Categories
Just Shelley

All work and no play

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I have been a busy little worker lately. I spent all weekend reviewing the hard copy of the Unix Power Tools book — all one thousand pages of it — looking for problems, as well as pulls for the book’s web site.

I also made a stab at my first chapter for my online book, but I’m very unhappy with it. Very. The problem with reading wonderful writing by truly great authors is that my own writing suffers, dramatically, in comparison. Everything I write lately just sits on the page, flat, dejected, and suffering. If there was such a thing as a gun for words, I would shoot each of mine and give them a quick and painfree end.

I took a break from writing today to interview at two different consulting companies. If all goes well, I should be back in the land of the employed by month’s end.

Between company appointments, as I was sitting at the computer trying to think of something less than dismal to write into the weblog, my cat Zoe wanted up on my lap for snuggles. Considering that I always interview in a black suit, I wasn’t too happy about her jumping up and getting silvery hairs all over me. I snapped at her, yelling at her to get off my lap.

She left the room and when I went looking for her later, I found her curled up in a small, sad, hurt little ball of fur on my chair down in the living room. What does she know of work? What does she know of suits? All she knows is that I yelled at her just for coming in for snuggles. I felt like such a heel.

She’s sitting on my lap now. She says Hi to everyone.

Zoe

Categories
Critters

Always time for the important things in life

I was hard at work on my newly upgraded server earlier today, installing libraries, creating databases, moving code. It was so nice to have all that room and I wasn’t paying too much attention to my surroundings.

Well, my little girl, Zoe, was having none of this. First she dragged her feather in, plopping it down on my feet. When I didn’t pay attention, she started clawing at my tennis shoe, batting at the lace. When that failed, she jumped up on my lap. I assumed that she was going to curl up and sleep. Instead, she laid down next to my arm, wrapped all her feet tightly around it, and placed her head across it – snuggling as close as she could get, eyes closed in pleasure.

It’s hard to work with a 9 pound cat wrapped around your arm. I tried to move her and she demonstrated her displeasure at my behavior by biting me. Not hard, but with enough pressure to get her point across.

What could I do? I turned on the music and cuddled her close, looking out the window at the birds as she slept in my arms, head nestled into the crook of my elbow.

Don’t you wish, when faced with friends and family who are “too busy”, that we could crawl up on their laps, wrap our bodies around them, and bite them when they don’t get the hint?

I think we lost too much when we got an opposable thumb and started learning how to communicate complex thoughts.