UGH

Well I have not been blogging much lately because I recently shifted from "enjoying life/screw you thesis" mode to "holy crap I am never going to finish if I don't work my butt off" mode. Basically, this sucks. I am still trying to keep some perspective and enjoy time off now and then. I took all day Sunday off, even though it meant working until after midnight last night, and I'm glad I did. And, I think Chris and I are going backpacking this weekend, even though I should probably work. Screw it!!!

What really sucks is the past week or so I have had a lot of non-thesis work to do. I am still doing ~5 hours a week writing for the CMMAP website, and I finally got my butt back in gear with the AGU newsletter (hopefully will have an issue published in the next few days, requiring me to work late again tonight). Plus for some retarded reason I decided to "volunteer" (even though I will get paid a small amount) to help with a teacher's training course this July - I will be leading two one-hour long "extension activities" - one about latent heat and phase changes (we'll make ice cream with liquid nitrogen!), and one about climate change. It is neat stuff but I really do not have time for this.

I am also pretty upset about Tiger's health. I've had Tiger since I was 13, so more than half my life. He is my little buddy and I really love him a lot. He is the friendliest cat I've ever met and has a kick ass personality. But he hasn't been doing too well the past couple of months, mainly he is not eating. He's had bloodwork done, and urine and fecal analysis, and the vets couldn't find a problem from that. They suggested ultrasounds and x-rays, but it would be $450 (plus we've already spent >$300, and they would have to sedate him which could be risky with his health), so we opted out of that. We started giving him steroids two weeks ago and it was like a miracle. The Friday before we started I really thought he would die at any moment. He was hardly eating a thing and was very lethargic. He still liked to be around Chris and I but didn't have the energy to cuddle or be his usual persistent self. As soon as we started the steroids, he started eating again. We actually were psyched when we got home one day and he had knocked over the trash - the old Tiger was back!

Unfortunately that vigor was short-lived, and he is back to being tired and not hungry. Today when I stopped by the house I couldn't find him at first and I started preparing myself to find him curled up and off to a better place somewhere, but he was just sleeping in the closet. But it sucks!! I want him to get better but it is seeming less likely. What is weird is he doesn't seem to be in pain, just really lethargic (as you would expect for eating about 1 tbsp of food a day). I wish we knew what was wrong with him, but I have a feeling even if we knew the cost of trying to fix it would be prohibitive.

This is so depressing I think I might cry in the middle of the freaking Bean Cycle. So ... um ... funny Tiger story. For some reason he tends to run away after pooping. Chris and I have come up with several names for this over the years - the crap'n'dash, the poop'n'scoot, the shit'n'split. It is great but of course he hasn't been doing it too much lately. Well right after starting the steroids he did the crap'n'dash! Except, he forgot to leave all the crap in the box, so he had it hanging from his butt. I started yelling at Chris to pull it off, and he was like "WHY ME?". So Chris started chasing Tiger around the house with a paper towel trying to pull this turd off his butt. It was hilarious. Haha. :)

Well he's not gone yet so hopefully we still have some good times with him. Sometimes he still tries to lay on my face at night, and I don't even mind anymore. Maybe he will start eating again, who knows. Maybe we should up the steroid dosage. Just drug him up so he can float happily through the last days/weeks/months of his long and happy life. Here's to you, Fat Back!