Julia Barrett's World

Today was Awful…after the bird situation.

Hubby had to work at home today, so after our early morning hike, I took the dog and headed over to a coffee house to drink a double-tall-nonfact-peppermint mocha, no whip, extra foam. The dog ordered a mini-vanilla scone.

Anyway, I’m sitting there near a guy who looked neat enough. He wore faded blue jeans, a nice dark green sweater and running shoes. He was well-built, attractive, around my husband’s age and he asked me about my little laptop. Then ensued a long discussion about how I can repair my old laptop with the fried hard-drive, a computer which I much preferred. I figured he was somebody who’d made a killing in the tech industry back in the day and now he had retired early and he could sit, drinking coffee and reading library books to his heart’s content. But no…

He was in the tech industry and he was hired by a New York company two and a half years ago. He and his wife moved out East, bought a home, and all was hunky dory. Six months later, he was laid off. They managed to sell their house, but he couldn’t find another job. They moved back here, to California, moved in with his mother-in-law, and then his wife got sick with a chronic illness that is going to kill her pretty soon and they don’t have health insurance. He voted for Obama and now he’s scared to death that between looming deficits, the unemployment figures, the decrease in consumer confidence and the outsourcing of manufacturing, this country is headed to hell in a handbasket.

Yeah, no fuckin’ shit. After reading Sunday’s New York Times, I’m just as scared. I tossed and turned all night, wondering what the hell we are going to do - as a nation - and I don’t think Democrats and Republicans screaming at each other and pointing fingers is any solution. I made the mistake of listening to Tim Pawlenty on Meet the Press, a show I never watch, and all I could think was - because basically he said nothing of substance - if this guy becomes president, he’s going to make me go to church - I’m Jewish - and ask me whether I believe in God or not - and that’s none of his damn business! And didn’t that bridge fall down because his tax cuts gutted Minnesota’s infrastructure??? What is going to happen to my children and their children? Guess we’ll be moving to Costa Rica, Canada or Scotland because the tolerance factor in America is dropping precipitously.

I listen to the political pundits and instead of offering solutions to the myriad problems facing us, they dish out hatred and blame and name-calling. Gee, how constructive. While the politicos are busy insulting each other, this guy’s wife is dying because they don’t have any health insurance, two of my three kids can’t find jobs, my divorced sister and my divorced cousin - both dedicated teachers, are out of work and will probably have to move in with me, half the people living on my court are unemployed or under-employed, houses are in foreclosure - including my cousin’s. Really, America, this sucks. This fuckin’ sucks. Maybe we should just outsource our government.

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My Boys!

So this morning at 6 a.m., the patriarch of our cat clan, Ichi-ban (number one in Japanese), our Norwegian Forest Cat, woke me up by kneading my shoulder. He persisted until I finally climbed out of bed, naked as the day is long because I sleep naked, and followed him downstairs.

I keep my pajamas on the floor next to my bed in case there’s a fire or a knock on the door or God only knows what, but this morning I figured, what the hell…I’ll go downstairs, give him some tuna because that was his ESP message to me, and then get back into bed.

Down the stairs I went, pulled out a small can of tuna, flipped open the pull-tab lid, gave him a little on a plate, put the tuna into the fridge and started to head back to bed when I realized I needed to pee. As I peed in the dark, in the downstairs bathroom, I heard a commotion in the garage, like, a major commotion…like two monsters wrestling around.

Of course, being naked, I decided to check it out because I’m an idiot. I opened the door into the garage, flipped on the light, and up flew a robin into my face, followed by my cat, Rico, leaping over my head from the roof of my SUV, trying to get this robin who was determined to stay out of his reach. I couldn’t catch either one of them and I’m running around the garage like a naked maniac.

Okay…pulled my wits about me like a cloak. Number one - catch Rico. Number two, put something on. Number three, open garage door - and I almost forgot and made that number one! Number four, chase bird outside.

Finally, the bird flew into a closet and vanished behind a rolled up mattress. Rico leaped onto a crate and I grabbed him and carried him back into the laundry room, shutting his cat door and donning my husband’s windbreaker, the only thing at hand. It fell to just below my tush.

I grabbed a flashlight, went back into the garage, opened the garage door, waved to my two neighbors who looked at me like I was even more insane than usual, and headed over to the closet to find the bird. I spotted the little red-breasted guy, chased him out of the closet. He promptly bumped into the soft ceiling and landed on the floor. I went over to pick him up and this bird gave me a look that said - Oh hell no! I am not giving up without a fight. I laughed because it was such a human look from a bird! Anyway, I said to him - the garage door’s open, now’s your chance. He took off at full speed, squawking his head off. Usually birds caught by a cat look like they’ve gone into shock, but this bird was pissed as hell and he was really smart.

So…anywho, I watched him fly away, waved to the neighbors again, shut the garage door and let the cat out - he’s getting his bell back on today. Stinker!

Took off the windbreaker, climbed back into bed. My husband turned to embrace me and said, Wow, you are really cold! I said, Yup, and I told him the story. He listened and then he replied, I bet you looked really cute in my windbreaker. I would like to have seen that…I just love that man!

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