Pfizer and Cats

4/28/2021

Had our second jab today, as the kids say. Pfizer #2. My poker was named Minda, and she had great gifts in the poking. I kept waiting for her to stop fooling around on my arm and realized that she was done. I had literally not felt a thing.

The day required that I hold myself together until after a John Deere meeting at 1:30. There's a big company anniversary in a few years and we subsidiaries are all participating in the planning and execution of said exhibition. The last time we talked about it was 2019. They've made progress on their end, but had turned my 2019 keynote, containing examples of what's in our collection, into a wish list (and there are two touring exhibits, so anything we are loaning has to be something that there are two of and we have to be without for 5 years, as this thing travels.

I kinda felt like I was holding this meeting together, because my boss isn't the person who remembers things in detail for years at a time. She has other superpowers. So the only person who could bridge the gap and keep the meeting from grinding to a halt was me. At one point a wave of euphoria swept over me during this meeting and I realized that somehow, care of Pfizer, I was flyiiiiiiing HIGHHHHHH. They were digging me (undisputed) and I can only hope that I can recall what it is I said to them, so I can actually say it.

The following week, after I spent 5 days on the sofa with chills, bone ache and wooziness, boss and I regrouped and really got to thinking. In January, the company fired all of our exhibition staff except one, gave us the responsibility for continuing the 2 years of our current traveling exhibition that we have remaining (on top of our regular work), and now we have to prep all of the multimedia, artwork, photography, contracts, restoration of equipment they want to borrow two of for a new exhibition that we have to support, all while dealing with the loss of the other people that they also cut from our department. We'll see how it all works out.

In the meantime, on the home front, we're concentrating on the cats. Boy Kitten is completely adorable while asleep. But he's got problems. We hired a well-known cat authority to help us integrate him into the household because for the last year we've had the house divided in two, with the big kids having the run of the house for part of the day and the little boy having the house for the rest of the day. In the meantime, he chews and swallows anything that smells like me, and can be quite the beast if he isn't getting what he wants. With the help of the catmaster, we feel like we're beginning to turn the corner, but it's been a hard journey.

To remind myself of why I want to do this, here are photos of the wee beastie. When I'm working and he's sleeping on the bookshelf, I'm in love.

When He's asleep on the chair in the afternoon, with his rice-y toof hangingin out, I'm in love.

And any time he's acting like a regular cat, I'm in love.

He's a work in progress.