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Category: Opinion

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[Pic of myself on the Empire State Building, 12/1999, newspaper pics from 9/12/2001, purchased in Reno] Eighteen years ago to the day, my ex-h, James, and I were in Reno. We’d driven the 8 hours with our then-2 year and 10 month old daughters, Julia and Livy, to combine James’ business trip with a visit… Read More Contrast

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019 Amy PallesonLeave a comment

God/Us

A few years ago, my daughter Livy was surprised when I told her I believed in God. She was 16 (I think) and didn’t know because I don’t tout God or observe religion unless it’s imminently relevant because for me God/source is such a big truth it doesn’t need to be spoken of. Since: of… Read More God/Us

November 11, 2018January 19, 2019 Amy PallesonLeave a comment

Pet sitter Instagram

‪“Laying on this pillow is basically me saying ‘I’m really sorry I barfed on the couch all those times.’” #cats #humor #catstagram #catsofinstagram #instacat #catworld ‬(Cheeto; experimenting with new captions)

1: When Auntie is home for the semester and lets you pick the book you read for naptime (this is exactly what transpired; my daughter Livy let her sister’s dog, Bug, “choose” a book—then read her the first chapter which did the trick). 2: When you didn’t fit and it’s measured in inches not insecurity (Lola with Tiggy and Spartacus) 3: When life hands you lemons and you stare it down until it apologizes (Waffles) 4 When the humans are overselling the new food like they’ve got no idea who they’re dealing with (Izabela) 5 When you cackle at the birds like you’re living the big dream and they fly away in a panic as if letting you believe you really are (my cat Bitty and Nature) Happy New Year! I wish I could post more of the pictures I took over the holidays but I still have to go through them all. I even got mostly done with making a 2019 end-of-year video but had to abort that mission because things just got so crazy; lots of kitties decided to eat things they shouldn’t (most recent example found himself a hidden stash of bacon grease) and Time got away from me. Hopefully I’ve sent most of the best pics to the families already but if you’d like to volunteer to go through my phone to look for good pictures—I’m currently down to 35,593 pics and 2111 videos—I would pay you in either cash, alcohol or therapy and since it once took me five hours to go through a thousand pics/videos, I’m sure you’ll be making at least one of those selections. Thank you as always for letting me care for your family and all my best for a wonderful year. ❤️

Altered/new pages. [Because the last 12 years have been spent in survival mode where it’s like I’ve got my full-times job as a pet sitter (that would be “times 3”) and then my accessory full-time jobs which—in variable order—includes being an emotionally-available parent to emotionally-available girls in this car crash world, [insert everything a human must do to bare-minimum function], buying cat toys at Petco, and all the things I’m forgetting to do, my attention to writing/creating/publishing is regularly tossed into the mental abyss akin to Internet archives so it’s only just today that I realized that Andrews McMeel Universal (where I submitted proposal to; still haven’t heard; they “respond to all submissions so please be patient”) is the long time publisher of The Far Side comics. Since college, I’ve moved cross-country four times—CA to Maryland and back, CA to VA then back to UT—along with about ten “smaller” moves—the last three moves occurring in the last four years— where we’d cull the hoard and donate/ yard sale our stuff rather than face the Advil of lugging another box of books, and still my 30 year old Far Side books remain with me, downstairs and in pretty good shape too. AMU just debuted a Far Side website for his comics to try and prevent copyright violations—which just yesterday I realized I myself need to be smarter about (the Internet is a skeevy place)—and Gary Larson said he is even going to be making a few new comics. I didn’t find all of my Far Side books when I went downstairs to look for them—particularly my thick baby-blue-covered FS gallery that was my first purchase—since many of them are still in boxes, gestating in our birth canal of a storage room until we’re settled enough to buy more bookcases but I know it’s/they’re there. And so now I’m going to be deep breathing in hopes of a 2020 vision of peace with a fancy new version of bare-minimum in which I’m hoping all of those things I‘ve forgotten to do end up not being that important after all. Anyways, I’ve changed all the pages but since I already sent AMU the old version, I’m trying to post them enough for the changes to be seen, for...

