felines and fungus

I really didn't want to make this the topic of my first actual blog post since 2005, but I just couldn't help it. This has been an ongoing saga in our house and since new events have transpired recently it's been on my mind a lot, so it's what I'm writing about. This might be long...

Anyone who has been around us much in the last year or so knows we adopted two cats - Rockie and Rena - from the Safe Haven for Ringworm Cats no-kill shelter in Raleigh. If you look at the pictures, Rena is the cute little black and white tuxedo cat who for some reason in photographs looks like she's going to turn you to stone and eat your soul if you look directly into her eyes. She was 1-2 years old when we adopted her, according to the shelter. Rockie is the not quite so attractive, somewhat dingy and ugly, but lovable, cat who is fluffy in half the pictures and shaved like giant rat in the other half. The shelter said he was 7-9 years old.

Let's talk about Rockie. Rockie is FIV positive and what they call a "special needs" cat. He had been at the shelter for so long without finding a home that they waived the adoption fee when we said we wanted him. We knew he was going to be a project and need some serious TLC, but you should have seen him that day. When they opened his crate at the shelter he crawled right into Meg's arms. They took us into the playroom and I don't think I've ever seen a sweeter animal with such a craving for some basic affection and a real home. Meg fell in love with him immediately, and while I admit I took a little convincing, having gone in sort of expecting to walk out with kittens, I fell in love with him too. It was impossible not to, and despite everything I'm about to say, it still is.


Fast forward to.... well, pretty much right after that. Rockie picks up ringworm. Really it's more likely that he already had ringworm when he came home from the shelter. Regardless of when and where he got it, he gave it to us. Getting ringworm generally results in extremely itchy, ring-shaped, rather gross-looking spots on your skin. Athlete's foot, jock itch... all ringworm. The name they give it just depends on where it is on you. We figured out it was ringworm when Meg's friend at work said to her, "ew, gross, that looks like ringworm." A little searching on the interwebs and we were pretty much certain she was right.

We took Rockie to the vet to confirm that we were correct in our diagnosis, which they do by using a special UV lamp in the dark that makes the fungus glow bright green. It's kind of awesome and weird. They told us what they do for ringworm is completely shave the animal, bathe them with a medicated shampoo, and start them on an oral antifungal medication. We'd also need to bathe him ourselves somewhat regularly while the medicine did its work. He needed a dental check-up too, so we scheduled both of these things on the same day. Rough day at the doctor for Rockie. They had to knock him out for the dental exam, which made the shaving a lot easier since for them since they didn't have to fight with him over it. But for Rockie it meant that he showed up at the vet that day a perfectly normal, fungus-covered cat, and woke up hours later completely naked with a sore mouth.


A week or two later, Rockie cleared up, thankfully, and all was well in the world again. Until about 6 months later when it happened again. Lather, rinse, repeat. While any animal can get ringworm, most of them don't because their immune systems are able to fight it off. With Rockie's FIV, his immune system is always compromised, so he can't fight it off like a regular cat. He never really shows any visible signs of ringworm, although he does get itchy. We know he has it again when we get it again (explain to me why Rena, the cat, can fight this off better than I can). This time around we decided that Meg and I would keep him shaved and continue to bathe him fairly regularly to keep the ringworm away from him. I admit that we did not do this as regularly as we intended to, but we did do it. Fast forward again to now, though, and Rockie has it again. $@#%!

Last week Meg took Rockie to the NC State Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where they have specialists in dermatology. They were recommended by our vet. Why they never mentioned this place before we have no idea, but it's pretty awesome that it's there and so close by. Meg was there with Rockie for four hours while the doctors turned him into a science experiment, taking sample after sample of his skin, hair, and general crustiness. They sent him home with two new medications. One is a topical treatment that we have to smear all over his body every three days. The other is a different kind of oral medication. We learned that the oral medication our vet had given us before has immunosuppresant properties and really should never be given, especially to an FIV-positive cat. Minus 5 points for our vet. This vet, like the other vet, is also certain that the ringworm will not come back. Because that just never happens on this treatment plan. To this, we say, "You've got to be kidding me. This is the THIRD TIME!" But what can we do. We'll do as we're told and make the little dude feel better. It's a different treatment, so while I have approximately zero confidence that it isn't going to come back again, I'll give the vet the benefit of the doubt. If it does come back, then we'll have to put our foot down and figure out a true, long-term solution.


