I am moving

Not back to the deep south

Or to Portland (yet)

But I am starting a new blog. There are lots of good memories here, but I need a clean start for organizational purposes.  In other words, I would like to have something that looks a little bit more grownup.

I will continue to interact with those of you at Xanga, but you can now interact with me at http://catbonny.blogspot.com/.

Please update your RSS feeds and such, and wish me luck at my new home.

Monogamy

I could be as faithful as a seahorse
And if you were a marine biologist
You'd know how tender that line was

Did you know that seahorses (at least many species of them) are monogamous- meaning that they are in an exclusive sexual relationship for the rest of their lives. According to the wikipedia article, they reinforce their relationships in the morning and at night time, and spend the rest of the day apart.  During this part of the day they hunt.    I guess that human couples can be like that when they are working from 9-5 - reinforcing their relationship before and after work and spending the rest of their day pursuing their own interests/survival methods.

Many birds are also monogamous, but many other animals are not.  The complication with animal monogamy is that you have to be able to distinguish your mate from others, which is apparently too easy of a task.  Monogamy is a big risk in the animal kingdom because you have bank all of your offspring production on the health and prosperity of your mate.  If you pick the wrong one, you offspring may be compromised.

I wonder about monogamy in humans.  Maybe we have a little bit more room for error, because if things don't work out we could just start all over again with someone else.  But I guess that isn't true monogamy is it?  I don't know.  I guess choosing a mate or getting married is banking a lot on one person, but I believe that the trust placed in one person is a really amazing thing.  I also think that the hard work in an exclusive life long relationship is what makes it so beautiful and valuable- because there are so many invested intricacies.

If I were a seahorse...

Happy to be at Home with My Big Orange and White Kitty.

Christmas just got better.

So I was already pretty happy about Christmas this year.  I have been thankful for my friends and how they have become a stable family for me in California when I am away and missing my family on the holidays, and I am thankful for David and getting to spend Christmas with him again, because I love him and I pretty sure being with someone you love on a holiday is the point, and we are spending Christmas Eve with one of my favorite families ever.  All this way pretty good.  Pretty great even- but...

The even greater is that I am going to Maryland at the end of the week.  The details are- I got a pretty substantial Christmas bonus, and thought to myself about paying a credit card bill or buying Guitar Hero on Ebay for too much (j/k) or putting it into savings, and then I thought to myself- hmm, what is the one thing I would love to spend this money on- and the answer was time with my family.  And I got sort of permission to take the next week of work off, so I am leaving on Wednesday after work and will get to spend 5.5 whole days with my mom, my sister, and my baby (my cat Mathilde pronounced Matilda).  The airports were not I deal and the cost was pretty much the amount of my bonus, and it is worth every inconvenience and every penny.  I have not been to my house in over a year and a half, and I need some time in the place where I grew up.  I majorly need some one on one sister time and to drop in on a few other friends.

So yeah, I am getting the best Christmas gift, which is a trip home to see family.  I am thankful for my family here, but this was a very unexpected and totally welcome surprise.

Gotta Love it

I know I can't get Richard Simmons on a Christmas Card, but I think this picture would be a great one.

More pictures of the Quaker Christmas party are here.