there will be better days.

Yesterday was a less than grand day. I woke up in the middle of the night and had diffculty falling back asleep despite being very tired. When I did eventually fall asleep, I had a series of bad dreams, the worst of which was dreaming that my dad died. I woke up feeling sad because the dream I had just had was so vivid it felt real...I hate it when that happens. Anyhow, within minutes of waking up, my mom informed me that my parents had made the decision to have our cat, Pumpkin, put down. We had him for about 17 years (I was in Kindergarten when we got him), so he's pretty much always been around. He was a good cat, albeit a little weird. He definitely had his quirks, but we loved him in spite of them. Over the last year, maybe more, his health has been declining. He looked like skin and bones and couldn't keep any food down. (Although, miraculously, he didn't throw up once the week I was here alone with him...that's the last thing I wanted to clean up!) I'm pretty sure this cat was on his tenth life, though. A couple of years ago he acted like he was getting old, could barely move, etc. We thought those were his last days. Then we introduced three new cats into our house (that's a story in itself) and he acted like a kitten again. My mom got stuck with the task of taking him to the SPCA yesterday, and I got stuck cleaning the house to remove his memory...threw away the blanket he always slept on, picked up the 3 food dishes because now we only need 2, etc. Such a sad day!

This is Pumpkin (back) with Charlie:

We'll miss Pumpkin, but not like Charlie will...they were buddies...

To top off the day, my dad's car wouldn't start when he ran an errand at lunch, so I had to go pick him up and take him back to work. My parents tell me I obviously can't get a job because then there will be nobody to bail them out :)

At least today has gone better than yesterday. I went downtown to the county superintendent of school's office and was finally able to complete the paperwork to be placed on the substitute teacher list. Now all I need to do is to actually apply to the districts I want to sub in...any more hoops you would like me to jump through?