This post has gotten crazy long, but I guess it's been kind of a crazy story. It's hard to describe the frustration of this whole ordeal. Between having to tell our friends and family not to come to our house for fear of giving them ringworm, and feeling the need to slather antifungal cream on anything and everything that itches because we think it might be ringworm, this has not been fun, to say the least. In fact, it's been really crappy. It's funny though.... this cat has almost no redeeming qualities. He's rather ugly. He's awkward. He's clumsy. He's scraggly and unkempt (or unthrifty, as the dermatologist's report stated). He sucks at cleaning himself. And he gives everyone fungus. Yet we love him to death. When he jumps up on your lap and gives you his tiny, hopeful, pathetic attempt at a meow, and then tries three times to curl up in your lap without falling off, you just can't help but love him. This cat has had a rough life, and it shows. All we want is to know that we took this lonely, sick, beat-up cat that nobody wanted, gave him a good home with people who love him and care for him, and let him live out the rest of his days, happy for once in his life. And he is happy now. That's what makes it all worth it. It's a nice feeling knowing that you truly rescued an animal that needed help. It helps his case that he's the sweetest animal I have ever known. He's part of the family now, and despite all my complaining about him, I wouldn't give him up for anything. So that's that.

I could do without the fungus though.

Return of the Blog!!

I just noticed that Mike and Liz put a link to our blog on their blog, so I figured I should put something here so people don't come here and get confused by the fact that the last post was in October 2005. I started this blog in February 2005 and I blogged INTENSELY for 9 months (I made 10 posts. I didn't blog intensely. I just said that as a funny joke.). Now I've decided to start it up again, because I have some really important and profound things to say. This blog is going change your life. I'm trying to get Meg to participate too, so I've made it our blog instead of my personal blog. Hopefully she'll write some things here as well. Then this blog will change your life 2 times over.

I have no idea where to even start with this thing. A lot has happened since October 2005, and it would fill up this entire space if I tried to talk about everything. I think we'll just start from here and fill in the blanks as we go. What will the first topic be???? You'll have to wait and find out!! See how I did that? Now you have to come back to the blog again. I am cunning beyond words.

fast food rage!

It got to be after 11:00 tonight and I hadn't eaten any dinner yet. That was too late for me to feel like cooking something, and I had to take a movie back to Blockbuster anyway, so I figured I'd stop at McDonald's while I was out there. So I did. It was closed. "Well crap," I said. But fine, I guess I just picked the reject McDonald's that closes early. So I head for the other McDonald's I know of, except I go the wrong way on the highway (big surprise there). Luckily, the next exit has a McDonald's anyway, so I go there. And IT'S CLOSED TOO! Now I'm pissed. It's SATURDAY, at 11:30 in Raleigh, NC. All I want is one goddamn double quarter pounder with cheese and NO ONE WILL GIVE IT TO ME! By then it was midnight. I finally went to the one I meant to go to after the first one was closed, and it was open. My THIRD McDonald's, and it's open. 11:30 ON A SATURDAY, and ONE out of THREE McDonald's is open. And just to put a little extra frost on my balls, not only was this one open, it was open 24 hours. So apparently around here McDonald's either closes at 7:30 PM when grandma goes to bed, or they're open even damned second of the day. Keep that in mind when you're in Raleigh at 11:30 on a Saturday and you want a f-ing McDonald's sandwich. I'm so mad I wrote this rant before I even ate my stupid sandwich. I bet it won't even taste good. They probably gave me chicken mcnuggets by mistake. Goodnight.

EDIT: I got a single quarter pounder with cheese in a double quarter pounder box, and got charged for a double. I want to set everyone on fire.

i am a waste of space

<---- me.....except that's a cat, and i'm a person.

