A milestone -- or two

Friday marked the 500th day of my Day Zero (aka 101 things in 1001 days) project and the day before that was my birthday.  Seems like a good time for reflection.

Day Zero is coming along well.  I'm working away at some of the larger projects and have completed many others.  The sole remaining goal under Legal/Financial is to make a will, which I want to accomplish before the end of the year.  The items that have a price tag, particularly travel, are the ones that linger, quite expectedly.  I have discovered that some other things aren't really important, or I've changed my mind entirely.  I'm going to give myself a "do-over" to make a few revisions to the List in the next few days.

It's true that I'm a list-maker and find satisfaction in checking off the individual tasks.  But the larger goal of the List was to help me focus on making a future by figuring out some of the actions I could take that would put me on the path to being a now-single, more-than-middle-aged woman with an almost empty nest.   I wanted to identify activities I enjoy and encourage myself to do them, to think of others that I've wanted to do and push myself to try them, to take concrete action to make my new house into a welcoming place of comfort and peace for my children, my friends, and -- most of all -- me.   Progress is being made on all these mini-goals, I think. 

Adjusting to my life as a single person, living alone, has been something of a challenge.  I don't lack for things to do (quilt, read, watch movies on DVD, etc.) and I generally enjoy my own company.  But it's easy to slip into the habit of withdrawing from people and outside-the-house activities.   Given my newfound free time, it would have been easy to over-commit, but I have been careful not to do so.   However, there are times when my solitude slips into loneliness. 

The addition of Sassy and Smidgen to the household has infused a giant portion of joy into my life, a feeling that has been rare for a couple of years now.    I am enjoying their presence and their affection so much I talk about them, even at the risk of being thought a "crazy cat lady".   And they are one more step in creating a new life, linked to, but separate from the one I had a few short years ago, which I never expected would end as it did.   Another step forward.

Progress report: month 16 (October 2011)

In October, I said good-bye to our old orange tom, Mustard, and hello to two new tortie kittens, Sassy and Smidgen.  The month went out like a lion (even if it wasn't March), with a freak snowstorm that took out trees and power lines all over the Northeast from Maine to Virginia.   On to the countdown:

Completed:
  8. Set up bookcases in living room.
10. Deal with vintage clothes (donated most to MC Theatre Dept.)
29. Get divorced... (found out I've been divorced since late June!)
74. Make quilt for sponsored child from ChildFund (9th birthday was 10/21)

Progress:
7, 26, 28. Kept up-to-date.
33. Went to gym (mostly) 3 times a week.
44. Attended Family Weekend at M.C. (2nd)
48. Watched 4 movies:
      Secret life of bees
      Square dance
      Pleasantville
      Then she found me
49. Read 5 books  (49/60,32/30,14/10) [2 YA, counted as 1]
      The Liars' Club (Mary Karr)
      A Confederacy of dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
      Surviving the Angel of Death (Eve Kor & Lisa Buccieri -- YA)
      To be a slave (Julius Lester -- YA)
      Snow Flower and the secret fan (Lisa See)
61. Booked plane & car, reserved hotel for trip to Paducah in April 2012.
75. Finished cutting 2 out of 3 boxes of scrap fabric
84. Extra contribution to LCFS for veterans' activity; began higher to St. Paul's
92. Wrote letter to CF sponsored child.
99. Updated blog post with progress (16 out of 16)
101. Three blog posts:
        W.I.F. (What I've finished)
        Good-bye to my handsome guy
        A Tale of two kitties
Extra quilts: two more for hospice (9-patch and tube)
                  [photos to come]

November priorities:
6. Get back to working in basement.
9. Sort more & get rid of more books.
12. More small things around house.
70. Make 3rd curtain for D#2's room.
75. Cut last box of scrap fabric.
Finish extra quilts: baby, grad gift, B&SS (scrap)

A Tale of Two Kitties

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Best: there are two new kittens in my house. Worst: we lost two long-time feline family members in 2011.   I was left with a single cat for the first time in ... well, let's just say "decades".   And, having been adopted into a home where two cats already lived, Tabbitha had never before been an "only" so she wandered around the house, lost and confused.  

As I've been staff (dogs have owners but cats have staff) to at least one cat since I was 20, I know that loss is inevitable.  I also know that (un)fortunately, there are almost always many eligible animals "out there" when the time feels right to seek another. Since each fur-kid has a unique personality and cannot be replaced, I had always let more time lapse between losing and adopting, but the emptiness of the house (and Tabbitha's neediness) nagged at me.  Consequently, I spent WAY more time than I should have perusing the websites of the local SPCAs, the listings of other cat/pet rescue groups, or postings from individuals with adoptable kittens.   I knew "kitten" was the only way to go, so that Tabbitha would more readily accept the newcomer(s).   Of course, I started out thinking "kitten" -- singular.  Little did I know...

My daughters and I agreed that another all black or orange tabby would not be the best choice, as our memories of Charcoal and Mustard are too fresh and comparison would be inevitable.  I've always had a soft spot for tortoise-shell cats, but was also open to black & white or gray & white (tuxedo or otherwise).

As I was plotting out a Saturday trek through three counties to look at kittens in several shelters, I discovered a listing for a home in Fort Washington where a litter that included two torti sisters was being fostered.   Excitedly, I made an appointment to go see them the next night and forwarded the photos to my daughters.  Unhappily, the next day, the foster "mom" emailed that someone else had come the night before and decided to take both of them.  I was so-o-o-o disappointed that I hadn't even gotten to see them!   But, as fate would have it, the day after, another email arrived informing me that the original adoption plan had fallen through and they were still available!   I was THERE that evening, and, even before I saw them, I began to think of the reasons to take the pair.

So ten days ago, I took the tiny cat carrier -- big enough for both of them -- and brought them home to stay.  They are easy to tell apart.  One has a streak of orange on her face, as well as a small spot on her neck and on a couple of paws. She's adventurous and brave, usually the leader of the scouting party when they decide to explore some heretofore unknown area of the house.   And she has the typical torti-attitude.  Hence her moniker: Sassy.

The other is the tiniest one of the litter -- visibly smaller than her sister -- and is a totally brindled-torti, with just a splash of orange on one paw.  Her eyes are rimmed with lighter fur giving her the wide-eyed look of a reverse raccoon!   Since she's such a mite of a thing, she has been named "Smidgen." She looks so innocent, but don't believe it for a minute as she's always right behind her sister in their expeditions around the house.

We're having a good time getting to know one another.  Tabbitha is mostly unimpressed, while they are a little wary of the large fluffy one.

They have begun to "sleep" with me.  If you can call racing around chasing each other, pouncing any time my legs moved under the covers, crawling under the quilt to box with each other (and tickle me in the process),  using me as an obstacle course, and playing "Queen of the Hill" with me as the hill, "sleeping".  But eventually, they settle and, if  I wake up at night, I find them curled up side-by-side, in the crook of my arm.  Fingers crossed that I get at least a part-time lap cat eventually.