Fabulous cat bed
2006-03-20 - 9:25 p.m.

We needed a couple super-sized bags of cat food from Petsm@rt this weekend and I picked out this kitty bed while we were there:

So far Spice is the only one who has gotten in it. Doesn't she look glamorous with her fluffy blue maribou trim? They had another cat bed that looked like a little fluffy pink couch, and it was really cute, but I decided on the blue one instead because the cats like being cozy and curled up, which the little blue bed was perfect for.

The picture I took right before that didn't turn out as well. I was snapping my fingers to get Spice's attention and I unintentionally got Miki's attention, too. She jumped up and started sniffing the camera and I said, "Your head better not be in the way."

I hope Miki will sleep in the bed eventually, too. Oh, and those wires hanging down in the back are from the sewing machine, which is on the table above spice, and the space heater. B said the wires there make it look like Spice is in a bottle.

I was reading the Dear Abby column earlier today and a 32-year-old mom had written in, asking for Abby's opinion about a slumber party her pre-adolescent daughter had been invited to. The dillema was that the party was to include girls and boys, and this young mom was wondering if she was just tragically unhip or if this sounded a little weird? Abby's advice was, if you don't want your daughter going to this slumber party, don't let her go; you're the parent and it's up to you regardless of how much the time's are a-changin' (or not).

I feel like such an old lady saying this but, when I was a pre-adolescent it was a huge deal to go to just a regular party with boys and girls. When I was 11 I had to beg and beg to go to a boy's birthday party that he was having at a local swim/tennis club. A slumber party with boys and girls would've been out of the question. Are parents really allowing this sort of thing now? And if so, what are they (not) thinking? I don't understand.

Between the ages of about 25 and 29 I used to wonder when I would finally feel like an adult. I had my own place, was married and working full-time but still I felt like a kid, mostly I think because I constantly compared myself with my mom and I still mistakenly believed that she was always right. I felt like I wouldn't truly be an adult until I learned how to handle things the way she did.

I've since come to realize that wasn't the answer. I don't need to be a clone of my mom to be an adult. Listening to teenagers masacre the English language in some of the interviews I transcribe makes me feel kind of disgusted with the youth of today, and that makes me feel like an adult...or rather, a crotchedy old lady. Mutually griping with my dad about the cost of precriptions and all our aches and pains makes me feel like an adult. But the thing that's really enabled me to feel like an adult was breaking away from my mom and finally becoming someone other than just her daughter.

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