I'm sitting here by myself on the couch on a Saturday, and I'm realizing, as I often do, what a giant waste of space I am. Granted, weekends are meant for relaxing. Since I spend so many of my weekends traveling up to Maryland, or spending time with Meg when she comes down to Raleigh, it's nice to have a quiet weekend once in a while when I don't have to do anything. The problem is that I actually don't do anything. I always tell myself I'm going to be productive and get some things accomplished that I never have time to work on during the week or over the non-free weekends, but it never happens. Part of it is that I'm just a typical lazy American. Nothing I can do about that. I'm wired to be lazy, and I'll use that bad excuse until the day I die. But there's more to it that I can't quite put my finger on. Begin unnecessary new paragraph:

I'd like to get some cleaning done, or wash my car, or maybe go running or go to the gym. I also have a lot of things for work that I would like to spend time on. That sounds pretty dumb for a weekend activity, but I don't think it's that weird. In my job I end up being a guy that has to answer a lot of questions from a lot of people. That's not because I'm any smarter or more important than anyone else. I'm definitely not. It's just because the work I do on our product gets used by almost everyone else on the team. I'm not going to attempt to explain my job because I have failed in every attempt I've ever made to do that, and I will just confuse you because I'm terrible at explaining things. The point I'm getting to is that an excessively large portion of my work days is spent answering all the questions and trying to help people with problems. I wouldn't mind so much, except that it keeps me from doing the actual work I want and need to be doing. We talk about a lot of cool things we want to do at work, but we never have time to work on them because of all the interruptions and unexpected issues, and it's frustrating. I hate leaving work completely burnt out, yet having nothing tangible to show for my hard work that day. That would be my biggest complaint about my job.

So that's why I say I want to be doing things for work on the weekend, rather than wasting the days away like I usually do. I would even have fun working on that stuff, as nerdy as they might be. I can't pretend I'm not a giant nerd. But when you always leave work tired, stressed, and burnt out, you don't want to think about work anymore when you're at home. That's my one explanation for why I have so much trouble motivating myself. I still think I have motivation problems for other reasons, though. I just don't know what they are. I hate the feeling of having wasted time when I could have been doing so many other, more useful, things. I hate the feeling so much that you would think it would cause me to not do it anymore, but it doesn't. Maybe it's normal, I don't know. But I hate it.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. It was just on my mind. Hopefully I'll figure it out one day and feel less bad about myself. I'll have to figure it out one day. I'll have a house and a family and responsibilities coming out my butt, and I won't have time to waste time anymore. Maybe I should enjoy it while my life still allows me to. But the day I can't afford to waste time anymore is also the day I can't spend as much of my time doing things just because I want to. That's a scary thought.

Somehow it's after 5:00 already. Time to go eat, do laundry, and finish watching USC vs. Notre Dame. Notre Dame is up 21-14 right now. I hate Notre Dame, but not as much as I would love seeing USC lose, so I have to root for them today. Maybe while I watch I'll try to figure out what the hell to do with myself for the rest of the weekend. I have to go to a bar to watch the Redskins game tomorrow, since the stupid #$%@#%! Panthers are playing at the same time and taking up the TV slot. I expect everyone to be rooting for Joe Gibbs tomorrow. I know you won't let me down. Everyone enjoy your weekend. I'll try to be less reflective and depressing next time.

matt's life in brief

So I haven't written anything in about 5 months, much to the chagrin of a few people (e.g. my girlfriend) who mistakenly got into the habit of checking my blog regularly and expecting steady updates. In my defense, I said from the beginning that this would probably happen. Plus, did you really think I was an interesting enough person to have something to talk about every day? Anyway, I got inspired this morning so I thought I'd give a quick update on my life.

I guess around April after I last posted, I started trying to get my life in order. I'm starting to accept that I'm in a new stage of my life where I have lots of responsibilities that aren't going to go away anytime soon. Mostly I just took some time to figure out what I was doing with my money, how to budget it, how to save it, etc. Fun stuff. ***Side note: When you end a sentence with "etc." like I just did, are you supposed to put two periods, one for the abbreviation of "et cetera" and one for the end of the sentence? I've never known the answer to that.*** Anyway, I learned some things about investing, retirement savings, and the like....mostly a lot of things that would be a lot cooler if I made enough money to do them. One day, I guess. I started reading about buying a house too, even though that's still a little ways off (see previous statement about needing more money to do things).

