Pre-Moving: Cat Deprivation, Redundant Books, and Expiration Dates

[queerbychoice]

I'm moving in with my fiancee this holiday weekend. My cat has already moved in with her. Susan says my cat is spending all her time in my future home office. She hides under the futon if Susan tries to pet her.

Meanwhile, I'm at my apartment alone, trying to pack, but I can't function properly because I have no cat here. What made me think it was a good idea to leave Stardust with Susan for three days? I'm sure Stardust was happy to avoid another pair of long car rides, but how am I supposed to function for three days without my cat?

Also, I would like to list here, for the sake of the historical record, the only fifteen books that Susan and I own redundant copies of. It is astounding that two people who each own as many books as Susan and I do have managed to own only fifteen of the same specific books. They are:

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past edited by Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chancey, Jr.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the 17th Century to the Present edited by Lillian Faderman
The History of Sexuality, Volumes I and II by Michel Foucault
The Mismeasure of Man: The Definitive Refutation to the Argument of The Bell Curve by Stephen Jay Gould
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Word's Out: Gay Men's English by William L. Leap
S/he by Minnie Bruce Pratt
The Sophie Horowitz Story by Sarah Schulman
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian America by Lindsy van Gelder and Pamela Robin Brandt

Seven novels, six nonfiction works, one literary anthology, and one prose poetry collection. Nine of the fifteen are specifically queer - a shared interest that helps explain why we both own them. One of the others is a politically left-wing, anti-prejudicial nonfiction work, and another is a novel by a Chinese-American woman writer whose work has been included in many efforts to make the traditional literary canon more inclusive. The James Joyce one made its way into both of our collections because it's so firmly entrenched in the traditional, uninclusive canon. The two Douglas Adams ones are firmly entrenched in the pop-cultural canon, and the remaining one . . . well, I don't have the slightest idea why we we both happened to own the Wally Lamb novel.

We also have two CDs in common - Come Dancing by The Kinks and Transformer by Lou Reed. We'd have more than that if I counted the ones where one or both of us has the cassette instead, but I haven't had time to count those yet.

In other news, it is also astounding how much stuff one can get rid of just by going through one's kitchen and bathroom cabinets looking for expiration dates. Why did practically every single perishable item I own expire in 2006? Probably because I last moved in late 2005.

Comments

[jeremytblack.livejournal.com]

I know. How does one function without this creature?

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Not well! It involves a whole lot of pretending the creature is there, and meowing at it as if it were, and continuing to take precautions to prevent it from chewing up the Venetian blinds as if it were. And constantly hearing its collar jingling, only to realize that can't possibly be what you heard.

[luinied.livejournal.com]

Yeah, being without my cat for the few days between giving him to a friend and going away for the holidays was really astonishingly hard. I've just gotten so used to looking around for him, you know? (Because, well, if I don't it can lead to trouble.)

[hansel25.livejournal.com]

Maybe that Wally Lamb book was on sale.

[orangebeaver.livejournal.com]

Cat deprivation is no joke. When I went back to Oregon for two weeks, I missed cats so much that I was trying to find them on the street to pet.

[thelittlesthomo.livejournal.com]

I met William Leap at a conference he organized in February. In corresponding with my friend about us going to the conference, he signed all his emails "hugs, Bill" which was kind of disturbing. And of course I had to share this with you, because most people have never heard of him.

[morningloryblue.livejournal.com]

I really like She's Come Undone. It's on my list of favorites.