we are all alive

so we finally found someone to hang out with tonight after three days of pretty much just listening to the news... and then the fire people repealed our evacuation order so we got to go home instead. we are fine, the place is fine, the cats are fine. our little trooper twilight just a minute ago happily slew a peacock feather and then lay on her back to wash a paw. hobbes is sleeping in the middle of the floor. balloon is being alert but no longer crying and begging to be held (which he did pretty much the whole time we were in san clemente). even shadow only hid for about twenty minutes before coming out for a snack.
there were sixteen messages on our phone. several from friends and family wanting to know how we're doing, four from my boss... (whoops!) and one from my brother: "hey. just callin' to see what's going on. uhhhhh, i guess you guys are at work... talk to you later." methinks someone doesn't watch the news.

san diego is on fire

seriously. a significant portion of san diego county is under seige from 13 different wildfires (at last count). they've evacuated over a half-million people so far, myself included, which is why i have to blog about it. four years ago we didn't get evacuated during "firestorm 2003" so other than complaining about the ash and smoke, i didn't do much about it. this time i'm an evacuee. our first stop was at a local church where we were told that we were welcome, but that out cats couldn't come inside the building. we were shown a nice, walled-in smokey-aired patio where we would be allowed to leave them. we pretty much marched right out of there. after listening to the radio in our car for a time, shaggy pointed out that our safest, cleanest-air bet would be to head north, since there were fires to the east, southeast, and northeast and we didn't really want to go into mexico or the pacific ocean. probably a billion other people had the same idea so it took us about 4 hours to go less than 70 miles to san clemente where we were able to crash at a friend's sister's house. the cats were all pretty panicked for most of the ride. hobbes complained out loud and thrashed around (thank goodness we stopped and bought a carrier - he started the journey on my lap!) balloon drooled all over himself and cried. shadow trembled and shook and hid his face. good old stoic twilight snuggled him until he stopped shaking and just glared at me to show her disappointment with us for putting them in the car. if everyone had a sister like that the world would probably be a much better place.
once we were able to unload the cats they adjusted pretty quickly to the spare bedroom we locked them in. shadow went under the bed and twilight followed him. hobbes immediately found the door and begged to be allowed through it, and balloon made an impossibly high leap to the top of a bookshelf and proceeded to wash the drool out of his fur - with more drool... i don't think i'll ever understand why that worked.
we've been here for a day now, and the kitties are comfortable enough to get into trouble. hobbes discovered how to open the kitchen cupboards and has gone into a few... i can see myself washing lots of pots 'n' pans to make up for that. balloon likes to get on the kitchen counter and runs around wailing like a siren when we tell him no. twilight and shadow are still under the bed.

thoughts on a wedding

i usually don't care if i piss people off, but i hope nobody takes this one the wrong way:
wow, i never realized before how cynical i am about the institution of marriage. there was a wedding this weekend and i heard the vows and couldn't help but think that there's a 50/50 chance this couple won't make it. then the "traditional" wedding night jokes didn't really happen because the couple is already living together, so they do already have sex... it was basically just a big party and now they're going on a vacation to maui. why do people do this? the "dress, the dance, the cake, the car, the whole darn thing" (thanks shania)? on the other hand, i also am aquainted with a live-in unmarried couple of about 15 years who may call it quits pretty soon. is it better that they never got married, so now there's no divorce? just heartbreak and loss. yeah, that must be better.
not that i regret my own marriage. i think the fact that we skipped the giant party helped us focus on what our vows were really about - a commitment to support and stand by each other no matter what happens. i wonder if other people realize that's what they're promising when they say "i do".