Get ready to see even more pictures of my cat. Because he is my life now. He’s always been my constant companion, but he’s basically Velcro Cat these days, and I’m one hundred percent okay with this. I don’t know what I’ll do without him. The pandemic hasn’t been easy, but it also hasn’t been terrible. And that’s because I love spending time with my cat. I have a little soul who sits with me while I write, says hi to my students on Google Meets, curls up with me at night…
I’ve been saying for a little while now that I find I actually enjoy living alone. I wasn’t sure when Brian was first moving out how I’d handle it, but I’ve found I’m quite good on my own. Except I’m not on my own. I’m not spending my days by myself. I’m spending them with Sammy. I fully understand that old saying now: I love him so much it hurts.
Sunday
This is my kind of Sunday. Spent the morning shooting the shit with my NaNo write-in group for an hour and a half (You could tell we’d all hit our word counts already) and the afternoon watching TV with Sammy.
Monday
Sammy got new stairs. He doesn’t need them yet, but he likes them. And I want him to always be able to cuddle up with me on the bed.
Tuesday
We had a Thank God It’s Over NaNo party in the evening. This is some of our group playing Never Have I Ever – writer’s edition. “Never have I ever corrected someone’s grammar.” “Never have I ever named a character after someone I hate so I could do mean things to them. “Never have I ever typed it is instead of it’s just to hit my word counts.” “Never have I ever researched something shady for my writing.”
And a personal favorite: “Never have I ever annoyed the people in my life with word count updates, even though they know nothing about NaNo.”
Wednesday
We cuddled. I cannot ever have enough Sammy cuddles, though the pictures never do them justice.
Thursday
Sorry not sorry for another Sammy picture. This is him settling down to sit with me while I write.
Friday
Sometimes when I’m on with students, he steps onto my keyboard and sticks his butt in the camera. But sometimes he lies on the top of the chair behind me and purrs. I like both things.
Saturday
Never in my life have I had a real Christmas tree. Jury’s still out on how I feel about the whole raising a tree just to chop it down and decorate it with gaudy ornaments thing, but I thought it’d be nice to have a small tree for Sammy and me this year. So my dad and I went to a farm and found a little five-footer to bring home and decorate with the ten gaudy ornaments I own.
Truthfully, I was expecting a much bigger production. I’d heard there were wagon rides and cider offerings, but apparently that’s only if you go out into the field to find one that’s still growing. I can’t point to a living tree and say, “Chop that one down for me,” though, so we just went to the Dunkin’ drive through on the way home for a hot chai and called it a day.