Vegetable Depression

I've suffered off & on since I was in my teens from depression. Chronic depression seems to run in my family, although we don't talk much about it. I'm epileptic, and since depression often runs hand-in-hand with that as well, I get it coming & going. It's taken me to some very dark spots in my life, places where all I could do was curl up in my pajamas, mindlessly watching hours of television and sleeping. Didn't talk to anyone, and if I did, I'd start crying. I couldn't even read--my only solace was lost to me! The darkness was too big to fight.

It's a difficult thing to explain to anyone who hasn't been there, and I am not going to try here. I simply wanted to post a lovely & humorous list I came across today on a blog called beliefnet. It made me smile, and rang true. Here it is:

16 Ways Depression Is Like a Pumpkin

1. It comes in all shapes and sizes (and diagnoses).

2. With enough creativity, you can it put it to good use.

3. You have to carefully monitor kids around it.

4. It arrives in October, and stays through the holidays.

5. It can be heavy and cumbersome.

6. It can be ugly.

7. It never grows alone, and it has long roots.

8. You can carve different faces on it.

9. Birds and humans crap all over it.

10. It likes ghosts and dead people (the past, in general), and phobias of all kind.

11. Like an 11-year-old boy, you really want to smash it.

12. It can make you think of Thanksgiving, and everything you have to be grateful for.

13. You can't just hide it or forget about it, because after a few months, it will rot, decay, and stink up your entire house.

14. It's orange, meaning "ALERT: something isn't right."

15. A lot of people have one, but most don't put theirs out on the porch (like I do) for everybody to see (and comment on).

16. After you dig out its guts and give it a light, it can be made into something beautiful (at least temporarily).

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/2010/10/12-ways-depression-is-like-a-p.html#ixzz13JdNjXcK

My Teenage Cat.

I am the parent of a teenager.

My teen doesn't drag me to soccer games or need rides to the mall. She's not your typical teen. And yet...she is! Yes, my kitten is growing up. Miss Google is a teen.

These last few weeks I've been noticing my baby girl acting more & more like an adolescent. Her risk-taking behavior scares me, and she ignores my calls of "Get down! Don't do that! Stop!" as she walks along the thin iron railing of our second-story deck, or climbs to the top of the bookshelves. When she falls, who will she cling to?

She eats things that she shouldn't. As she chases bugs across the apartment she knocks over half the things in her way, never stopping until she catches & eating each one. It's gross, but it makes her so happy...

And the plants, oh, the plants. Yes, she's eaten all the herbs in the pots on the deck. The mint, lemon balm, lavender. She chews on the geranium, the roses, the jasmine.

Like many teens, Miss Google (I'm ashamed to admit) has experimented with drugs. My kitty has a catnip problem. We bought a catnip plant at the nursery, so I guess that makes us her dealers. She'd chew on a few leaves, and be stoned the entire day.

But I realized she was truly an adolescent the other day when she walked right by me as I called her name. Steven & I both called her, and she simply ignored us, strolling past with her tail in the air. Totally a teenage behavior! If she'd had a cell phone, she'd have been texting her friends "My parentals are so lame! OMG!"

I'm just glad she isn't watching Twilight or listening to Justin Bieber.

I'll Be Back.

It's been awhile since I've written, and today's post won't be long. I'm simply writing to remind myself that this doesn't have to be the great American novel. It's a blog, not literature.

So remember, I haven't fallen off the face of the internet, or the planet, for that matter! Like Ahnold, I'll be back!