The Great Kitzmans and Catsby

We hosted a couple of very special guests recently: Grammy and Papa Kitzman! They stayed with us for the week and doted on Edie from sun-up to sundown each day. Dave and I sat back and enjoyed the reinforcement, taking advantage by working out in the morning and crashing on the couch while our poor guests did the dinner dishes. It was like having two loving live-in nannies.

Unfortunately they didn't get a great taste of East Coast spring weather. However, they were googly-eyed over Edie so I don't think they noticed the cloudy skies. They tried to get their fill while here, snapping as many pictures and stealing kisses at will. They took us out to eat and we brought them to the Bushnell Park carousel, the Capitol, and the Michaud lake house on sunny Mother's Day. All in all, we had a great time with Dave's folks, and they're planning to come back at Christmas.

In other news, we adopted a cat from the Humane Society. Dave and I are more dog people, and have never been into other people's cats. They're so fickle. But we don't have the time or energy to devote to a dog right now, and Edie is a huuuge fan of cats, so we thought, why not? Now that we own a house we can make these kind of grown-up decisions. Uh-huh.

All the cats at the pound have bios that include their name, sex, health issues, etc. They indicate whether they tolerate kids, dogs, and other cats. Pretty much 90% of the cats do not 'like' young kids. If Chairman Meow has sat on Grandma's lap while she crocheted for 10 years, it's understandable that he doesn't care for sticky-fingered toddlers. There were two non-obese female cats that didn't outright detest kids, so we took 'Bubbles' into the adoption room and got a closer look. Bubbles seemed chill, friendly, and curious, all good cat qualities. Because I am the mother of a toddler, I will give her age in months: 17. We filled out the paperwork and promptly changed her name to Catsby. (I was reading The Great Gatsby for book club...the name stuck, but I can't say I finished the book).

I'll spare you all the furry details but this cat is cool. I'm pleasantly surprised that both Dave and I really like her. She tolerates Edie, who's not inhumane, but does chase her and throw treats in her face while she's eating. She sneaks around our yard acting like a little lion, and then comes inside to get a drink and take a nap. And she is cuddly and affectionate. I told Edie her purring means she's happy. Edie said, "Happy? Happy. Happy!".

My secret garden

Anyone within earshot knows that my job has been getting me down. Ever since the new year, our department has been slammed. I work long hours doing a job that generally doesn't fit my skills and interests, and sometimes I don't get a breath of fresh air until 6pm. I often sit and wonder how I landed at such a desk, in such a place, after having a career that I loved so much in Seattle. Well, I met up with some girlfriends for dinner a couple weeks ago. A conversation with my friend about my job led to talk about "The Secret". She went through the gist of the book, and I gathered what I could over the Friday night hoppin' restaurant din. The gist: think positively, good things will come. (I'm sure Oprah, Dr. Oz, or both have exploited "The Secret" and its concepts.)

This isn't news. I've held on tight to my book "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain for about 8 years now. The pages have yellowed. The principles of Creative Visualization are that energy is magnetic, and form follows thought. When I apply myself, the practices outlined help me get what I want. I've envisioned things or events that I want to happen, and made "treasure maps" and wrote out scenes as I want them to unfold. It's uncanny how many things have manifested when I put some time into envisioning my ideal scenario, from giving a work presentation with confidence, to meeting an awesome guy, to being approved for our mortgage.

I haven't read The Secret, but I believe it tells a similar story. After our conversation, I decided I was tired of holding onto a mess of negativity related to my job. It's destructive, exhausting, and unhelpful. I decided to think happy job-related thoughts, and got motivated by putting myself back on the right professional path. I had an upfront conversation with my manager, and contacted some colleagues, mostly people that I don't know, to talk about opportunities. I contacted other people within the urban planning field, both to volunteer and to inquire about their jobs and and the paths that led them there. It's within my reach to write my own story. At the risk of veering into cheese-saturated self-helpdom, I really do believe this.

When we were looking to buy a house last summer, I fell in love with ours, and getting a mortgage was a long, drawn out process that involved a charade of inept lenders on the other end of the line. There were a few months of high stress paper trails, and at times we felt that this house was going to slip through our fingers. To make myself feel better, I wrote out an ideal scene and found it recently. In it, I described our yard as a secret garden, a respite from the world. Do you agree?