intervention. or, stepping in poop in my own house

Cats are awesome. Willowberry (or Wilbur, as I sometimes call her, because she is a piggy) is super awesome. She is cute and very photogenic, and someday I'm sure she'll be the star of Lolcats. I mean, just look at these pictures at the bottom of the page!

If you ever happen to meet WB, however, you may notice that the hair around her back legs and the base of her tail is strangely butchered. You will have noticed correctly. I have many times performed emergency haircuts on the little beast, for reasons which I will detail here.

WB sometimes has bowel issues. About once a month I'll hear strange noises and realize that WB is...er...stuck. She has extraordinarily soft, long hair, and this sometimes gets in the way when she's doing her bidness. No need to be too graphic, but sometimes those little logs get caught in the fur, and WB goes frantic trying to get if off....all. over. my. hardwood. floor. (Well, I guess carpet would be worse.)

Thankfully, this has happened when I've been at home to intervene except for one time...when I came home from the lib at midnight, exhausted, ready for bed, and found IT all over my floor.....but as I said, most of the time I am there to snatch the offending kitty up and throw her into the bathroom.

Let me tell you, trying to trim stuff out of the fur of a very angry 11-pound feline while you hold her down on your lap is dangerous stuff. For me because I risk getting IT all over me, and because she bites reeeeeeallly hard; and for her, because the more she struggles, the more likely it is that my scissors are gonna slip and snip something that shouldn't be snipped.

This morning we had an incident--ironically right before I went to get my hair cut. (By a professional, and not because there was anything stuck in it, fyi.)

I thought I cleaned it all up. I thought wrong. Because when I got home after a long day at school and traffic and spending money at Wally world, I got home and went into the bathroom...and squish. Apparently I missed something in my morning cleanup. 'Nuff said.

P.S. Lest you think my house is a den of germs and vileness, let me assure you that my floor is sparklingly disinfected and clean. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn't scrub the floor on a regular basis if it weren't for WB...so I guess I should be thankful. Or not.

Watching Tv.

See that halo? It's not real.

Why are you reading this, mommy, and not paying attention to me?

One little spark....

The way she rides in da car

Before she got fat

why i'm going to buy myself a present

Today I ran a 10k trail race at Harbison State Park. It was in fact slightly more than 10k--it was 6.4 miles. The fact that I did not fall flat on my face is indeed an accomplishment. I was honestly preparing myself for at least one wipeout, because that trail has plenty of roots and rocks. Within the first mile I did step on a rock and twisted my ankle a bit, but no serious damage and I forged ahead. I didn't fall down or break anything! It probably would make for a much more interesting blog if I had crashed and burned, but such is life.

(The fastest woman overall actually did wipe out..she had mud all over her front at the end and yet she somehow still comes in with like a 40-minute race???? Whatever.)

AND who would've guessed--I won a prize. Well, everyone won a prize, pretty much. I got 2nd place in my age group, but considering there were only about five chicks in my age group that ain't saying much. Still, considering I was going to be happy just to finish the race period I did pretty darn good. Also, my prize is a pair of pretty sweet socks.



AND there were tons of free Fiber One bars at the end which of course made my day.


YUM

A quick note here to guys who wear running shorts with 3-inch inseams: you are disgusting. Seriously. After the race I was sitting on the grass with everyone else and this one guy in particular with giraffe legs was walking around...I could not even look up because I was too frightened by what I might see. Seriously, guys, there is nothing wrong with wearing basketball shorts when running. Nothing at all. This is, as they say a complete fail:



Anyway. The fact is, I have always been a solo runner, and though relatively consistent, I haven't been super motivated. I've done only two races, and both of them 5ks, but lately I've been pushed to doing about 6 miles at a stretch---I FINALLY joined a running group and it is the best thing ever. I run with people who push me and stretch me, and when everyone else talks about the various quadruple marathons and 60-milers they are doing this month it kinda inspires you to get your game on. So, when my running friend MK suggested I sign up for this race, I decided to get off my butt and go for it. And that is why I am going to buy myself a present.

