The 4 a.m. Blog Post

Sometimes when I’m lying awake at 4 in the morning, I compose blog posts in my head. Like I did this morning.

Wait, why was I awake at 4 a.m. this morning? I’m glad you asked, if only to give me the opportunity to tell someone my tale.

But first you need to know a particular quirk about our cat, Zelda. Every morning, she follows me in the bathroom while I get ready for the day. This is her “bathroom kitty time,” a time when she brushes up against my legs and rubs her face on my ankles and lets me pet her and love on her while she purrs her little heart out. I must admit, it’s a nice way to face each new day, with a purring kitty warming up my shins.

The only problem is that sometimes, Zelda’s internal clock wants bathroom kitty time a little early. And sometimes, it’s a few hours early, like today. To get my attention on these days, she’ll paw at the cupboard door under the bathroom sink, opening it just enough for it to slam shut very very loudly. The resulting BAM! BAM! BAM! wakes me up and gets me out of bed and into the bathroom to investigate, where I see Zelda, who starts purring and looking for her bathroom kitty attention.

Except that instead, she is removed from the bathroom, placed unceremoniously into the hallway, and the bathroom door is shut.

And on mornings like this morning, that means that I find myself unable to sleep at 4 a.m., as Zelda takes the opportunity to chase after her sister, and runs all over the house for an hour. As it turns out, nine pound cats sound like elephants when they chase each other in an empty, silent apartment.

Which is why I was composing blog posts in my head this morning at 4 a.m. I can’t remember most of it, but the point was:

Why don’t people use the world “lovely” anymore? I love that word. I use it whenever I can. The problem is that I think it makes me sound a) like a grandmother; or b) pretentious. Which makes me sad, because I don’t want to sound pretentious, or like a grandmother, or like a pretentious grandmother. But sometimes “lovely” just works perfectly.

I say we bring back “lovely.” Who’s with me?

You know, this may be one of those posts that sounded way better in my head at 4 a.m.