I forgot to take the cat to the vet

I was supposed to take the cat to the vet today for her rabies shot. I knew she had an appointment today. I had every intention of getting her there on time. I even wore a skirt with cats on it today. You would think I could have remembered.

But I was in the middle of drafting up a concept drawing for the re-tile project in our bathroom, and when I finished it, it was 4:00. Oops. The appointment was at three.

I hate it when I do stuff like this. When I was a business person, I never missed an appointment. I slept through a date once, but that's another story... anyway, it makes me feel like I'm not real anymore, somehow. Real people don't forget important stuff. Or do they?

But I was on a roll. With my son out with the sitter, I sat down and made a decision flow-chart this morning: things we have to decide in regard to "have a baby, sell the apartment..." etc. I identified categories in our cash flow that we need to budget better. I was making so much progress that I decided to draw the schematic for the bathroom tile installation, which is supposed to happen while we're on vacation in August. I have no idea what time it was when I started that project, but I know where I ended up. In the doghouse.

I used to draw for a living. It wasn't much of a living, but it was a sort of total-immersion occupation. You took the dimensions on a rough sketch, put your favorite music on, and turned the sketches into really detailed draftings. CAD sort of put an end to all that. I tried to learn to draw with a computer, but it wasn't as craftsmanship-like. Click and snap. Select and drag. Besides, it took me three times as long to draw a line with the computer as it did to pick up a pencil and do it. And more and more it wasn't my job to draw it anyway, so the only drawings I do these days are for projects in my own home. The building super has to replace a section of pipe in the wall of our bathroom that's deteriorated, and he told us he'd need to replace sheetrock and would retile for us if we chose the tile. He wants to do it while we're away because it will take our bathroom out of commission for while during the job. (And since we only have one, that could be a problem...) So we selected some new tile at Lowes. Since we won't be here to answer questions, I drew up what we want it to look like. There's a chair rail and a diagonal mosaic strip crowning 4x4 porcelain field tiles. Anyway, I was really into it, and I was crooning along to Emmylou Harris, and all of a sudden it was 4:00. Just like that. Seems like a metaphor for life, at least recently.

But at least I didn't forget to have children.