Keasbey Nights

I am awake. Barely 7 AM and I’m awake, dressed, and have already eaten breakfast and had contact with the outside world. Ugh.

Well, it’s now September. My favorite month, although I can’t really say why. I guess because of school. It’s not that I ever really loved school. I did well enough, but it wasn’t because I really put any effort into. I just loved the idea of a new school year. New pens and pencils, completely unsullied notebooks just waiting for bored classroom doodling and the occasional note taking. It just all held such promise that even five years after graduating college I still get that excited sort of feeling when September comes. The promise of cooler weather helps too.

Anyway, the reason I’m up now and have been since 4:30 is that I had to take Alan to work this morning. We’re going to Captain Souza’s house tonight because they’re having a party for Sergeant Norbeck, whose retirement ceremony was yesterday. Since they live in Fountain, Alan doesn’t think he’ll have time to come home to change and pick me up, so he’s changing at work and we’ll just leave from there. It’s supposedly going to be quite the party and not just the S2 shop. Even the Colonel is coming. Granted, I have no idea what that means or even which Colonel Alan might be referring too, but whatever. I don’t even ask anymore.

You know, as much as I dislike this city and this state in general, I have to hand it to them that their sunrises are pretty spectacular. We’re in the foothills of the Rockies and from the ridges the land to the East just falls away in front of your feet and you can see forever. What can I say? Kansas is a lot prettier when it’s in shadow. Sunsets still suck though, since the sun disappears behind the mountains well before it hits the point of the horizon that would turn the light red and gold.

I had a rough night last night. It started with a sick headache that blindsided me around 5. It wasn’t a migraine, but it went straight from my head to my stomach and made me miserable for quite a while. I had Alan get me some more Coke and he was nice enough to get both a twelve-pack and a bottle from the cooler so I would have something cold right away. Nice man. He also had the good sense to buy himself cereal for dinner on the assumption that I would neither be cooking nor would I want the smell of sauteed peppers and onions anywhere near me.

I’ve been having a lot of restlessness in my legs lately, especially at night, so I went for a walk. Alan had to warn me not to bring home any cats. The night before we had walked up to the mailbox and stumbled upon a particularly sweet and friendly little tabby. It came right up to us and started rubbing against our legs with great enthusiasm and much meowing. It looked like it might have had a broken leg that healed badly, but it obviously wasn’t feral and even a stray for very long. It was still pretty clean and didn’t look like your average alley cat. I wanted to bring it inside for the night and then down to the vet in the morning, but Alan said no. I went back to look for it yesterday morning and then again on my walk last night, but I didn’t see any sign of it. Either someone else must have taken it in or it found its way home.

Last night was also difficult because I’m still bothered by what Kelby and Charlee are doing to their cat, Belle. I guess Alan’s been pestering him about the original "plan" of just kicking her out by laying the guilt on pretty thick. She would die on the street, after all, since she’s never been an outdoor cat. He’s also been telling Kelby to be more patient with her. At any rate Kelby put an ad on Craigslist. What’s bugging me is that he lied in the ad and claimed that they were PCS-ing and couldn’t take her with them. The fact that they felt the need to lie about their reasons for getting rid of her tells me that they know that their real reasons are pretty fucking shitty. And I just feel like I’m not being true to myself if I don’t say something to them. Alan is telling me to mind my own business, but how can I pretend that I think that what they’re doing is okay? Especially when it’s so obviously NOT okay! It’d be one thing if their decision was affecting no one but themselves, but this is a life. It may not be a human life, but as Radar would say animals are people too.

I don’t know. It just still bothers me.

It also occurred to me why they don’t surrender her to the Humane Society, who could more reliably find her an appropriate home than they will on Craigslist. They really can’t. They adopted Tork from the Humane Society and they’ve already discussed getting a German Shepherd puppy when Belle is gone. Well, if they want to ever adopt from the Humane Society again, having surrendered an animal is going to look really bad on their record.

I know, I’m dwelling on something I have no control over and that yeah, really isn’t my business. But how can I respect people who treat animals that way? It’s one thing to not be an animal person. I may think you’re nuts or you’re missing out, but that’s your call. It’s entirely different to claim to love animals and to treat them like they’re disposable. It’s just another example of non-Christian behavior in the kind of people who are most vocal about their faith. It’s like those "Christians" who go around quoting the Bible to justify their hatred of gays and pretty much everyone else. Did they even bother reading the New Testament? You know, the one the entire Christian faith is based on? I seem to recall that there was an awful lot about forgiveness and love in there and treating your enemy as your brother. So why is it that supposed Christians are so intolerant and cruel?

Okay, okay… I’m done with that. At any rate, these musings contributed to my bad night. I ended up crying about for a long time, which didn’t make my head feel any better.

I am thinking about volunteering with the Humane Society though. Alan’s worried about the gas, but I think he’s more worried about me. I don’t really know anyone here. The Faulks are the only people we really socialize with (again, his social interactions outside work are limited by considerations of rank) and he knows I spend a lot of my time not talking about things that are important to me and that such shallow friendships aren’t good enough. At least if I’m volunteering I’ll get out of the house and meet people with at least one shared value.

I also found out when I announced our pregnancy on Facebook that my friend Erica is pregnant. She’s in Iowa with family right now while Nathan is deployed, but he’s coming back early. When he does, she’ll be out here again and I’ll have a baby buddy to hang out with. Especially nice is that she’s due in February, so we’ll have newborns at the same time. I think she and I have more in common generally than either of us have with Charlee anyway, for all that Erica is only 19. It’ll be good to have a new mommy out here to sympathize with since Lisette is so far away.

I guess I’m just feeling really homesick lately. Not just for the climate and the places and my friends specifically, but simply for like-minded people that I could be myself around. I’m not saying that there aren’t bigots and people I disagree with in Connecticut… it’s just that I could ignore them because I had so many other people around me.

::sniffle:: Ithink I’ll call my mom.

~Liz

Oh… the title. I actually meant to mention this. When Alan and I were discussing girl names, he suggested Keasbey. It’s growing on me, strangely enough, probably because I like the song. So anyway, I wanted to post the video. The original is by Catch-22, although Streetlight Manifesto is pretty much comprised of the original members of Catch-22 and One Cool Guy, so it’s not really a cover. So I wanted to share the song. It’s a video, but not really.