2002-01-27 - 14:50
and it's beginning to snow

It snowed last night, serious snow. Big exaggerated cartoon flakes. It's only snowed here in my presence once since I arrived last year, a light snowfall the night of my Humanities 110 final. I, California girl, was awed by the exotic weather. I've *seen* snow before, on trips to far-off Lake Tahoe, and there was that one time the other year when it snowed one morning in San Francisco, but I've never seen the place I live actually blanketed with snow.

I took a walk around campus at around midnight--it wasn't that cold, just barely below freezing. I decided I needed some pictures of this transformation. I went and fetched my camera and snapped pictures all around campus. I made sure to get not only the gorgeous natural effect but all of the creative efforts made by students in this unusual medium--snowmen and snow angels everywhere, perhaps with a little less innocence than those constructed by Calvin and Hobbes, like the bra-clad snow mermaid and the snowman with beer and cigarettes. The latter had been knocked down when I passed him again, so I made sure to take more pictures from all angles, getting full coverage of the crime scene.

I'm not a big snow fan generally, but this was very nice. Just a light covering of snow on the ground, sometimes with grass poking through. Just enough snow for the romantic effect, not heavy enough to make everything wet and slushy and make driving impossible nor cold enough to send me inside for the night. And the canyon running through campus looked incredibly pretty. We could use another snowfall. Maybe on a school day next time.

In other news, the dorm cat is currently hanging out in my room. I've been reluctant to let him in here in the past, since I have a vulnerable goldfish, but I've just found that I can protect the fish by draping a towel over his tank and discouraging the cat when he tries to climb on it.

The cat obeys the command "No." Is this normal? I've had cats, and I always thought they weren't supposed to do that. So far as I know, nobody has taken him to cat obedience school or anything. But he responds appropriately to a couple of commands, or at least to voice tone and hand gestures--a firm "No" with appropriate gesture gets him off of places he's not supposed to go, and he also appears to have associated another gesture with the command "Sit" and acts appropriately.

With me, at least. I don't know if anyone else in the dorm has ever tried things like saying "No" to the cat; the girl who seems to have appointed herself the cat's bestest friend just babies him like you wouldn't believe. Pets him aggressively when he's not interested and always talks this high-pitched cooing baby talk to him. I think she had a significant hand in his naming, too.

The cat's name is Mohammed.

Mohammed Cohen.

He's a "symbol of peace in the Middle East."

Yeah. I'm not making this up. I do not ever address him by this name. I amuse myself with the thought that because I do not talk baby-talk to the cat and I do not call him by his stupid name, he is partial to me in some way and that's why he seems to listen to me. I was also, last semester, the one to let him back inside once or twice when he got trapped outside and was mewling for ages before anyone checked--he meows loudly a lot, so we don't always check on him.

Everyone decided he should be an Outside Cat, you see, once he got his shots. Because it made him So Much Happier. Since we have no cat door, this means we are assuming he'll always be able to get back in through the open window of the social room. Unless, of course, someone happens to *close the window,* in which case he's screwed. I'll bet it makes little Muha (they call him this. Also MuMu, which I really wish I was making up) really happy to sit outside meowing at the top of his lungs hoping someone hears him before he freezes to death. I've also been the one to let him *out* of other people's rooms when they've left him in there and closed the heavy door behind them. Uh, guys? The cat's *alive.* Might need to eat at some point. (I should point out that I don't really know who feeds the cat, I think it's the H.A. Our dorm doesn't place a lot of emphasis on having everyone involved in or informed of decisions that affect the dorm as a whole.)

Anyway. Cat: Still in my room. I let him explore all over the place, aside from the fish tank and my costume suitcase; I even opened my wardrobe for him so he could satisfy his curiosity about that. He's really a very well-behaved cat. Towards me, anyway. And he only walked across the computer keyboard once when I was writing this entry. I'd really like a cat of my own, but my brother's allergic. Maybe I'll get one when I move out. (Actually, I'd like *this* cat when the school year's over, but I'd have no way of taking care of him. I think he technically belongs to the H.A., or the H.A.'s girlfriend. Just as long as he doesn't end up in baby-talking he'll-be-much-happier-if-he-can-die-in-the-Portland-winter girl's care.)