Feels Like the First Time

Ok so that title is kinda stupid, but I heard that song on the radio on my way to work this morning and thought I'd steal it :).

'Feels like the first time' kinda describes the way I felt when I walked into the office yesterday morning. A little excited; a little nervous. But after I got here and fired up my laptop everything was as if I'd never left. Kinda. I mean, there are a few people who are acting weird, but I guess you'll have that.

My flight Wednesday was uneventful, without delays which was very nice. Except I started out by having to go through a fairly thorough inspection by one of the TSA agents. Not sure why but it didn't get me down. I kind of laughed about it most of the morning. Of course, if I'd been running late that might have changed, but whatever.

So, I'm here in my hometown of Fairmont, WV for the next week for work. They set me up with a nice, rugged, sort of beat-up, pick-up truck complete with the safety strobe, backup alarm and highway cones in the bed :). But it has wheels and pretty safely gets me from here to there, so I'm tickled with it!

While yesterday was fine for me in many aspects, I got an unsettling text from Pete mid-morning. I'd purchased some bean bag chairs for us to sit on when we watch tv and one arrived Wednesday evening. When I talked to Pete before bed Wednesday night, he was happy. Thursday morning, he texted me that I'd better get another bean bag chair because Paris ruined the one we'd just received. AWESOME.

So, right away I called him. He seemed ok. Said he'd just gotten up. It was only about 7am there. I asked what happened and he said Paris had peed on the new, twill bean bag chair. Then he started into how he was going to look for a second job so he could keep up with all the furniture we're going to have to replace if she kept peeing on stuff. He even said he was thinking about selling all of the furniture we have in storage because it was all bound to be ruined anyway. And he told me all of this in a normal, conversational voice which usually is not a good sign. So I started apologizing and said I didn't know what to do about Paris. I told him he could put the cats in the bathroom when he's not there, to be sure. But apparently when I say 'I don't know what to do' about anything, it sets him off. So, we weren't talking much and he asked if I had anything to say since neither of us were talking. I told him I was sorry and I didn't know what else to talk about because he sounded so mad. He said he wasn't mad; he'd just woken up but that I was making him very angry. So we hung up pretty fast after that.

I went about my day fairly normally. I was pretty exhausted yesterday so I left work at a reasonable time to go home and check out my apartment and go through my mail. I had a nice, relaxing evening. Watched New Moon for the hundredth time, in preparation for going to see Eclipse on Saturday. And mixed myself a nice, tasty beverage. Ahhhhh :).

I called Pete before bed to see if anything had gotten better and that may have been a bad idea. He was sleeping and you know how much fun it is to wake a sleeping bear. So I asked him how he was and he said he'd had a terrible day. The morning was awful and things hadn't gotten any better throughout the day. But he never wants to talk to me about what happens at work, so I dropped it. I asked if we still had two cats in the apartment and he said yes. He said Paris was hissing at him from 5 feet away now and seemed kind of upset about it. So I asked if he'd done anything to her, meaning to ask if he'd punished her for peeing on the chair. For anyone out there with cats, you know that doesn't do any good. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because he got really upset and asked why I thought he was always 'doing things' to them. So I clarified and he said no, he hadn't done anything. So, I dunno. Our conversation was short, but I feel pretty helpless since I'm 3,000 miles away from him right now. There's not a damn thing I can do about anything happening there.

So, I'm determined to be happy today. And when Pete calls me this morning, I will cheer him up with my cheerfulness. I may suggest he marinade himself in catnip. Then Paris will surely love him. And I'm going to suggest he make sure he gets the 'ruined' chair out of sight. Maybe that's setting her off. It's definitely a concern if she's doing this now since we'll be moving again once we find a house.

Anyway, that's how my first day back in WV went :). My apartment greeted me with a fowl stench that came from the humidity and the fact that Pete had turned my air conditioning completely off before we left. So, this holiday weekend will find me cleaning my apartment, from ceiling to floor. Since there aren't any furry people walking around, I can get rid of some cat hair once and for all :).

There will be house hunting updates over the weekend. Lots of excitement there! Out of three houses we decided we liked, all three had offers before we could get ours in; one of them above asking price. So that's awesome. BUT, two of those offers may fall through, so Pete's going to go out with our agent on Saturday and look at a couple of places.

I'll post new pictures there as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!

As Always,
Easily Distracted