Thy Neighbor's Cat...

Coveting thy neighbor's spouse is a big no-no, but what about thy neighbor's cat? Every morning I am greeted by my neighbor's three cats. They politely ask for a few head scratches before I head to work and I usually oblige them. One cat, the one I thought was homeless because she would follow me up the stairs and try to enter my apartment, has taken to leaping onto my balcony in order to beg for extra petting. Spiderman and firemen wouldn't flinch at this leap, but I always picture this cat plummeting to the end of her ninth life whenever I catch her mid-flight to my balcony. After watching this death defying leap, I feel bad when I have to tell the cat that she is not my pet and cannot enter my home. I always get a ruffled 'meh' and a look that would kill a rodent at ten paces, but thems the rules. I am not willing to part with a good chunk of my money for a pet deposit in order to satisfy a demanding feline's belief that she is welcome everywhere. She still deigns to let me give her head scratches, so she must be counting on my temporary insanity to clear up on its own.
On other fronts, both of my jobs are becoming much more active. The computer lab is filled with stressed out students trying to finish up their pre-holiday assignments and the bookstore is beginning to hop with the early bird shoppers. Between my school work and my jobs, my days are flying by. I am taking time out to watch movies with friends and bake treats for my classmates, but my weekends are eye-blinks and my weekdays mere flashes in the pan. Unless something extraordinary happens, my time seems to blur.
Speaking of extraordinary, I found that I have a bit of my sister's journalism bug (with a dash of my father's love of excitement) when I saw a great cloud of smoke rising from the center of campus. I blinked for a few seconds as I listened to sirens start up around me and then I was running to work to snag one of the Studio's video cameras. A fresh battery, a blank tape, and I was heading towards the sirens. The whole campus smelled like burnt bottle rockets and there was smoke making everything gray. Here's another viewpoint. Apparently a storage room caught fire, but the authorities had the flames out in 20 minutes flat and no one was hurt. I got some neat footage of the smoke blotting out the sun. I stayed out of the blocked areas, so I wasn't in any danger, but it was fun to play intrepid reporter for a minute. I think I'll leave the real thing to the professionals. Happy Days, Folks!