait til the last minute to see.  Does that make sense?  He's aggravating me to the nines, and I'm probably doing the same thing to him.  What's one of the top things couples argue about?  Yeah, the kiddos.

Wish me luck.  I'm going to need it.  And no matter how many fits and pleas I'm greeted with, I'm standing firm on this.  I HAVE to.  Leaving school is not an option for her, nor is spending the next two years bombing out.

posted by: athenawj at 07:47 | link | comments (2) |

Someone I used to know twenty-three years ago tracked me down via Myspace and wrote to me.  A girl (woman now) that I was friends with when I lived in Florida.  Weird, huh?  The magic of the internet.  The only downside is that she's from a period of my life when I was a completely bitchy, self-entitled, problematic teenager, and I don't like thinking back to that period of my life, mainly because I haven't totally forgiven myself for the way I was (and certain other people haven't completely, either, which is probably why *I* can't).  But I can't hold that against her.

***

Spring has sprung around here, and I'm almost done planting.  I've got my burgeoning perennial garden that I can see out the living room door, which I'll surround with zinnia seeds.  I've got perennial grasses that I'm putting around the birdbath this morning.  My coleus, marigolds, petunias, caladium, and geraniums are in place, and I'm itching for my black elephant ears to come up.  The herbs are potted, the azalea is blooming, and my three-year-old hydrangea looks healthy (bloom already, dammit!).  I have lots of pretty to look at, but oh, it's tuckering getting it that way. :)

posted by: athenawj at 07:35 | link | comments (2) |
gardening, memories