Sapphire Filled Skies 🔹

Razzle’s Bathroom Chronicles, part two.

I have not posted on Razzle’s chronicles lately. I’ve been slacking. Razzle has not been slacking though. As a matter of fact, Razzle really does seem to find himself at night.

On this particular evening, the upstairs bathroom was visited. I went in the bathroom and this guy pushed the door open. I always leave it slightly ajar in case he decides to poke his head in to check and see if I’m alright.

He came in and started purring almost immediately LOL, then jumped on the toilet tank. Sat behind me for a couple minutes sniffing my hair and then hopped on the sink ledge, rubbed his face on the faucet, then slid front first, wrapping himself into a neat little orange ball in the sink basin where he then proceeded to doze until I flushed the toilet. Apparently the toilet is his nemesis.

Razzle’s Bathroom Chronicles, part one.

At around 1:15am, I wake up to go to the bathroom and guess who joins me a minute later? This little fellow! He was lightly pawing at the door until I opened it.

The first thing he did was jump into the sink that he knows he is a snug fit. Although he can fit in the upstairs bathroom sink slightly better.

DR. TWIZ WILL SEE YOU NOW.

And because I *did* mention him in a small way in the previous post, this is the other half of the semi-infamous Whisker Wizards 🪄🪄🐈🐈

His full name is Twizzler P. Mcfinkleroy. He has a whole government name. But he mostly goes by Twiz or Twizzy. My roommate yells TWIZZLER!! when she is either upset with him or is looking for him in our house.

Twiz has heart issues and is sensitive to stress. I am happy the stress of me moving in didn’t get to him. In fact he was quite content when I moved in.

Like Razzle, Twiz has freckles on his eyelids, nose, gums, and lips. His are much more prominent than Razzle’s. Which I find so interesting and amusing. He has BIG ones on his bottom gums that are not anything harmful but really are large freckles.

Twiz is a rugged individual. He knows what he wants and how to get it. He is the mouthiest cat I’ve ever met, in a good way. And I’ve met quite a few cats. But sometimes, he ignores my existence. He is funny in that he loves strongly perfumed or scented things. Human used items that smell like and are not limited to: Drano, laundry detergents of all scents- including bleach 🙄, hand sanitizers of varying scents but he prefers when I use Touch of Gold from Bath and Body Works 🤣🤣 that’s one of my favorite scents so it’s a non issue. But after I use it, he rubs his face all in my hands. Like aggressively. And he’s getting a dopamine fix. I love that for him.

He also likes to beat on my door at odd hours of the day and night if he knows I’m home. He knows when I get off work and waits elsewhere for me to go in my room. Then he stands on his back legs and leans back and forth against my door. My door is light enough where even a 9-10 pound cat can make noise leaning really hard against it. He also yells at me from outside the door. And I yell in cat back at him 🤣🤣

I know he stands on his back legs because I’ve gone to the non-adjoining bathroom, come out, and have seen him on his back legs stretching himself up to the doorknob. Then looks back at me and gives the sassiest meeeeooowww 😤

I do let him in my room but not all the time because he likes to jump on the one dresser that has my perfume on it and rub his face so aggressively in it that he knocks it off the dresser and then I have to pick it up just because he was deciding to be a little weirdo 🙄😒

He is quirky too. He likes to lay in boxes and roll across the carpet. Sometimes he forgets where he is in relationship to the end of whatever he’s laying on and falls off 🤣🤣 the other day he literally misjudged where he was on the bed and fell off mid stretch. His facial expression was like 🙀🙀. It was hysterical.

Howdy, you fine folks 🤠

Introducing to you, one half of the semi-infamous orange cat duo lovingly known as The Whisker Wizards. 🪄🐈

His name is Razzle. I call him Razzle the spazzle. Or sometimes, just spazzle. Because he is in fact, a spaz. He is one of my roommate’s two orange cats.

But mostly, he is my baby buddy. Or my little baby buddy. Or my babiest buddy. Every time he is near me and I say little baby buddy, he meows back. He has the cutest little meow. I always thought adult cats sounded like adults. He has the most kitten sounding meow for as big as he is and sometimes when he stretches his legs and spreads all his toe beans out, he lets out this cute little squeak and I’m like 🥺🥺

He also likes a good boop or two on the nose. Sometimes he’ll get his whole face in it. He’s so quirky and I love him for it.

