This Week With Jane and Charley: A Box of Catnip and Two Days in Vegas

(The continuing adventures of Charley, the little black cat that Tim sent me the day after he passed. Read all about her shenanigans here. -jb)

This week’s installment of The Adventures of Charley finds our little black cat drugged out on catnip. You may remember that some time ago – after realizing that she was eating my houseplants – I bought some wheatgrass for her to munch on. Unfortunately, she wasn’t all that interested in the healthy greens, and they shriveled up into nothing within a couple weeks. I watered them, but they just didn’t look great, so I decided to put them out of their misery.

When I was in PetSmart stocking up on cat litter this week, I noticed a box of catnip by the counter, so I decided to give that a try. She continues to eat my houseplants, and while I know that all of the ones I have are nontoxic to cats, sometimes she’ll hock up a big wad of plant that has no chance of being digested inside her tiny belly.

So I brought home the catnip, and she ate the whole thing within 24 hours. It wasn’t a huge plant, but the fact that she consumed all of it (without self-regulating like she does with her food) made me think this little experiment could render me homeless within a short time. I will be planting some catnip in my garden this year, but doubt I’ll be able to plant enough to keep her happy. I mean, how long can I be the middleman in this operation without losing everything? Just call me Heisenberg.

Anyway, I don’t know where this is headed, but I just don’t see it ending well.

You’ll notice below that I also brought home some more wheatgrass, which she promptly sniffed and ignored. After getting a taste of catnip, there is no chance she’ll ever be interested in wheatgrass again. This is what happens when you get the good stuff.

While I seem to remember the cats of my childhood going a little bonkers after consuming catnip, it seems to have the opposite effect on Charley. Here she is sacked out in a haze by the woodstove after bingeing on catnip. If you look closely, you’ll see that her eyes are open. Hopefully, she’s not having paranoid delusions about being chased by demon-eyed wolves.

Is today’s catnip a stronger strain than the stuff we grew back in the 1970s (not unlike some other “herbs” we used to partake in)? Inquiring minds…

Two Days in Vegas

Picking up where I left off on my Utah hiking excursion … Marissa and I had planned to stay in Utah for a few more days, heading over to Bryce Canyon National Park after our lovely day of hiking at Zion. However, it started raining the next morning, and the forecast called for rain for the next few days.

So, being the Adventure Girls we are, we decided to head to Vegas. It’s interesting actually “being” somewhere that you’ve only looked at on a map. I had no idea that Las Vegas was just a few hours south of Zion. So off we went.

Vegas was like stepping into Oz for this northern Michigan girl. So many bright lights and interesting (scantily-clad) people. Some of those people were a little on the creepy side, like the two Chippendale dancers (or … were they … ?) who plied us with questions as we tried to walk by them on The Strip.

As we were approaching them, my city-smart daughter warned me not to engage with them or even look them in the eye. But then “someone” who shall remain nameless, replied to their question of where we hailed from with “Michigan.” “But you said not to engage!” I exclaimed to that someone.

Anyway, that was all it took for them to swing into action, invading our personal space, getting our names (“Really? Because my name is Tarzan!”), and dancing around us like deranged outcasts from “Dirty Dancing.” They even picked me up at one point, which I did not find the least bit thrilling.

After a few minutes of awkward interactions, they then tried to get money from us, even offering up a Venmo option, and then berated us when we walked away without complying. “We wouldn’t come into YOUR workplace without being compensated!” they declared. Ok, well, I’m sorry, but there was no contract signed, and you didn’t mention anything about money before making mildly disturbing innuendos.

Also, I kept thinking (naively) that maybe they were actual Chippendale dancers, and this was some sort of promotional thing to get us into a show that night or something. No, Jane. They probably weren’t even official Chippendale dancers.

Other highlights of our Vegas excursion included eating the best risotto ever at Hell’s Kitchen (and quite reasonably priced), losing ten bucks at Caesar’s Palace (my limit, but wow, you could lose a lot of money very fast there), watching someone get stuck on the skyline on Fremont Street (thus cementing my decision not to do this), visiting the biggest candy store I’ve ever been in (I’m on a no-sugar kick, and got out of there without buying anything), and hiking at beautiful Red Rock Canyon (where we got hilariously soaked after escaping the rain in Utah).

But my favorite part of Vegas was The Mob Museum, a well-run nonprofit located in the restored 1930s Post Office and Courthouse. It was a little surreal to be watching a short film about mobster trials while sitting IN the actual courtroom where the trials took place.

And being a “true crime” aficionado who appreciates a well-made firearm, looking at Bugsy Siegel’s sunglasses, Al Capone’s Smith & Wesson, and the actual 1929 Cook County coroner’s documents about James May’s death geeked me out to no end.

I was glad to finally check out Sin City after seeing so many movies and TV shows about it, but after two days, I probably don’t need to go back again (although we didn’t make it to Hoover Dam, so maybe…).

A few pics from Vegas…