Wow. Damn. It's been a while, huh? Have you missed me? I am sorry.

I've migrated is all. I post a lot more over on facebook. Do you use facebook? My name is Elizabeth Cattarin. You should be able to find me with that, because there is only one other Elizabeth Cattarin in the US, and she's a physicist. Otherwise, you can search by my username, which is of course Kitty The Pooka.

See you there!

A hazard of owning a white bird is that once a month or so Frodo requires a bath. Since bath time isn't any harm to the other birds and they get very upset when they can't see her, I give everyone a bath. I take the whole flock right in the shower and let them sit under the spray, so they're not being so much drenched as misted. All of the birds love this. Something about the shower makes them completely tame, even my little bastard Dyngus. This was Hobo's first shower, and he was so relaxed by it that he allowed me to scritch his head and break up all the new pinfeathers he has. Amazing what a proper diet and socialization can do for an animal.

Anyway, I can't show you the total adorableness that happens in the shower, but I can show you the result. Pics beneath the cut.

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SO CUTE!

I haven't been JOGGING as much as I'd like, but I have been WALKING a lot. Luckily my best friend Annalisa is a big fan of long park walks, and so is her dog Laci. Since Mack graciously returned my camera I decided to celebrate by taking it with us to the park for one of our non hike hikes.

Say anything you will about Western New York, our parks are gorgeous. Also Laci is an adorable dork of a dog.

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f212/kittythepooka/Actual%20Photos/Como%20Park%20June%202009/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v4gzHDhCTA&feature=channel_page

Oh and down to a loose size 10. I have no idea what weight I'm down to since I don't own a reliable scale, but I can say that I'm dreading the mirror less and less each day. Now if only I could get my skin under control!

He also sent back my PSP, which I am ALSO delighted about. Right now I'm playing Loco Roco. Yay retarded water balloons!

Finally done with school for the semester. Thank god! My last exam was today. Now I all I have to think about all summer is Best Buy and Hannah Weiner.

I just adopted another cockatiel. My friend Annalisa's uncle found him in the street a year ago, and just hated the poor little thing. They said he was mean, bites a lot and always screams. I mentioned it to Mom while we were talking about how sweet Dyngus turned out to be, and she basically said "Oh go get him!"

So I did.

Poor little 'tiel. No wonder he was so scared! He was in this tiny, gross cage hanging in the middle of the room, no wall to hide against, no shelter. I don't think they really knew how to take care of him. Annalisa clipped his wings and I took to cuddling him. He's terrified and squeeky, but he's no monster. He even let me pet him for a bit. I have high hopes.

Since they found him in the middle of the street I named him Hobo. Right now he's in the extra cage in my room, but he'll be with the other tiels soon. I let them chill for a bit and they didn't seem too upset about it. Baldwyn sang to him for a while. I just don't want to leave them alone quiet yet.

So yeah. Hobo. <3

mack left me.

So it's been a while since I said anything. I figured I'd catch up on the happenings.

I did take a break from treadmilling for a bit, just because school got crazy and I got crazy tired. There's that part in the semester that's just intolerable, and every moment of wakefulness is spent trying to get stuff done.

Luckily I did get ahead, and I was even able to go spend a week with Mack on spring break. That's pretty much all roses. I had a wonderful time and I think he did too. He introduced me to his extended family, and I couldn't be more grateful for the open, loving, welcoming way that they treated me. Being that welcomed makes me a lot less nervous about moving down there next year.

I met his kids too. We took them out to a couple state parks for the day. In person his kids are just as awesome as they were on the webcam. I've never been the motherly sort, but I dunno. I guess it's just because they're HIS kids that I like them so much. And I do. We had a ton of fun.

This sounds glurgy doesn't it.

Anyway, school is.. well super stress. Of course it is, no sense complaining about the obvious. Still, I'm not dead yet and nothing that I have to do is impossible. Just time consuming.

Oh and my birds discovered what sex is yesterday. Since I had to separate Captain Tinybird anyway, I used it as an excuse to clean my room and switch out some furniture from the basement area. While I was down there I cleaned and rearranged the basement, so now it's much less a disgusting filth haven and much more a place where a couple folks could chill out. My brother is bringing my TV back soon, so that goes down there. I wish I didn't hate being alone in the basement so much or I'd just move the computer down there too.

Poor little Captain Tinybird is cuddling on my boob, crying for the other birds. Then she gets distracted by the exploring she has to do. She discovered the space heater. It is heaven for tiny birds.

