Exactly Where You Need To Be

Last night, around 11:00 at night, a firetruck appeared in the parking lot of my apartment building. I was working on the latest batch of edits from my diss committee and, upon realizing it was a firetruck, proceeded to pack up my iMac with such efficiency I imagine I would be an Olympic contender were it an event. 

The firetruck at the wrong address. 

This dissertation has done weird things to me.

In other news, Wrench appears to have been adopted! I stopped at the shelter yesterday and was informed he didn't last long, being snatched up by a little girl and her family as a birthday present. Happy birthday, indeed. 

This is Wrench. 

I found him wandering through my apartment building yesterday, no collar, no identification. Thinking someone in my locked building would claim him, I poster fliers throughout the building but, sadly, here we sit thirty-six hours later. Wrench is in the kitchen, tossing a paper ball around. 

Tomorrow, he's heading to the no-kill animal shelter. I can't keep him; in between preparing for the move and my dissertation defense, I have no patience for a kitten and this is a kitten who deserves someone with patience, someone who won't threaten him with an oven roasting when they are writing against a deadline and all he wants to do is play. 

There is guilt about it, dropping him off like this, but that I've done my best to do right by this cat (I went door to door, with the meowing feline - finally met all the neighbors; there are bags of kitty litter and food beneath my sink - these are huge things for someone who is not a cat person) will have to be a salve. 

Ugh. Wrench indeed. 

Landmarks, Deadlines, and Other Scary Things

Hi.

I'm still around, I swear.

There hasn't been any misconduct. These dissertation things are intense, leaving little time or space for anything else. Throw in a new move, preparations for a new job, trying to send out just one more article...

It's been bananas.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

But: things are moving. 30-day notice given at my apartment, movers scheduled to pick my things up and store them while I finish writing in Michigan, and a defense date set.

All in the last twelve hours.

Did I mention: bananas?