Cold, Cold Cats, Cat Ears, and Ear Infections

It got cold. Really cold, really fast. Cold front came in, bringing wind and rain with it, leaving me miserably cold and wet on the way to work. I hate winter, and it's knocking on the door. I wore my winter coat for the first time this season today, and on the walk home I wished I had brought my gloves. Or a car. What I hate is that when I came here this time last year, it wasn't this cold. It was a lot warmer, and sunnier, and not rainy at all. So I'm wondering if in the next 3 days between now and when I got here a year ago if the weather is gonna kick out and do something I approve of, but I doubt it. I think it's time to leave my heater on for the next 6 straight months and just accept it. Fuck I hate winter.

My cat is a moron, and paws at my glass door at all hours, regardless of weather conditions. So I opened it and let him out, but of course when he saw it was raining, didn't go. I picked him up and tossed him out and shut the door. That'll fail to teach him anything. Ha. I showed him.
I was pretty sure he was gonna claw me when he came in, he did the other time Ty and I shoved him outside in a typhoon, and it makes me think of StirFry, the cat I had as a kid. He hated rain, but insisted on going out in it, like he had something to prove. Then when he came in, he'd bite your leg, like it was your fault. I used to wrap paper towels around my ankles when I let him in during a rainstorm. But of course he wouldn't bite me then. They only strike when they know you're vulnerable.

I went down on Monday with Natascha to pick up our visas, and apply for multiple re-entry permits. On the way I gave her the little pick and white cat ears I bought for her a while back, but, like her birthday present, took me a month or two to actually give her. So we're sitting there on the train and she busts them out, and sure enough, we get a snicker and a smile from one or two Japanese folk sitting across from us. From that moment on, the day became a nonstop mission to entertain the Japanese with our cute and silly behavior, which included but was not limited to: prancing, dancing on the train, singing along to iPod music they can't hear, scratching behind cat ears, meowing, and so on and so forth. It was a good thing we were out performing a public service too cause it seemed for all the world like it was "Absolutely No Smiling At All Whatsoever Under Any Circumstance Day". For those of you who aren't aware of the holiday system here, it's every day that isn't some other holiday.
So, we got our visas and re-entry permits after a little mini adventure in finding where to pay for the stamps we needed, and then having the up escalator not work. But more importantly we pranced around and made public silliness look like it was in style. For foreigners.

Natascha's getting over a gnarly sinus infection that made her eye swell shut, and a concurrent throat and ear infection. Today at work my right ear throbbed for a moment, and my sinuses are experiencing some odd pressure which could be from a number of things, not the least of which is the random severe shift in weather in the last 24 hours, but all the same I immediately remembered Natascha and I sharing headphones and sent her a message saying I'm worried I inherited her infection. She informed me it wasn't communicable in that way, so I relaxed a bit, but I'm not going to relax really till I wake up with no ear pain and two fully openable eyes.