With that said, I don't think it has all fully settled in, yet, even after nearly a half decade. Most nights I dream about visiting my family with Claire, seeing how they're doing, catching up, talking, normal family stuff. You know, just sitting at the dinner table with my parents, things normal people do. Sometimes I dream about my parents coming over to visit us in the UK. Stuff which is never going to happen. The Germany I left behind does no longer exist. My family has mostly broken apart, my father is no longer among the living and my stepmother, who was oh so eager to catch up after the funeral has answered my lengthy email with a quick "I don't have the time right now, I'll get back to you." That was in early August.
Stuff like that doesn't make me super depressed. That's just my family for ya. But every now and then I just wish I could have one of those boring, normal, shitty sitcom families. Just sit, eat, talk, share, no hard feelings, no drama, nobody shouting at anyone, nobody cheating on anyone, no real life soap opera crap. That'd be nice. We do maintain a certain level of harmony in our cozy little home, but that's mostly because cats and reptiles don't talk back. Claire and I had our seventh anniversary the other day.
It doesn't feel like seven years at all. And I have learned a few things about maintaining a relationship over the years. We gave up on holding grudges and try to resolve arguments and drama as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, it usually comes down to one question: do we really want to spend the time we're sharing being pissed off at each other? We could be having fun right now. I'm working all day, every day of the week. And weekends. Claire works most of the time. We don't get to spend as much time with each other as we'd like to. And when we do, we try to get the most fun out of it. Even if that means making some sacrifices.
For instance, Claire is rather curious about Warlords of Draenor. And there is no way in hell I'd go back to World of Warcraft. If she went back there, she'd be playing it all the time, hunting after rare pets, mounts and achievements and I'd be left out. She respects that and we play other games, instead. Together. And I don't watch Mythbusters and QI marathons when she's at home. We're doing stuff together instead of just living next to each other.
I know this may sound a bit over the top, but we don't just want to sit in the same room and do things all by ourselves. At least not all the time. Sometimes we just do "nothing." Sit in market square, watch the people, watch the clouds, just talk. No facebook, no smartphones, no gaming devices, just us.
Three of my family members died within just a few months of each other. Claire and I might have another fifty years together. One of us might die tomorrow. We don't know. But I don't want to waste any time holding a grudge or withholding sex over whose turn it was to take out the trash and I don't want to spend day after day just peacefully coexisting until we realize it no longer makes any difference whether the other one is still there or not. We had a nice night out for our anniversary. I have never seen a woman eradicate a steak so quickly before.
In other news, our royal python has a dick. Well, technically, they kinda have two dicks, but that's beside the point. That snake was sold as a female and it turns out she's really a boy. It's funny how that works with reptiles. I guess snakes would look retarded if they had tits or nuts.
Meanwhile, our monitor lizard is turning into some kind of perfect example for good reptile care. He's getting bigger than most other people's Bosc (or Savannah for you Americans) monitors, he's active, curious, friendly and not one bit overweight. And I'd love to brag about how we're putting oh so much time and effort into making sure he's alright, but he's really one of the easiest pets I ever had.
Alright, the taming process was a nightmare. He used to be a hissing, shitting, biting, tail-whipping bag of fangs and claws. And when we tell people about how we had to spend several hours each day to tame him, they usually lose interest in buying their own minitor lizard. But now that he's tamed and housebroken, he's not any more trouble than any old housecat. You have to feed him the right stuff in proper amounts, just like with any other pet and you have to watch his temperature and humidity. But seriously, that may sound super complicated, when in reality it means pushing one or two buttons to regulate his heater where necessary and spraying him with a bit of water now and then. And sometimes you'll have to play with him like you would with your cat:
And then you get people dropping off their unwanted monitor lizards at the shop, who are paranoid, downright impossible to handle, who can't walk straight and who just sit around all day practicing the thousand yard stare, because they're too dull and lethargic to do anything else. And their lizards aren't much better.
All pets require a certain minimum amount of love and care. It's not difficult. It's not a lot of work. But some people just don't have what it takes. Live creatures don't make a good impulse purchase.
I've played through all the new content in Star Trek: Delta Rising. I want to write about that, but assuming most people are getting a bit tired of that old subject, I'm gonna put my thoughts in a new entry. If you're curious about the pros and cons of STO's new expansion, go find the latest post in this blog. Or come back in an hour if it's not showing up, yet.
-Cat
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen