On My Own Again...

Well, I'm not really on my own since Mr. V is here, BUT my mother is gone and that makes my life a whole lot easier! As much as I was happy to see my mom, I was equally as happy to drive her to the airport and say goodbye to her.

My mother and I have never gotten along wonderfully. We butt heads about many, many things and she is still trying to raise me, even though I am almost 28 years old and have lived on my own since I was 18. For some reason, even though I've been living on my own for 10 years (in all fairness, 4 of those years were spent at college so I did go back to my mom's house in the summer), she STILL has some issues accepting the fact that I am capable of surviving on my own. I'm really wondering when she'll learn that I'm not going to fail at life the way she thinks I will. I can't even tell you the number of times she has told me to do something, or not do something, and then explained to me that I'll never survive in life if I don't listen to her. However, its amazing to me that she claims that I do so many things wrong, yet somehow I actually have managed to survive on my own for several years without any major problems.

Here are some examples of conversations that took place while my mom was visiting. Her words are as close to the originals as I can remember. My words are probably going to border on complete disrespect and sarcasm, but after several days of this, I lost my cool completely. I tried my hardest to be nice in response to her criticisms, but in the end, I did get a bit sarcastic with her in return.

Mom: Mr. V is really good to you.
Brooklet: Yes he is.
Mom: Well...don't you understand that he's really good to you?
Brooklet: Uhh yes. I do understand.
Mom: You should consider yourself lucky that you have someone who does everything for you.
Brooklet: He doesn't do EVERYTHING for me. I am capable of doing things on my own.
Mom: Well I see him doing a lot of things for you.
Brooklet: He does do a lot for me. But that in no way indicates that I don't do anything on my own.
Mom: (with complete bitterness in her voice) Well..I see that he does a lot for you and you need to appreciate that.
Brooke: Oh my God. I do appreciate it. What is your point?
Mom: Just that you're lucky that you have someone to take care of you. I'd hate to see what you'd be like without him.
Brooklet: Thats great mom. I lived for several years without him...remember that?

This next conversation is partly my fault. I haven't written all of our wedding thank you notes yet because I can't find my list of gifts. We got married in June 2008, and moved in July. We did a full DITY move (do it yourself move for the non-military people reading this), and between packing, finding a home, and leaving a home, we planned on writing thank yous once we got to Washington. Somewhere in the move, our notebook with our list got lost and I have been frantically searching for it since we got here and haven't had luck yet. I am very well aware of the fact that I need to get these thank you notes out, but at the same time, I am not sure what to do because I can't find the list. All I can promise is that the moment I find the list, people will be properly thanked, and given an apology for the lateness of my note. My mom isn't ok with this. We have spent MONTHS arguing about this.

Mom: You still haven't written your thank you notes.
Brooklet: No I haven't. I still can't find my list of gifts.
Mom: I didn't raise you to be rude and inconsiderate.
Brooklet: No you didn't and I am not intentionally being inconsiderate. I just can't find the list. Do we have to have this conversation for the 500th time?
Mom: I don't want you making me look bad anymore.
Brooklet: How am I making you look bad?
Mom: Because you haven't written your thank you notes yet.
Brooklet: How does that make YOU look bad? I think it makes ME look bad, which isn't your problem.
Mom: Yes it is.
Brooklet: Why is it your problem?
Mom: Because I am trying to teach you to do the right thing.
Brooklet: You have taught me to do the right thing. I CAN'T FIND MY DAMN LIST!
Mom: Well you need to stop making me look bad. I am tired of trying to raise you and you not listening to me.
Brooklet: I hate to break this to you, but you've already raised me. You are not STILL raising me. (and yes, I do understand that parents will always be parents, but my mom tends to treat me like I'm 10...all the time.)


Mom: I want to clean out your car.
Brooket: Please don't clean out my car.
Mom: But I want to.
Brooklet: Ok. well I DON'T want you to.
Mom: Well I came out here to help you.
Brooklet: I thought you came out here to see me.
Mom: I did. But I also want to help you.
Brooklet: Ok. Then if you want to help me, then let me tell you what I need help with.
Mom: You need help with your car.
Brooklet: Actually I am more concerned about getting my house put in order.
Mom: OK I'll help you with that. Then I'll clean out your car.
Brooklet: (starting to get mad) Please DO NOT clean out my car.
Mom: I don't care. Your car irritates me. I'm cleaning it out.
Brooklet: No you are NOT going to clean it out. It may be messy but I know whats in there and I don't want my stuff touched or moved around.
(This goes on for about 10 more minutes)
Mom: Fine. I won't touch your car.
The next day I woke up at 8:30 to my mom saying "I cleaned out your car. Do something with all of this crap." I then saw a pile of papers and stuff on the table. In the papers were my registration and insurance card which I obviously need to keep IN the car. When I got mad and asked her why she didn't listen to me, she told me that I'm not HER mother so she doesn't have to listen to me.

