Dainty Kitty

Leaf Peeping: Everyone's Doing It

Cox Arboretum - Dayton, Ohio - October 21st, 2007

And a purposely over-saturated photo of me that I kind of like.   

The Giant Sunflower

A few weeks ago I went over to my granny's house to drop off some reunion photos and found this growing in their front yard: a sunflower about nine or ten feet tall with leaves and big as Andre the Giant's head - and only one bloom at the very tippy top.

Last night Jake and I went to my parents' house for a little dinner for Granny's seventy-eighth birthday.  When we arrived we found that Granny and her husband Millard had brought the sunflower itself. 

It's massive!  My aunt had said that they had one at the county fair a few weekends ago but it wasn't near as large as this one . 

And, for fun, here's the most recent addition to the Jake & Emily Series.  I really like this one.

I love that it was cool enough to wear a jacket last night.  I think I'm ready to blow kisses to summer and throw my arms around fall like a lover I've missed very much.   I think this was urged on by my discovery of the October issue of Living.  Egads, there's a cover on both sides: on one Martha is made up as a goddess, on the other she's a vampire.  Awesome.  The October issue is my favorite  (with December a  close runner up of course).  And her Halloween book, a collection of ideas from past issues, is one of my favorite books.   I absolutely love Halloween!   

A Glimpse of Things Other Than Cats That Live in My Home

After the AleFest, Jake and I stopped at the grocery store for an onion and vanilla ice cream (onion for him, ice cream for me to go with the delicious oatmeal cookies he'd bought at Trader Joe's earlier in the week).  As we passed a cart of discounted plants and flowers,  I had to stop. 

I came home with a Cyclamen ($2.99) which I transplanted (pot on sale at Lowes for $2.99) as a thank you for my parents who treated us to pizza and salad at Dewey's (in fact I'm warming up leftovers right now) and a mini rose bush ($2) for myself.  I'm not sure if the rosebush will bloom anymore - I can't find any buds on it - but it was too pretty to pass up for a mere two bucks.  The daisies and the lovely Muppet looking yellow flower are what remains of the birthday flowers I received from the office (Season Three Sept 4th - woot!).  Daisies are my favorite flower for for many reasons - the fact that they continue to hold their color and live for weeks is just one of them. 

I also came home with a new pet, aptly named Wednesday.  Who can pass up a Venus Flytrap for only two dollars?  Not me! I transplanted her into a cute blood red pot I also got on sale for $1.99. You're supposed to pot them in soil made for African Violets so I'll have to make another stop for a bag of that and a mister (as in the type that softly sprays water, not the type that means a new boyfriend) as you're supposed to keep the soil damp.  Last year I had a plant (named Gomez) which had leaves that would curl up when you touched them.  Gomez was totally awesome but, unfortunately, he didn't last long.  I'm not sure if it was the transplanting, where I had him in the room or the fact that I couldn't stop touching the leaves every time I walked by that killed him.  So I'm really going to try harder with my second vaguely creepy plant.  My apartment is pretty bug free so I'm also resisting the urge to go outside and find a few to feed to Wednesday because...well, that's kind of gross.

Ahem, Wednesday is also quite a lush and spends all of her time hanging out at the bar.  It's a bit embarrassing really. 

And I leave you with a quote from Henry David Thoreau...and my yucca plant.   

Tuesday: Lunch at the Park

Squirrel was none too happy with me today but he was so close and so cute…I had to go get my camera. I’ve started leaving my camera in the car when I go to the park for lunch…otherwise I’d have a million photos of trees, squirrels, robins and frogs – photos that are really only special to me.

The pond is full and the frogs have disappeared but the fish are more active. Yesterday I was entertained by tiny fish, an orange koi who would have nothing to do with my scraps of bread and a giant carp that swooped up like a whale to grab the larger pieces with his fat pink lips. Today I watched this squirrel and finished eating early so I could just walk around, trying to find the woodpecker I’ve seen a few times or maybe the cardinal who sat in a nearby tree for awhile and watched me eat with his head cocked, beady eye fixed in my direction.

