I was a strangers-commented-on-it beautiful child (though, mercifully, it was never a particular focus of my parents). I stopped being a beautiful child at about 8 when life went to hell in oh so many ways. The whole topic just sort of freaks me out now -- I mostly spend a lot of time wishing it didn't matter as much as it does.

So I had my windows open tonight and I hear a kitten crying, and both cats run off on Super Alert. I'm all JFC, universe! I am NOT READY. I may be someday, but I came home to a sympathy card from my vet (one who treated her at times wrote 'She was such a fighter and I will miss her too'), I've been plagued by kittens the past few weeks, and while I enjoy them, I don't need one. I want to enjoy just having these 2 goofballs and let their dynamic and post-alpha personalities grow.

...it was a mockingbird. They often hang out by open windows and have been known to mimic/mock my cats with meows and feline cries.

Yeah.

Now it is madly storming.

...it was a mockingbird. They often hang out by open windows and have been known to mimic/mock my cats with meows and feline cries.

That's amazing! I didn't realize they really mocked things....

Ugh, Jess. That's a hell of a week.

It is perfect outside, and hot in my apartment. Oy.

I didn't realize they really mocked things....

Back when I lived in Baltimore, one of the local mockingbirds had a dead-on impression of the whiny child next door.

I just read that Lena Horne is dead. But it's certainly not the first time I read that--it's just the most recent. Like, nothing since 2010. When she, you know, died. But maybe that was just the first time.

Bless the SO who liked the early 90's protoypical girl and liked the surly pixie cut button-downs woman and liked the neo-hippie and the circle-pit pseudo-military punk.

Maybe it's not that he likes those things; rather he just likes you.

So I passed some really small kidney stones last night. I think. I had some pain but nothing terrible. And then some blood in my urine. Then I drank 200 ounces of water in about 20 minutes. I peed a lot and it stopped before I went to bed and hasn't returned. Knock on wood.

I'm also ready to submit this monstrous portfolio which has to be done electronically. I uploaded the videos first. My first video was too long so I had to compress it and upload again. They loaded fine; I watched them online to check. Then I uploaded 4 of the remaining documents. I couldn't view them at all, multiple times, but when I downloaded them, they were there. Kristin recommended trying a new browser, so I fired up an old laptop with safari and firefox. With firefox, nothing and even worse. But then in safari I could see the docs were there. YAY.

I'm totally paranoid about this process because it costs $1250 just to submit the portfolio. That's a lot of money to waste.

WRT Scandal...I have ambivalent feels about Fitz AND Jake. I hate Mellie and I'm getting there with Cyrus (PS Cy, the good blowjob you got last week might be your last after going after James verbally). But Huck? I ♥ Huck.

We had a mockingbird who would do our neighbor's cough. That was a little unsettling, such a human sound coming from a bird, but kind of sweet once we were used to it. It was definitely our neighborhood bird, you know?

Apparently a lot more birds do imitations than I realized. The blue jays that scream like little high-pitched red-tailed hawks were a surprise to me.

There was one mockingbird that could just nail Devi's meeees. Complete with trills. It would annoy her.

Oops. My office has a moving news headline thing on a display in the lobby, and I saw an announcement that Lena Horne had died on it. Nothing about it being 3 years ago. I guess they need better inputs.

Jessica, you should get a refund for the whole blasted week.

I would love to know how the Lena Horne thing got started going back around. Is it the anniversary of her death?