The next conversation which I'm not going write all out was the exact same thing as the car, except this time it was about my garage. After repeatedly asking her to NOT touch any of the boxes in my garage, I woke up one morning to find her opening boxes, unpacking them, and placing things around the house where SHE thought they should go. Then she yelled at me for not being completely unpacked. Then she told me I have too much stuff. Then she told me that she was exhausted from helping me. To which I replied "Its not my fault you got up at 5am to do things that I asked you over and over NOT to do."

My next problem with her involved my cats. I have 9 cats. I am very well aware of the fact that not everyone likes cats. I am VERY well aware of the fact that my mom hates cats. When she first told me she was coming out here, I told her that was fine. I also told her that she could stay at my house if she didn't criticize my life. If she was going to have a problem with the way I lived then she could stay at a hotel. She agreed to this. She agreed to this KNOWING that I have 9 cats. I promised her that I had our guest room closed off and that no cats went in there, but they had free reign of the rest of the house. She said that was fine.

Mom: There's a cat on the couch.
Brooklet: Yes there is.
Mom: I can't sit on the couch.
Brooklet: Why not?
Mom: Because there's a cat on it. It needs to move.
Brooklet: Then move him.
Mom: I'm not touching that...thing!
Brooklet: Well I'm not moving him. I already told you that they had free reign of the house and you said that was fine. Go sit on the chair instead.
Mom: I can't sit on the chair.
Brooklet: Why not?
Mom: There's cat hair on it.
Brooklet: Actually, there's not, since 30 minutes ago you insisted on vacuuming up all of the cat hair around the house. You vacuumed the chair. Therefore the chair is clean. Sit on the damn chair.
Mom: I just can't. This just creeps me out. Ugh I can't do this.
Brooklet: Then please go stay in a hotel.
Mom: I don't have extra money to spend on a hotel.
Brooklet: Well you should have thought of that when you agreed to stay in a house with cats.
Mom: *gets mad, stomps into the guest room and locks herself in there claiming that she was too disturbed to come out of that room because the cats creep her out.*


Mom: There's a cat in the litter box.
Brooklet: Umm good. They are supposed to go in the litter box.
Mom: Thats gross.
Brooklet: Actually, its pretty gross when they DON'T use the litter box so be happy that they are doing the right thing.
Mom: How can you stand that?
Brooklet: Stand WHAT?
Mom: The cats. They are creepy and gross.
Brooklet: Obviously I don't agree with you.
Mom: But...but...the litter...they pee and poop in that.
Brooklet: Yes they do.
Mom: And then they walk around the house.
Brooklet: And if you're really observant you'll see that when they climb out of the litter box, they clean their paws and their butt.
Mom: That's disgusting.
Brooklet: Yes it IS pretty gross, but I'd rather them clean their butt and their paws instead of tracking litter and poop around the house.
Mom: But then they sit on your lap, and your couch.
Brooklet: And?
Mom: ITS GROSS! *stomps away and locks herself in the guest room again."

I want to go on and on because the conversations were endless but I realize I'm going to bore people that way. Let's just say that after she cleaned my entire house to HER standards, organized my house to HER standards, and told me over and over that she doesn't like the way I live, because SHE doesn't agree with it, I am BEYOND happy that she is gone. I am perfectly fine with letting her come out here again, but there is no way she's staying at my house again.

Edited to add: I just went back and re-read this and these conversations don't sound all that bad. Trust me though, they were. Especially when I had the EXACT SAME conversations over and over and over for an entire week.

An Almost Cat Emergency

After a fairly uneventful day, I just came about as close to a heart attack as I've ever felt before. The day started off with with an FRG bake sale at the squadron's hanger, followed by some quilting to finish my Valentine's Day project. Then I came home...

