So the cats have fleas...which (eventually) made me excited for the future. Yes, there really is a connection between those two things, and it is not that big of a jump (pun fully intended).
Those of you who are paying very close attention and who have a good memory might recall that little Mittons had ear mites (and worms, but those are irrelevant to this story) when she had her first check up. We treated those, and at her second check-up, she was still scratching her ears. They looked...no ear mites. I guess they (and I) missed the flea problem. I actually gave her a flea treatment, though, right away, but it apparently didn't take.
Yes, despite that innocent look she sports in the above photo, Mittons has brought a plague upon the house. Monday night, I found a flea on her. The other two had a vet appointment the next day (just a check up), so I had the vet check them...sure enough, evidence of fleas on both of them. Damn it! I got enough medicine to treat three cats for fleas for three months, came home, and started vacuuming everything -- floors, furniture, etc. I took everything they've laid on -- blankets, cat beds, etc. -- and started washing that. Of course, I immediately applied the first monthly dose of meds to the cats too.
Today, I'm doing the same thing again, as I have seen a couple dying fleas come off the mangy little one, and I don't want to take any chances. In doing so, I admit that I got a bit frustrated -- I have so many other things I want and need to be doing, that I sure got a wrench thrown my way by this! Why on earth didn't the first round of flea treatment work on Mittons? Why am I having to spend time vacuuming when I'm paying a professional cleaning team to come in next week?! What a waste of time!
Then I started to think...there must be some reason that I have to be vacuuming today. Maybe if I'd tried to stain the deck (again -- I started once and got rained out already this week!), I would have done something wrong or run into problems and gotten frustrated. Maybe I'm not emotionally ready for another "trigger" as I go through boxes of things. For whatever reason, I realized, I need to be vacuuming today.
I was thinking that as I started to vacuum the dining room. Mind you, we had/I have a beautiful dining room, at least in my opinion. It houses our dining room table -- my favorite piece of furniture due to all the great times we had with family and friends drinking wine, hosting get-togethers with out-of-town family, playing board games, serving holiday dinners, and hosting fantasy football drafts around that table. We also had a beautiful glass table/wine rack (that holds about 30 bottles!) and several wine-themed paintings.
Clearly, wine is something I loved and that Brian and I loved together. It was a big part of our lives, which might sound silly to some, but that's what we liked. We started a (very casual!) wine club a few years ago, that continues to this day. We meet once a month, at my dining room table, and everyone brings a wine to share. There is always a theme for each month -- merlot, South American wines, wines that have dirty-sounding names, etc. Boy, I am going to miss wine club (though I'm starting one in Austin, and already have several people on board!).
I digress...suffice it to say, and I'm going to miss the heck out of having a formal dining room. I love to entertain and spend time with friends and family; as much as I love the food, games, and wine, it was about the friends and family, really. I am sad to think that in my new place in Austin, I probably won't have room for that table. I am going to keep it in storage until I have a house, though, because it holds so many great memories for me.
I was sort of thinking about that as I was moving the dining room table and all 8 chairs out of the way to vacuum the area rug they sit on, but I kept thinking, "There must be some reason I am supposed to be doing this today." The area rug is a short shag that actually takes a few runs with a vacuum to look good, and I was trying to be very thorough on top of it all (on account of those fleas...remember how they tie in!), so I was really taking my time on that rug. In doing so, I sort of stepped back and looked at it from a distance. Then I saw -- or rather, remembered -- just how cool that rug is.
This rug is about 10'x15" and has an oval-sort of pattern, with overlapping shapes, contrasting borders, and several colors (black, maroon, olive green, burnt orange, gray, navy). It's really unusual, and Brian and I both loved it. Then it hit me -- I can use this rug in my new place! I'll probably get an apartment or rent a condo for a year in Austin, until I get more settled, and I'd love a modern, loft-style place, perhaps with concrete floors. In any event, I imagined that rug in the middle of my new living room space in Austin, and I got excited. Excited not just to move and to have a great, modern rug that will look great in my new place, but also excited that I will have a piece of the dining room with me. It will be a daily reminder of the good times we had and how blessed we were to share that with each other and to be able to call those good times our "lives." I'm just remembering again, how great our life was together, and it's bittersweet, but getting more sweet than bitter.
Today, I can say it made me so happy to think I'll have this reminder with me in Texas, day in and day out, of the happy and wonderful life Brian and I created. Apparently that "a-ha!" moment, that encouragement, is why I needed to vacuum today.
And that's how the fleas made me excited for the future.
But, right now, the present requires more vacuuming...
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