A new kitteh, perhaps?

where shopping is a pleasure. also a note on kittehs

Columbia doesn't offer much in the way of a good, clean grocery store. Let's see...we have Food Lion, which I have already mentioned. No further comments are necessary. Then there is Bi-Lo...which is my store of choice when I'm in Greenville. However, here in Columbia the Bi-Los seem to be in the sketchiest parts of town. I have to say that WalMart is the place to go to lower the bill a bit, but I'm always in a horrid mood by the time I drag my overloaded cart through the one line that is usually open.

BUT there is a place that absolutely makes me happy. It sparkles. It's green. It's an absolute joy to visit. It is, in fact, a pleasure to shop there.
Publix just makes me happy! I don't even make a list when I go there because I enjoy browsing the aisles and seeing what's available and what's on sale. Is that weird? Perhaps. It's not as weird as certain people who keep coupon clipping notebooks (hehe) but you know what? It's clean. It's in a cool renovated old mill building. Sometimes it has BOGO sales on EXACTLY the product I am craving. Amazing!

The staff are super awesome too. Of course, today the bagger boy seemed to be having a li'l trouble getting the bagging right (should we really put the milk jug in a bag with the bananas? I'm just saying.) But let's give him a break--he was probably overwhelmed with my appearance: the In'n'Out t-shirt, sweaty pontyail, and delicious aroma of Eau De 6-Mile-Run knocks 'em dead.

But seriously, I love Publix.

On a different note: today I went to a bad, bad place. It's called Pets Inc. and I went with Shan, who is widely-known to be obsessed with dogs. It has been lately commented that I am obsessed with kittehs, which of course I am. Animal places are very bad for me, because I tend to want to take things home with me. Like kittehs. (Hmmm...more on that later.) I was unprepared, however, for the Den of Kittehs present at Pets Inc. At the Greenville Humane Society there is usually a good number of cats, but this place had this room where there were a bajillion cats all loose. Everywhere I looked there was another cat. there were multi-layered cat beds with a cat stuffed in every hole. Every nook and cranny was filled with cat. It was like a Hitchcock film, and I was Tippi Hedren.

Silver lining: I was so overwhelmed that I didn't even feel compelled to bring one home! Also, I was busy convincing Shan to LEAVE THE RATDOG IN ITS KENNEL, SHAN. No, Shannon, seriously, PUT the drop-kick pup BACK in the CAGE.......

This week in Shakespeare we had a substitute professor while our dear old Dr. R has been away (he's so, d'you know, funny, d'you know, with his little manners of speech, don't you know?)

Anyway, Dr. G, who happens to be my advisor, was the guest prof. He is awesome too. He's like a squirrel--a small, balding squirrel with earrings! Sometimes I want to pat him on the head and feed him peanuts.


However, despite his very squirrelly appearance, Dr. G is extremely smart. Much too smart for our class, actually. Even though everyone in the class is getting either a Masters or a Doctorate, we all just sit there staring like zombies. As we went over MacBeth today, I started to feel slightly bored, so I began to doodle in my notebook. There are more doodles and weird designs in my notebooks than there are notes (also my half of the many conversations between my fellow student Shannon about the obnoxious behavior of our other classmates. We two, however, are never obnoxious) So today, I drew a little doodle, and it looked like this:

I had nothing in mind when I was doodling, but when Shannon looked over and asked what it was, I wrote the first thing that came to my mind. To help you understand, Dr. G had been chatting away about the various mishaps and evil deeds of, and I quote, "MacBethLand." Sort of like Wonderland, perhaps? Like there's an entrance somewhere in this world that will drop us right in the middle of the lovely family drama of Lady M and MacBeth himself. Like we can do what the little girl did in Pan's Labyrinth, and draw a door, and there you go. Off to MacBethLand.

So..........It's a PORTAL! Duh!

I created the portal to MacBethLand. Which, of course, would be an interesting Land to enter since we never did find out what happened to Malcom and Donalbain, or Fleance, or the sneaky snarky wierd sisters.
MacBeth II, anyone?

P.S. The little note beside the portal that says "skinny-skin"--another cute little phrase of Dr. G's, who was discussing Banquo's skin of silver and blood of gold. He couldn't think of any other way to describe "normal" skin. Ah well.

