My Maniacal Misfit Menagerie

We got Winnie shortly after we lost our cat Larkspur. He was a lovebug and rarely got into things he shouldn't. Winnie is not cut from the same cloth. After posting about our loss on Facebook, a friend suggested Winnie might be perfect for us. I was reluctant, because it was far sooner than I was ready for. But it turned out to be just what I needed. I sometimes refer to her as my therapy cat. Not because she's well behaved, you understand, but because she is a great distraction. She is my shadow. Even now as I write this, she is at my side to "help". In the beginning, she was still in her tiny-kitten-sleeps-all-day stage. Coincidentally, I was going through yet another med change which left me inclined to sleep all day as well. We were soulmates. Because of my fibro and a side order of Reynaud's, I am always cold. Always. Even in California in August. Since Winnie has no body fat, she is constantly looking to snuggle, especially under the covers. As such, I br...

So let me introduce some of the people who are sure to find their way into these stories, whether they want to or not. After all, isn't that what family is for? The husband and I have been married for (hang on, gotta do the math...shh, don't tell him. You and I will have lots of secrets here on this wildly public site) 15 years. We've been together for over 18 years though. While I am ever so slightly impulsive and marginally irrational, he is wired completely differently. Probably a good thing. He'd lead a boring life without me. Don't worry; you can share that fact with him. He already knows. He and my oldest son will probably end up as my technological consultants. If there's something about the computer they don't know, it isn't worth knowing. My husband can rip a computer's guts out and stitch them back together. He's pretty good at recovering lost files, linking networks together and a wide variety of other things I barely even...

A friend recently said to me, "Ya know, I was thinking of you the other night. If this whole nursing thing doesn't work out for you, you should start a blog." First of all, I can't help but laugh that ten years later I'm still getting the "If the nursing thing doesn't work out..." At what point can we say it has or hasn't? For Christ's sake, I'd rather wait out retirement at this age than retrain for another damn career! And frankly, I love nursing. But she got me to thinking. Usually that statement is followed with "you could be a stand-up comedian." Yeah...not likely. First of all, I'm more of a sit down kind of girl. I've got three kids (four with the husband), a dog, a brand-new kitten, and a chinchilla. Yeah, a chinchilla. Because what self-respecting American household DOESN'T have a chinchilla? Secondly, there's a lot of effort in stand-up comedy. The writing, the booking, the delivery, the in...