London Calling

I woke up this morning at 3 am to the sound of my cat ripping paper. This is not a highly unusual occurrence because my cat is too smart for his own good, and I should have known better before I went to bed.

We have started a process for the past month of letting the dog sleep in a dog bed on the floor next to us instead of in her crate like she used to. It has worked well. The only downside is that we have to keep the door closed so she doesn't run around the house willy-nilly in the middle of the night. Keeping the door closed makes the room very stuffy and warm because in their vast intelligence, there is only one vent in the bedroom (which is a fairly good-sized room). Needless to say with our recent air conditioning fiasco, we realized that to keep maximum airflow and the ability to sleep without feeling like we were in a sauna, we needed to keep the door open. We had bought a baby gate for my old apartment because it was split level and we wanted to keep the dog downstairs with us while we were down there so that she wouldn't go upstairs and terrorize my bedroom (she was in her puppy stage at this point). So we found the old baby gate, put it in the doorway to the bedroom, and can now leave the bedroom door open so we can breathe at night.

So you are probably wondering what all that has to do with anything! My cat, Mikah, likes to sleep with me. He usually sleeps in my arm or pressed up against the side of my body. He has done this since I got him at six weeks old and he is now 5+ years old. He also likes to be able to get up in the middle of the night and eat or drink or whatnot so we have to keep a smaller food dish for him in the bathroom that he can get at night. Since we have the baby gate now (which he can jump over), we assumed that he would be nice enough to jump over the gate if needing food to his main food dish which is in the living room. We assumed wrong. That is obviously too far to have to go for your midnight snack, and in his infinite wisdom, he decided last night that ripping paper was the way to wake me up (his other methods include banging on the blinds, etc.). Each time he did, I would swat at him in my half-sleep and try to get him to stop, only to have him run into the bathroom to point out his lack of food, and come back a few minutes later when he saw I hadn't taken his orders and begin ripping paper again. This is why I was awake at 3 am this morning.

So I finally got up and went in the living room and brought his food in and put in the bathroom. I laid back down thinking I would go to sleep. No such luck! The dog for some reason was sleeping at the foot of our bed on the floor wrapped up in the comforter which we have on the floor temporarily because it's so hot. She had made a nest there (our animals have issues!), and had seen me get up and go get the food and go in the bathroom and come back and apparently that was an open invitation to come see me in bed. So then I had our 40 pound dog in the bed with us too and she has been sick lately so I felt guilty about kicking her out. Of course, I could still not sleep, probably something to do with the fact that my cat, me, my dog, and my husband were all smushed in a queen size bed. Needless to say, I was still awake when Austin's alarm went off at 5 am, and I didn't fal back to sleep until about 5:30 for an hour and then had to get up. I'm a little sleepy! ;)

Of course, when Austin gets up, he turns on the TV regardless of whether I'm awake or asleep. I should have done that to him at 3 am!!! I think I sensed something was going on because it was exactly at that time that the explosions had occurred in London even though I didn't find out about it until 5:15 or so. I'm a little worried because one of my good friends from high school (she was my maid of honor in my wedding) is over in London right now studying at the University of London for a summer abroad program in law school. I saw on the news that the tube station that was affected was right by the University of London campus, and I am just hoping and praying now that she was in class or in the dorms when this occurred and not having to take the subway for any reason. I have e-mailed her and am waiting to hear back and will try calling her mom tonight if I haven't heard anything.

Please keep my friend and the many others that are involved in this disastrous event in London in your thoughts and prayers. It is such a tragedy, but I was so proud to see President Bush standing behind Tony Blair this morning along with the other world leaders in a show of consolidated support. I don't think these terror events will ever end, but we must stand strong and try to be aware of what is going on to prevent them the best we can.

I just finished my first cup of coffee to keep me awake today and hopefully after one more or a soda, I can at least function! :)