Play ‘em off, Keyboard Cat

Working from home is a glorious thing. I love my coworkers in the office, but man, sometimes I just need to go full hermit and listen to loud crazy-ridiculous music…

…and pause between conference calls to pet one of the cats. Today was kind of mental, honestly, and as a deadline crept up on me with eleventh-hour elements whirling around in the Internet-ether, out of my control, I had a few of those moments where I thought I’d lose my mind.

I used up all my swear words for the day pretty quickly, and I had to reach into my virtual grab-bag of instant-LOLZ, such as Keyboard Cat here, with his friend Ron Livingston.

They filmed Game Change all around the part of downtown Baltimore where I work when I’m not in the Northern Outpost, and it wasn’t unusual to see cast members standing around or emerging from trailers. I swore that if I happened to run into Ron Livingston I would tell him that I loved him as Keyboard Cat. Alas, it was not meant to be and our paths did not cross.

Anyway, for a Friday before a long weekend it did manage to go by pretty quickly despite the hair-yanking desk-head-butting action. Or maybe because of all that, right? My original plan had been to go all Martha Stewart on my renovated balcony and whip it into beautiful shape for summertime lounging, but the railing won’t be installed until next week so that’s on hold. Now I have no excuse but to tackle the second bedroom, currently known as Cat Disaster Zone and Where Furniture Hides From Goodwill. Man, it got so distressingly craptastic in there that I “borrowed” the lamp — the room’s only light source — for my Office Library Sanctuary and “forgot” to replace it. All the better to avoid seeing the chaos, my dears. The cats love it, though not because it’s some kind of Hoarders room-size litter box or anything. It’s more like a room-sized cat-fort and, with the rolled up area rug in the corner, all-you-can-scratch claw-grooming buffet.

Realizing now that it sounds even more distressing when I try to put the state of this room in words. Sigh. Okay, okay. I’ll get to it. Did I mention that the walls are only 3/4 of the way painted? Because I pulled that ass-leg-muscle before I finished and wasn’t able to perch on the ladder? I didn’t mention that, except for when I did just there. The bonkers half-bold-half-crap walls add a certain, oh I don’t know… stylized graffiti vibe to the room. Like something from an A-Ha video, maybe. Doesn’t it make you want to come for a visit, so you can stay in my Second Bedroom? Curl up into a nest of blankies with one of the cats? No? Are you sure?