One of the things I think is most interesting about him are the freckles on his nose, eyelids, lips, gums, and paw pads. I didn’t know cats could get freckles on their lips or gums. I knew about the rest. Just like some humans are born with lots of freckles already. Pretty neat.

In no particular order:

- Schweppes (my personal favorite of all time and the one ginger ale I will go feral to obtain)

- Canada Dry (not my #1 but it’s up there)

- Weis brand ginger ale (pretty average, nothing really noteworthy here)

- Reed’s extra gingery ginger ale (no that is not what it’s called but if you wanna get throat f*cked by a ginger root, be my guest and by all means have the day you want to have)

- Reed’s berry ginger ale (OK flavor after the burning of the ginger is done impaling your nasal cavities like a freshly staked vampire)

- Walmart brand ginger ale (a little too syrupy for me, and kind of tastes like the ginger ale mopped off the factory floor and goes flat within two days 👎🏻)

- Seagrams (reminds me of my Nan and Granddad’s house, and the summer of ‘83 🤣- I was born in ‘91 so that would be physically impossible but it was funny!)

For the record, I was drinking non-caffeinated things during the time I had the flu because of the medications I’m on and I’ve had a bad experience combining caffeine with cold medicine completely by accident not knowing that combination would make me feel like I was dying. I am a Schweppes girl through and through and have been for years.

For anyone who cares to read, here is my story I shared (maybe I’ll be contacted by CNN? if so, you read it here first):

Today’s dragonshapedskittles talk will be about managers and bosses. I have lots of thoughts on those who oversee others. I’ll try to consolidate them. For the record, I have managed others to varying degrees myself, so before anyone tries to clap back with, “Oh, but you’ve never been a boss (in the classic version of the hiring and firing sense) so how can you say…..” Why yes, yes I have. And I’ve even had jobs where I was not in a management/supervisor role whatsoever and other employees, mostly new, came to little ol’ me with questions or concerns about the ways of the company. It’s truly flattering; but also a little troubling.

That leads into the main point I wanted to get into. Managers need to be approachable. Approachable in this sense is meant in a few ways. Having that ability and trait is so important and crucial for employee retention. A lot of companies hate to hear others say this because it would be admitting they have a flawed system. Excuse me while I roll my eyes.

In my opinion, if brand spanking new employees are actively seeking out elder employees on their same job level and not HR themselves or their supervisors for help with HR related matters, workplace conflict dispute opinions/options, reviews, etc, you get the idea….not things directly related to the job description that you also do, but extraneous matters that should be addressed with higher ups but aren’t, can potentially be a problem. With that being said, with you being on their same job level, you are neither paid, nor prepared to deal with fellow employees’ issues. You don’t owe them anything. There is a point where you need to draw the line because there are folks who will take advantage of others just to get ahead. Not everyone has nefarious actions like that though. You should never feel obligated to help when you can’t or shouldn’t.

My experience has been that these behaviors can be because the new employee respects you/your work quality, trusts your opinion, likes you as a person, or on the other end of the spectrum; they’re lazy and don’t feel like talking to the boss or HR about something because you’re more convenient and easily accessible for questions. OR it could be because the boss/HR have not helped or supported them in the past; in the way one needs to be supported as a new employee in a new company. AND they don’t feel like they can come to them with their concerns because they feel as though they would be unheard or misunderstood. It’s truly sad how often I’ve seen this happen.

Granted, as a former supervisor, I can say that it is a lot of work managing my own workload, let alone several other employees that I was responsible for holding accountable. It’s really all about honing in your own self management skills. I feel like some people go into management just to do it because it’s a job and approach it from a money mindset. Meanwhile, others do it because they truly have a passion for it. They enjoy leading people, encourage continued success, and are not opposed to applauding others when they do well. That’s weird to want anything to the contrary for your employees. You ideally would want them to be as successful as you, if not, more. Their continued success in the company showcases your commitment as a leader. Why would you want anything less? I always encouraged my employees to learn more whenever and wherever they can, and never be discouraged from asking for help when they need it. IDK. Maybe I have an overly optimistic way of looking at how management should be in an ideal world? That’s anyone’s guess. I can’t say I necessarily had a passion for management when I did it, but I certainly enjoyed the experience, and it taught me a lot about myself. How one treats others is often a reflection of how one sees themself, they say. Although, there are times like in my case, where I have absolutely overcompensated for my lack of self-empathy, by making sure my employees were always taken care of because I never felt that way….🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

Enough of my rambling. Feel free to comment your thoughts below. And please, PLEASE be kind. The intent of this post was not to call out anyone or come across as rude. I am simply sharing my thoughts based on an experience I had this month.

