Yesterday I took a shower and wrapped my towel around me, as is my habit. Thena was perched on the back of the toilet tank, waiting for me to finish, as is her habit. She jumped up on my back, as she is sometimes wont to do, and her hind claws were digging into that apparently tender area between my shoulder blades and below my neck… nicely positioned in such a manner that there was very little I could do to dislodge her, especially as her not moving was causing me enough pain as it was.

I poked her stomach, I tried to push her feet, and all of this amused her about as much as one might expect. She started growling a little and gearing up for a fight. Now, picture me bent over at the waist, with a decently-sized cat perched on my back in a perfect position for me to do absolutely nothing. She’s angry, I’m in pain, and somewhere in there I started crying and she finally moved. I can’t remember the exact order of events, but I’m fairly certain I was crying for a bit before she deigned to move. I could tell by the feel of her getting off my back that one of her nails had been twisted in my back in such a manner as to make the whole process even more unpleasant.

I can’t exactly explain why it was I started crying, or even crying as strongly as I did. Possibly an overreaction to stress (after all, I was going back to work the next day), possibly just a reaction to the pain (and it was), or possibly just PMS. Whatever the cause, it continued for a bit after she had left, and I felt somewhat emotionally wonky for some time after that.

This morning, in my attempt to rush through my lunch preparations and catch the next train on time, I managed to slice my left index finger with the tip of the knife I was using to cut my apple up. It was deep enough that it bled for a while, even with the firm pressure I was applying. Once the bleeding had essentially stopped, I roused the Smooshy for a comfort hug and some pity. Oddly enough, I had somewhat pictured myself cutting my finger before it happened, though I remember picturing a deep slice at the knuckle, which seems to be my favourite doom-and-gloom visualization.

Hopefully these aren’t portents of the year to come; I have no reason to believe that 2006 will be a bad year. With any luck, this year will see big changes happening – in fact, some of these are potentially already underway. But until they’re more definite, I probably won’t be speaking of them too much (though some people are already in the know).

Although in a final slightly ‘down’ omen, the copper ring that my aunt gave me for Christmas is turning my finger grey/green (yeah, I know), but also appears to be either developing or losing a coating on the outer surface. I may have to retire this ring, which would be a shame; for now I’m just trying to see if I can outlast the oxidization (some rings I have had turn your finger strange colours, but then stop; we’ll see if this is to be one of those). Thankfully, although it does need some resizing, the ring from the Smooshy has caused no problems thus far.

I’ve also decided that my birth control is that which is responsible for my loss of libido, and will be endeavouring to make improvements in that regard. I have another prescription that I can revert to for now, and if it once again tanks my mood or doesn’t seem to be helping, I can speak to my doctor. Fortunately I’m due for a physical in a few months and can address the problem then, but in the meantime, it’s a tiresome subject to continue spatting about, especially if it’s – at least to some extent – outside of my realm of control.

And on a final note before I wrap this up and head off to the gym, I’m going to be trying to write short descriptive pieces that will appear on The Angry Apostrophe. This will be a way for me to practice describing things, people, places, events; I feel this is one of my weaknesses as a writer. Maybe from there I can move on to writing actual stories – or at the very least it will be writing again. Although at some point I may post the beginnings of the piece I was writing that was my version of an “Office Space”; the only problem is coming up with what I actually want to say. I have great ideas for characters and so on, but very little for actual plot/conflict. As I’ve said before, I feel this is an important part of stories, although maybe I’ll write something that doesn’t have much conflict and turns into the next classic.