A Good Way to Start the Year

This morning I grudgingly got out of bed and schlepped downstairs to make some coffee; while I was waiting for it to brew, I unloaded the dishwasher.  The first thing I pulled out was a heavy plastic holiday plate upon which I had received a delivery of Christmas cookies.  I had noticed a price tag of $5.95 on the back of the plate, and thought maybe I should save it for something, or at least donate it to Goodwill.  I stood for a moment looking at the plate, turning it back and forth in my hands, contemplating where I should put it so that I'd remember to do something with it; the light from my living room window caught the bottom of the plate, and cast large pale orbs upon the opposite wall.

My famous cat, Little Liu the Weasel Fiend, lost her mind.  Apparently she thought that the aliens had landed.  I have previously tried to play with her using a laser pointer, but she figured out right away that the light was coming from the pointer I was holding, and so the game didn't work.  She never did figure today's phenomenon out, however.  Whenever she sees something she'd like to bite or destroy, she makes funny chattering chirping twittering noises, which she immediately proceeded to do.  She then literally tried to climb the walls to trap the light patches.  I've never seen anything like it -- the reflectionswere about six feet up the wall, and she levitated from a sitting position to smack at them.   It didn't look physically possible for her to do what she was doing, and yet she kept it up for ten solid minutes, talking to herself the whole time.  The only reason she stopped was because I collapsed, laughing helplessly, and suffering from having turned into a total mush-puddle because she is, without a doubt, the funniest and most adorable animal that anyone has ever, ever had the privilege to know. 

If there's a better way to inaugurate the year than with love and laughter, I don't know what it would be.