A Tale of Two Kitties

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the weekend of sunshine, it was the weekend of rain; it was a night at the movies, it was a night of a speeding ticket.

I remember the stupid quote, but not the punctuation. I want to write that out as one long string of a sentence, but I suspect I’d be dead wrong if I did it that way. I probably should have saved the title for when I really do have a story about two of my cats; there are no cats in the current edition of Palimpsest’s Parchment.

Sunday I cleared my mind as I cleared my garden. There’s already been too much said on that topic.

Saturday I got my hair trimmed and colored again. I like this six-week cycle routine I’ve fallen into. I’ve gone from someone who got her hair cut when people told her she was starting to look like the before pictures in those before/after makeovers to somebody who looks like she at least tries. I spoke with my stylist, and next time I’m going to get a perm as well as my color touched up. I have to wear headgear on my job, and I end up with terminal helmet-head because of it. I’m hoping maybe a perm will help resolve this.

Saturday The Socialist and I went out to the movies. We saw Veronica Guerin with Kate Blanchett, which I had heard very little about. I was very impressed with Blanchett’s performance, and with the movie itself. The temptation to make melodrama of the story must have been strong, but Joel Schumacher pretty much stuck to a black and white portrayal of events. I’ve read a few reviews that complain that the movie didn’t get into the “whys” of what made the characters do what they did, but that didn’t bother me much. It set me free to decide for myself why the good-guys were good and the bad-guys were bad. And any movie that makes someone think is a good movie, in my books.

The movie was good, but the trip home was a bummer. Without getting into details (not that there are many anyhow),The Socialist got nailed for a speeding ticket on the way home. A rather big speeding ticket, I might add. Now it’s not his first ticket for speeding, but it’s the first he’s had in a long time. His record is clean. We were unfortunate enough to get a cop who doesn’t believe in knocking a few miles-per-hour off the ticket for someone who comes up clean on a license check. We were on a stretch of road where people routinely go ten miles an hour over the speed limit when traffic is dense, and faster when traffic is sparse. Let’s just say that traffic was real sparse Saturday night.

For some reason, the policeman who pulled us over kept trying to impress on us that, since we were residents of the borough where we were pulled over, The Socialist could go to appeal at the local court. I’m not sure if he was playing quiz show host and giving a broad hint that it might work out if The Socialist took this to the local judge, or if it was just that the guy’s been admonished because he keeps forgetting to tell speeders this, and is going out of his way to make sure that his victims understand their rights. The Socialist is going to check into getting the points reduced, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I fear he’s going to take a big hit on his insurance if all the points get assigned to him.

Problems in other areas of my department continue to mount at work, and hanging around with my compatriots is a bit like going to a viewing right now. I got a letter the end of September from USDA asking if I would be interested in applying for any openings they might have. Most of the jobs they have open I wouldn’t be particularly interested in, but a few pique my interest. I just wish I were in a position to move right now. USDA jobs within current commuting distance are rather rare.

I got my flu shot today. I was hoping that, since I’m immunosuppressed, I’d have less of a knot in my arm after the shot. The injection site is every bit as painful as flu shots have ever been though. It doesn’t look like there are any advantages to this immunosuppressed business.

Except keeping my liver, of course.