School starts tomorrow, have to go to bed earlier

We have a three-day kindercamp. For incoming new students enrolled in our kindergarten, we have a pre-beginning-of-school opportunity for the kids to come and have three days of a mini-day. For three hours, they go through a regular day. They learn the classroom, where the bathroom is, lunchroom, practice recess, go through rotations for centers...

So that when the first day rolls around on August 15, they are ready and know what is ahead for them. it helps the kids tremendously and it calms the parent's anxiety too. It's really good.

This year I am working at it. So tomorrow I'll be working and that means I should get to bed.

As I've brought Murray in, and he has grown, he has shown me he's a smart cookie. He is also relentless in discovering things. For example, he found a bobby pin. I've lived here 6 years and I assure you I vacuum. I don't wear bobby pins. The tenant before me was a man and he didn't wear bobby pins either. So Murray found one and he plays with it. OK, good for you Murray. I won't dwell on the mystery.

He likes to eat the flowers in the bud base in the kitchen window. He slaps the pictures hanging over the back of the couch. He tosses the stack of books that are on the coffee table, off the coffee table. He strips away at the paper on the magazine spines. He likes to pick at the strip of wood lining the bottom of the tub where it meets the floor. He shreds the toilet paper. I have to hang that on a bungee cord higher than he can reach. But sometimes in the summer I use the bungee for the front door (don't ask) so when I do I have to put the TP somewhere high and out of reach AND remember where it is before I sit down in the morning! He sits on the desk and smacks that picture too, sometimes bouncing it off the wall.

I leave lots of kitty toys around on the floor, it's not like he's deprived. He and the other cats can go anywhere in the entire apartment, except the kitchen counter. They have latitude. It's just that Murray is a kitty. I hope he grows out of some of this.

So this means my going to bed routine has lengthened. I have to start in the kitchen; put the flowers in the fridge. In the living room I line the back of the couch with the pillows that are normally on the couch. I put a heavier book atop the stack of smaller books so he can't fling them off. I let him eat the paper on the magazines. Kitty's gotta have fun. I put the 20lb kitty litter bucket next to the strip of wood he likes to pick at. He is not big enough to move the heavy bucket. Yet. But he tries. I fix the TP so he can't get it. In the bedroom I put more pillows as a barricade against the picture over the desk.

I do all this while I sing A Chorus Line's "What I Did For Love"