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When they were about 12, they requested a little sister.
Kitty: “I’m not married.”
Offspring: “Even *I* know that’s not required.”
K: “But, it’s easier with 2 parents.”
O: “I’m old enough to help out. “
K: “She would want to play with your toys.”
O: “I would tell her to stay out of my room.”
K: “Yeah? How well does that work with you staying out of my room?”
O: “Never mind. We’re good.”The neighbors may have heard me laughing.
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My child is non-binary, using they/them. I find they/them easier to use about the adult. When I talk about the child, I still think of the child I knew. When I talk about the child, I’m more likely to slip. I have known that gender dissonance has been part of their way of being since HS. (Didn’t know the name for it, then.) And, truthfully, there seem to have been inklings before that which I didn’t recognize.
They had me come in to a conference with the HS social worker to come out to me as bisexual. I said “And? What else?” “Uh. That’s all.” “Is there “That’s all? I had to come school for this?” The social worker was clearly expecting something else from me.
I think that, as much as the 2 of us have striven to be clear and honest and to have healthy communication , we sometimes have used the Mother and Child boxes on each other.
My child is a Millennial and suffers all the struggles that seem to be rife in that cohort. Depression and anxiety being significant. But, they, also, have the freedom of thought that comes from growing up in the post-hippy era. It makes me sad that they don’t seem to see the benefit of that.
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Shamelessly lifted from Vanity Fair. I don’t intend to answer these questions here. I don’t think my answers are useful to anyone but me. And they change. I don’t even have coherent answers for a couple of them. But, I do think the questions are interesting to consider as we muddle along.
__1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness?
__2.__What is your greatest fear?
__3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
__4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others?
__5.__Which living person do you most admire?
__6.__What is your greatest extravagance?
__7.__What is your current state of mind?
__8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
__9.__On what occasion do you lie?
__10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance?
__11.__Which living person do you most despise?
__12.__What is the quality you most like in a man?
__13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman?
__14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
__15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life?
__16.__When and where were you happiest?
__17.__Which talent would you most like to have?
__18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
__19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement?
__20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
__21.__Where would you most like to live?
__22.__What is your most treasured possession?
__23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
__24.__What is your favorite occupation?
__25.__What is your most marked characteristic?
__26.__What do you most value in your friends?
__27.__Who are your favorite writers?
__28.__Who is your hero of fiction?
__29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with?
__30.__Who are your heroes in real life?
__31.__What are your favorite names?
__32.__What is it that you most dislike?
__33.__What is your greatest regret?
__34.__How would you like to die?
__35.__What is your motto?
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A while ago, I realized that if I buy plain yogurt and add my own jam, I always get to have the flavors I want. And it wastes fewer containers. Also, I use plain yogurt in place of sour cream when I’m cooking. It’s a habit I developed ages ago after ready that 0% fat yogurt tastes and cooks the same but doesn’t have the crap in it that low fat sour cream does.
I tend to use a particular bowl when I stir up my yogurt and jam.
Esmerelda loves yogurt and she loses her mind waiting for me to put my empty bowl down so she can have her turn. Sometimes I give her a little dab of plain in her wet dish just to shut her up until I can finish my concoction.
Last week, our tomatoes started coming in. We have 3 plants in our garden (red, purple and yellow cherries) and we have been getting a farm box. And they have been including tomatoes. That’s been lovely. I’ve been eating tomato sandwiches with mayo and with pesto. We’ve cut them up in our salads. Fresh, flavorful tomatoes make enduring the heat of summer worthwhile.
We’d gotten a glut, though, and I couldn’t eat them as fast as they were ready. So, I had Chuck pick up some feta when he went to the grocery and I made a tomato salad. It was 8 oz of feta, 2 pints of cherry tomatoes cut in quarters, a small bell pepper, a handful of fresh basil rolled together and cut very fine, equal part olive oil and apple cider vinegar and a little salt and pepper. When I fix a serving, I add some Kalamata olives to the bowl. (Do you notice that there is nothing resembling cat food in that recipe?)
When I made a tomato sandwich yesterday, I cut the bits that didn’t fit well on the bread into bites and added it to the tomato salad. When Chuck cut up a tomato for our green salads at dinner, instead of overwhelming the lettuce with tomato, he did the same with the surplus.
So, I have been eating tomato salad like a fiend for days and the container is still full.
This morning I decided to have a little dish of it for my breakfast. And I used the yogurt bowl.
When I finished and headed for the sink, she lost her mind. She knew she needed what was in that bowl. I told her that I don’t think cats like tomatoes and set it down to prove it to her.
She licked every last scrap/drop/morsel out of that bowl. I couldn’t have looked cleaner if it had just come out of the dishwasher.
I don’t know that I’m ready to start sharing my salad with my cat.
I am the Audience 