Welcome Ratties!

Last Wednesday I adopted three sweet rattie boys and I am so glad I did! It's been years since I've had  pet rats. I used to have six girls back in the day and always knew that one day I wanted to have rats again. They make such great pets and are a real pleasure to have in your life. Because rats are so intelligent, curious, and very loving, they can find their way into the hearts of even the most grossed out humans they come across. 

I remember when I just had my first two girls, Penelope and Tank. While at Towson I was rooming with a sweet girl from Queens and she was not too thrilled when my furry guest arrived. I promised her I would only let them out when I was alone so she wouldn't have to worry about a surprise scare when she came home from classes. You see, my dorm mate was terrified of rats. She was generally creeped out by them but because we got along so well, and she was just such a nice person, she let me keep them at school. As the months passed, she became more and more curious about the rats. She would ask me about their tails, and what they ate, and was pretty impressed by how sweet they were...contrary to the images most un-rat friendly folks tend to picture when thinking of a rat.

The more she got to know the rats, the less she was afraid of them, and before you know it she had Tank riding around on her shoulder in the dorm. This made me so happy! When I moved into my first apartment with two of my closest girlfriends, I would show off the rats anytime we had a party. I wanted people to know that they were great! Seeing people come in feeling nervous and weary of touching them, to walking around the apartment showing them off to the rest of our guests was just awesome. 

So two weeks ago when I discovered there were three boys that had been at the shelter for almost 8 months, I felt like it was meant to be that I bring them home and give them a happy and comfortable life with some humans they could get to know and love. Just how we feel hesitant to get to know rats, these rats were hesitant to get to know humans. But in just 1 week from bringing them home, I have them running up to the front of the cage, eating good foods, having treats, climbing around on top of their cage, and coming up and licking my hands and sniffing my face. I am overjoyed with how far they've come in such a short amount of time. They have inspired me to talk about how much I love rats and so I am trying to make some YouTube videos that will go over basic care and just how to trust train your rats.

I look forward to what the next few months brings for these sweet sweet boys! I'll be keeping you posted! 

Time will pass anyway

Yesterday I had one of those days where I felt really accomplished. I got almost all of the much needed housework done, I was feeling pretty good about my life, and I felt like things were looking up and that maybe this was the day where my outlook on life would change forever. I could do anything, I would be happy no matter what, nothing could get me down.

But my mind doesn't stay that way for too long. I start to worry about what I'm doing. I start overthinking every detail of my life. I start becoming anxious about what I haven't done or what I'm doing wrong. I guess you could call me normal. I think for people like me, mainly type A control freaks, it becomes the norm to overthink instead of overlook. You turn 30 and you think you're just around the corner from 40. You get one thing right and next thing you know all you can see are the things you haven't gotten right. It's kind of exhausting.

I truly believe that living in the moment is hard to do while looking back on the past can seem effortless. I have to remind myself almost every day that these are the years, minutes, seconds that count. Being a stay at home momma can feel somewhat boring, but I know i'll look back on these years and see just how precious they really were. It's hard to see how much you are accomplishing when you don't get a raise, or get an employee of the month badge...or whatever it is. Ya know what I'm sayin'

I dunno...maybe it's just winter that's keeping me down. Maybe I need to see the flowers and trees come to life and feel the sun on my face. I don't like going out in the cold. I don't like it at all. But I want to like things better than I am liking them now, and I want to take this opportunity to reinvent myself. I want so many things, but most of all I want to be free of the worry that I will never accomplish anything. That I will feel old and alone and watch others surpass me with their creativity and fantastic outlooks on life.

I guess i just wanted to write this down and get it out of my head. Because maybe there are others out there that need to know that feeling this way isn't abnormal. I think it's really normal. I think that if others could say they felt the same way, then we'd all feel better. Instead of getting on the internet and seeing only the best of the best, we can find out that we are all feeling kinda bleh together and maybe, just maybe, that'll give us something to pull us through the icky days.

I don't want to give up on my dreams. I don't want to feel like my life means nothing. I want to find a way back to the Christine I knew very well, and this is just one step I'm taking in the hopes of getting there.

Love to you all ♥