LauraCatoe.com

The bridesmaiding adventure was fun; it had been too long since I road-tripped somewhere with the gals. We talked in funny voices, had our boobs measured and discussed where we were all at in our therapy sessions. Y’know, just another day with the chicas.

Speaking of therapy, Kris and I have a Don appointment this afternoon. And in such a theme, today will be “blog introspection day.”

When I began the blog in December, I wrote it much like I talk to Jaimie, cause I figured she was my one sure-fire reader. Eventually, though, I came to realize that with the site dually serving as my online portfolio, maybe I should temper things like, say, profanity. So then I attempted to make my speech and topics more generic-reader friendly, while still talking like I’d talk to my friends, since I knew that’s who was reading. I thought I had a solid readership of say, 6 people.

But twice in the last week, I heard “yeah, I read on your blog…” What’s the little emoticon for surprise? {:>O Both times my response was “I didn’t know you knew I had a blog.” Just goes to show ya, you never know who’s reading. (Hi, Quilla! Hi, Danny A.!)

So I decided to do a little research on the Site Statistics page. I discovered that this page (a.k.a. the blog) has had 2,196 hits to date. (To date since when, I’m not sure.) The latest thing someone searched for at Google that led them to this page was tami sparks.

By contrast, the page on my site that gets the most hits (at a whopping 14,232) is Gallery 1 of my desktop images. That’s the page with all the TV and movie ones, so it shows up on searches for Buffy, Spike, Charmed, LotR, Moulin Rouge, etc. Next in line is Gallery 4, with 10,672 hits. Usually, it’s a search for Hello Kitty or Sanrio that leads someone there, but site stats tell me the last Google query that led a visitor my way was someone searching for fleegan. How circular.

Oh, and I saw Lorna yesterday (she’s the one who gave me all the Anita Blake books I’ve been reading). I got to ask her “hey, is there anything that bugs you about them?” And her response was “you mean how they can be repetitive?” YES! So we harped together on all things AB.

“Like how every time she comes home, somebody’s waiting to kill or kidnap her?”

“Or how she never gets any sleep?”

“I know! Like she could really do all that running and kill all those bad guys over a 48 hour period with only 4 hours of sleep.”

“I do like Edward, though.”

“Yeah, me too.”

The electricians are done AND paid. Rejoice!

Dear Mom,

It’s been a year. You know how some years fly by and you look back and think “that was only a year ago?” Well, this hasn’t been one of those years. So much has happened.

After four years of living on my own, I finally bought a washing machine and dryer. I don’t have to drive out to Southside once a week to do my laundry anymore, but that didn’t stop my weekly visits. I still go to see GJ at least once a week; I just don’t have to carry any clothes hampers with me now. I stay for a few hours and tell her what’s going on in my world. Here’s all the stuff you’ve missed:

Kris and I are doing well. Remember the house we were renting? There were two duplexes next to it and we decided to were duped into buying them. We’re living in one of the apartments, and some friends of ours live in the other side. In the other duplex, Jaimie is gonna live in one side and Liz and Chris are gonna live in the other side after they get married in September. (I’m the matron of honor, and before you ask, no, no news on Jaimie and Jimmy yet.)

I went to the bank in March and since I had better credit, the loan is my name. My first mortgage! I was outside sweeping the front steps one day and it hit me that I was sweeping my steps, that I bought a home. It is that feeling (and so many other small ones like it) that keep me afloat during the renovation process. We’ve already done wonders with the place, but we still have miles to go. It turns out Kris can do lots of things, and he has learned to do so much more. GJ says I’m very lucky to have a man like that, and I totally agree.

In the same way that it doesn’t feel like you’ve been gone for a year, it doesn’t seem real that Kris and I have been married for over a year. I settled in to my new name nicely; I went and registered the domain lauracatoe.com and started using it as an online journal and portfolio. As for being a wife, for months it just seemed like my boyfriend was around a lot more than usual. But in August, we did something that made us feel less like a couple that took some vows and more like a couple that was starting its own family unit: we got a cat.

I know you’re more of a dog person, but I think you’d really like her. Her name is Satine, and she’s very pretty. She’s the softest cat ever (that’s not just me being a proud mama, other people think so, too). When she runs and meows at the same time, it is the cutest sound. She’s sort of like me when I was young ��� always on her best behavior around people she’s just met so that they go “wow! She’s so sweet!” and then totally psycho when she’s alone with me and Kris.

(There are no plans as of yet to expand our new family by any other means, be they feline, canine or human.)

It’s been a rough year. I expected to be sad. I knew I would miss you. But I had no concept of the grief of losing a parent. The unexpected ways in which it would alter me. And I had no idea how the loss of you would affect my entire family. I didn’t know that in losing my mother, I would also lose my father and grandmother as I had known them. It has been so hard.

Your cousin Patty Ann came down from Tennessee to take GJ to your grave over the weekend. I haven’t been since the funeral. Dad wants me and Kris to go down there with him sometime. I’ve suggested September, since that’s close to your birthday. For now, I keep a few pictures of you on my computer at work. I open one up when I just want to see your face.

Your absence hits me in the most unusual of places. People worried about me at Christmas and Mother’s Day, and I made it through those fine. But I had to dry my eyes at work in the bathroom stall when I couldn’t complain to you, daughter to mother, about my bouts of “honeymoon cystitis.” I soaked my pillow with tears after a dream where we were in the art room at Southside High.

Not all of the grief process is tears, though. I feel like I’ve gotten to know you in new small ways through the stories people tell me. I found out that you could keep a secret for a really long time. I realized what an impact you made on some of your students. And I discovered that we are more alike than I ever would have guessed and that I am more pleased with that discovery than I ever thought I could be.

