Creatures of Habit

Cats are often a creature of habit. some have their routines, and they stick to those routines very closely. Back when I was teaching in Alabama, my previous cat, Victoria, and I had our afternoon routines. She used to sit in an upstairs window watching and waiting for me to come home, then when I opened the door, she’d be sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for me.

This was her perfect vantage point for seeing through the window above the front door, and there she would wait. Occasionally, she’d come down the stairs to greet me, but more often than not, she would sit there and wait for me to come upstairs. I would be so exhausted from teaching, and she wanted me to come upstairs and take a nap with her. I’d go upstairs and to lie on the bed and take a nap; she’d come lie down beside me so that the bottom half of her body was by my side and the upper half would be lying across my chest. Them, we’d take a nap. She would get quite upset if I did not take my nap with her in the afternoon. Although, she had one unbreakable rule, I had to keep a shirt on. She hated laying on naked skin. Go figure.

Isabella has her habits too. She wants me to get up around 4 am to feed her, which I admit often annoys me. However, she realizes when I really need a little extra sleep, and in those days, she can be a bit more patient. But that’s not her only habit. She too will greet me at the door when I come home. She’ll also demand where I should be at what time of the evening. If I go into my bedroom before 9:30 pm, she comes and taps my arm to try to get me to go back into the living room. However, if I stay in the living room past 10 pm, she does the same thing, but wants me to go into the bedroom and go to bed.

We also have another routine each morning. I always thought it was really just for me, but I realize yesterday morning, that it’s become part of her routine. Each day as I’m leaving for work, she’ll be lying on her pile of blankets, and I’ll walk up to her, scratch her on the head and say, “Bye bye, Isabella. I have to go to work. Be a good girl today.” Yes, I know it’s silly, but it’s what I do. And each day as I say it, she looks up at me and meows like she’s telling me to have a good day. More likely it’s to say, you better come home on time. Yesterday morning, she was not on her blanket, and I wasn’t quite sure where she was, though I’d seen her only a few minutes before. So, I said to the room, “Bye bye, Isabella. Be a good girl.” I was not expecting a response, but she came running up to me and meowed. Where she came from, I don’t know, but I reached down and scratched her head. A few minutes later (I have a blink camera so I can check in on her while I’m not at home), she crawled up onto her blankets and went to sleep.  I thought it was kind of sweet that she was afraid she’d miss me telling her goodbye yesterday morning. 

Anyway, here’s your Isabella pic of the week:

Pic of the Day

Feeling Better

I woke up this morning feeling better. Thank goodness because I have things I have to do at work today. It doesn’t mean my headache is gone, I’m feeling the effects of a postdrome or migraine “hangover,” which is an apt description of how I feel once the worst of my migraines ease. I'm usually achy, mentally foggy, and physically drained. I wish I could just go to bed and be able to fully recover from my migraine, but, as I said, it’s not possible with what I have to do at work today. Most of what I have to do is this morning, so if I still don’t feel well, I could possibly take the afternoon off. We’ll see.

Pic of the Day

Another Migraine

With temperatures plunging from 63 degrees yesterday to 26 degrees today as a storm front moves through, it was no surprise for me that I developed a migraine last night and that said migraine is still with me this morning. I had really bad photophobia last night, and it’s not much better this morning, so thankfully, it is raining so the sun won’t be out and it should be a full gray day. It’s strange: the rain caused my migraine, but I’m thankful for the rain because it will keep it from being a bright, sunshiny day. It’s definitely a catch-22.

Pic of the Day

Self-Portrait as Combination Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC

  

Self-Portrait as Combination Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC

By Aaron Tyler Hand

 

the unholy trinity of suburban late-night salvation 

barring seemingly endless options of worship

 

bean burrito breadsticks and mashed potatoes 

or a soft taco pan pizza and a buttered biscuit

 

an unimaginable combination of food flavors 

for people not ready to go home to their parents

 

and yet none of the options feel quite right 

so maybe I should call it Self-Portrait as idling

 

in a drive-thru with your friends crammed 

across the sunken bench seats avoiding

 

the glow of the check engine light with black tape 

pressed with a precision unseen anywhere else

 

in their lives as a fractured voice says don’t worry 

take your time and order whenever you’re ready

 

from behind a menu backlit like the window 

inside of a confessional booth as the hands

 

of the driver open up like a collection basket 

for the wadded-up bills and loose change

 

that slowly stack up as the years go by 

and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be

 

in this analogy but I know about masking 

warning signs and hearing out of tune

 

voices scream WE’RE THE KIDS WHO FEEL 

LIKE DEAD ENDS so instead I’ll call it Self-

 

Portrait as From Under the Cork Tree 

or maybe even Self-Portrait as whatever

 

album people listen to when they love 

their friends and still want to feel connected

 

to the grass walls of a teenage wasteland 

that they can’t help but run away from

 

 

About This Poem

 

“I love using poetry to capture the malaise of growing up in the suburbs. When you spend your life in a place that feels defined by its monotony, it’s hard to find a sense of personal identity that isn’t mass produced. In order to feel like you have any control over your life, you have to find the small rebellions that lead to a sense of belonging. That aimlessness and escapism is what I tried to capture in this poem.”—Aaron Tyler Hand

 

This poem was the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day yesterday. While I found the title intriguing, I found the scene it sets nostalgic. I did not grow up in the suburbs, but in rural Alabama;, however, when I was in undergraduate and graduate school, I remember the late nights of getting Taco Bell, though in graduate school, it was often Krystal’s, which was open 24 hours and a block from my first apartment.