I ran in the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon with some friends in Virginia Beach over Labor Day weekend, which was a pretty cool experience, despite having to run the absurd distance of 13.1 miles. I was "training" for several months, though not as hard as I had planned and mostly in the last couple months before the race. I predicted a finishing time of about 2:15:00 when I signed up in March, decided around August that my real goal would be 2:00:00, and finished the race in 1:59:14. So I guess it was a success. It was a good time, and something I'll do again. You can go to the course simulation if you're really that bored and watch me as a little dot running around the course. Put in bib number 15621.

I guess there's not really much else to talk about without making this post ridiculously long. I'm hoping to get up to Blacksburg to see friends and a football game some weekend coming up. I can't describe how happy I am that football season is finally back. The Hokies have a hell of a team this year, and the Redskins, even though they've looked ugly as sin so far, have made it to 2-0, so I'm very happy right now.

I get to see Meg the next two weekends in a row, which is fantastic. We're going up to Richmond for Chris and Mel's engagement party next weekend, and she's coming to see me in Raleigh the week after. We think we might finally see the end of this long distance roller coaster ride off in the distance, sometime after her graduation next May. I can't even explain how unreal it feels to even be able to think about being with her all the time, in one place, without 300 miles separating us all the time. We've learned not to get our hopes up too high though, and to just let things happen as they happen. It's the only way to stay sane through this. The distance will be gone one day when it's good and ready, and that will be an amazing day for both of us.

Ok, I said I was ending this a paragraph ago. I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping in touch with everyone, because I've sucked at it so far....I've kinda sucked at it all my life and I feel bad about it. I miss all my friends from MD, school, and everywhere else. So if you're reading this, please keep in touch....give a call, or come visit, or whatever, and I'll work on doing the same. Also, thanks to Meg (love you honey), I am now on Facebook, making me officially a giant tool, in case there was any doubt before. So, if you are also a giant toolface, look me up on there too. There's even a sexy picture for your viewing pleasure. Hope all is well with everyone. Signing off.

Ok, signing on again to tell you to buy "The Everglow" by Mae. One of the best CD's I've bought in a very long time. k, done.

i hate automatic faucets

Does anyone else have problems with automatic hand-sensing faucets in public bathrooms? We have "automatic" faucets in the bathrooms at work. I despise them. Every time I try to use them I hate my life a little bit more. Basically I get one of the following scenarios:

1. The faucet ignores the fact that i've been standing there for 10 seconds waving my hands at it like a tool and doesn't turn on at all
2. Same as #1 except now I move to the next sink over upon which the first faucet turns on now that no one is standing there anymore. I curse.
3. The faucet turns on long enough for me to wet my hands and cover them with soap, and then turns off. Return to scenario #1, this time with soapy hands.
4. The faucet repeatedly turns on and off in intervals of about a second as though i was standing there holding my hand in front of it, taking it away, putting it back, etc. I'm not. Keep giving me water you dirty, dirty bastard.
5. This is a special case in which one particular faucet in the bathroom by the break room almost always operates appropriately, yet produces a stream of water so weak it would take me 5 minutes to actually wash my hands in it. I probably should just stop going to that sink, but I always forget. I guess that's my fault, but that doesn't make it not suck.
   

Sometimes as I leave, all of the faucets turn on for no reason. I enjoy that too. I realize I may be the only person who cares at all about this, and you all think I'm just whining. Well I am, and I don't care. Something as trivial as washing my hands before I leave the bathroom should not be such a pain in the ass. I curse those things every day and I finally decided to vent. I thought it might help, but I'm still angry. I'll spare you any further ranting. Also, I'm sick and I hate it. My throat feels like sandpaper and I have to blow my nose every 5 minutes. It's an all-around good day.

i bought a car!

