Category Archives: Life

Outcast lunch table

Life, Memories, ,

Going from elementary school to junior high, I only had a handful of friends and none of them had the same lunch period as I did. I remember timidly walking into the cafeteria looking for a place to sit and eat the lunch I’d brought from home. I saw familiar faces, but no one I knew well enough to eat lunch with, so I sat at an empty table near the middle of the cafeteria and took out my sandwich and began to eat.

Before too long other people came to my table and it quickly filled up. At first I was flattered. These were popular kids. And some of them were boys. However, no one talked to me. I tried to become as small as possible and concentrate on eating my sandwich. A friend of the group at the table stopped by and wanted to sit with them so they forcefully evicted me — literally pushing me out of my chair so their friend could sit in it.

I grabbed my lunch and looked for another table, trying hard not to cry. I found a table with two girls I remembered from elementary school who were a year ahead of me.  They also were girls that other kids considered beneath them. One was a mannish-looking girl who was the daughter of friends of my parents. Another was a girl who, in elementary school, often came to school dirty and smelly.  I hesitated asking if I could sit at this table, knowing that associating with these girls would secure my fate as an outcast; but I needed a place to sit so I asked if I could sit with them. They welcomed me warmly. As the lunch period went on, more girls joined us — each of them quirky in her own way.

I sat with these girls for the rest of the time I was in junior high; and one of the girls that joined  us that first day became my best friend for the next several years. I’m ashamed of my initial reaction to the girls at that table. In hindsight I know that one was going through an inner struggle, trying to figure out her sexual identity and the other was the child of alcoholic parents. I, who’d just been physically pushed out of a chair, had no business judging the worthiness of anyone else.

I like to think that I, and all the girls that sat at the outcast table, became the interesting adults while the kids that pushed me away from their table grew up to be boring.

Cat [Poop] Lady

Life, ,

When, at age 13, I first got an indoor cat it was my responsibility to change the litter. We actually didn’t use litter, but Oil-Dri that my dad got in huge bags from the auto-mechanics’ store. I’d fill the cat litter tray and a week later pour it out behind the garage. I doubt that was environmentally safe, but no one complained.

When I moved to an apartment I did pretty much the same, but probably threw the used litter in a trash bag. I don’t even recall where the litter box was in my apartment, but it was somewhere. Probably my bedroom.

When Dean and I moved to Pittsburgh, then Alexandria, with the cats we used litter made for cats instead of Oil-Dri, but the rest of the routine was the same. Fill a box, wait a week (or more sometimes) and throw it out.

Never during all that time did we find cat poop anywhere in the house except in the litter box (or occasionally just outside the litter box) except for when one of our cats reacted to a new cat in the house by developing irritated bowel syndrome which we fixed by getting rid of the new cat.

I was responsible for the cat litter until I got pregnant, then Dean took over the job until about 8 years ago when I insisted we begin to use clumping cat litter and agreed to scoop it.

This worked fine for a number of years until fairly recently. Our aging cats have begun to poop on our living room carpet. They poop on our dining room carpet. They poop behind the litter boxes. They poop in corners of the family room.

I’m to blame — for a while I was not vigilant about keeping their litter boxes that clean, so if I went a few days without scooping their poop they’d start pooping elsewhere. I researched it, bought special expensive cat litter guaranteed to fix the problem (provided you kept the boxes clean).

Now our  cats seem to have the idea that if there is one small piece of feces in the litter box it is unusable. I scoop poop first thing in the morning and some time in the evening just to keep ahead of their bowel schedules. If I don’t I can be assured of a smelly surprise awaiting in the morning. The one saving aspect is that, while they poop more often, it is solid because their new food for “mature” cats contains fiber.

And if that isn’t enough, our neighbor’s very sweet cat poops in our front yard at least 3 times a week. Guess who scoops it?

PS Madeline or Chris — If you read this — I really don’t mind. Skippy is so sweet the additional scooping is NO BIG DEAL.

I think I’m in love

Humor, Life, ,

If you know me or read my blog, you may or may not be aware of my love-hate relationship with Bethesda. We moved to Bethesda from a friendly neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia. I was a relatively new mom, staying at home for a while with my toddler and infant. I found it impossible to make friends here — the two local parks, where I’d hope to meet like-minded women with their own young children, held either perfect-haired women that always traveled in pairs (plus kids) or their nannies, most of whom didn’t share a common language with me. The few women in the neighborhood with similar-aged children worked long hours, and didn’t have time to make new friends.

It took until the kids were well into their elementary school years and hours of volunteering for school and community organizations before I began to finally lose the feeling of a “fish out of water”. I think that part of my problem (and I fully accept it was my problem) was that I was the first in my family to not be a blue-collar worker. While that would not have been a problem in an area with other folks like me, Bethesda is a white-collar town.

I still like finding people with a similar backgrounds to me. That’s normal, right? I also like finding people who have the same feeling about Bethesda I do. When I mention that I don’t love Bethesda, most people give me a look of disbelief — how can I not like living here? What about the restaurants? What about the schools? What about the neighborhoods?

So, when I discovered the brand new publication, Bethesda World News (via Susan Coll‘s blog) I rushed to the library where I found the last copy.

Bethesda World News is sort of like The Onion, but features stories about Bethesda. Funny stories about Bethesda. Funny and not-quite-real stories about Bethesda. I especially liked the story titled, Bethesda Elementary Discovers First Ungifted Child. The article describes the taunts other children chant to the child: “Johnny reads on grade level. Johnny reads on grade level!” Another headline, Woman Spotted on Woodmont without Pedicure, made me laugh out loud.

While there is little on the website for the publication, I’m hoping they’ll put up their stories. I also hope that they don’t run out of ideas — but that could take a while. There’s a lot to make fun of in this town.

If you’re on Facebook, you can find them here.