Vote!

I've been volunteering at a no-kill cat shelter in north Raleigh for more than three years, starting with cleaning shifts and recently taking on responsibility as an adoption counselor. The shelter, Safe Haven for Cats, does some amazing work in the area and I'm really proud to be a part of it. We are primarily a rescue organization for stray and abandoned cats but we have been putting a lot of effort into expanding our low-cost spay/neuter clinic. I look forward to my Thursday night cleaning shifts because there's really nothing better than snuggling up to a kitten at the end of a crappy or stressful day. My Winnie came from Safe Haven (you can read about her on page 7 of this newsletter) and I'm still amazed by all the effort, money, and love they put into saving her.

Anyway, this is all to say that our founder, Pam Miller, has been nominated for the Animal Planet "Cat Hero of the Year" award. The grand prize is $10,000 for the shelter, which would be unbelievable. This shelter is her life and she is always there checking on the cats, working with our vet to distribute medicines, helping community members trap feral cats to bring to our spay/neuter clinic, and planning the next fundraising event. You can vote for her here - you don't have to enter an email or any other info - just click!

The blind kitties thank you!

You Can't Go Wrong With $2 Bets

I heard a song by Au Revoir Simone on the radio on the way to work yesterday that has become one of my favorite songs ever and I've been singing it in my head pretty much constantly the past two days. The first few lines of "Night Majestic":
We want to celebrate
and there's a place that we go
where the horses are for show
and they race for prize at the end of the line
and it impresses us.

For several years our family would celebrate my grandma's birthday at Ellis Park in Kentucky (but not across the river!). My parents would always give my sister and me $20 to spend on horses but we were too young to place our own bets so my parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins would have to buy our $2 tickets (always to show - maybe place if we were feeling lucky) for us. We'd fill the time between races with trips to the buffet, walks down to the track, and intense sessions scouring the listings for the next race. I think I made out ahead one year but technically I guess I was always ahead since I never spent my own money. I don't think I would really enjoy off-track betting but you can't beat an afternoon at the track.


And a kind of poor-quality video of "Night Majestic"...

Today is the first day since last winter I'm wearing what I call my organ playing shoes. (Side note: woah) My church growing up used to have lots of middle school lock-ins and my friends and I would always go up in the choir loft and play with the organist's shoes. My friend Melissa was the only one with feet small enough to fit in the shoes and she would perform tap dances for the rest of us. This has become all I can think about whenever I look at these shoes.

I Think I Missed Something

My grandmother recently mailed me a card in this envelope:

Since when did a kitty cat drawing become acceptable USPS tender?

Friday Wrap-Up

Reading - I left Nicholas and Alexandra imprisoned at Tsarskoe Selo and took The Virgin Suicides to the beach. The narrator and the relationship of the narrator to the main characters bothered me up until the end but it was worth reading. (But nowhere near as good as Middlesex.)

Watching - The Style channel (network?) has been showing the first three seasons of The Biggest Loser and I'm totally hooked. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's really inspiring to watch these people work their asses off (literally!) to reach goals they always thought were unachievable. I totally want a trainer like Jillian to come yell at me on the treadmill.

Winning - trivia! The Non-Profiteers cruised to victory on Wednesday, taking home free pizza, appetizer, several hours of free pool, and Guinness pint glasses. It's no PBR t-shirt but it'll do.

Missing - the beach. Our Labor Day weekend beach trip was so much fun. The weather great and we spent our non-beach time cooking and eating great meals, playing horseballs on the front lawn, and cheering the Golden Bears to victory. I have a few good pictures I'll try to post at some point.

Avoiding - studying for the GRE. How annoying is it that my perfectly good GRE scores from 2002 expire this fall? (Answer: super)