PSA: This is my Himalayan salt lamp which fortunately I’ve always had tucked up on a shelf (inaccessible to almost anything including myself) and if you have one of these lamps or know someone that has one who also shares their space with cats, please spread the word that cats will often lick these lamps and make themselves very ill with symptoms that seem innocuous at first. I’m speaking from a space of a near miss for a family who somehow— in the grace of a benevolent planetary alignment or something—we coordinated to realize what was probably happening, and the lamp got moved into a cupboard, and Cat is now getting back to her healthy self. I’ve had several weird things happen over this Christmas holiday break—one cat ate 30 inches of string and we ended up at the ER (he passed the string yesterday), two cats either have eaten a bad batch of fancy feast or were munching on a lime tree, got ill but are also slowly feeling better (plant is now in bathroom); and then Cat with licking the Himalayan salt lamp—and most are potentially linked to the fact that cats, when they are bored often do things that they wouldn’t normally do when you’re home. The mind of an animal left to their own devices for long periods of time perhaps might want to make things interesting—while not understanding that sometimes “interesting” means three hours Sunday morning at the emergency vet—so I guess we need to help cover their furry butts so they can make better choices. #saltlakecity (Cat in ‘I’m feeling better’ mode”)

They are all revised; sharing a few sets here today, in case of interest. I will be reaching out to one family in particular via text because some of my entries that I made a while ago (that are not shared here today) have seen a pet in them go on to pass and I can’t imagine being that person who wouldn’t consult the family on their feelings before proceeding. I also might consult a few regarding some entries with semi-salty language. #saltlakecity #cats #catsofinstagram #quotes #petsitter #love #happiness #joy #giving #animals

Jupiter and I did his seasonal photo shoot the other day and now his Christmas cards are all ready to send out. Have a very feline holiday, everyone! [But really: I’ve been going through my pictures and experiencing nostalgia and gratitude (and in one case, consternation) for the stories they tell. We’ve lost some this year; I see them on the screen of my phone and for a second, exist in two different dimensions, as if their passing dilates Time, but in Jupiter’s case, the story is a running joke that he’s a working boy hocking anything from cat trees to yarn in order to maybe help the family but also just really more generally to get the word out that he’s dedicated and very handsome. And he is, clearly making the story of his pics ‘creative nonfiction’. Anyways, wherever you find yourself today, I hope you’re able to snap a meaningful pic of your pets—I’m sharing a few of our own; last pic is Kiki high on and covered in catnip—for one day in the future, you might not remember the moment you snapped it, but you will remember the story of the love you had for your pet and that’ll be enough] #saltlakecity #petsofinstagram #petsitting #petsitter #humor #animals #cats #dogs

“I know you’re having some transcendent hippie moment with like the flowers or whatever but I’m gonna be straight with you: if I don’t find food on this walk, that might be it for me.” #dogs #dog #saltlakecity #terrier #survivalist [I love the work ethic of the terrier; they’re always open to facing the unpleasant potential of survival mode]. [So the wonder of taking pictures is that you wind up with some good ones of Mildred (and Missy 😘) and some flowers, and the downside is that the phone taking the pics of Mildred quickly blooms to 38,000 pics and every single picture you take instantly goes straight to iCloud. Which means you actually have to download it back onto your phone to send it to anybody or use it for anything. And that’s my life right now. I could buy more iCloud storage but that would only compound the problem—which I know from experience since that’s what I did last time—so I’m slowly trying to delete the ones that aren’t good so I can maybe start posting new ones. Hope everyone had a good holiday!].

A well-placed ‘would you care to explain…?’ means every holiday meal can end as soon as you need it to. Good luck tomorrow, everybody! #saltlakecity #holidays

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