5.31.2008

Like a Cat out of Hell

Look at that shifty-eyed little nix-nux to the right. I'm cat sitting this special little guy, and he's causing me to behave in ways I would never behave otherwise.

I keep these empty booze bottles lined up above my kitchen cabinets. For the last four days el gato has been trying to figure out how to get to these bottles. My concern is that I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of something shattering and that I will come into the kitchen to find broken glass and a profusely bleeding cat sprawled across my kitchen floor.

People tend not to trust you when you kill their loved ones, even if the loved one in question is a trouble maker. I know the obvious solution is to get rid of the fucking bottles. More specifically, the obvious solution is to come to terms with the fact that I am a 27-year-old woman and not a frat boy and that empty bourbon bottles are not art.

You know how after 9.11, people kept doing shit in the name of not letting the terrorists win. Musicians the country over were all, "I thought about canceling the show, but then I realized that if I canceled this concert, the terrorists will have won." This is, of course, complete and utter malarky. People trying to make themselves feel justified in their selfish decision to move on with life by playing for the door. Anyway, if I take down the bottles, not only has the cat won, but also he has not learned a lesson. Since I was specifically told that the cat should be returned a better cat than he was when he was dropped off, the bottles are staying put.

Back to the story. A few minutes ago, cat figured out that the hood over the stove is wide enough and sturdy enough to support his weight. He jumped from the floor to the stove top to the hood and finally, victory of all victories, on top of the cabinets to my own little Jim Beam graveyard.

The thing is, when I took the cat, I meant to ask for the spray bottle. Most cats don't like getting wet, so spraying them with a light mist can be at once horrible and surprisingly refreshing. Sadly though, I did not actually go through with asking for the spray bottle. I thought to myself, Carrie, you're a 27-year-old woman. You should have a spray bottle. Play it cool. Don't let on that you don't have a spray bottle. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Well, with cat running back and forth behind the bottles like a feline possessed, I was staring at the bridge. Here's where we get to the part where I'm doing shit that I would never do. I turned on my faucet, pulled out the spray hose, and doused that little fucker. Yeah, it occurred to me that maybe I didn't want to get my ceiling, cabinets, and wall soaking wet. It also occurred to me that if I scared cat bad enough, he might panic and inadvertently knock over a bottle and hurt himself, which was the thing we were trying to avoid. Well, he did panic, and all my shit did get wet, and now it seems like he's not speaking to me. It also seems that I've turned into the kind of person who blogs about their cat, or, sadder still, someone else's cat. Shit, maybe the cat has won after all.

5.30.2008

Harvey Korman

One of my heroes died today. Harvey Korman was a brilliant comedic actor who was best known to most as one of the cast members of The Carol Burnett Show. He was best known to me as one of Mel Brooks' go-to guys, costarring in such films as Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, and History of the World Part I. While on The Carol Burnett Show, Korman was best known for the work he did with Tim Conway. He had a near impossible time keeping a straight face any time he and Conway acted in a sketch together. Below is one of my favorite such incidences. Korman plays the patient.

5.27.2008

My Best Friends' Wedding

A few folks at Tim's and Susan's Wedding asked if I'd post the poem that I read. It ain't literary, but they liked it. At one point, about three stanzas in, Susan and I had one of our world famous giggle fits. After the wedding, people asked me if I had gotten choked up because I had looked down for a few seconds. The truth is I was trying and failing to not be the kind of douche bag who laughs at her own jokes. Anyhooter, here it is for those of you not there or in the back and unable to hear my mumbling.


Observations from the Third Wheel



Painting his toenails

was the exact right way

to get the girl of his dreams



and the weight of holding

her purse is a small price to pay

if he gets to watch her dance.



After five years, laughing

until they cry is

better than holding hands anyway.



There’s good and then there’s gyood,

and it’s important to find someone

who knows the difference. And it’s hard



to get mad at a man in a green facial mask.

Sometimes he puts on that sweater

just to see the look on her face right before



she tells him to change. I see the way

they look at each other, and I know what I have

the right to hope for. I realize I already have it.

5.15.2008

I spend all day in a low-walled cubicle taking shit from people and talking to answering machines in the naive hope that someone will actually be stupid enough to call back so that I can verbally break their kneecaps over their unpaid medical bills and Lane Bryant credit cards. Yesterday, as an added bonus, my headset was busted and I spent eight hours with a fundamentalist Christian radio station chirping in my ear. Between 11:00 and noon, I was treated with an infomercial in favor of virginity until marriage. The woman giving the talk was nice enough to tie science into her argument. It seems blind faith and a strong desire not to get knocked up or The HIV is no longer enough of a reason for people to abstain. Now the Christian right is trying to scare us with neurochemistry. According to our host, semen is God's "superhuman glue." I left my phone in idle for a couple minutes to jot that one down. Spooge is "God's superhuman glue and it's used to make new life." Additionally, one of the chemicals released in the brain when we have sex is diminished with each subsequent partner. According to this woman, the awkward, fumbly sex that I had as a sixteen-year-old with my first girlfriend was the best it was ever going to be. Maybe there's something to this. For example, the most mind-blowing orgasm I've ever had was while my first girlfriend and I were watching The Color Purple. If I'd known then what I know now, maybe I would have fought a little harder to keep her. I am hereby
instating a three partner limit. This Christian brain juice stuff could be for real, and I don't want to risk a life of mediocre sex. Sure this means that by the time I'm forty I'll be limited to dating 15-year-olds and ugly people, but hey, I can't possibly enjoy myself if the girl I'm with isn't.

5.09.2008

Nose to the Grindstone

"Sir, I'm sorry your wife's heart transplant didn't go as well as expected, but someone has to pay this hospital bill."