“Me Too” should look into Timbuk2 bags. They’re REALLY high quality, you can customize what colors you want them to be, and most of them have several organizer pockets for pens, cell phone, et cetera. The extra small messenger bag is about the right size, as is the “toe clip” (though it’s made of canvas). I see tons of commuters carrying these bags, plus they make great laptop accessories and so on: www.timbuk2.com.

Good luck!

I Just Use A Backpack

My husband and I just adopted a sweet, grey cat, the Colonel, from a local
animal shelter. We’ve got a week’s vacation planned for next month and are
trying to decide what to do with the kitty while we’re gone. The question is:
pet sitter or kennel? I’ve read through the archives, and it looks like you
fall on the boarding side of the fence.

I’m waffling on what to do with the Colonel because he had a horrible time
of it when he was in the shelter. The first time we saw him, he just sat in
his litter box in the back of the cage. He’d let you pet him, but it was
like he was tolerating the attention, not enjoying it. When we decided to
adopt him and brought him home, it took him about two months to really
adjust and get comfortable. He liked to hide a lot, but he’s since stopped
that and hangs out with us all the time. I’ve read that boarding a shelter
cat might set them back, as they might think they’re being abandoned.

The pet sitter option is a plus because it keeps him in his familiar surroundings, but
he’d be alone most of the time. I like the kennel option because he gets
constant supervision, which means that someone is there should he get sick.
Plus it keeps him from getting into trouble at home while we’re not there.

What has your experience been with your kitties and a kennel? Do they get
used to being back at home pretty quickly? Have you ever used a pet sitter?

Thanks,
Cat Waffler

This has the potential to get confusing. I’ll try my best to keep things clean and clear.

I am seventeen, and I am nearing the end of high school. The circle of friends I hang around with now, I’ve known for two or three years, but until some months ago I wasn’t really part of the group. Mmm hmm, girl relationship politics.

Two of the girls have been close friends since grade 9: A and K. However, around October/November, A heard that her boyfriend was cheating on her for K, and K was going along with it (this was found out through a friend of the boyfriend, plus she got her hands on some IM conversation logs). A point-blank refused to talk to K for a month, and I don’t think she ever really confronted K with it even after they were talking again. A told me at the time she “couldn’t deal with K’s bullshit.” Beyond being there when A needed to vent, I tried to stay out of it, reasoning that they had to work it out themselves and meddling would do no good.

Whether K was indeed going out with the boyfriend or not, it was, I think, the start of the circle splitting: two girls thought the whole business was stupid, one girl going back and forth from A and K trying to talk to both of them. A lot of gossip and talking-behind-backs occurred. I just wanted to stay neutral with everyone and not point fingers.

Things slowly smoothed out, but in retrospect I think it was more ignoring the issues instead of solving them. Then one day, A suddenly appears and demands to know who’s been calling her a bitch. Everyone looked baffled, then immediately denied it. She marched off. In the next class I had with her, she told me she was leaving the school at the end of the semester. Up until that point, A’s plan was to enroll in another local school to get course credits our current school doesn’t provide — but now she’s just quitting school entirely and only maybe coming back in a year, after everyone’s left for college.

A hasn’t shown up for school, only for five minutes today to return a textbook, so I didn’t get the chance to talk to her. She’s dropped her chemistry class, and it’s almost certain it’s so she can avoid K, who’s in that class too. One of the last things I told her is that she’s trusting a pack of rumours over her friends, and if she can’t trust us to tell the truth, there wasn’t anything left for me to do with her. And the kicker is that the person that supposedly told her that we were cursing her out actually said something entirely different.

So this is how it stands: A has exploded over a misunderstanding, officially broken her friendship with K, is running away from everyone, as of today missed a final exam, and it looks like she’s not coming back to write her other finals either.

I am honestly tired of the affair. I’ve asked the opinion of two people who are impartial to this business, and both have said that she’s not worth stressing over anymore. Sars, is there any point in one last try in talking sense to A? She claims that it wasn’t just the one person that told her we were cursing her out, it was various people, plus a teacher.

Wishing violence really did solve problems