I lit a fire and was burning some papers in the fireplace when one of my cats decided to check out what I was doing. They are all semi-interested in the fireplace and we've never worried about that too much. Once they stick their heads close to the fire, the heat usually freaks them out enough that they stay a good distance away. 8 of my cats are short haired cats, but the 9th one is a Maine Coon mix. I'm not sure how to classify a Maine Coon as far as hair goes. Its not quite long haired, so maybe he's considered a medium haired. I'm not sure. All I know is that his fur is wild and fluffy and all over the place. In fact, this is what he looks like:




Notice how well the snow sticks to his crazy fur in that first picture.

So Moses hopped up onto the fire place and watched me poke at it for a while from a fairly safe distance. He was on the hearth, but he was being good and just looking at the fire. THEN he decided to turn around to face me. In the process of turning around, his big fluffy tail went INTO the fireplace and INTO the fire!! I screamed as soon as I saw his tail touch the fire. Now, if you know Moses, screaming is a bad, bad idea because he has the tendency to spaz out psychotically when he is scared. Once he walked into a plastic bag, got it stuck on his head and he ran around the house for a few minutes at what seemed like 500 miles an hour, with the plastic bag trailing behind him like a superman cape. We couldn't help him get out of it because he was freaking out so badly.

So anyway, I screamed. Bad idea. Moses freaked out like he did with the plastic bag. I'm not usually a quick person when reflexes are involved, yet somehow I must have also been freaked out enough to grab him in a split second and stop him from running around the house with his tail on fire. Thankfully only a VERY small portion of fur on his tail was burning and I quickly put it out with my hand (I was too freaked out to think about that being a bad idea). Thankfully my hand only stung a bit and I was fine. The burned fur fell right off and I'm pretty sure that the stupid cat had no idea that his tail was even burning! The only thing he was scared about was the fact that I screamed!

So basically, I had this image in my head of Moses running around the house like he did when he got stuck in the plastic bag. In the process his tail would continue to burn and he would spread the fire around the house too. So I am thankful to say that I just managed to avoid losing my house to a fire started by a cat, and I saved Moses and myself from a trip to Mt. Vernon to see the emergency vet.

If anyone ever tells me that life with cats is boring, I will have to vehemently disagree.

New Quilting Project

I am just about to finish up a new quilting project (even though my first quilt isn't quite finished yet) so I thought I'd post a picture of it here. My friend and I took the original quilting class together, and have been going into the quilt store quite often to work on our quilts. My friend told the teacher that she was interested in doing a Valentine's Day project so the teacher came up with a class to make a pretty heart wall hanging. The entire thing ended up being about 2 feet by 2 feet. Its a curved piecing project which I thought would be hard since I had only done straight lines up until now. It ended up not being hard, but it IS time consuming and it takes a little more concentration to make sure your curved lines line up straight. Its hard to see in this picture, but the entire project is actually made up of 10 rows of 10 small squares. Each heart is pieced together with 10 squares each (some of them overlap into other hearts) and in the end this is the result:

I still have to finish quilting it, which will involve outlining the hearts and putting a backing onto it, but I finished up the top piece tonight and I'm quite excited about it :-).

Mr. V actually picked out the fabric for me while I was having my surgery, and I'm pretty impressed with his choices. I like the way the colors accent each other, and I love the purple background. Its purple paisley (I love paisley), so I think he did a good job considering the fact that he wasn't all that thrilled to go pick out pink fabric for me :-).

I'll post the finished project when I make it back to the quilt shop to do the actual quilting part.

Babysitting Rant - Is this finally the end?

If you know me well, then you know that I am NOT a confrontational person. I am barely capable of picking up the phone and ordering a pizza without freaking out first. Well, I just emailed Crazy Woman and told her that I am not babysitting for her anymore. I know I probably should have called her, but she tends to talk her way out of things and into getting her way. I have enough of a phone phobia as it is, so I know I would be a blubbering mess if she started to beg and trip me up somehow.

Basically, I told her that I am not healing as quickly as I thought I would, and therefore have no idea when I will be able to go back to work. I told her that she should ask the girl who is working for her now if she can stay on (although I know this girl, and I know she isn't going to), or start to look for someone else because I can't be a reliable sitter right now.

