my first cat convention

View from the Asbury Park boardwalk. A cloudy day, but still a nice view.

So. I went to the Catsbury Park Cat Convention. A cat convention. Yes, a cat convention! I never thought I'd write these words, but here I am, having lived the dream just a couple weeks ago. Am I officially in crazy cat lady territory? No, I don't think so. I'm over 40 with 11 cats...but I'm married! 😸

To be clear, this was not a cat show. A cat show is where they display different breeds and they compete within each category, such as Best in Breed. No, this was a convention. Basically, it was everything "cat":  multiple vendors selling toys, beds, food, etc. for the kitties, and any kind of cat-themed merchandise you can think of for the cat lovers; food for the humans (this was strictly vegan food, as the convention is run by Catsbury Park Cat Cafe and they sell vegan snacks); meet and greets with celebrity cats; discussions with advocates; cat-themed games, such as bingo; a cat costume contest; cat adoptions; and Q&As with the owners of the celebrity cats.  One could even get a cat-themed tattoo. Oh, and the cat-themed music that played the whole time...I don't know quite what to say about that other than "pussy" was used quite a lot, and I'm thinking it didn't always refer to a cat. (Here's one such example:  The Pussy Cat Song.)

I went both days. That wasn't the plan, but we had decided to check out the parking situation and having seen it, decided we should stick around since we got a great parking space. Saturday was absolutely packed with wall to wall people, which is actually a good thing since the proceeds went to charity. We got there about a half hour before opening and should've gotten in line, but we didn't. Once we did, it took us about 20 minutes to get in and they ran out of the free tote bags by around 11:30 am. We got in around 11:45 and we could barely move. We really couldn't get to any vendor booths so we went across to the Paramount Theater and saw the Q&A with Nala. Nala was adorable and so well-behaved. I wish my own cats would behave so well! When we were exiting the convention floor to go to the theater, the guard said they were at legal capacity and couldn't let anyone back in unless they again waited in line, so we decided to leave and go back Sunday. We didn't want to go back in anyway, because it was too hard to move around. The experience soured me a bit, but I figured it would likely be better Sunday since many people came for one day only.

Sunday we got there early and since we had the wristband for both days, we waited until the doors opened and got right in. Got our free tote bags, too. I was able to grab all the goodies I wanted to buy and actually look around. The food smelled amazing, but we didn't get anything. I really wanted to try the vegan food, because it smelled amazing, but I decided to just wait awhile to eat. We saw the talk with Oskar the Blind Cat's owner, which was really well-done and very interesting. Touching, too. Oskar had suddenly passed away in February; however, his owner brought Oskar's brother, Klaus.  Klaus was so cute, and also well-behaved. We did a meet and greet with Teddy and Dexter, two Oriental shorthair cats, and that went smoothly. We were within the first 15 people to go in, so I'm glad we decided to show up early. Teddy and Dexter were very friendly. Yes, they are long and lanky, and many people think they're not the most attractive cats, but they really have personality. And those ears!


Here are some pictures.

Klaus, brother of the late Oskar the Blind Cat. He's so cute and well-behaved.

This is me with Teddy and Dexter, and their mom. They're Oriental Short-hairs. Very long and lanky, but so soft and very friendly. And yes, I'm wearing cat ears...

My free tote bag, which was filled with cat-themed goodies.

One of the gifts in my tote bag.

I just have to say a few words about PussWeek. It's marketed as "written by cats, for cats," and it's hysterical! The articles give cats advice on how to be a scary cat, there are interviews with some celebrity cats, and even some quizzes, such as, "Is your human a witch?" It was quite entertaining.

These are the gifts from both bags combined. My husband went with me, so we each got a bag.
We got two issues of PussWeek, catnip, earrings, and grain-free treats.

The Meow magnet I bought and the other I won from one of the booths.

I bought myself a Lil' Bub tumbler, which I now use for the gym. It's a little inspirational, don't you think?

I got a free magnet at the Teddy & Dexter meet & greet. Teddy is on the far left and Dexter is the black one.
Yes, their ears are huge, but I think they're adorable!

I bought this at the Leeza Hernandez Illustrations booth. She does great work.
I got this because I have two black kitties.

I got this from the Only Maine Coons Rescue booth. It's a mat that has catnip inside. My cats love it. I only wish I'd bought a few more, because at least four cats piled on top of it as soon as I got it out of the bag and onto the couch.

This was Catsbury Park's first event and I'm guessing they underestimated how many people would show up, whether it was advanced ticket sales or walk-ins. I think the convention floor was a bit small for the turnout, which is why it was overcrowded Saturday. As for the content, there were some people that complained (on the event's Facebook page) there weren't any cats to see.  I'm confused as to why people thought there would be cats on the convention floor. It's not a cat show. It's a convention, which is different. Also, the website clearly says "live adoptions" (which were done behind the stage area where it was quieter) and anyone with cats likely knows it's not a good idea to put cats on display in a crowded room. It also clearly stated that meet and greets were paid events. There were also some free presentations, some of which featured the celebrity cats.  Some people also complained that they spent a lot of money and it wasn't worth it.  It was only $20.00, which I thought was very reasonable.  Since I went both days I paid about $38.00.  I feel like my money was well-spent and it went to a good cause.

