What is it about Q-tips and cats?

In my old place, I had a drawer in which Q-tips lived.

In my new place, the Q-tips were relegated to a small glass container that sat on a shelf just above the toilet.

That is, until I knocked over the glass container and had to spend some quality time vacuuming the little shards off of the tiled floor.

And now the Q-tips are roaming free, and if I don't put them away, I come home to Q-tips strewn around the apartment, cotton-batteny goodness stretched out as far as possible.

I've heard that other kitties like Q-tips too. They seem to be great toys.

But, why?

Dinner with D

Dinner last night with D was great.

He picked me up at just after 6 and we headed straight to an Italian restaurant near my place without delay. If I would have put more thought into the whole 'what to eat' situation, I would have suggested we drive AWAY from the center of the city, but by the time I paid attention, we were long headed TOWARDS the center.

The restaurant was packed by the time we got there, even though it's only a Thursday evening. We ventured into the bar with our pager, and I pondered on which alcoholic beverage to order.

D ordered red wine, and after a bit of pondering, I ordered a Caesar.

When it arrived, it was garnished with a big stick of celery and a wee-plastic-sword kabob consisting of a pickled onion, three thin slices of pepperoni, and an olive. Sometimes the differences in garnish on a Caesar makes me want to set a goal of ordering Ceasars at every restaurant I come across, just to see what THEY garnish it with.

After about 20 minutes of chatting about life and recent events and our immediate plans for the next few days, our pager lit up and our hostess showed us to a table in the corner.

When we sat down, I took a quick glance over the food menus (for some reason, there were two, so I concentrated on the one with the least number of copywritten and trademarked components mentioned) and then moved my attention to the drinks menu.

Such pretty pictures on the drinks and dessert menu's...

I decided on a "girly drink" - a cherry-and-pineapple-juice-with-bubbling-wine drink.

And then I turned to D and told him I was glad he wasn't into "girly drinks" himself. Or "chick flicks". Maybe I'm just a snob, but I always felt a little creeped out by the fact that my Ex loved both girly drinks and chick flicks MUCH more than I ever did. I mean, maybe if I were more of a "girly girl" I wouldn't have noticed it so much, but I'm so not anywhere near being a girly girl.

As often happens when I'm with D, our conversations turned to relationships and love. He's been a bit of a sounding board over the past 6-9 months when it comes to me trying to understand my wants, needs, and limitations, and he appreciates being able to speak openly with me about his own feelings of love and admiration.

Often, however, I'm reminded of how very different the two of us are - while we're good friends and are interested in each other's lives and he's been a solid emotional supporter during a very difficult time, we've got very little in common. Certainly, if the stars were lined up differently and we were able to make a "go" of something more than loving friendship, it would end in a very nasty, ugly way.

Or maybe in a passive-aggressive way, since that's more my nature.

At any rate, I've decided that when I do begin to consider dating again, a guy who is obviously feeling serious heat for my best girlfriend is going to be shown the door. There is, after all, such thing as too much reality in a physical or verbal sense.

Somebody Loves Me

I'm a fortunate woman, in that I am regularly reminded that I am loved from many angles of my life.

I have great parents who not only treat me like an adult - they started the peer-level discussions when I was in my early 20's. Plus, they're still together and getting along and have recently passed 45(!) years together.

I have siblings with whom I always feel at home, even if we haven't talked for a long time since I'm shitty at reaching out.

I have nephews that treat me like gold despite the fact that I'm shitty at responding, reaching out or even acknowledging birthdays. Which reminds me, I have a hand-written letter to respond to...

I have two ... "best" friends, S (female) and D (male). Which I guess is just my way of saying they're in my innermost circle of contact; they know the "real me" the best.

Tomorrow night, S will be coming over and staying over for the night. Then, after D and I get back from our Saturday morning workout, we'll be packing up S's futon and helping her bring it back to her new house down the street.

Tonight, however, D is taking me out for dinner. It'll be low-key, because I'm a low-key kinda girl, but it'll be nice to get out and spend the time with my friend.