Anyway, that's all that's been happening. Mostly a boring time. Satisfying, but kind of quiet.

I can handle that.

So I have been keeping up with my little "learn how to workout" thing. I've been going Tuesdays and Thursdays for about half an hour at 4 miles per hour. I bought myself a little mini "Go me!" present, a small mp3 player that holds 2 gigs of music. I thought I'd put books on tape on it, but for now I do have my few favorites loaded up. On a complete side note, due to that and Mack's knack of making things I usually dislike really, really interesting, I've listened to The Wall for the first time in my life.

Oh man that shit is cool. I love the whole idea of the concept album. The story was incredibly beautiful, had incredible depth. I feel like I'm listening to an epic story instead of just one emotional explanation. Do want.

Anyway, I didn't go to the gym yesterday because I didn't have school. I woke up today and found out I had a surprise day off, since both of my Wednesday meetings were canceled. Instead of doing what I usually do (sitting around in pajamas at the computer, maybe doing a little laundry or cleaning, and waiting for someone to come home) I put on my crap clothes and went for a good jog/walk. Even though it's raining and cold and poop outside. Go me! It turns out the little neighborhood circle I live on is just about roughly between a quarter and half mile. If I walk it quickly it's about 20 minutes. Twice around is a nice workout for me.

You know how some things you just don't believe until you experience them yourself? You know how people who work out say that they feel BETTER after a walk and that it somehow gives you MORE energy? And makes you feel good? I had no idea that that could possibly be true, but it is.

I'm proud of myself. Hold me to it!

This is how.

That was my valentine's gift.

I do love that man.

So I've been gaining weight. It's been slow and steady but it's definitely happening. That and I know that, although I still think I look pretty good, I'm retardedly out of shape. It's getting to the point where the walk from the school parking lot to class winds me. It's time to stop whining about it and do something.

First up I went back on a light version of the stop eating like an idiot diet. No more regular soda (although I will give in to diet once in a while), no more pizza every day for lunch. I eat a lot of light yogurt instead of chips and whatever. I eat a lot of light soup instead of crap and whatever. I'm not as concerned with LOSING weight as much as making sure I don't gain more. I'm more worried about getting back in shape, at least enough that I don't think I'm going to die after jogging for five minutes.

Soooo I discovered the school gym. I knew it was there the whole time, but I finally got up off my ass and went. I have huge two hour breaks between my classes on tuesday and thursday, I figured I'd better use them.

Right now I'm just doing the treadmill for a half an hour twice a week, about four miles an hour or so. I'm shocked at how out of breath and sore I am after walking for that half an hour! I mean it's really BAD. Man I hope it gets better. Seeing how bad I am after such a light workout makes me want to fix it more.

Anyway, from my buff friends, thoughts? I really, REALLY don't know what I'm doing, and I need advices.

Tax money came in and saved my ass. Because I'm so low on the tax bracket I did get a pretty good return, and it alllllllll went into bills. I paid EVERYTHING off for February and kept some for "oh shit" money.

Okay.. I bought a purse. IT'S SO PRETTY. In my defense I didn't just go buy a purse, I went out shopping, found what I wanted, then got it for half the price on e-bay. It's silvery blue and pretty and I can't wait for it to come AND IT'S PRETTY! It's preeeetty.

And a space heater. I LOVE MY SPACE HEATER.

I have a tiny little room one vent and a giant bay window, so whenever I close my room off I don't get any heat. My room gets much colder than the rest of the house. That and Dad turns the heat down to 65 if he isn't home, awake and moving around. His thought process is that if HE isn't around the heat doesn't have to be on. He refuses to accept that I'm usually home when he isn't and I'm usually awake when he's not.. but you all know my Dad.

Long story short, if I want to keep my door closed overnight my room will get down to 60, sometimes 50 degrees. Wake up to that every day and see why I get so pissed off.

BUT NO MORE. Space heater! Space heater is LOVE!

This morning while my father was moving my car around in the driveway the break lines snapped.

Which is the suck. I had to miss another day of school, setting me back an entire week. I don't quiet have the cash to get it fixed.

On the upside at least it happened in the driveway instead of on the interstate. I suppose I can borrow the money from someone to get the car fixed so I don't get set back any further.

Long story short, my car is broken but at least I'm not dead.

--Edit--
While trying to leave for work at noon, Dad managed to run his car into the garage wall. At the same time he also managed to rip the mirror off his car. He blames the plow guy for not plowing correctly? But the driveway was plowed? I blame the fact that we ran out of coffee.

