Birthdays, plastic bags, lingerie, and poker
06.05.2003I've not blogged in a while. I was busy part of that time. Or, more precisely, kidnapped by agent BayFM. I'll get to that in a minute. But mostly the days have been rainy and cold, all 'round unpleasant and dreadful weather. This is compounded by the fact that I'm temporarily broke, which is always uncomfortable. I've about $900 due me from a few sources. And it's late in arriving. If only one of my debts didn't clear, I'd be fine. But all of it? And I don't get paid for another two weeks.
So what have I been doing in the meantime?
Wednesday. I didn't realize it was Bay's birthday when I called her. No one told me. So she picks up her phone and I say "Hey, Bay! Do you know what day it is?" And she responds, excitedly, w/ "Yes!" And then I add "Yeah, it's new comics day." So she comes over to pick me up and drive me in the pressing rain out to The Game Shop so we can pick up the new issues. Only after I read Upson's LiveJournal — while I waited for Bay — did I learn it was her 24th birthday.
Bay pulls up to my apartment. I grab my corduroy jacket as I step out to meet her w/ a "Happy Birthday Bay!". A little too late, perhaps. But I still meant it. So I picked up her comics for her (hey, it's the least I could do). And from that point on I was kidnapped.
My kidnapping wasn't all that bad. It basically involved me hanging out w/ my friend Bay, and various assortments of other friends and well-wishers throughout the day. We stopped at WIDR for Bay's radio show (Plan B), which was birthday-themed (it's a talk show). Her mother guest starred on the show, along w/ Sarah Simpson and myself. Basically, we just exchanged birthday stories from our pasts.
From there, we drove out to The Ground Round, which is a pretty poor restaurant. I was desperately craving Vernors (or any ginger ale). The waitress suggested mixing Sprite and Coke. Excuse me? That's not ginger ale. I think anyone knows this. I also ordered a chicken burrito, which was mostly onions and definitely not a burrito.
The rest of the evening was pleasant, including a lengthy conversation at Bret's house about my ultra-rational (or some would say "crazy") environmentalism and the distinctions between animals and human beings. There was a brief intermission where we ate yellow cake w/ chocolate frosting (after singing the required "Happy Birthday" song). During the conversation, Bay asked me if I would be her adoptive father if (God forbid) anything should ever happen to her Aba. This, of course, made me feel both complimented and old.
Thursday. While the boys prepared for poker night, the girls decided to have a girls-only lingerie night. Since I obviously went to play poker, I've no idea whether "girls' night" was a success or not. But rumor is they just sat around eating brownies and watching HBO's Sex & The City. Which is no comparison to serious poker playing. And. Yes. Once again, I walked away w/ nothing after a game of 7/27 broke me. But I had a good run at it.
I went home to find my cats playing w/ a plastic bag. Sophie's the most curious of the bunch, and she was pouncing and attacking a black plastic bag from yesterday's comics. I should've known better, but I let her keep it up, amused at her pouncing while Annie and Ursula curiously watched. Until.
Sophie's head went through one of the bag's handles and she suddenly had a plastic cape. You'd think this is funny and "playful". Nope. She freaked out and started tearing blindly through the apartment at full speed. This meant tackling Ursula and slamming into doors, walls, furniture. And in one fell swoop, three days of Ursula slowly becoming a well-adjusted social cat went out the window.
Before I could catch Sophie and rescue her, Ursula had jumped so high up a window that she ended up holding on — by her claws — to the top. She was trapped, couldn't get down. And she wasn't going to let me help her. I'd have to wait for her to just, well, let go and drop. She hissed, spat, moaned, and shat. Sophie cowered under the bed. Annie (the most nonchalant creature you'll ever meet) just sat where she'd been from the start and looked at me and sighed.
Posted by Miguel at 11:52 PM
Comments
sorry about the incident miguel. But that's a comic nightmare. To picture ursula hanging from the top of your window, raining down feces and hissing while sophie is blurring around your place like super cat- its funny.
Posted by: bil at June 6, 2003 08:16 AM
glad yo updated the blog... you should change the name to the adventures of Miguel Centellas and his Cats. ha ha... but serious the weaher has sucked and got me all depressed. it needs to get nice! thanks for the call, I will post pictures right after the race is over so you can see what I am up to. Peace!
Posted by: sam at June 6, 2003 10:13 AM
Very funny cat story. Sounds traumatic- sorry you had to clean up all that shit. I can just picture Anne as a super cat w/a cape. You really need to take some photographs of them in action.
OH! Did you hear on NPR the other day (tues) about Salam Pax? He's got a weekly column in some big London paper- it's a great story about how they located him.
Posted by: vanessa at June 7, 2003 08:39 PM
Thanks for letting yourself get kidnapped, Miguel, I actually really enjoyed my low key birthday and a large part of that was you. also, you shouldn't feel old that I want you to be my dad in case (chas v'chalilah) anything should happen to him: Marci is my back up mom and I think she's younger than me. now, in case of the worst tragedy (chas v'chalilah) you and Caleb might have some problems.
Posted by: bay at June 8, 2003 03:16 PM