I've had some questions about the title of my blog. The answer is simple:

Car·i·o·ca, n.
A native or inhabitant of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I am not, of course, a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but I like to think that I am a sort of semi-carioca because I just love the place so much. Also, I can speak a sort of mangled Portu-Spanish version of the language, and that always helps. Plus, check out the view from my the apartment I lived in:



Speaking of Rio, the brilliant idea flashed across minha mente that I should dig up all of the emails from my time there and reread them, picking out the most informative and didactic of the emails and sharing them here on my blog. Kidding, of course--I will only share the most hilarious ones, of which there are, in fact, many.

Also, I made real chicken breast from PUBLIX (more on that later) and combined with the couscous/broccoli/tomato salad leftovers from last night it was deeelishus.

there's a difference between chicken tenders and chicken breasts

Some of you may know that I'm a relatively good cook, when I actually attempt to cook something. However, apparently I missed the fact that tenders and breast are TOTALLY different.
A little background: I am sort of a freak about meat. I don't eat much of it, first of all, and part of that is health reasons but MOSTLY it's because I canNOT bear even the most miniscule speck of gristle, fat, etc etc. I get this from my dad, blame him.

Ok. I do like chicken, and I have for many months been determined to start making more chicken. Unfortunately, because the prep is such an ordeal for me, I usually don't make it. I used to gag when my mom prepped the turkey at Thanksgiving, and asked her how she could bear not to use rubber gloves; I have, however, moved past that point and can now handle raw meat with bare fingers. BUT it takes FOREVER for me to carve off every single little sliver of fat, every little rubbery tendon, etc etc, and usually half of the package of chicken ends up in the trash. But when I am using BONELESS SKINLESS chicken breast things usually turn out ok.

Well, some time ago I bought some chicken tenders at Food Lion (should have been my first clue of things to come). I thought, "Oh hey, this will save me some slicing time! Yay!"
Tonight, after a long day of sleeping through class (oops), going to my second class, running errands, applying for jobs, and doing a 5.92 mile run with the fellow runners in 5 points, I came home to make a yummy dinner.

Here's the news: chicken TENders have a TENdon that runs through the entire strip. It is DEESGUSTING. Not just your average tendon, this thing was the length and width and consistency of a rubber band. A big, white rubber band that split my tenders in half and destroyed them. I tried to pull said band out of tender and succeeded in shredding the piece of meat (hint: also don't buy meat from Food Lion; it's sketchy). I pulled away the nastiness and had about 0.0002 ounces of chicken left.
By this time I'm hungry and want to gag. I force myself to de-rubber band the rest of the strips and have a torn, ripped, nasty pile of chicken flesh.
I then proceeded to toss it on my George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine (thanks mom!) and waited for it to cook.

Note to all cooks: shreds of old chicken flesh from Food Lion don't cook well.

WB wouldn't even eat it. She does however have a nice hard little de-rubber-banded toy to bat around now.

I'm having ice cream.

I finally have a blog.

Hey there.

I've tossed around the idea of a blog for a couple years now. Never really felt motivated to actually create one, but now that I'm a full-time grad student and have a bunch of responsibility on my plate I decided to go for it. what's one more thing to keep up with? Maybe I'll cut back on my Hulu hours and actually start writing again for non-academic purposes like I used to in undergrad.

Also, I felt super NOT a part of the grad student blog community, which is what all my buddies here at USC seem to talk about when we go out. Now I can join in the convo and not feel like an under-achieving, non-blogging loser.

So, a shout-out and thanks to Shannon Townes, at goodgirlgonegrad, and Lydia Robins, at My Post-Argentine life. Also Sarah Adams.

Now what am I going to write about? Good question. My life is pretty boring. It used to be more exciting, for example, when I lived in Rio de Janeiro. Obviously. I'm thinking we'll be seeing a lot of posts about my super cat, Willowberry. Yeah, that's her name, and she is cool, and you can call her WB or Wilbur for short. Pictures to come.

Also, if you're not a family member and you're actually reading this, then OBRIGADA, many thanks, gracias, etc etc.