Cats: Pet of choice for the asocial

I'm newly returned from driving over a hundred miles to visit a farmer's market- it's the middle of July, people, and Jane needs her produce. Also, half you bastards have decided to get married in places with farmer's markets DURING THE FARMER'S MARKET. What on earth is wrong with you? I spend a weekend not going swimming and chitchatting with strangers, and you don't have the common decency to schedule the most important day of your lives around my apricot fix? I'm going to find some sort of baseballs thing in October and put my wedding there. (Advantage of a small group of readers: unexpected commonalities.)

Well, I actually did it because my job might be trying to kill me. More on that later.

Since I hate driving now, it no longer counts as introvert time. I came in, evaded my parents, and flopped onto my bed. The cat immediately got out of his basket and laid down next to me. I was irked (irked!) by this display of affection, figuring it was a bid for scratching. However, it appears to be nothing more than a desire to stretch out and place a possessive paw on my ankle. This is why I prefer cats, dog people- because sometimes a pet that sees me as furniture is all the social interaction I can take.

More: normally I don't work Fridays, so driving 150 miles is nothing. However, next Friday I will probably be hyperventilating in a helicopter for twelvish hours and then trying to make it to a wedding Saturday morning. There are two plans: drinking lots of caffeine, de-oaking in a river somewhere, and the bombing down to Christmas island in the dark of night or renting a hotel, taking a shower, and driving down in the small hours of the morning. Neither plan has good odds on my ability to buy produce, shower, and then show up. Someday I will have a job where I can conceivably go out in public after a long day at work.

Speaking of poison oak: another advantage of kitties (and probably doggies too. And other tame mammals, seeing as C is also a fan.) is that you can scratch them instead of your poison oak, and instead of bleeding welts you get a more loving cat.