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2004-11-18 - 11:18 p.m. over the hill there's always another hill So, happy birthday to me! I actually should say happy birthday to my cat. It's her birthday today. But earlier this week it was my birthday. We're both the same age! Allowing for that "in cat years" thing and all. She's six years old, and from all reports, that's the same as 40. Happy 40 to us! After this she'll be older than me. That doesn't mean she gets to be in charge, though. Because, like, I'm really the one in charge now. I evicted a mouse from the house yesterday. She'd been chasing it around since Saturday, and if she knew I threw it out, she'd probably be really mad at me. Sorry to take away the cool toy, but, ick, indoor rodent. Saturday I was sleeping in, and I was wakened by my husband downstairs yelling, "Just catch him already!" I figured he was watching CSPAN as usual and wondered who was trying to catch who now. But then I heard the scrambling chasing noises. I got up, and at the bottom of the stairs was the cat, chasing a mouse. She'd chase him a few feet in one direction, then get ahead of him and block his path, and he'd stop. Then he'd run back in the other direction, and she'd do the same thing again. Then back to the left. Then to the right. Left again. Right again. Textbook definition of "cat and mouse." When the mouse would just sit and not run, she'd watch him, and she'd actually sit down and recline there, staring at the mouse, like, "come on, entertain me some more!" She'd even start to get bored and look away. If she'd actually wanted to catch the thing, she could have reached out and gotten him with one WHAP. But she has no clue she's supposed to be this thing's enemy. It's just a really cool self-powered toy. Later in the day I heard my husband in the next room, talking to the cat. He said, "You didn't catch that mouse, did you? You didn't do your job!" Then he said, "Did you at least have fun? Good girl." Sometimes I wonder about him, but he's a good guy. Anyway, yesterday I was home, in the living room, and the cat was upstairs. I got up and walked into the kitchen, and right in the middle of the kitchen floor - mouse. I screamed of course. I can't help it. My husband get annoyed at me for those screams but it's not like I see the mouse, voluntarily process the thought, "oh, a mouse, I think I'll scream and see if I can break glass." It just happens. Funny thing is, I don't know why this mouse was there, right then. The cat didn't put it there. It wasn't there ten minutes earlier when I had walked through the kitchen, and she'd been upstairs the whole time. But there was this mouse. And it didn't even really look dead. Just seriously exhausted. I have never before seen a mouse spread out on the floor, on its belly, all four legs stretched straight out. The thing looked like it had just been walking through the kitchen when it suddenly thought, I just can't take another step, I totally need a nap - and plop - unconscious. I did think it was dead though, so I was trying to figure out how to get it out of my floor. I got the dust pan and this short broom that goes with it, and swept the mouse into the dust pan. At which point it wiggled its nose a little and tried to roll over. At which point I started shrieking NO!!!!!!!!! JUST STAY RIGHT THERE!!!!! It's a good thing the little thing did wiggle though, or it would have found itself in several layers of grocery bags, stuffed in a trash can in the garage. Very Edgar Allan Mouse. But no, I ran outside and got as far back in the back yard as I thought I could get before it came all the way awake and tried to run up my arm or something. Luckily the mouse's strategy seemed to be "maybe I should stay calm and wait for all the running and yelling to stop before I make a move." So it just sat there blinking and wiggling until I put the dust pan down and it ran away. Hopefully now it will fly south, or do whatever mice do in the winter. Living in my house is not an option. Anyway. My sister teased me to death about turning 40 (she's older, but that didn't stop her). She asked me if I felt 40, and I said, hmm... is 40 where you have 4 concerts to go to in 4 different states in the next 12 days, and where you're currently planning a road trip for early next year that will cover 4 completely other states in the course of 4 days? If it is, then, yeah. None of the four immediately impending shows is with my band, but I can't just go cold turkey while they're on a tour break. One is with my Mr. Thinks-He's-Not-A-Rock-Star though. I have a traveling goal. At this point I've visited 44 of the 50 US States. I think that's pretty dang cool. My goal is to take out 5 of the remaining 6 by the end of 2005. Hawaii's going to be a tricky one, so that one may have to wait - unless it turns up on the tour schedule, of course. But the trip I'm planning at the moment, if all goes well, will cover two of those six. After that I guess I'll need a passport! Oh, look what one of my friends sent me for my birthday. They're perfect! And she doesn't even know about this diary. But she has definitely met the Rock Chick. 
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