Second Is the Best

According to the rhyme, first is the worst, second is the best, and third is the one with the hairy chest. Or the treasure chest or the wedding dress or the argyle vest.

Whatever. Point: this rhyme is utter crap.

I am the firstborn in my family, so I can assure you that I am not at all the worst. SuperSanko, I am sorry, but you are not the best. Furthermore, February is the second month. AND IT HAS NOT BEEN THE BEST.

On February 4, 2009, I had to part with the sweetest cat that has ever walked this planet. I have never cried so much or so hard in my entire life. Just thinking about it has me in tears again, which is why I haven't taken the time to put together a proper entry about the situation yet. The short story is that his kidneys and liver shut down, and none of us expected that diagnosis. I was in the middle of writing a literary analysis on Kate Chopin's short stories when I got the news from my mom, and suddenly I was holding my cat and being told to say goodbye. The purring ball of fur in my lap had been with me for fourteen of my twenty-three years, longer than most humans I know, and . . . I'll just wrap up by saying that Carmel has been sorely missed.

I went to work the next morning, and after a terrible first five minutes, I was hugged and coffee-ed and dinosaured by loving coworkers who apparently know just how to cheer me up.

Then, I found out that the release of Sims 3 has been pushed back from now until June. Not the worst news ever, I agree, but not what I wanted to hear.

I was all set to feel sorry for myself, but the internet just wouldn't hear of it. Justin Cox sent me a message on Twitter saying that ELIJAH WOOD, MY ONE TRUE LOVE has a Twitter account now. Yes, it's true. Yes, it's really him. Yes, I hyperventilated and immediately started following him. Yes, it then dawned on me that I write an awful lot of corny things about Elijah Wood on Twitter that he probably wouldn't ever want to see. Paaanic everywhere but the disco.

But I didn't even have time to kick myself for long. My dad announced the next night that the Field Museum is opening a pirate exhibit! And then the sun came out and warmed up the whole Chicagoland area to a balmy sixty degrees! And then I signed up for the 20SB Ultimate Meetup! And then I found out that my family reunion ends the day before the BlogHer Conference, meaning I can actually attend and meet all my favorite bloggers who aren't twenty-something! And then I celebrated 1234567890 Day!

Just when I thought I was going to run out of exclamation points, I got a text message from my wonderful friend, Sexy Beast. "Check your mail after 3pm." The last time he sent that kind of message, I wound up with a whole bunch of stuff that put a huge smile on my wrinkly, old, cat lady face and warmed my cold, dead, pirate heart. I'm pretty sure he's the most thoughtful guy on the planet, so don't ask me how I got lucky enough to score him as one of my bestest friends.

Anyway, here's what he sent this time:

Behold: personalized M&M's that say "Rachelskirts" and "Sexy Pirate" (in scrambled text because M&M's couldn't handle the word "sexy" on their candy). I sigh happily every time I even look at these pictures.

All in all, I guess the month just got off to a really rough start, but my friends — both online and off — have been doing a stellar job cheering me up. I might have experienced some of the worst, but I've definitely seen some of the best, too.

Thanks for that, my pretties.

P.S. Yeah, sorry for the hastily edited video with the missing subtitle and the proportion-squishing rotation going on.

P.P.S. Okay, fine. SuperSanko is the best little brother, but he most certainly is not the best Guitar Hero player in this household. Bwa ha ha.