I am hoping that she'll take this well because I really don't feel like dealing with her. The worst part is that most of what I told her isn't even a lie. I AM healing slower than I thought I would. I still have bad swelling and pain, and I still have 2 black eyes (although they are starting to go away).I can't touch my nose without it hurting and yesterday I was rubbing my eye, and rubbed too close to my nose and ended up in excruciating pain because I rubbed my nose WAY too hard. Even if I liked this job and even if she paid me well, I still wouldn't go back anytime soon because my face is just still too sensitive. One day when I was babysitting, the little girl was playing dress up and she was pretending to put makeup on me. Seems harmless right? But its not. I can't have a 2 year old rubbing my face and tapping it and playing with it - no matter how gentle she is. I also can't lift her up. I went out bowling with some friends this past Saturday and I thought I would be fine. I picked a light 8 pound ball and started bowling. It took 4 times of throwing (rolling?) that ball for me to feel pain in my face again. It was just a stretching, painful feeling, so before I did any severe damage, I sat down and let Mr. V finish bowling for me, and then sat out of the second game.

So my point is, technically I should be going back to work for this lady next Wednesday and I don't think that can happen regardless of my distaste for her.

Just wish me luck, that I don't have to talk to her about this for a long time. My fingers are crossed that she will just read my email, say "ok" and go find someone else to work for her.

Friendship or Necessity?

My husband's squadron has an active Officer Spouse's Club. They also have an inactive FRG (Family Readiness Group) that is in the process of starting up again. The Officer Spouse's Club is obviously for spouses of officers. The FRG is open to all spouses of all ranks. Mr. V is an officer which gave me immediate membership into the OSC. When we first relocated here, one of the first things that happened was when he was checking in. There was the instant question of "Are you married?" followed immediately by "What's your wife's contact info?" Within 1 day of that conversation, my inbox became flooded with emails from the OSC. Its basically like an immediate acceptance into a special club. Its also an automatic assumption that I actually want to be part of that special club. And that's where my mixed feelings come into play. On one hand, I love the fact that I have the opportunity to meet new people in a new place. On the other hand, I have met a lot of new people here and many of them have nothing to do with the OSC or even the same squadron, or even the military in general.

I am a person who chooses to be friends with someone because I like them. I have never been a cliquey person and I can't stand people that are. I don't like the idea that some people like me because they are supposed to. Take the OSC for example. I've been to 2 events so far. Every single person was super nice and super sweet to me. However, I can tell that in any other situation, I wouldn't be friends with a lot of these ladies. That is not to say that I don't like them, or anything is wrong with them. I just mean that I can already tell I have nothing in common with them and if we should meet on the street, we probably wouldn't give each other a second glance. On a positive note, I did meet a few ladies that I have a lot in common with and really enjoy hanging out with. Its a weird situation to me.

When I was living in Corpus Christi I became friends with a girl there. She wasn't there for long, but in the time that I knew her she was very intent on making sure that we hung out a lot. She was also very intent on making sure that every new student pilot's wife was her friend. If you questioned her about it she would say "We have to invite *insert name* to go out with us. Her husband is in flight school too." It never came across as "Lets invite her because I think she seems cool." It was all based on the status of where our husbands or fiances were at that point in time. I never had any issues personally with this particular girl, but I do often wonder if she would have paid any attention to me if my fiance wasn't in flight school at the time.

I find the military rank structure/chain of command pretty annoying. I understand that its serves its purpose and different people have different jobs and different training. I also understand why fraternization is frowned upon between military members of drastically different ranks. What I don't understand is why some wives decide that they wear their husband's rank.

I guess my point is, I can't stand these people who want to be my friend because I have immediate acceptance in the Officer Spouse's Club. I want to be friends with people that I enjoy spending time with and people that I like as people. A few of those fall into the OSC category, but a lot of them don't. One of my best friend's here is married to a guy who is a much lower rank than Mr. V. But as I just wrote that, I realized I don't even know what his rank is, although I know she's told me before. I just simply don't care.

I have been talking to the girl who is playing a large role in getting the FRG up and running. She offered me the position of secretary and I think I am going to take it (assuming that the rest of the FRG is ok with that). After meeting with her and discussing things that the FRG might particpate in, I am getting really excited about the first meeting on Wednesday.