 

The title itself made me think of probably what all of us thought the first time we saw a combination “Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC”: fast food with a personality disorder. It does seem kind of lost in what it is trying to do. I usually only see Taco Bells and KFCs together these days, but it’s still an odd combination.

 

 

About the Poet

 

Aaron Tyler Hand (@airinhand) is a creative writer with an MFA from Texas State University. He has previously been published in San Antonio Express-News, Houston Chronicle, Faultline Journal, GASHER Journal, HASH Journal, Funicular Magazine, Meniscus, among others. In addition to his own creative writing pursuits, Aaron volunteers his time to the prison teaching non-profit Rough Draft and hosts the poetry podcast The Personhood Project.

Pic of the Day

Earth Day

Earth Day, which takes place on April 22, dates back to 1970, when U.S.-based organizers were hoping to bring awareness to the environmental degradation they were witnessing across the country. Since then, recognition of the holiday has expanded to more than 190 countries who have added Earth Day to their calendar.

The holiday is both a grim reminder of the work that must be done and a celebration of the progress that has been made when it comes to climate change efforts. It's also been the catalyst for actions including the creation of international climate agreements and environmental agencies.

This year’s theme is Planet vs. Plastics, which calls on government leaders, businesses, and everyday people to reduce plastic production by 60% by 2040. It is also calling for the full elimination of single use plastics by the end of this decade.

Pic of the Day

Gates

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

—Matthew 7:13-14

 

I grew up in rural Alabama, and my house was surrounded by a pasture. There were a lot of pastures around where I lived, and I remember vividly the numerous ways to enter a pasture. If you were on foot, you could climb over or under the fence, but if you were in a vehicle, you either had to cross a cattle gap or get out, open the gate, drive through and then get back out of the vehicle and close the gate. I always found it so tedious to have to get in and out of a vehicle to open and close the gates. It was a lot easier if there was a passenger, which I most often was, who could handle the gates when we’d come to them.

 

When I came across the picture above, it made me consider the symbolism of gates in the Bible. To me, I most often think of Matthew 7:13-14 when I think of gates. In this passage, which is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking to a large crowd about how people are often more interested in appearing outwardly to be religious by practicing rituals that others could see. They were using the wide gate, which signifies a dependence on ourselves and obtaining our own self-righteousness through trying to do things outwardly to impress others, rather than a more personal relationship with God.

 

The wide gate in many ways represents our culture today, characterized by being self-absorbed and wanting to appear outwardly better than everyone else. Too many people latch onto individual and misinterpreted Bible verses to push forth their own hateful ways while also trying to appear pious. The wider gate is a popularity contest, and it causes people to latch onto politicians and news media that align with their own hateful beliefs and reinforce those beliefs by perverting the Word of God.

 

The narrow gate that Jesus was referring to is a personal relationship with God, not being outwardly pious by following religious rituals and sacraments to try and earn your way to heaven. It means not wasting time and energy trying to appear outwardly in a way to be accepted by the pious culture of many churches, but rather asking the God to live in you, to change your heart, and transform you into the person He made you to be. God sees the inward appearance of our heart, not our outward appearance to others. Even at the risk of being unpopular, we should follow the teachings of Jesus to live a life of giving help, hope, and happiness to others.

 

Narrow gates are also easier to defend because they use lesser material and can this concentrate the defense greater than the massive amount of material needed for larger gates. It takes less to defend a narrow gate because it limits the attack of the enemy. The wider gate allows an enemy to attack with a greater force that can weaken the defensive purposes of a gate. Wider gates need greater materials to defend against an enemy. The gates of the ancient cities are not as we imagine today’s gates, but massive gates made of stone, iron, brass, or wood frequently sheeted with metal. They were tall and wide. The gate of Herod’s “which is called Beautiful” (Acts 3:2) was made of brass and required twenty men to close it. These gates were opened during the day to allow the citizens to come and go but were generally closed and barred at night as a safety measure to keep out enemy attacks. Whoever controlled the gates of the stronghold ruled the city.

 

Gates can be for good or evil. They can serve as protection or as a prison. Just as Heaven has gates, so does Hell. Therefore, gates can protect us from evil, or they can keep evil contained. We must shut our open gates against the enemy. If even one gate is open and unprotected, we fall prey to our enemies who seek to oppress us and gain a foothold. God warns us not to give the devil a place to spread evil. Gates of pride, rebellion, false beliefs, or wrong motives, allow evil to erect a fortress giving the enemy a place to establish his camp. We must keep watch over our gates. This means searching through our relationship with God and guarding the gates and doors to our soul and body.

 

When Jesus promised to build His Church, He said Matthew 16:18, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Understanding the biblical implications of “gates” helps us interpret Jesus’ words. Since a gate was a place where rulers met and counsel was given, Jesus was saying that all the evil plans of Satan himself would never defeat the Church. In Matthew 7:15-16, Jesus warns us to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

Pic of the Day

Nico Coopa is not only a sexy porn star, but he’s also a very talented artist.

Moment of Zen: White Briefs

I love seeing a guy in white briefs.

Guys can also be very sexy in white briefs and a white t-shirt.

…and even sexier in white briefs and a tank top…

…or only a tank top.

Pic of the Day