My sisters gave me a cat for Christmas. Most expensive gift I've ever received.

After four weeks in my maternal care, baby Potter has been to the vet four times. $375 later, the vetranarian is my new B/F and I talk to him more than my parents.

Potter started off with an upper respitory infection and stinky diarhea (Emmers calls him "Potty"). Then on New Year's eve, he got a strawberry of sorts on his head which spread to his tummy and then bubbled into an ugly growth. Five medications and one biopsy later, he remains undiagnosed, but is healing despite our fruitless efforts.

On the other hand, last night I went to a birthday party with $30 wine gift in hand and by the end of the evening had eaten a $25 meal for free and been left $30 by appreciative drunks that I drove home at 2:30 in the morning. How did I go to a birthday party and come home with more money than I left with? It's beyond me.

So I guess what goes around comes around. We give and we receive. We complain not, we want not.

All I want is love. But I have that. I have that in a fuzzy purr-monster who sleeps beneith my chin and poots stinky aromas all night long. I have that in new friends who dance and sing with me till the wee hours of the morning. And I have that in life-long sisters who want to help me be happy.

Congratulaions, you've succeeded. And the happiness of my life I give back to you.