Me and Ms. Joni

Last week I went on another trip.  Mr. Guy, The Lady and I went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the 2016 NOAH conference.  NOAH stands for National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation.  It is a gathering for people who, like The Lady, have white fur and trouble seeing.  I met a few of The Lady's NOAH friends last year in Philadelphia.  (I wonder why they always go to Pennsylvania?).  I met Ms. Joni then.  She has white fur like The Lady.  Ms. Joni was very nice to me while we were in Philadelphia and when I got back to Texas, she messaged me on Facebook and always seems interested in what I was doing.  I was very excited when I found out that I was going to get to see her in Pittsburgh!  Ms. Joni told The Lady that she was bringing me a present.  That made me even more excited!  

As soon as we got to our hotel, I found Ms. Joni.  I gave her a great big hug.  Or, maybe she gave me a great big hug.  We shared a great big hug!  It was good to see her again.  

The next morning, she gave me my present.  It was wrapped in pretty blue paper.  

You know that you have good friends when they pay attention to the things that make you happy.  I like blue and Ms. Joni remembered that!  Ms. Joni held me while Mr. Guy helped me unwrap my present.  

As usual, The Lady was taking the pictures.  As I started to tear the paper, I saw orange.  Blue and orange!!!!  Yep.  Ms. Joni knows me very well!  I thought my present might be a new t-shirt, but it didn't feel like a t-shirt.  Now I was a little puzzled.  

I pulled the rest of the tape off of the paper so that I could see my whole present.  It sort of looked like a t-shirt except that it was heavy and the sleeves were long.  It was the opposite of my vest and my tank top, which have no sleeves. 

The Lady told me that it was called a sweater.  Hmm...I wondered if a sweater was something that was supposed to make you sweat, kind of like a portable sauna, maybe?

This is a super special sweater.  Ms. Joni made it especially for me with her very own sticks and orange string!   The Lady knew all along what my present was because Ms. Joni sent her a letter asking what size monster shirts I wear.  Ms. Joni made my sleeves exactly as long as my arms and made sure that my claws had just the right amount of room at the ends.  I tried my new sweater on right then!  I must say that I am a pretty dapper looking monster in my new orange sweater.

Then I started to sweat.  I wanted to keep my sweater on because it made me smile, but it was too hot in Pittsburgh for a sweater.  My fur was getting all soggy because I was sweating.  Ms. Joni is from Wisconsin, where it is cold and snows a lot in the winter.  Up north people wear sweaters to keep warm, but not to sweat.  It will be a few months before I can wear mine in Texas.  Maybe Mr. Guy and The Lady will take me somewhere cold so that I can wear it sooner!  My new orange sweater is soft and cuddly and I want to wear it now!

Ms. Joni told me that in Wisconsin, the hunters wear orange so that they are safe.  I am not a hunter, but I want to be safe too.

While The Lady and Ms. Joni were doing all of the official NOAH stuff, I caught up on sleep and HGTX in the hotel room.  When they weren't doing official conference stuff, we had lots of adventures.  

We were in Pittsburgh for six days, but it felt like about two.  It seemed that one minute I was unwrapping my awesome new sweater and the very next minute I was having to say goodbye to Ms. Joni.  That made me very sad because I don't get to see her very often.

Ms. Joni and The Lady told me that we will all see each other again next September in Denver when the adults with white fur get together like they did in Philadelphia.  That is a whole year away!  I don't want to wait that long to see Ms. Joni again!  But, she is my friend on Facebook so at least I get to talk to her through messages.

Thank you so much for my awesome orange sweater, Ms. Joni!  Every time I wear it, I will think of all the hugs that you gave me!

I wonder if it will be cold enough in Denver to wear my sweater???

My B-Day

A few days ago I celebrated my b-day!  It wasn't really my birthday since is was not the day that I was born (or made); it was the day that Mr. Guy and The Lady brought me home to live with them.  So, it is still my "b-day" but the "b" stands for "brought home" day rather than birthday.  I don't know when I was born, but I do know that I was a very young and lonely little blue and orange furry monster when The Lady and Mr. Guy found me.  Now I am a grown up and loved very big blue and orange furry monster!

Because it was my b-day, we celebrated with lots of things that began with the letter "b"...

Like bubbles...

Mr. Guy blew the water from a magic jar and the bubbles floated all around me!  It was fun to look through them.  It made the world look all crazy and then they were gone!  Some floated way up in the sky.  I don't know where they landed.  And some of them just disappeared.  The bubbles made me smile even though they didn't stay close for very long.

The Lady also gave me a bag, another "b" word.  She said that the bag had a present for me because of this being my brought home day.  I hoped that it would be a new t-shirt,  but I didn't say that out loud in case that there wasn't a new shirt in the bag.  I didn't want to hurt The Lady's feelings.  I knew that even if it wasn't a shirt, it would be something nice because The Lady knows what kinds of things I like and what kinds of things that I don't like!

She told me to go ahead and open my present.

I was a little confused when I pulled my present from the bag.  It sort of looked like a t-shirt, but not quite.  Then I remembered that we were celebrating my b-day with things that began with the letter "b."    That's why I did not get a t-shirt.  T-shirt starts with "t."  My new shirt had no sleeves.  It was a broken shirt.  Broken starts with "b!"  I thanked Mr. Guy and The Lady for the broken shirt.  They smiled and told me that it is not a broken shirt; it is a tank top.  It is not supposed to have sleeves.  I thought shirts without sleeves were called vests.  This clothing thing is getting very complicated!  The Lady explained that tank tops really are just t-shirts without sleeves.  She thought it might not be quite as hot for me to wear in the Texas summer since I have all this fur.  She also told me that she thought the words on the front were perfect for my b-day.  It says, "Have fun all day."  I like to have fun all day every day!

And, my new not broken shirt has blue and orange on it!  I think maybe I might learn to like this shirt with no sleeves.  It shows my pretty orange arm stripes!

After I opened my present, we went inside for more fun.  I got balloons...blue and orange ones...and a brought home cake!

We had my brought home cake inside because there were bugs outside.  And even though bugs start with "b," they were not a good thing that starts with "b."

My cake had a "2" on it because of the two years that I have lived with Mr. Guy and The Lady.  I guess the longer you live with somebody, the bigger your cake gets.   It will take a big cake to hold F-O-R-E-V-E-R and that's how long I am going to live with Mr. Guy and The Lady!

Mr. Guy told me that he would light the candle and I should make a wish and then blow it out.

I wanted to tell him that I wished that we would all live together forever and ever, but before I could say all the words, he told me that my wish had to be a secret or it won't come true.  I hope he knows that I want to live with him and The Lady forever and ever!

I cut my cake into four pieces - one for me, one for The Lady, one for Mr. Guy, and one for me.  Did I say me twice?  It was too hard to cut the cake into three pieces.  Four was much easier because all I had to do was bisect the cake twice.  Bisect??  Why does that big book, that dictionary, keep coming back to haunt my words?

I cut my cake all by myself because Mr. Guy said that The Lady was not allowed to use knives because she used one to cut her finger.  That sounded to me like it would hurt!  I was very careful not to cut my claws.

I was glad to share my cake.  I don't think The Lady and Mr. Guy noticed that I had two pieces!

My brought home day with bubbles and bags and balloons and broken shirts and bisected cake was a lot of fun and made me a happy monster.  Mr. Guy and The Lady told me that we are going on lots of trips in July and that would be part of my brought home celebration too.  We are going to Pittsburgh where I will get to see some old friends and meet some new ones and we are going to England.  I am excited about the adventures that I am going to have during my third year with Mr. Guy and The Lady.