The Living Furball

This story is from 6 years ago. Way before I had Instagram so this isn't on there.

My family had a cat named Spooky (you guessed it she was a black cat) who shed like crazy! She was a short hair cat but produced so much hair. There were comtantly dust bunnies around our house. Not from lack of cleaning but because the cat shed so much and maybe a little lack of cleaning. (Love you mom) One day I decided to bring one of our buddies to life.

I left it there for quite a while and I think we just accepted him as part of the family.

Mackenzie

My Animals

Before we go any further into the more present posts I should probably introduce my animals. I've talked about a few of them but I might as well introduce all of them and then give you their stories in later posts.

This is Lucy. She is fluffy and loves to be pet and cuddled.

This is Bear. He just tries to eat all our food.

Lola, Charlie, and Irwin are our ducks. We had another named Ralph but he met his demise on the front of a truck. I didn't really like him anyway.

Finally, our newest addition Snickers. He is a rascally beagle.

Mackenzie

Massage

We're going to go backwards and forwards so eventually all the posts will meet in the middle but you see my past and present. This is a present post.

On Friday I had my first massage. It was really weird but very nice. Here I am at 9 a.m. I'm exhausted and late because I thought snooze was a good idea. Oh and I couldn't remember if you drink lots of water before or after a massage so I downed a huge water bottle.

I get there and all the receptionist kept saying is, "we're running out of time." Like yes I know. Can we just skip to massage? I know I was late.

I meet my massage therapist and she's super nice. I go in the room and undress and lay under the comfiest blanket and I knew I was going to have to try hard to stay awake.

My massage therapist comes back in and moves the blanket and I was like, "hey I liked that blanket." (disclaimer: I didn't say anything you read out loud)

She starts in on my shoulders which were suuuuuper tight. And I have to say that that part hurt. But whatever I was still trying not to fall asleep but also be totally Zen and banish all thoughts from my mind. Okay, yeah, tell my ADHD that. I move my tongue around in my mouth because I read somewhere that the average human can fall asleep in 7 minutes if they're absolutely still. I had an hour and I was determined not to fall asleep.

At this point we're halfway through (my shoulders are so tight she spent a majority of time on them) and I have to pee from drinking all that water! Obviously I can't do anything about it until we're done.

She starts doing what I call the rolling pin (this was my favorite) and used her arm like a rolling pin and my back was dough. It was heaven.

She lifts one arm to rest next to my head. And in that moment I have a very big concern. When was the last time I shaved my armpits?? I knew she would totally go judge me with her co-workers after if she saw my hairy pits.

Next came my feet. I don't really have nice feet. In fact I have tyrannosaurus rex toes. But I knew I shaved my legs recently and so they were barely pokey. The challenge here was when she massaged my feet. I wanted it down but knew I was ticklish. I had to use all of my remaining will power to not laugh or flinch.

When she finally flipped me over with about ten minutes left I was concerned whether I should close my eyes or keep them open. Well I didn't want to be staring at her awkwardly so I closed my eyes.

All I could thing about was how cold her breath was but at least it smelt good.

My mind wouldn't stay still long enough to create a full thought but I enjoyed It and didn't fall asleep.

Mackenzie

Living With Anxiety Part 2

Anxiety is hard. It's not all black and white and it can be overcome. Bear got outside last night. Bear who has just turned into a people loving cat.

This picture was taken probably about 5 minutes before he got out. My dog was making barfing noises and I took him outside so he wouldn't ruin anything in the house (he didn't end up getting sick) I walked him around for a bit and we went to go back inside. I open the door and bam! Bear is on the wrong side. I immediately panic. Bear was a feral cat and you could see in his eyes he remembered this place and loved it out here. I took out treats and shook them which usually works like a charm except when the cat has something more valuable, like freedom. I couldn't get near this cat who just fifteen minutes ago was loving me and wanting me to pet him constantly. I got our cat leash in case I could get close enough to grab him. The dog wouldn't stay inside and was eating all of my bait so I went to the next best thing and shut him in my car. He loves cars so he was happy while I was panicking. I was determined to get this cat back and at that moment because we have fisher cats (or bear weasels) that live in our backyard and they weren't taking another one of my pets. So initially my anxiety triggered a fight response. I called Pat still panicking and as my rock he told me to calm down and grab a blanket to see if I could cover him. Just a two minute phone call made me realize I needed to be cool and collected but still work fast. I noticed Bear was running circles around my car and not venturing further when I walked near him. I realized I just had to approach this a different way. I had to get him to go away from me instead of come to me. I quickly locked our other cat in the bedroom and chased Bear around the car and just as I predicted he ran straight into the house when the door was open. Saying I was relieved is an understatement. I've worked for months trying to get Bear to open up to humans and he finally loved us. He may have regressed some after last night but he's home safe. All I had to do was breathe and reevaluate.

Mackenzie

P.S. I didn't forget the dog in the car either.

P.P.S. Thanks Pat.

Sickness Survival Kit

So here again I blog of sickness. It wasn't long after the first sick post that the second one showed up.

This one differs slightly. There's a different book and a new box of tissues. Still have some water but added honey to the mix just in case it's "allergies". I would eat two spoonfuls of honey a day. The thought of it makes me cringe now. I love honey but in such high concentrations nuh uh. Oh and the TV remote. I rarely watch TV so I must have been really sick if I was watching TV.

To be continued....

Mackenzie

The Summer of Flowers

Who would want to spend their summers taking a plant summer class....this science nerd here. I spent 12 hours a week looking at plants, dissecting them and classsifying them. It was an awesome summer. A good friend of mine was in the class and I probably spent more time sticking my finger and scalpel under her microscope than looking at my own plants. I'm not great at school. In fact I'm a dropout. But the classes I did take (four years of them) I at least tried to have fun in. We spent the summer exploring state parks and woods looking for different flowers. It was that summer that I felt at one with nature until I picked the plant because then it was dead. But I sat and studied plants for hours. I still do it from time to time but it made me appreciate flowers more and taught me to stop and look at them.

Take some time to look at flowers.

Mackenzie

That Time I Owned The Batmobile

In college I owned a flat, matte black car. It was a 1994 Ford Shadow. It didn't take me long to figure out I could use chalk on my car. It started as flowers along the door.

But soon revolved into the Bat Mobile. Everyone knew my car. I would leave home everyday with chalky hands to ensure that there was a bat symbol on the front of my car. 

It was a task to make sure that the Bat symbol was always there. One day my friend's dad had made me two magnets of the Bat symbol. I didn't have to draw it anymore. Instead I just stuck one of the magnets on the front.

My sister and I were at Party City one day around Halloween. We walked out to find the Bat magnet was gone. Most likely taken from the punk teens parked next to us. Luckily I had two magnets and I simply moved the magnet from the door to the hood. 

It was all fun and games until the following January when the Bat Mobile was rearended on a somewhat snowy day. It was the day before I was supposed to start my spring semester. I was in a neck brace and wrist brace and my pride and joy, the Bat Mobile was totalled. Of course during the first class we were supposed to introduce ourselves and such. I quickly removed my neck brace and supported my head with my hand because I didn't want to be known as the girl in the neck brace for the rest of the semester.

Mackenzie