I'm not sure what my actual point here is. I guess I just find myself in a lifestyle that is not one I would have chosen for myself. Don't get me wrong - I love my husband and I'm happy with this lifestyle in that aspect, but stupid things just really annoy me. My dad, 2 uncles, and grandfathers were all enlisted in some form of the Armed Forces. My mother has told me a story several times over the years about her experience with this "hierarchy" of sorts. When she and my father lived in Texas during my dad's Air Force days, she ran into an old college friend of hers on the same base. After saying hi and catching up with each other, this "friend" asked my mom what her husband did. When she found out that my dad was just a "lowly" enlisted guy, she told my mother flat out that she couldn't talk to her or hang out with her again, because she was married to an officer. That story always horrified me a bit. Not only because I don't think that way, but because thats just plain rude! When I met my husband my mom told me that story again and made me swear over and over that I would never treat anyone the way she was treated by her old "friend". I have no intentions of ever doing that. Now, if you make me angry, or do something bad to me, then I may be a little nasty to you in return. But I promise, that will only stem from whatever incident caused me to be mad at you in the first place :-).

So I guess what I am trying to say is, why can't people just be friends with people because they like the person? Its almost like the ladies in the OSC have to be my friend because its necessary, not because they want to be.

This weekend will be a perfect example. A few crews from my husband's squadron (my husband included) are in Japan for a few weeks. I received an email this morning from the wife of the squadron's CO. She sent it out to only officer wives. She wants to get together with everyone who's husband is currently gone for dinner. But when you really think about it, why did she only invite officer wives? P3 crews are fairly large and there are a lot of other wives out there who also have husbands in Japan right now. Aren't our husband's all in the same place? So if one group of ladies wants to get together for some ladies night fun, why can't everyone be included?

Maybe I am overreacting to this and over thinking everything. All I know is that I am REALLY looking forward to the first FRG meeting on Wednesday. Once that gets started up, then anyone can be friends with anyone in it, and I do hope that the people who participate will be more like me in the way they think.

Honest Scrap Award

I've discovered that blogging is a great way to waste time :-). My friend Mugs chose my blog for this little award, so now I'm passing it on to others. (I just did a 25 things about me blog, so I'll attempt to come up with some new interesting info, but we'll see :-))


The Rules:

1. Choose a minimum of 5 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
2. Show the 5 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Scrap.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

Ten Honest Things About Me

1. I hate cheese. White cheese to be exact. I will eat cheddar cheese and American cheese, but no swiss, mozzarella, parmesan , etc. I do like ricotta cheese though and will eat pasta with nothing but ricotta cheese on it (a family favorite). I am half Italian, so my lack of enthusiam about cheese has always disappointed the Italian side of my family. I do like pizza though, but I have to take the cheese off of it. It can't be cheese-less pizza because the cheese gives it a nice greasy taste, which is why I have to get it with cheese, and then pull the cheese off.

2. I am addicted to American Idol and will revolve my life around the show during each season. I don't even like half of the people on it normally, but I can't stop watching it.

3. I can't touch raw meat. It makes me want to throw up. The easiest thing I can do is brown ground beef, as long as someone else puts it into the pan for me. One of my favorite meals is chicken coated with Ritz crackers, but the chicken has to be cut up into nugget sizes. I already told Mr. V that when he is deployed, he has to cut up some chicken first, and freeze it for me so I can make my favorite meal without vomiting.

4. I enjoy doing laundry, but not in this house. The washing machine is in our garage and its cold here. It takes some preparation for me to even work up the enthusiasm to go into our garage.

5. I grew up on the Jersey Shore, but I don't really like the beach. Maybe its because I grew up on the beach so its not that exciting. Or maybe its the fact that I don't like swimming in water that has scary creatures in it and unpredictable tides and currents. I don't like lakes either though. Give me a pool and I'll be happy.

6. I can quote you hundreds of different facts about salt water taffy (for example, there's not really salt water in it) and chocolate. My uncle owns a candy store on the boardwalk on the same beach that I grew up on. The store has been there for over 50 years and people come from all over the country to buy the homemade taffy. Its one of the few places on the east coast that still uses the old fashioned taffy machines. I worked there for 5 years, and grew up eating the candy there. I know facts about candy that most people would never even think about. (while you're at it, feel free to order some candy - they ship worldwide! Berkeley Sweet Shop)

7. I went from having no cats, to 1 cat, to 9 cats in 3 years. Clearly I am on my way to crazy old cat lady status.

8. I hate talking on the phone - it scares me. I have no idea why, but text messages are wonderful :-).

9. I am an only child and will fully admit that I suffer from a bad case of "Only Child Syndrome". I need my alone time. I hate being smothered. I hate being around people 24/7. And if you touch my stuff or move my stuff around - then we will have a problem!

