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Obviously when Maggie moved out Chester went with her. Ever since then the house has been…off. I’m not really going to go into how I’m dealing with this, but I wanted to state that Jojo is losing his mind.

Initial introduction of Chester and Jojo produced this:

Jojo hiding

Everyday, we’d come home and find Jojo hiding on top of the cabinets with his Terminator eye cursing the world. There was no Photoshopery in this pic, it’s just how the camera took the photo.

Soon after we decided that we would forcibly put them together. The resulting product was this:

Jojo attacks!

That was quite entertaining to say the least. This image doesn’t fully capture the magnitude of that altercation. Later there was a similar incident with Jojo and Chester’s face, but we didn’t have the camera ready for that one.

It took about a year, but what was once a bitter rivalry for attention and status in the house turned into this:

Jojo & Chester at window

Jojo & Chester on couch

They were like best friends. Jojo (Joje Michale as Maggie dubbed him eventually) and Chester (Chestnuts as I liked to call him) would walk around the house together, beg for food together, and if you were quick enough you could catch a glimpse of Jojo laying on or as close as possible to Chester. The best was when I was laying in bed a few weeks back, Chester was practically on top of me, and Jojo decided that he wanted in on that action. So he crawled up and layed on top of both of us. He was partially on me and partially on Chester. It was the most cutest and pathetic thing in the world. It was great. Oh, and Jojo pretty much refused to drink his own water, instead he’d drink from Chester’s water bowl. It pretty weird, but it worked for them.

No that Chester is gone, this is what the daily routine is like:

Jojo waiting

Jojo can be seen standing at the back door looking, waiting, crying for his best friend. He’ll just sit there where the water bowl once was looking around meowing and meowing. I’ve not really had to put any water in his bowl, at least not as much as I would think I would need to. He walks up and down the halls and in the bedrooms just looking. I feel bad for the little guy. I miss Chester too.

It’s hard to be right all the time. Even the best plans have a tendency to go awry. However, there are some things that come out better than you could ever hope to imagine. So on that note I give you:
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Took these of Jojo this morning. This is pretty much what he does when I eat at my desk.

Man, things just really suck right now. So here’s the scoop:

On the way to work, I was listening to R.E.M. – Automatic for the People and it mad me really sad. Rather than turn it to something else or put in something a little more up beat, I kept listening. For a change I wanted to be sad. I figure this way any of the emotion that I’ve been holding in would get out. Over the past few weeks/months things have gone both uphill and downhill. I know that seems impossible, but it’s true.

Things with Maggie and I are great. Well, I say great, but what I mean is that the relationship is great, but the living conditions (the constant mess, the 2 house to keep up with, the pets…grrrr…the pets, the laundry, the yard, the dishes, the fridge, the washing machine, the paint, the TV, the TiVo, the garage, the garbage, the WoW, the carpet, the lack of being outside and hanging out with ALL of our friends, the inability to sleep through the whole night, the junk food, the cheese, the mud, the slow toilet, the routine, the traffic, the hours, the annoying people, etc.) kinda suck.

I’m done with it. I want to exercise, play the piano, watch movies, watch TV, watch stuff on TiVo that came on yesterday, go outside, plant some trees, rake, swim, run, walk, jog, drive, go to Sean and Neal’s place, go to Sunday Night Dinner, see my parents at least once a week, talk to Maggie’s mom, talk to Jenny and Andy more (there are some awesome people), impress my boss, wear clothes that fit, fly a kite, have a picnic, bake something, cook food that doesn’t burn, get up early, go to be late, stop, go, talk, laugh, bathe, fart, finish Harry Potter (I already know the ending but that’s not going to stop me from reading it), re-read all the other Harry Potter books, read another book, anything that I want with out feeling depressed.

So here’s the plan. I will turn off the computer and only turn it on the a) check my email, post/read LJ, or if I feel like it and everything else is done play some WoW; b) work on at least 1 thing every night that will either get me/Maggie in better shape or get her house closer to being on the market or sold; c) go to the dentist; d) see my parents each week; e) cook dinner at least 4 nights a week. If I can do those 4 things then I think things will start to pick back up.

So what prompted all of this? Well Tuesday I stayed home from work because I didn’t feel good. I did work stuff until around 2 when the WoW servers went back up. Maggie and I then proceeded to play until about 6, have some dinner and then play until about 9:30. Then we went to bed. The times/details may be a little off, but that’s basically it. I was non-verbally reprimanded by my boss for not calling in (I sent him an email). I felt super bad about this. WoW is to blame. So now, I’m angry at myself and its time for a change. Everyday we come home and the house looks like shit…it won’t for long. I’m going to change things in my life, I’m going to improve my work ethic (which is already higher than most people that work here, but that’s not good enough for me), and I am going to get our houses fixed up.

I understand that I’ve said a lot of the same things over and over or jumped around, but this is my LJ, I can do what I want. I understand that I’m at work right now that I’m contradicting one of my own goals, but again…this is mine. I told Maggie that I was not an “I’ll start on Monday” kinda guy, and I’m not. That’s why we started last night. So I cried on the way to work and it made me realize some things…its life, and I’m not 100% concerned about that. I’ll cry again some day and I’ll move on.

On a side note my mom is my hero. I love her more than anything ever. If you could see how the expression on her face has changed over the past 9 months you would understand. From the first trip to the hospital to today she is a completely different woman. She ditched the wig and is now a proud person. Proud of what she has done, and is no longer ashamed to go out in public with what little hair she has left (it is growing back now). Her treatments are done and they said that everything looks as good as it can look. I can only hope to one day be as half as strong as she is.

So the other day we introduced Maggie’s dog (Chester) to my cat (Jojo):
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Yeah, that’s pretty much how it went down. It’ll take some time but they’ll be friends.