To be honest, I’ve been silent for more reasons than my sudden fascination with what will happen to all my crap when I die. Things have been really fucking crappy and expensive around these parts, and it’s been hard to see outside our own collective clouds of perpetual doom. In the last month:

• Lemon got sick with a stomach bug, and I had to give him a round of nightly injections because he wouldn’t take pills. He’s never been the cheeriest of cats, and having him sick and hating us was just awful. It was also expensive: his vet bills totalled around $1200. We have cat insurance, but it remains to be seen whether any of the costs will be covered (because it’s not particularly GOOD cat insurance).
• We took our car in for a routine tune up, and it needed a LOT of work. Many car things were done, and while the repairs will extend the life of the car by a long time and be much safer on the road and blah blah responsible motorist cakes, the final bill was just shy of $1400. We weren’t really expecting that. Gaskets are really expensive.
• Lemon is more or less fine now, but Hobbes isn’t. He has some seriously bad teeth that need to be pulled; 3-5 of them + one canine that was rotten and gross. We took him in for surgery this past Wednesday, but during the pre-exam they found a significant heart murmur – no surgery. He has to go in for an ultrasound next Tuesday to determine if it’s heart disease or something else. The good news is the vet did opt to pull the tooth that was giving him the most trouble, and he’s already so much happier (and much less smelly). Also, his initial bloodwork came back perfect: he’s in great health, if you ignore his mouth and whatever may be going on with his heart. We don’t know how much this is going to cost, but the surgery quote was $1800 – and that’s before the heart murmur was found.
• Ed isn’t coping with the Hobbes news well. Hobbes is his Sasha, so he’s basically a wreck. He’s dealing with that while I’m dealing with some stuff of my own, and both of us need the other to be the rock. It’s failing miserably.
• Piccadilly is going in to be spayed tomorrow, and I feel awful about it. I know it’s a necessity and I know she’ll be better off for it, but I’m terrified for her. She’s so small and trusting and I’m taking her to a place where she’ll be scared and hurt and I can’t explain why to make it all better and if I think about it I cry because I am a giant wuss who can’t handle shit.
• I need a haircut really badly.

So, yeah. It’s been a pretty shitty month, and it would be great if things could get better soon, okay? I don’t like it when stuff sucks.