--Edit 2--
Dear Amazon; THANK YOU for sending my philosophy book two days before you said you would. It made me very happy and brightened up my whole day.

So Saturday morning I went shopping with me Mum. We stopped at a drive thru ATM so I could get some meager cash out. I remember sitting in the car doing math in my head. I had about $150 in the account, and just about $80 was scheduled to come out in various payments, so I could take out $40 and still have like $30 left over or whatever in case of oopses. You know how it is. Money's tight right now and even a ten dollar fuck up will cripple me.

So Mom makes me get out of the car and walk up to the ATM because she's like that for some reason. I grab my cash and get back in the car. End of a very boring story right?

Until last night when I check my bank account to make sure I didn't fuck up my math and realize that there's an extra $100 taken out, minutes after my transaction. When I grabbed my cash and got back in the car, I didn't realize that I not only left my card in the machine, but I'd left it on that cheerful little "Do you want another transaction?" screen. The one that doesn't require you to reenter your pin. The MOTHER FUCKER in the car behind me saw that and took out a hundred dollars.

Dear PIECE OF SHIT WHO TOOK MY MONEY. I realize that I made a very stupid mistake, but you know what I would have done if I were in that car instead of you? I would have said "Oh that person accidentally left their card in the machine. I will hit cancel and report it lost for them." Or even just hit cancel and cut up the card. Know why? BECAUSE I AM NOT A HORRIBLE FUCKING EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN. The thought "Haha! I will steal this person's money!" would have NEVER entered my mind.

Anyway.

Lucky for me my Aunt happens to work at the bank the atm card was for. I called ahead to let her know what was up (there were sniffles) and by the time I got out there she'd already printed everything up and checked my balance. It's pretty obvious on paper what happened, and all those ATM's have cameras. That and the fact that it was a drive thru atm so they'll have that person's liscence plate. There's a fairly reasonable chance that they'll catch the person who did it.

YOU HEAR THAT YOU STUPID IGNORANT FUCK? IT'S CALLED A FUCKING SECURITY CAMERA. I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL.

Or at least give me my money back.

My grandmother is awesome and loaned me the hundred dollars so my bank account doesn't bounce sixteen hundred thousand ways, which also made me happy. My Aunt had arranged this also, because she is at this moment the MOST AWESOME PERSON EVER. EVER. Then there was the moment of awesome when I called my grandmother on my way home to thank her for helping me, and she gave me the most amazing lecture ever about how if someone ever rear ends me that they might be gang rapists, and that I should lock my doors and drive away quickly.

Because my Grandma is COOL.

Oh GOD the blahs. Does everyone else have the blahs? I have the blahs.

The weather is stupid. It is cold and crazy with the snow. It has been cold and crazy with the snow for weeks. I want to murder a weatherman. That and because of the terrible weather we have been very slow at work. Being very slow at work means my hours get cut. A lot. A lot a lot. I know everything will pick up soon, especially with our largest competitor closing down, but goddamn this month is tight.

While going over my transcripts I found that I'd fucked up so ENTIRELY BAD my first round that if I really think I'm going to get into a doctorate that I have to completely retake ALL those courses. That includes a bunch of courses that I've already taken requirements for. It would add on something like three more years on top of the one required to graduate. If I scale back and just retake the classes I FAILED, I *might* be able to get my GPA up over 2.5-3 range in two years, which MIGHT get me into a graduate program for a masters. The Masters I know I want, god knows a bachelors in English is pretty much useless. I'm just re-evaluating if I really want to go all the way for the doctorate right out of graduate school. That would mean being in college until well into my thirties. I'm starting to think I should put that on the back burner and concentrate on getting into a career, whatever that is. I mean it's great to be good at reading and such and such, but what the hell kind of career does one do with that besides teach in high school?

I've been all low the past week or so, and it's only over those minor things. I need to suck it up.

I have good stuff tho. I'm very lucky to have parents that are willing to help me until work picks up a bit and I can afford my bills. In a few weeks work study kicks in, and that's a couple bucks that I will be very grateful for. I *have* a job, where I know some very good, very talented people who are not as lucky. This semester looks interesting, and since I'm concentrating on fixing my gpa two of my classes are MUCH lower level than I'm used to. And as for the future, man fuck it. I'm just going to do the best I can and worry about that shit when it comes. God it's like two years down the line anyway.

Oh, for the interested, I'm taking Sociology 101, British Literature (BEOWULF! RAWK!), Drama (with Marta), and Philosophy of Art. Add in the work study and the Poet internship and I will be pleasantly busy but not murderous.