Saturday night we went over to the Catsbury Park Cat Cafe.  Reservations are required and are limited to 30 minutes inside the cat room. I made mine online several weeks before the convention. The cost was $11.00 per person ($9.00 during the week). It's a cafe on one side and a cat room on the other, and it's divided by glass so people in the cafe can see the cats and vice versa. The cafe sells vegan treats, as well as coffee and such. I got some vegan peanut brittle (delicious!) and brought it into the cat room with me. When I made the reservation I wasn't thinking about the fact that at the time we were going--7 pm--the cats would likely be all tuckered out from having more visitors than usual due to the convention.  I was only thinking about allowing myself enough time to go to the convention, get back to the hotel for a bit and then drive over there. Sure enough, the kitties were all sleeping for the most part. That's OK. We still got to see them and pet a few of them, and also see the cafe itself.

I'm hoping next year they will have it at a different venue so there's more room to move around. I thought it went really well, though, for their first time around. All in all, we had a great weekend.

today's lunch

Here's today's work lunch. Very simple and definitely thrown together at the last minute. I took two pieces of Jenni-o Buffalo Chicken Breast lunchmeat and spread a little Tribe Mediterranean-style hummus on them, and then rolled them around some sliced raw red pepper. The other two slices I rolled up and dipped them in some Gulden's mustard.  I ate the rest of the pepper with some hummus as a snack. Low in calories, pretty healthy, fast, and I got some veggies in.

What I brought to work: a whole red pepper, the whole container of hummus, the bottle of mustard and the whole package of lunch meat. I'm at the point where I can't be bothered to make up my lunch at home. We have several refrigerators at work, so I can easily store a few things to have when I want them. I also keep a paring knife in my desk, and we have paper plates and utensils in the cafeteria.

update #7: the war on back pain

I went for a follow-up with my orthopedic doctor in regards to my back pain. This was the follow-up after the two cortisone injections I had. I thought I was going to hear about a simple pain relief outpatient procedure, which was the percutaneous disc decompression (nucleoplasty) I'd mentioned in another post. Instead, I found out that I’m actually a candidate for disc replacement or spinal fusion. Totally not what I was expecting. At all. I was kind of in shock.

Apparently the herniation in my disc is pretty big and the nucleoplasty (disc decompression) isn’t possible. A mini discectomy isn’t possible either since my disc is thinning out. I was kind of in a daze and on information overload at that point, but it was something about the condition of the disc, the size of the herniation and the very small space and location in which to do the work. The doctor said  his first choice would be fusion. Not that disc replacement can't be successful–it is for many people–but he felt for my situation, a fusion would be the best choice. A prosthetic disc can wear out and if they have to go back in to replace it at some point, they'd be working through scar tissue from the initial surgery, which could be dicey.

He ordered an updated MRI, which I had a couple weeks ago. I looked at the MRI since I have the previous one and I now know what I’m looking at, and the affected disc didn't look any better than it did six months ago. I went the following week to have him read it, and he confirmed it's not any better. He also said my scoliosis curve has started to worsen. That scares me, because it hasn't changed since I was a teenager. Hopefully it doesn't get worse. I have to assume it's gotten worse because of the disc problem.

Here are the two images of my bulging disc. The view is from the bottom, up, as though you're looking up from the floor.  That means that the right side of the image is actually the left side of my body.  The one is September 2017 and the bottom one is March 2018. As you can see, not much difference between the two.

We talked again about fusion again.  He said that I'd be out of work for a couple months and overall recovery would be quite long. I'd have to be pretty careful for at least a year so that the bones have a chance to fuse together completely. After thinking about how long the recovery would be, what my pain level is now, and the fact that a fusion could place more strain on the joints above and below the fused vertebrae making them weaker, I made the decision to not have surgery at this time. I think if my pain level was at a point where it prevented me from doing a lot of routine things, I'd definitely go for the fusion; however, my pain in more along the lines of nagging, annoying and distracting.

What will I do instead? I'm going to try one more round of cortisone injections. If these don't help, I'll have to wait until the Fall to try again, since I'm limited to three rounds every nine months. Also, I bought an inversion table. A friend of mine, who has the same disc problem I do, has been using one for years and she said it's a total lifesaver. I got it last week and I've started using it.

This is the one I bought.  It's the Teeter EP-960. I'll post more about it once I've been using it for a bit.

Other options are acupuncture or massage. The doctor also suggested chiropractic care; however, I tried that for the last two months with no luck. I had to cut the chiropractor loose last week. I was really disappointed it didn't work, since it's worked for me in the past.

I really want to get back to living my life as I was before, so I'm going to try the injections and the inversion table and see what happens. Maybe I'll be able to avoid surgery.