Thanks for reading! 🫡✌🏻☮️

I’ve been getting back into the original series after being strictly Organized Crime and SVU. This started when I heard SZN 21 casted Jeffrey Donovan (starred in Burn Notice) as Frank Cosgrove. After SZN 22 ended and he was cut from the show for “creative reasons”, I stopped watching. Jeffrey is one of my favorite actors.

Anyway, I started again with this SZN after not watching the previous one. The actor who replaced Jeffrey is growing on me. I refused to watch it after Cosgrove was written off but this new guy is aight. LOOK….I was going through the 5 stages of grief over here at first 🤣 It was the first reasonably well known series I’ve seen him be a part of since Burn Notice.

I don’t understand why folks think they are above the law. If you break the law, you get punished for it. That’s how it works. But some people feel like they can commit crimes and not suffer any repercussions. Or that they deserve pity. Yeah, if you had a crime of some kind happen TO YOU. Not if you commit one.

If I ever commit a crime, I don’t feel like I would deserve pity or even ask for it. If you commit a crime, you are risking your own livelihood or the livelihoods of others. You are making a choice. You are making a choice to commit a crime. That is your fault. The only way you really wouldn’t be entirely at fault is if you have a mental illness that damages the parts of your brain responsible for responsible decision making.

I see where folks are getting this mindset from, and in the interest of not starting needless arguments, I am not going to state it. Any way you look at it, it’s pointless and it’s sad that people still feel this way.

I’m going to end on the following note.

If you can’t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen 🤷🏼‍♀️

This is such a good song. I’ve been more depressed than usual lately and IDK who or what channeled this song to me to listen to again, but I thank you 🤍

I’ll bid farewell for now with a lyric to the song I mentioned….“if you’re down and out, but you still wanna live it up; can I get a witness?; and if the weight of the world is on you now, but you know you can turn it all around again, can I get a witness?”

I feel like I’m losing part of myself again. The last week or two have been so weird for me, personally. I feel like I’ve been outside my body looking in. I can’t tell if it’s growth I’m experiencing or if I’m just simply going through the motions. I’ve been trying so hard to feel better emotionally and physically, but I’m not sure if anything is working. Social media has become an outlet and that’s not me either. I’ve been using it in ways it shouldn’t be used. I’m not ashamed to say it. I will not go into explicit detail, but I do not feel great about the ways I’ve been using it. It was almost like a cry for attention without actually saying, “I need/want attention”.

We all do things for reasons we see fit. What my reasons were, are truly beyond me. I am finding I am getting unhealthily attached to a person again. I do not like this. I need to go back to the drawing board and continue to regain my self-confidence because this sh*t is making me look clingy, needy, desperate, and like I have low self-esteem. I do still kind of have low self-esteem regardless of how many times I say in my head that all these folks can eff off if they think about me a certain way or that I don’t care what people think.

As we rapidly approach the holiday season, here are a couple things to please keep in mind.

- not everyone celebrates the holidays, whether it be for personal reasons, religious ones, etc…so please be respectful if not everyone shares the same feelings about the holidays

- calling or showing up at someone’s job and causing a scene ain’t attractive…get yourself together for the sake of everyone’s dwindling sanity

- it is ok to say no! as a matter of fact, it is appreciated because being honest and straightforward is the best thing you can do

- just because folks are blood related does not make them family, and as a matter of fact some of the people I am closest to are not related to me at all

- holidays are not an excuse to get together and bring up unwanted topics such as: weight, sexuality, money/job situations, marriage/kids or lack thereof…ya know, the kind of topics that make people anxious because contrary to popular belief, there actually is a time and place for everything

- don’t go out and buy a bunch of crap you don’t need just because it’s on sale….because do you honestly need another set of dishes? we tend to buy things impulsively (I am an expert here) and regret it later & the older I get the more I am seeing these things

- be kind to any kind of service worker….it’s not their fault you’re having a bad day or waited until the last minute to buy something

STAY SAFE EVERYONE!!!