On with life

So, I thought my life would calm down once I was working only one job. Yeah, not so much. I have more time, but what with my friends all wanting to spend time with me now that I have evenings free, people trying to set me up on dates now that I can actually go on them, my birthday this week and me catching a nasty something with a terrible cough (I really hope it isn't bronchitis), things are still a little crazy.

Anyhow, I have yet to blog about my wonderful new job. At first, things were going so fast and they threw me into the work, baptism-by-fire style, that I was a little overwhelmed. Just a little. But now that I'm starting to get the hang of it, I find that I really do enjoy it. Time seems to fly by when I'm at work, what with me editing manuscripts and books and filing things and learning how to use Quark and InDesign.

The funny thing about where I work, though, isn't the books we publish -- it's the million cats that live in the old converted barn that is the office. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little. There aren't a million cats, only a dozen -- at least. I'm not kidding, the other day I started counting and stopped when I got to ten, but I'm sure there are others. No one there seems to know how many there are either. And that in addition to the sheep.

It may sound like I live out in the boonies, but it really isn't. The city just grew up around the old farmstead and they've held out, even though the barn is now surrounded by a brand-new subdivision of $400,000 homes. It sounds incongruous, but there it is.

The bad part about all of this, the only bad part really, is that I'm allergic to cats. Really allergic. I also have asthma, so I have to make sure I don't touch any of the cats or I could have an asthma attack.

So far I've been able to shoo away the cats successfully, but they keep coming back. One cat, which everyone calls 'the white cat,' gives me an angry, what-do-you-think-you're-doing-pushing-me-out look every time I won't let him into the office where I work. It feels like the cats own the place but are condescending enough to allow us to work there. I find it rather funny, especially when we open up random cabinets and shelves to find a cat sitting inside.

I can't say that I've ever worked somewhere quite so quirky, but the people are nice and I enjoy it. So I say, hey, whatever works.