catbonny's Xanga

I am moving

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:42:01 GMT

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

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:32:53 GMT

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.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:09:08 GMT

(I am also happy to be with my mom and sister, but having a cuddly kitty just goes straight to your heart.)

Christmas just got better.

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:08:08 GMT

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

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:50:44 GMT

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.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:38:30 GMT

The boat parade is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. The boats are not the coolest part. I think that the weather spared up some this year, which was nice.

catbonny More photos here.

Because every part of her is also a part of me.

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 06:19:41 GMT

My sister's video from Chile.

Kicked some ass!

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:58:49 GMT

GRE Score = 1230

Bonny = stoked.

I guess hard works pays off!

The work gift exchange

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:05:49 GMT

You know how some places of employment have secret Santa's, which means that you secretly have a person and you give them little gifts for a week or so and at the end of the week you give them something a little bigger and they are like 'Oh, it was you- I had no idea' of 'I totally guessed that.' Either that or they usually play a white elephant where you steal gifts from each other, which is always kind of amusing- I mean unless you don't get what you want, and then it could just be brutal.

Maybe I am just bitter about the account balance on the Visa I used to do Christmas shopping, but the concept at my work is one that I find sort of pointless. You pick another person and you can spend up to $25.00 on them, which means you should spend that I amount, and that person provides you with a wish list that says 'Starbucks Gift Card' or something similar, and you put your name in the basket and provide a similar such request. Because I was silly enough to participate, I wrote Trader Joe's giftcard, because the bottomline is that I am growing rather broke between application fees, new tires, and Christmas shopping- and you know everyone needs food.

But really, is there a point to this? I mean wouldn't it be the same result if we all just went and bought ourself something for $25.00 or is it the gift wrapping that makes us think it's special? Hmm. I am not sure, but I am pretty sure that it's just getting something for myself in the end. Also, I should note that this is voluntary and I was in no way forced to particulate, but at the same time, my boss did organize it, so I felt obligated.

For me, gift giving at Christmas is something I love. I love to buy gifts because I love to express my endearment for someone else by trying to be thoughtful and conscious of their likes and personality. Gift giving can be really unpleasant when it is just and obligation, so I try to stay away from that. I also usually go overboard, and although this year I didn't think I did, my credit card bill tells me a little bit differently. Oh well. I am not going to sweat it.

I meditated the other day in meeting about Christmas and for me it meaning spending time with loved ones and family, and how sacred that really is. That's what it's about for me. A sense of hope and peace in being surrounded by the people I love, and I am enjoying the season thus far.

I got my first kick ass Oregonian gift last night, from a friend trying to entice me and my roommate to move to Portland. She is slowly getting us to that point, and the food stuffs as gifts are certainly in her favor.

Okay, happy holidays everyone!

Phhhew.

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:57:16 GMT

Can I just say that my third letter writer contacted me today to tell me that I can come and pick up letter of recommendation? This is huge. I would say that outside of the GRE, I am about 80% of the way done on my graduate applications. I have already submitted Texas and UCI and will be able to assemble UCLA and Portland this weekend and mail them off. After they are all mailed out my schools will only be waiting on my GRE scores and I will be done.

Well almost done. I still need to tweek my stuff a litte bit for the Montana Application and for Fullerton, Pomona, and San Jose State, but they have way later applications and I am stll undecided on how many of these four I am going to actually apply to. I think Montana and Fullerton for sure, but otherwise I am not sure.

I know that all these details don't mean too much to anyone, but me, but man- it feels so freakin good to almost done. And I have to stay that regardless of my acceptance of GRE scores next week I am really proud of my dedication and commitment to this project. I have been doing a lot of hardwork, and have been devoting about half of my free time to grad school application related projects and it feels good to be almost done.

Yay... I cannot wait until the GRE is over and I come home after work and have nothing to do. I cannot wait.

For now, I am going to review vocab.