welcome

me, dad, kate getting ready for a mississippi mardi gras parade...1994?

I've noticed that I have a few new followers lately and I just want to say hello to all of you! Since you're new to the Sadie blog, I thought I'd tell you a bit about myself. For those of you who've been following for a while, I'll try to think of something new to tell you.

Let's start with my company name, "Sadie Designs". Now, my name is Sarah (and I understand that's confusing and to that I say, "my bad") but the name "Sadie" has special meaning for me. In 2002 Jeff and I lived in Vancouver for a few months and we decided to get a cat. I remember the day that we found Sadie, a.k.a. Nera. We literally drove all over the Lower Mainland ALL DAY looking for the perfect cat. Now, when we found two Cornish Rexes in Maple Ridge I thought we'd found them, but Jeff did not love the hairless cat twins, so we kept looking. Finally, without any other SPCAs on our list (we were looking for just the right cat) we went to the Petcetera adoption centre (now closed) in Burnaby and found Sadie. A beautiful black and white cat that had been in a shelter for nine months (Vancouver has a no-kill policy, I think). She definitely chose us and we had her for the next eight years. Way too short, even when we knew we were adopting an adult cat. In late 2009 Sadie's heart stopped functioning correctly. She went from being herself one second, to being barely able to move the next. I am so thankful for a nap that Jeff, Sadie, and I all took together that afternoon while she was still well. Within 48 hours we had to have her put down. Now, I know that this is a sad story, but it is also a happy story, because we took this orphan cat (who, incidentally, could be a bit vicious sometimes and held a grudge) and gave her the best home she could've ever asked for for the rest of her life and that is what adopting animals is all about. Of course, I can only be so level headed now that this happened almost two years ago. At the time, I was a mess!

How about a brighter note for random info number two? This some of you might already know. My dad used to live in Mississippi and every Fourth of July he used to make us go to a party at the Mississippi Harley Davidson Cycle Barn or something like that. I'm sure it was a fun party for adults. There was copious amounts of beer and sometimes a pig roast, but for my sister and I it was a bit tough. If I remember correctly from the moment we arrived we were usually just waiting until my dad would finally agree to leave. However, let me share with you one Mississippi Fourth party tidbit. For real, one year they had a baby alligator at the party for the kids to play with! What's that, you say? A baby alligator, that can't be safe! Well, just duct tape its mouth shut and it'll be fine! That's what I learned that day. I also learned that if given the chance to play with a baby alligator and a bunch of sunburnt kids I would choose to not do so, as would my sister. You can't beat those Mississippi memories, though! On a related note, I was at a pig roast last year (despite the fact that I've been vegetarian for 17 years) and a little kid from the neighbourhood walked by and asked, "Mommy, why is there a man on the fire?" Of course, he was just seeing the pig, but talk about scarred for life.

Finally, just a little note about the present. Mississippi childhood and school behind me, I'm starting work on Monday and have yet to imagine how that's going to affect my life. In one sense, it'll be great, because I haven't had a real paycheque from a job in a long time. On the other hand, I'm a bit apprehensive about the loss of my grad student life of leisure. Don't get me wrong, I'm sooooo glad that school is actually, forever and ever, over, but I will miss sleeping in until 10AM and staying up until 2AM. Things just won't be able to work that way anymore. I am, however, looking forward to my new commute, which will be by bike, boat, and bike again (at least through the summer, not sure I can handle it in Vancouver's monsoon season).

You guys probably realize that I don't write this much usually, because I like to use photographs to give you more of the details, but if you've actually read this far, I thank you! And now you know a little more about me and I look forward to learning a bit more about you.

So here are my questions for you:

Do you have an adopted animal at home?

Or perhaps a wild childhood memory?

Please do tell me a little something about yourself in the comments if you have a chance. I really love getting to know my readers a bit better. Have an excellent day, everyone! What do you know? It's raining and gross here in Vancouver.