So I promised I’d give a detailed explanation of what all went down on my vacation. It was lovely and awesome and I just have to talk about it.
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And that’s the whole thing. Two train rides that literally took an entire day to complete with a delicious filling of Mackness. Hopefully he’ll be up to Buffalo in some reasonable frame of time.

I'm home. I'm sore from the trip and missing him terribly already, but I'm home and I'm safe.

He's wonderful. Amazing. Romantic. I can't gush enough. I'm a dork for my boyfriend you guys. Who ever thought you'd see me like this?

Y'anyhoo I'll give details when I'm a little more recovered.

I'm leaving for Illinois for the week. Wish me luck!

Happy new year everyone! I hope everyone is having a good time. For me, I hope this upcoming year is as good as this last one. I think it's interesting that my best year came right after one of my worst.

In other news, I have my tickets and I'm leaving on Sunday to see Mack. A whole week, and then it's back to school. Wish us luck!

I want to know what is so goddamn fucking mysterious about those digital picture frames. Why are they so hard to understand? Why do you need to ask me so many questions? Why is it that every time I walk past that wall someone is staring slack jawed at the display, and then asks me how they work or what they do? WHY? They take the pictures from your fucking camera, and they FUCKING DISPLAY THEM. That's it. That's what they do. THAT IS WHAT THEY DO.

Last night I came home from work at midnight, knowing I would have to return to work in.. half an hour from right now. I was not in a good mood. Mack responded to this by deliberately and hilariously playing the corniest songs he could think of from the eighties. For something like two and a half hours straight. He would bop around and sing along to them. My thirty four year old totally grown up adult man of a boyfriend. Happily dancing in his chair to The Never Ending Story.

Okay, he played some love songs too, but I was too busy being exhausted and pretending to be irritated to really appreciate what he was doing. This is because I'm a bad girlfriend. And he's a good boyfriend. I dare any human alive to remain in a bad mood after that. I love that man.

The semester is over. All work that can be done has been done and handed in. It's completely over, and I'm free until next semester.

Oh man. I can't quiet believe it. I'm going through stress withdrawal. After that the Christmas season at work seems like cake. Man that shit is almost over too and I barely even noticed. Now I just have to scramble together some nice presents for mah peeps and hang tight until January.

January I'm going on vacation. A real one. To Illinois to see Mack. I am the excited. It should be fabulous. The only thing I'm unnecessarily nervous about is getting through the airport, because giant places terrify me. I'm always scared I'll get lost.

STILL! Everything looks AWESOME right now. MWEE.

When I reformatted my hard drive I did something stupid. I left the external card reader plugged into the computer during the format phase. Apparently this caused my computer to name the real hard drive H:/ instead of C:/. Most programs don't care much, but EVERYTHING ADOBE refuses to install unless it's to the C:/ drive. Also my computer now thinks that my extra hard drive is a DVD burner. That I have no clue about.

It means I have to reformat my hard drive again. I'll do it after classes end.

The good thing that came out of this, and it is very good in my geeky opinion, is that I discovered that my computer actually has front USB ports that were never hooked up. I remember Matt pointing them out when he built the computer and saying something like "I have to look up the order on how to attach those to the motherboard" and me saying it wasn't a big deal. I do have an external USB hub for devices that require it, so I didn't really need the extra ports. We both immediately forgot all about it. They were under a little door so I didn't see them, and therefore didn't think about them or remember they existed at all.

Until two years of moving that giant fucking box around every time I wanted to use a flash drive or my external. It isn't a BIG deal, but god would those front USB ports be nice. Then oh hey! What are these cords connecting to under the hard drive mount? Wait.. is this... USB PORTS ON THE FRONT? THEY'RE JUST NOT HOOKED UP? YAY!

But I ran into a weird problem when I started asking my geeks how to do it. I clearly saw what had to be plugged into where (the motherboard actually says "usb hub" on where they go) but no one was really willing to give me instructions on which order the plugs go in. Every one of my nerd friends that I asked got really vague about them. "Oh I'll just show you" or "Well.. read the manual." I don't really know why. I think it's that they all either know how to do it but can't really describe it, thought it would be too technical for me to try by myself, or honestly didn't know. So! After the assurance from Luis that the worst case scenario is that it just doesn't work, I looked up the how to on the internet and hooked those fuckers up All By Myself.

By Myself!

I'm a big girl now! AND I have front USB ports on my computer!

GLEEFACE!