10 Days Indoors

February 01, 2016

10 Days Indoors

I can't remember when is the last time I didn't leave the house for so long. Over the course of the last week and a half I have turned into an indoor cat. Call me Pud. Oh, my poor mother....I'm sure she wishes I were a dog person since there is no such thing as a "Dog Lady", even though there are women who constantly fall for dogs. Thankfully, I'm not one of them. Like a cat, I found a good feeder, the Chef. He knows how to stock up on food in case a blizzard hits. This week's selection was particularly tasty:

Pasta alla Genovese

Brought from Italy to NJ to MD in our suitcase. We protect good pasta like gold.

Buon appetito!

Cappuccino

Gran caramel

He is good stuff!

"Dog Ladies" tend to be more adventurous an don't date men for feeding purposes. Cat ladies look for guys who like to cook for them. ..This post should focus on life beyond the similarities of becoming an indoor cat...so:

Have you ever gotten so sick you haven't left the house for a long time? Or did you just get sick of people and decided to board up your walls and stay in your castle talking to yourself on why you are so great and everyone else stinks? Fatty is currently doing that at this moment. I accidentally stepped on the cat-muffin making him into a cat-mashed-potato (with plenty of butter) and he has gone into monklike hiding.

Bad karma is on my way, I can sense it. Cats have a way of giving you the Evil Eye worse than any seething aunt or evil co-worker you ever had.

Malocchio Felino. Should I run and get a penis amulet the way the Romans had to avoid the effects of malocchio?

Anyway, being closed in has its benefits and it's hazards. One benefit is that you become really appreciative of your things especially the most useful ones like your box of tissue, favorite tea cup and Kindle. One of its hazards is that you forget the world outside your four walls. You start to forget about music, art, downtowns and having conversations face-to-face with real people that you like.

Tomorrow is a big day for me: I am leaving the house! I might even be risky and venture BEYOND the suburbs. Yes! I will put on real clothes, shop and enjoy life for a few hours. I'm excited for this moment and have been preparing the last few days: clothes neatly ironed, hair currently in giant curlers (hey you got to dress up to celebrate) and a list of groceries and places to go jotted down.

Getting dolled up for tomorrow: a day out of the house and out of the suburbs! Doing this thing southern style: big hair and pearls on the horizon for tomorrow.

On another note, somewhat a ramble, life in the suburbs of America is incredibly boring. It has been years since I have lived with such monotony. There is no place you can go by foot. If you try to walk to the grocery store you have to walk alone and there are no sidewalks. It's no wonder that so many people get crazy and think they are depressed. They need some interaction with other humans! I remember living in Alaska and seeing the crazy blank look in people's eyes after the winter ended. Here, in the suburbs, people are like that too but on a smaller scale. If you say "Hi" they look blankly before responding. No wonder American's are so sensitive and have such thin skin. They aren't exposed enough to other people. In Italy, people are tough, mentally quick and always a step ahead of the conversation in case they need to fly into a full argument. It could be about cheese or the Prime Minister. But Italians need to argue.

Piazzas give Italians a place to meet, argue, sell, make a deal and not live in monotony.

I think it is healthy. In Italy there was always someplace to go and people to see. Towns in Italy were built for living at a human scale. The streets just wide enough so you could talk to your neighbor and never leave your house. The stores down below all beat strip-malls. They each had a specialty: fine paper, cheese, bakery, horse meat butcher (yum) etc.

It's funny how developers in the US are now slowly starting to pick up on the idea that humans like to live close to each other, shop in smaller streets and are constructing fake little towns to fit into that scheme.