still hate cats.

but this photo stole my heart.

more about kittens...

I'd be rejecting an important part of BFA lab history to not post this video.or this one (made by a professor and kids from the program; no CG!):

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

A hairdryer to my icy heart.

My mom told me over the phone. Maybe she intended to prepare me.
"James found a kitten. He's been feeding it in the yard."
"No! No. You think he'll be content to keep it in the yard?"
"Yeah. I think he knows he has to."
"Oh man, I just hate cats so much."

Let me emphasize that I am horribly allergic. And it's not just a sniffly nose. If I touch a cat at all, I have to wash my hands before I touch anywhere else, especially my face. If I lay on the same pillow that a cat sat on weeks before, I will break into a rash.

Here, documented with my cell phone camera, is my first encounter with the cat:Am I actually hard-wired to love baby animals? I almost teared up!
After this brief encounter where it rubbed and purred its weightless, puffy body against my shoes, it followed me out to my car where it desperately tried to hop in.

I called my mom with my cell phone to walk outside and get it. My excuse was that I didn't want to hit it as I pulled out of the driveway, but I really just didn't want to hurt its feelings.

Conclusion: I still hate cats, but kittens are completely irresistible.

please make it go away...

Anyone who's around me for any length of time knows that I'm always complaining about my eye rashes. (All of the redness on my eyelid is rashiness too.)

Here's the story. Last spring when I first moved back to my parent's house, they had a cat named Willy. I was really, really, really allergic to him without really knowing it. When I was around him, my eyes would itch and I'd rub them. The bad news is that it was after I'd touched all of the surfaces that he frequented. I was so allergic to him that my skin broke out in a rash around my eyes. It was almost torturous then and I was scary to look at.

Willy has since been kicked out to live as an outdoor cat for the rest of his days (and I just know he'll find me someday and claw my eyes out... it's been a difficult transition for him.)

The really bad news now is this: I get the eye rashes back all the time even when there aren't cats around. It seems to be a part of the way that normal hay fever manifests itself. I am going crazy! It itches so so so bad. And my brother Tom, the doctor, informed me that you're not supposed to ever put cortizone cream on your eyes (something about how the steroids in it can destroy your soft and gentle eye tissues.)

So here is a list of things I am doing to cope:
slathering them with lotion
wearing an eye mask to bed
sleeping on my back so I don't bury my face into my pillow which could be full of dusty allergens
taking generic zyrtec everday
trying so hard not to itch and rub
not wearing my contacts

But they've been like this for 3 weeks! I can't take it anymore...