10. I have over 300 different rabbits in my house. Stuffed animals, figurines, decorations, etc. I started the collection when I got my first rabbit at 4 years old. When I was 8 years old the collection had grown so much that I displayed it in the town library. While thats not super exciting, the local newspaper found it to be the best display of a collection that the library ever had and I had a newspaper article written about me and my rabbit collection!

I don't even know if I know of 5 blogs to nominate but here goes: I am passing the Honest Scrap award on and nominating: Moose Munch, Notes From Niger, A Glance Inside the Randomness That is My Life, and Sleepy In Seattle (OK thats only 4. I read some others but don't have the nerve to let random people know that I am stalking them just yet.)

The Joy of Freecycle

If you've never heard of Freecycle before, then I encourage you to check it out: FreeCycle

The original purpose of Freecycle was to prevent things from filling up landfills. Someone came up with the idea that if you have something that you can't REcycle, then you can FREEcycle it. Someone's trash is another person's treasure, right?

I've been a member of Freecycle in the various different cities I have lived in. Its a great way to get rid of stuff that you know you can't sell, but you also don't want to throw away, and occasionally you come across a good find for yourself. You can also post "wanted" ads. Its often hard to receive items from Freecycle if its an active group in your city. Each different city has different rules, so it will vary. For example, in Jacksonville, FL you were not allowed to post "curb alerts" (i.e. free stuff at the end of my driveway), but here in Whidbey curb alerts are quite common, probably due to the fact that its a military town and people move fairly quickly.

I've gotten rid of several things on Freecycle in the past. You would be surprised at the kind of things people will take from you! Some of the stuff I've gotten rid of has been good stuff (i.e. clothes that I just don't wear anymore, an end table that didn't fit into our moving truck) and other things have been broken, yet people still take them. I had a TV that was completely dead, yet I had several people inquire about it and 1 person picked it up fairly quickly. I guess he liked fixing broken TVs. Other people have gotten rid of some crazy random things and there always seems to be someone out there who wants it.

I check the local group here frequently to see if I can find anything useful and today I hit the jackpot! My experience today is what inspired this post and it honestly makes me want to become a more giving person. Tomorrow I may go through my own stuff to Freecycle.

Today someone was giving away an almost full container of kitty litter. With 9 cats in the house, we go through litter like you wouldn't believe. Same with food. Any time someone posts something for cats on there I attempt to be the first to respond. I've gotten a scratching post and some toys this way in the past. Anyway, I contacted this lady about the litter and she told me to come pick it up. When I got to her house she gave me a huge 35 pound container of litter which is like a Godsend in this household. Then she proceded to dig through her garage and found a jungle gym type thing. She told me her cats were all over the age of 15 and they don't really play anymore so if I wanted this, I could have it. Of course I said yes. I left her house and went home pretty content with my findings.

Then, throughout the evening, I have received several emails from this lady. Apparently, she continued to clean out her garage and she has now offered me a tunnel thing thats brand new, a bag full of toys complete with this electronic one thats actually pretty expensive, and a litter mate (diaper genie for cats). The last email I got told me that if I can be patient she is sure she'll dig more stuff out for me.

I'm actually a little overwhelmed. Mr. V and I struggle sometimes with all of these cats because the cost of their care gets pretty high. Anytime anyone offers us anything for the cats we gladly take it and we are very thankful for it. I was beyond thrilled today that I got an entire container of litter for free, and now I'm just amazed at the amount of stuff she's pulling out for me.

I realize this may not be exciting to some people, but I am ecstatic! This lady is going to give me what will amount to more than $100 worth of items (maybe more, but thats what I calculated in my head based on what she already told me she has). She doesn't even know me. I'm just some random person who contacted her because I wanted her free kitty litter. I guess sometimes I am surprised at the generosity of some people. I wish that wasn't so surprising, but it is. Today, I'm very thankful for a stranger who is going to save me $100 in cat products (most of this stuff she is giving me is almost brand new too). I almost feel guilty taking the stuff, but I guess she is eager to get rid of it.

I guess the point to this post is that I'm shocked that there are still some nice, kind random strangers out there and I was lucky enough to find one today. It really has inspired me, and tomorrow I really am going to dig through my own stuff. Maybe I can help someone out too, or at least make them happy with something that I don't want or need anymore.