It's just stupid. Six months ago, we did a report that I thought was inadequate, but no one came back on it. Now we're doing the same report again, but now my colleague is afraid it's inadequate this time. No one will come back on it! Let it go!

Whatever, it's fine. I'm mostly annoyed at myself for leaving it until the last minute.

Also, apparently some of the timed-release claratin I took this morning must have just kicked in, because I'm independently jittery all of a sudden.

I've been thinking a lot about one friend who was there the night I got Pico. The last I heard of him was about 6 years ago, and he was in Dallas. He's a total non-communicator, so I just gave up in trying to keep in touch with him. But since Pico died, I just can't shake him from my mind. I've even dreamed about him twice. (The funny thing about associating him with a cat? He once told me that people who loved animals were "weak minded". Yeah, he's a ball of charm. But at the same time, he still insists on calling Pico his original name, Queequeg.) Today, I get home and there's a message from him, and he's in town. I am kind of freaking, in a good way.

I am a big ball of nerves. I want to do something distracting, but I can't do anything that would take me away from e-mail or the telephone too long.

I want to do something distracting, but I can't do anything that would take me away from e-mail or the telephone too long.

Watch the Avatar finale again.

Watch the Avatar finale again.

Good call!

Pete -it's amazing how many Seattle nurseries have websites and yet - don't list the plants that they carry. I guess stock can change so quickly. But I would suspect that houseplant season is year round. Sky Nursery which is in Shoreline (don't know where that is) has a nice list of good air cleaning houseplants:

Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea erumpens
Corn Plant (Dracaena marginata; D. deremensis ‘Warneckii’ and ‘Janet Craig’)
English Ivy (Hedera helix)
Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
Golden Pothos (Epipremnum pinnatum ‘Aureum’)
Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)
Snake Plant (Sansevieria)

I would just check out a local garden center in your neighborhood and see what they have. I don't think that aspidistra is that rare, although you're more likely to find pothso or ivy at the local grocery store.

So cute--Kitty vs. Fan!

Okay, now you done just made me cry, as I came in here to freak out about my cat being missing for two days, which she's never done in her life (except for that first month where she fell asleep in some nook in the basement and didn't re-emerge, all blinky and yawning two days later, all "what?").

And now I feel horrible that my possible last memory of her is being scooting her butt unceremoniously out the door because she wouldn't make up her mind and I had to get to work.

And she's never gone further than the bushes in front of the apartment, AFAIK, and I walked both apartment complexes shaking her tin of snicky snacks, chewing gum while chain-smoking cuz she's knows the scent, checked all the basements and laundry rooms and wells and even the dumpsters to see if there was a fly-ridden body.

A sweet little boy helped me look and showed me the always-open basements in the other buildings and the ones with the smashed windows and suggested open manhole covers and poisoning by neighbors.

Tomorrow is the suburban neighborhood next door in addition to posters.

I'm torn between a hopeful but agonizingly painful "she's just punishing me and she'll show up in a couple of days" and just starting the grieving process now, which just feels like a horrible betrayal. Either way I'm a complete fucking mess and have resisted taking off of work to look because I don't want to cry all day thinking about her.

How the heck can people have kids if I'm hysterical over a cat? Granted, I bottle fed her, but, still, a cat? I think I'd drop dead on the spot if I had a child gone missing.

Should I also check local vets in case someone picked her up?

{{{juliebird}}} God, that's tough.

Should I also check local vets in case someone picked her up?

I think that's a good idea, and you can also call the local shelter and let them know she's missing. But I wouldn't give up just yet - cats do this. There is every chance she's holed up somewhere nearby and will pop up at the door soon.

Hugs to you both.