Not really Friday five.

It's been a month since Her Maj passed, and I've noticed some major changes in my day-to-day, even from before she was sick. Obviously the credit card bill is significantly lower these days, but five other things I've not been sad about, in no particular order, include:

• Not vacuuming for a month.
  
• When I sit down? I can just get right back up again. And then? I can just sit right back down again. There's no need to shift a fuzzball off my lap only to have her sit right where I was sitting, and subsequently relocate her when I return. (It sounds dumb, but this has returned a subtle quality of life I'd forgotten about.)
  
• I went to Bend. And just had to get in the car and go. And that was amazing.
• I can open a can of tuna in peace.
• You know that game that one-year-olds play, where they're in the crib, and they throw a toy on the ground, and you pick it up and give it back to them, and they laugh and throw it back on the ground again? Well, whenever I changed the sheets on the bed, Her Maj would jump on the bed and sit in the middle. First, I would pick her up and put her anywhere but on the bed. She'd jump right back up. Lather, rinse, repeat a few times. Then, I would snap the sheet to startle her and encourage her to get off the bed. She wouldn't flinch. So, I would put the sheet on the bed on top of her, where she would whine and cry and eventually weasel her way out from under the tucked-in sheet. This happened every time I changed the sheets over the last 11 years. I know she thought it was funny somehow, but it was also a royal pain in the ass. (No pun intended on the "royal.")

All this notwithstanding, I still turn to say goodbye to her when I'm leaving in the morning. I still expect her at the door when I get home, and I still feel like I'm forgetting something if I get home late after a happy hour or leave for an all-day trip. I still laugh at the LOLcats site and I still stop to pet the neighborhood cats sunning on the sidewalk.

But someone at work has a cat who just had kittens, and the pictures circulated. And man, are they cute. And boy, do I remember the early days of Her Maj and His Maj climbing up clothes hanging in the closet and chasing each other across the bed at 3am. I remember stressing about arranging for feedings over vacations, and never wanting to go away for too long because of the stress it would cause them and especially her when it was just her. I remember the months leading up to April 30.

And that's when I book the 3-week polar cruise... and get up and then sit down and then get up again. I don't think Crazy Cat Lady is in my blood. Yet.