Disco Kitty Taco Bar

Not sure where I’m going with this post yet. I guess we’ll dive in and add a title and featured image afterwards. I’m home. Off for the rest of today, and all of tomorrow.

I just want to feel better.

I’m stuck on all the various stressors and trigger points.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be talking with my nurse practitioner.

Listening to Spotify. Still on my teen angst apocalypse vibes playlist.

I hope the cat can see a smidge of the backyard from where she’s sitting, through the gaps in the somewhat-angled blinds. Otherwise she’s kinda staring at nothing, with purpose. I was a little huffy with her when she wanted lovins while I was trying to handle my check-in and co-pay for tomorrow’s appointment, but I petted her, and brushed her, immediately after I had it all settled.

I’m just feeling worn down to a nub, and it’s affecting my outlook, and attitude.

SO what am I going to do about it, over the course of today and tomorrow? Apart from vent to my very, very kind nurse practitioner, with whom I have MANY many years of history, and who was so encouraging when I saw her in person for the first time in forever, that I cried?

Recently, I had mistakenly thought my appointment confirmation was about a physical therapy visit on the same street, since it didn’t specify, and that clinic has several buildings in that area.

Got there, and they said no, you’re seeing Pam today. Did not have enough time to get all the way back home to log on and do virtual, so I drove literally less than a block to the other medical office and saw her there, instead. She couldn’t stop talking about how great I looked, with all the weight I had lost.

I know she won’t see much when we connect virtually tomorrow, but I can tell her how great that’s been going. And she’ll be happy for me. That will be encouraging.

Still gotta have some salad or something today, speaking of which. Polished off the meatballs. They were SO GOOD!!! And on a super-duper sale, too. The cat was ALL over that, while I was cooking, both in the afternoon, when I added sauce to the meatballs, and in the evening, when I baked up the Texas toast with garlic and cheese, to go with everything.

I snapped a little. But there were so many loud noises of things being accidentally bumped off the counter. I struggle with sudden, loud noises, and with things falling off shelves and such.

And it’s frustrating because her digestion is so sensitive that even the smallest bit of people food isn’t good for her. So I have to be very careful about cleaning up pots and pans and plates immediately. And I was cranky AF, generally.

Well, she’s moved to cat-loaf position just in front one of the openings in the blinds.

She had a buddy here, for company, but they were NOT a good mix, in the end. And I have tried playing with her here and there, and she doesn’t respond to that much. Gave her catnip toys. She batted them briefly then let them be.

I’m gonna look into getting her a cat tree. She enjoys being up high. The high-heel shoe chair is a fan fave, as is her seat half-inside the purse I left on the kitchen counter. Hopefully, a cat tower would liven up her life a little. And I can see what else I can try. I don’t want her sad, or perpetually bored.

I think I’ve mentioned the cat tree idea before. I still have an unused birthday transaction discount waiting, that’s good until almost mid-July. Hm… maybe that’s what I’ll do as a pick-me-up. I imagine there will be some stress in its assembly. I know “easy to assemble” furniture generally is anything but, and tends to require the power tools they SWEAR you don’t need LOL. But let’s see what’s out there.

I suppose I could splurge and also get some kind of party light for the living room, to emulate kiddo’s kitty nightclub vibe, at their place. Don’t yet have a Bluetooth speaker, just the PC speakers in the living room. But I have my phone, by itself. Ideas… that other stuff would be more in reach if I avoided a nearly SEVEN FOOT HIGH cat tree, like the gorgeous pink one I see. But it is a very awesome cat tree.

Okay, I have since also found an adorable Bluetooth speaker, with a velcro strap, so you can hook it on things, if you so desire. I could maybe hook it on the rod for the vertical blinds in the living room? Or onto one of the bendable “arms” of the floor lamps out here. If the mood struck me, I could also hook it to the shower rod, as it is ALSO waterproof.

Also found a couple cute options in lighting, both like a curtain of string lights, with removable clips for attaching photographs. One featured DISCO BALLS, and the other one, ROSES. I am leaning toward disco balls. Cuz, dance party vibes. If I ever FINALLY pop fresh batteries in my INSTAX camera, we could take some fun photos to clip onto the lights. Maybe when kiddo visits.

OKAY… it was INTENSE. SO my birthday discount wouldn’t work on brands not sold directly by the store, itself. And it would only let me choose one special offer to apply, apart from their own sales. I kept trying to take OFF the 5% and add the $5 off with $40 or more since I couldn’t discount the cat tree, but it wasn’t working. I tried it on my phone. I tried it on my computer. On my PC, I lost the record of having had a $5 digital gift card, too!

Went BACK to my phone, where the gift card was just waiting. THEN it dawned on me that I hadn’t spent enough on qualifying items to use the $5 off (the 5% on the other hand would have saved me $1.85). They did have the kitty White Claw and lime catnip toy I had gotten Happy, but I found a different one, that I liked a bit better for Unity, so hers would be unique (not that she would know LOL). And by spending under an extra $4, the $5 promo code worked.

So the cat toy was basically free. And the gift card applied. So I saved $10. And the cat tree, while not eligible for additional discounts, was on sale by its manufacturer. SO… we are getting lights with light-up disco balls, a Bluetooth speaker, a dark gray cat tree (not the MASSIVE pink one, because kiddo wisely argued it might be a bit much, for a cat her age…and the smaller one is defs under ceiling height)… AND… catnip toys that look like a lime margarita with red sugar on the rim, and a lil red chili pepper! So she can finally participate in taco nights.

I had always made the joke when kiddo still lived here, when we made tacos, that the kitties said, “Taco cat spelled backwards is taco cat, so that means I should get a taco,” and I would reply, telling them no, they could NOT have a taco.

So we got all of that, for about the price of the pink cat tree, alone.

It’ll be fun to kind of decorate again. I’ll have to get my art back on the walls, too. The big-ass butterfly print I got at an old place of work, fell off one day. Rather heavy for how I had it mounted. And I still haven’t replaced the pieces I made myself, where I had taken them off the walls for the library art show. Looks a little bare out here.

I suppose I could also look into eventually getting more art supplies and making fresh things to display. All in time. I can see what paints are still good, and what should be tossed. And I do have some kinda itty bitty canvases as yet unused. Maybe for around the cat tree!!! A kitty art gallery! Though I would have to shuffle things around some. I have a poster and a decorative metal feather in that corner, now.

Anyhow. Things to anticipate. Online retail therapy.

And freshening up our space might boost my mood and the cat’s. And just generally keep me motivated to do stuff here. Care tasks and fun stuff, alike.

In the immortal words of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, “Don’t stop the disco.”