Val did it, so I did too. I found out where I should live. Some of it is predictable, some of it is where I actually live, and some of it causes major wtf. Also, Oregon, is really heavily represented in this list. For real, 25% of the places where I'd be happy are in Oregon.
Check out my official list here!
1. Portland, Oregon
2. Hartford, CT
3. Worcester, MA
4. Little Rock, AK <------wtf?
5. Boston, MA
6. Baltimore, MD
7. Providence, RI
8. Medford, OR
9. Salem, OR
10. Honolulu, HI
11. Las Vegan, NE
12. Albuquerque, NM <-------- also, wtf?
13. New Haven, CT
14. Charleston, WV
15. Frederick, MD
16. Washington, D.C.
17. Eugene, OR
18. Corvallis, OR
19. Gaithersburg, MD
20. San Francisco, CA
21. San Jose, CA
22. Bend, OR
23, Danbury, CT
24. Baton Rouge, LA
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Recent happenings and an on-going study in my excessive compassion.
A recurring theme in this blog is that I am running short on hours in any given day. I've been saying since July that I'll schedule my nervous breakdown for October because I'm pretty sure I won't have time for it until then. On the plus side, I don't think I'll need a breakdown at this point, but I will definitely be looking forward to the extra time. Here's our wrap up!
1. Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened! We're having great success thus far with two more weekends to run. Baltimore OUTloud gave us a really wonderful review. It isn't online at the moment, so go grab a copy of the paper and check out their praise!
2. I did something stupid, because I have a heart. In the past week I've had two situations test the lengths of my sympathies. One turned out well (as far as I can tell, read on...) and one...well, didn't. This is the one that didn't.
I went to the doctor for my yearly check up, and on my way in a black Ford Fusion backed up into me in the garage at Mercy. A girl got out of the car, she took one look at things and burst into tears. She was about 23 or 24 years old and these weren't regular tears. They were full on panic attack crazy tears. Then she gets her infant out of the backseat, who is also crying. I tried to assure her that I wasn't mad and that we'd get it taken care of. She just kept repeating "He's going to beat me" over and over. It comes out that she doesn't have a license or insurance. She's hysterical. She tells me she just dropped her boyfriend off at the ER and went to park his car. She continues sobbing that he's going to hurt her. I asked her if she needed to look into resources for her safety and she said she couldn't and gestured to the baby. She gave me her name, phone, and email. I also took down the license plate of the car (MD plates 9DJ H21 - let me know if you see it!), which is probably the only smart thing I did that day. I let her go without calling the police.
It was stupid and I knew that. I've just researched entirely too much about domestic violence to doubt her situation. A violent boyfriend with a scratched car who is in the ER, combined with a police visit and possible arrest for driving without a license, no insurance, in a car that wasn't hers with an infant could result in the beat down of a lifetime. I saw more fear in her eyes than I've ever seen in anyone in my life.
Of course, she gave a fake email and phone number. I called when I got the estimate and reached a nice man named Wayne who has no children and no black Ford Fusion. The e-mail bounced right away. So, now, I get to report it as a hit and run and her boyfriend will get the police visit. There's still a piece of me that feels bad about calling, but I can't take on her $1200 smash. I'm reasonable. I wanted to make sure no one got hurt. I would have set up a payment plan for her. I would have worked with her to make sure that she was as far from harm as possible, but that possibility has been taken out of my hands.
I don't even know if she was telling the truth about any of it. I will report it because I have to, but it still makes me feel terrible. On to happier topics....
3. Fake Thanksgiving was a success. Recipes are forthcoming (since I'm still doing the dishes) and will be posted here for all to enjoy. I've never thrown a party for so many people but I think everyone had a good time. The food was plentiful, the company was jovial, and the cats were well-behaved. I can't ask for anything more.
And speaking of cats...
4. I rescued another one. I'm not quite ready for my episode of animal hoarders yet, but this MUST be the completion of our feline family. Having three cats doesn't make me completely obnoxious, does it? No, it doesn't. What makes me obnoxious is that my boyfriend also has three cats and someday we intend to combine homes. That is where all the ridiculous obnoxiousness comes in.
I digress.
So! On the way home from the theatre on Friday night, D'Paul and I see a little baby cat on the sidewalk and he looks like he's about to run into traffic. I panicked and said "No, baby kitty! Come here!" and crouched down and held out my hands. AND HE WALKED OVER TO ME.
This has never happened to me with a stray. Strays are notoriously fearful of me. This little dude, however, came over and heeded my warning not to run into traffic. We examined the kitty and determined that he was probably reasonably healthy, if a bit underweight. The plan was that we would take him to the MDSPCA, but it was night and they were closed. We both knew that we could not a) leave baby kitty here on the street or b) take an unknown disease carrier back to our healthy animals. So we decided to take baby kitty to the vet and get him checked out. This little guy was so easy going. He let D'Paul carry him down a city block and a half right away. D'Paul went into the building to get a carrier and little man and I waited in the vestibule.
I shit you not, within 3 minutes, our new friend had curled up in my lap for a snuggle. When D'Paul came back he looked at the kitten sleeping on me and then looked at me with a face that said "You want to keep him and love him forever, don't you."
"I want to keep him and love him forever as long as his health checks out," I said.