To my millions of readers, sorry i haven't updated this in a while. Life has been busy. The current top news story, of course, is that matt bought a new car. damn right. and it's pimp. Despite all the talk about making a road trip to get the special edition model of the Mazda3, or paying extra money to get it here in Raleigh, I went to the dealer to look again and the regular S model and decided it wasn't worth the extra money to get all the extra features on the SP model. I thought maybe I was just telling myself that to allay my feelings of selling myself short and not getting the one I've been lusting after for so long. But I really started to feel like some of those features didn't belong on a Mazda3. Extras like rain-sensing windshield wipers, while cool, really have no place on an "economy" car. It began to seem as though they were trying to make the car something it's not, and I didn't want to regret buying it. Also I started to really like the blue one, and I could only get the other one in dark grey. I'll put some pictures up soon, but yeah, my car is very new, very awesome, and very blue. And awesome.

In other news, work is busy as crap. It's been non-stop lately. I remember at my first co-op at IBM I played foosball all the time...often multiple times throughout any given day. It was great. The second and third co-ops there was still some, but significantly less foosball. Since I started full-time I think I've played twice, and that's just sad. Apparently I now measure workload in foosball minutes. I'm a tool.

So yeah, there's not much interesting to talk about despite how busy I've been. The car venture took up a ton of time. I'm pretty much done, except that there's a scratch on one side that I'm making them fix. It's small, but if there are going to be scratches on my brand new car (by the way, there were 12 miles on it when I first got in. sweet.) I want to be the one that puts them there. Anyway, I have a new car now, complete with my own car insurance and a big-ass loan to pay off over the next 2 years. This whole "being a responsible human being" stuff still freaks me out a little. I have a career, insurance, bills, benefits.....a retirement account for heaven's sake. It's just weird. I suppose I'll get used to it after a while. Ok, I'm done. This has just gotten long. Time to watch basketball. Have a good Easter. Goodnight.

this could only happen to me...

so this buying a new car thing was going fine. my car was ordered, and I was waiting for the phone call from the dealer, telling me that my car was in production and would be here in a few weeks. sounds great. but hold on a minute, I actually won't be getting that phone call. Why? Because the Mazda production plant CAUGHT ON FIRE. I'm not joking. The paint line at the plant seriously caught on fire and they have cancelled all production of the Mazda3 SP23 4-door sedan....hey, that sounds like exactly the car I ordered. I found this out last week and I'm still in disbelief. I mean, seriously, do things like this actually happen to other people, or is it just me?

I have a few options. The dealer can still get me the car I want, with my exact specs, because some of them were already produced before the fire. The problem is he has to buy it from another dealer which means I have to pay extra money since the other dealer will charge him extra money to get it. So instead of a $20,500 car with my sweet IBM discount, it would become more like $22,500-$23,000, which sucks. Another option is to find one of these dealers in Virginia or Georgia or wherever the hell they are, and take a road trip to go buy it. Or, I can get the regular Mazda3 S model, which is almost the same as the SP23 minus a few features. I'd be losing out on the dark grey color I wanted, the upgraded sound system, and some random things like rain sensing windshield wipers, auto headlights, and pollen filters for my A/C, all of which I don't really care about. Also, if I decided to get leather seats on the S model, I can't get seat heaters, which sucks. The more I think about it though, the less I think I need all that stuff. There are other colors I like, I can upgrade the sound system if I really want to, and I'm probably better off with cloth seats anyway because the summers in Raleigh are hot as balls and black leather would not help that at all, even though it looks sweet. I was going to get cloth seats in the first place, but the SP23 only came with leather so I got myself fixed on the black leather for a while. I would also be saving myself a few thousand dollars if I went the S model route instead of the SP. I think I can get the S model for about $18,500.

Anyway, this is the part where everyone writes and tells me what I should do, because I can't decide. I decided once. My decision caught on fire. I don't want to make another one because it will probably catch on fire too. I realize there are about 3 people who ever read this blog, so I'm not expecting much help, but any comments would be appreciated. I'm going tomorrow to look at the S model and see if I would regret getting that instead of the SP.

Someone out there really doesn't want me to buy this car....