Instead I found an inch worm.

Why I Love Aunt Flo

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of cramps--and cups--and menstrual belts--
Of birth control--and rings--
And why her temper is boiling hot--
And whether pads have wings."

I know I have cursed her many times as she rolled up my drive in her claret colored rag top but I really do love Aunt Flo. 

See, I've been thinking about my period a lot lately.  Several weeks ago I stopped taking birth control because I just wasn't comfortable with the fact that I only have a true period once every three months or so.  My plan was to go without contraceptives until I had a natural period at which time I would happily hop back on the pill. 

Luckily, Jake is a pretty great boyfriend and was very supportive of my plan.  Not, of course, that it would have mattered much if he disagreed but it's certainly better to be supported than not.  When we finally left Raja's apartment yesterday, I had a moment alone to tell him that the mini temper tantrum I threw when I found out he had put my purse in my car rather than Raja's (the car we took to lunch) was because I felt that I would be getting my period within hours and wanted to have the essential accouterments at hand and the "stomach ache" that came on after lunch was the arrival of said period.  Upon hearing that I had started he gave a little shout, "Yay!  You got your period!" which I, at first, took to mean, "Yay!  No more condoms!" (because, let's face it - condoms suck) but that's not what he meant at all.  I was finally - as absolutely weird as my desire might seem and how...common it is - having a natural period. 

Last week I went to my family doctor to refill the two anti-depressants I pop daily due to Aunt Flo. I also asked her to refill my birth control because I haven't found a new ob/gyn since moving back to Dayton (and while I liked my former doctor, I didn't care one bit for her staff - I never dreaded the examinations, I dreaded every thing leading up to it).  Actually, I didn't ask her to refill it - I asked her to put me on something else because I wasn't having regular periods.

"Why do you want to have a period?" Dr. C said in that very blunt way she has of speaking (don't get me wrong - I like her very much but she's very matter of fact). 

I shrugged, "I like having a period."  I didn't want to get all womyn-y about it because that's not it at all but after stumbling for words to explain why I liked having a period I finally said, "It lets me know I'm not pregnant."  I mean, after all, physician Sir William Osler once referred to the menstrual flow as "the tears of a disappointed uterus." 

She agreed that it's nice to go without that stress but explained that there are birth control pills out there that assure only four periods a year.  Well, yeah, I know that and that's great but...maybe I want to see my period more than four times a year.  It's a cycle that my body wants to have once a month (even though it's a false cycle due to the fact that I take the Pill but never the less) - it keeps me in touch with me. 

Besides, the pill that I'm currently on - that I didn't want refilled - was something new that my Columbus ob/gyn had me try - one that I'd never discussed with him so I think part of my discomfort was a bit of , "Okay, is this pill supposed to make me irregular?"  I mean, this is the man who, when I said I eventually wanted to get pregnant, put me on prenatal vitamins (which I never took).  I wasn't actively trying to get pregnant and was on the Pill and Dustin and I hadn't even been dating all that long.  He also chastised my weight and said I needed to stop drinking milk or I'd get even fatter (okay, those weren't his exact words but that really was the gist of it) - even though I drink skim and my mother has problems with calcium deficiency. 

But that's neither here nor there. 

I can understand why Dr. C didn't want to give me a new prescription.  I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.   And I'm sure my want to have a monthly period sounded kind of silly.  Perhaps if I could have stated my side in words more than, "I like having a period," I might have walked out of that room with something other than a prescription for what I had already been taking but I didn't. 

 

So I'm going back to infrequent visits with Aunt Flo.  Considering the cramps I suffered earlier this evening, I should be happy about that but I don't mind.   I've known grandmothers who cried when their granddaughters got their first period because it's a monthly bother that she'll have to live with for thirty or so odd years.  I don't feel that way.  My body is taking care of itself and this is one of many ways - perhaps not as pretty as a scab or blister which isn't saying much - of showing it. 

My sincerest apologies to Lewis Carroll.