Before I end this letter, here’s a little secret about me. There’s a TV show I watch called Gilmore Girls. For three years, I skipped the opening credits. Because over a happy montage of mother and daughter scenes, Carole King sings “Where You Lead” and it always made me sad. You made us listen to that album so many times on the way to school, and I just didn’t want to hear it while you were dying.

Now that you’re gone, I treasure the things that remind me of times and traits we shared. So I don’t skip the theme song anymore. I sing along.

Love,
Laura

Y’know, it’s a good thing I’m not Ethan Hawke’s character in Gattaca. Remember how he had to make sure there were the fewest traces as possible of his DNA just lying around? How he kept his hair short and scrubbed at his skin to exfoliate it, then burned up all the remains everyday? That would totally suck for me.

I have really dry skin, and I’ll spare you the details of how time-consuming it would be to make sure I wasn’t leaving flecks of it around. But I will say that while I enjoy having long hair again, I hate how it gets everywhere. When I wash my hair, when I brush my hair, when I but run my fingers through my hair?I come away with at least six hairs minimum and like 36 maximum. And there always seems to be a stray hair on me somewhere, tickling my arm or bugging me cause it’s under my shirt. And it’s not polite for a girl to pull down her collar and look like she’s checking out her rack, then reach in her shirt and yank something out. Oh yeah, I do it all the time, but it’s not polite.

Okay, new story. Around this time last year, I was getting some t-shirts made. I had the design and I was looking for the tees. When I do a design for the church, I like the shirts to be available in the regular ol’ tee style and in a “girly” cut. The last time I went with Anvil tees. The cut is good: fitted but not slutty, and they’re pre-shrunk. But they only come in like five colors, one of which is baby blue and one is pink and eh, no, that was not going to work for this design.

Enter American Apparel. One of their catalogs was sent to Liz’s mom, so Liz brought it and we looked and said “Wow! So many styles! So many colors!” We ordered lots of the men’s tees and several girly tees, all in a good chocolate brown color. Very nice. We also oredered one each of some other shirt styles for “maybe next time” ideas.

While the colors and styles are awesome, the American Apparel shirts all shrunk terribly upon washing. Not even drying, sometimes just the washing did it. And one of them ended up with a hole in it after two wears and one wash. So, next time I’m heading back to Anvil. Further, whenever I see their Classic Girl logo on the tag of any band or indie tee that I’m considering purchasing, I stay away.

This is why I got a kick out of the article about American Apparel in this month’s Jane. On the one hand, I get to be all “yeah, we knew cool before it was cool” and the other hand, I get the satisfaction of knowing that I quit giving them business before I read about the owner of American Apparel masturbating in front of the Jane reporter. It’s a good thing I don’t have to be her, either.

In other news, hey my smoothie art made it into an FPC package.

Duplex update!

I thought it was about time for some Before & Now pictures. (It will only be Before & After shots once the peeps are moved in, the steps are painted and the yard has been Finlaysoned into beauty.) So here it is, Dreamplex 1.0, Before & Now (best said like Grover says “neeear… faaar!!!” on Sesame Street).

(click the pic for venti version)

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I draw your attention in the Before pic to the leaning columns on Jaimie’s porch, the plywood covering the louver, the mismatched mailboxes and house numbers. Completely missing in the Before pic are porchlights and outside outlets, but they’re kinda hard to see in the Now pic since I took it at twilight last night. Proof the electricians were good for something. Ah, but more on them later.

Most of the massive improvements have taken place on the inside, but it took an act of Congress just to get these pics online, so you’ll just have to believe me. (I am loving my new home computer, but I am not loving Windows XP. In trying to make the interface more “user friendly”, XP has made basic computing 10x more difficult.)

Jaimie can now get her water turned on and the power transferred to her name. The place already looks homey cause she hung curtains yesterday. Liz n’ Chris’ tub is still floating, but it’s ready to be dropped. (Hey, Liz, ask Jaimie how she and her Dad figured out how to build a hoop for the shower curtain.)

Now, about the electricians. We had a quote from one company that said they could do it in 2 weeks for $5,200, but I guess they thought Kris looked a little unsaved cause they tried to witness to him and get him to come to their church. (If you aren’t from the South, you may not realize what a turn-off that is. Just trust me, it is. Especially so when you happen to work for a church and are yes, quite “saved.”) The guys we decided to go with said they could also do it in 2 weeks, but for $4,500 and they happened to be doing work for our church already, so we knew their work and didn’t have to bother with the pesky witnessing.

How we wish we had gone with the witnessers. God, if this is part of your Divine Humor, good one, ol’ chap. You really got us, and yes, we’ve learned a lesson.

Cause 2 weeks? They began in April. It is June. Every time we asked when they would be finished, they told us “by the end of the week.” And the good job they were doing at the church? Turns out they had this one guy who was really good, but he had some outstanding warrants and turned himself in, so he was behind bars by the time they began work on our place.

When we asked if they were within budget, they said “$5,500 max.” They would say things like “oh, well, we haven’t finished up in 805B cause you guys haven’t put in the sheet rock yet” and when we said “we aren’t putting in any sheet rock” then they said “our supplier is out of cable” and when we said “how much do you need? we’ll get it delievered today” then they said “you need to pick up the hot water heaters.”

Then they called yesterday and said the final price is $6,300. Aw, hell no, it ain’t.

Three hours of phone calls later, the price is $5,300. A major plus is that we don’t have to pay it until next week, so Kris still has three more days to make the sweet money.

With all of these major funding issues, I think God is like that guy in the cell phone commercials, only he’s saying “Do you trust me now? How about now? Gooood…”

Oh, and how many hardcore shows have I ever made extra effort to attend? How many, huh? Cause last night’s was cancelled. I got the touch, baby.