If D'Paul was sensible he would have been annoyed at the very least, but his secret delight made itself known when he put the carrier on the ground and teeny little cutie pie got up, walked in, and sat down with a look that said "I suppose I'm going somewhere now."
He was quiet and well behaved in the car on the way to the vet. Once there, he tested negative for feline leukemia and AIDS. He looks to be a healthy 5 or 6 month old kitten. They gave him a bath and clipped his nails. The vet tech said that the dirt just poured off of him in the bath. He has no microchip. After being out on the streets long enough to sustain the cut on his paw and leg, along with all the dirt and the malnutrition I feel no need to look for a prior owner.
He's orange. And wonderful. We got a flea treatment for him, just to be safe. He's also gotten his first round of de-wormer and vaccines. He's been using the litter box for all elimination successfully. So long as he is continuing to show signs of health we can introduce him to the other cats in two weeks, (until then he has his very own apartment in the bathroom!) and in three weeks he goes back for his next round of shots and the obligatory snip snip, or as I've been putting it "to walk away you've gotta leave something behind." Taking that little quote into consideration, along with the following, we found his name. He was found after a performance of Hedwig... between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Clearly he's Jewish.
1. Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened! We're having great success thus far with two more weekends to run. Baltimore OUTloud gave us a really wonderful review. It isn't online at the moment, so go grab a copy of the paper and check out their praise!
2. I did something stupid, because I have a heart. In the past week I've had two situations test the lengths of my sympathies. One turned out well (as far as I can tell, read on...) and one...well, didn't. This is the one that didn't.
I went to the doctor for my yearly check up, and on my way in a black Ford Fusion backed up into me in the garage at Mercy. A girl got out of the car, she took one look at things and burst into tears. She was about 23 or 24 years old and these weren't regular tears. They were full on panic attack crazy tears. Then she gets her infant out of the backseat, who is also crying. I tried to assure her that I wasn't mad and that we'd get it taken care of. She just kept repeating "He's going to beat me" over and over. It comes out that she doesn't have a license or insurance. She's hysterical. She tells me she just dropped her boyfriend off at the ER and went to park his car. She continues sobbing that he's going to hurt her. I asked her if she needed to look into resources for her safety and she said she couldn't and gestured to the baby. She gave me her name, phone, and email. I also took down the license plate of the car (MD plates 9DJ H21 - let me know if you see it!), which is probably the only smart thing I did that day. I let her go without calling the police.
 |
| This is what a $1,261 mistake looks like. |
Of course, she gave a fake email and phone number. I called when I got the estimate and reached a nice man named Wayne who has no children and no black Ford Fusion. The e-mail bounced right away. So, now, I get to report it as a hit and run and her boyfriend will get the police visit. There's still a piece of me that feels bad about calling, but I can't take on her $1200 smash. I'm reasonable. I wanted to make sure no one got hurt. I would have set up a payment plan for her. I would have worked with her to make sure that she was as far from harm as possible, but that possibility has been taken out of my hands.
I don't even know if she was telling the truth about any of it. I will report it because I have to, but it still makes me feel terrible. On to happier topics....
3. Fake Thanksgiving was a success. Recipes are forthcoming (since I'm still doing the dishes) and will be posted here for all to enjoy. I've never thrown a party for so many people but I think everyone had a good time. The food was plentiful, the company was jovial, and the cats were well-behaved. I can't ask for anything more.
And speaking of cats...
4. I rescued another one. I'm not quite ready for my episode of animal hoarders yet, but this MUST be the completion of our feline family. Having three cats doesn't make me completely obnoxious, does it? No, it doesn't. What makes me obnoxious is that my boyfriend also has three cats and someday we intend to combine homes. That is where all the ridiculous obnoxiousness comes in.
I digress.
 |
| He looks just like this. You couldn't say no. |
This has never happened to me with a stray. Strays are notoriously fearful of me. This little dude, however, came over and heeded my warning not to run into traffic. We examined the kitty and determined that he was probably reasonably healthy, if a bit underweight. The plan was that we would take him to the MDSPCA, but it was night and they were closed. We both knew that we could not a) leave baby kitty here on the street or b) take an unknown disease carrier back to our healthy animals. So we decided to take baby kitty to the vet and get him checked out. This little guy was so easy going. He let D'Paul carry him down a city block and a half right away. D'Paul went into the building to get a carrier and little man and I waited in the vestibule.
I shit you not, within 3 minutes, our new friend had curled up in my lap for a snuggle. When D'Paul came back he looked at the kitten sleeping on me and then looked at me with a face that said "You want to keep him and love him forever, don't you."
 |
| No one can keep their hands off this guy! |
If D'Paul was sensible he would have been annoyed at the very least, but his secret delight made itself known when he put the carrier on the ground and teeny little cutie pie got up, walked in, and sat down with a look that said "I suppose I'm going somewhere now."
He was quiet and well behaved in the car on the way to the vet. Once there, he tested negative for feline leukemia and AIDS. He looks to be a healthy 5 or 6 month old kitten. They gave him a bath and clipped his nails. The vet tech said that the dirt just poured off of him in the bath. He has no microchip. After being out on the streets long enough to sustain the cut on his paw and leg, along with all the dirt and the malnutrition I feel no need to look for a prior owner.
.jpg) |
| Hi! I'm handsome. |
Clearly, his name is Yitzhak.
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