Without a Bicycle

"A woman without a man is like

a fish without a bicycle."

--attributed to Gloria Steinem

I like to collect quotes. Some have something to do with me. Other quotes may be interesting (or not) for people I know (or don't know) and have nothing to do with me. Still other quotes I may find amusing for pure entertainment value. The point is, if there is any way I can relate favorite quotes to my blog, I intend to do so. This was the case with "a fish without a bicycle," which conjures up a funny image for me. I recall telling a few people that it's too bad I would probably never be able to post that quote on my blog. Until yesterday, when an opportunity presented itself.

After approximately five hours' sleep, which is great for me these days, I was watching Good Morning America while still in bed. An announcement was made that there was going to be an upcoming segment about cat ladies. In my humble opinion, there is a difference between being a cat person and a cat lady. I consider myself the former, in case anyone is wondering. But needless to say, since the segment was about cats, I was going to continue watching GMA.

Then my phone rang. I value my sleep, such as it is. Therefore, I no longer have a telephone in the bedroom. However, since I was awake and there was the possibility of it being an important phone call, I stumbled into the living room. Oddly enough, I recall thinking, "Don't tell me it's somebody telling me to watch GMA." You see, I am not accustomed to receiving phone calls at 7:54 AM for no good reason. With few exceptions, I take no personal calls before noon. Anyway, just as I picked up the receiver, the phone call went into voicemail.

Put on your TV as soon as you can, and watch GMA, Channel 7. They're going to go into why people have twelve cats or more. "Oh, good," I said to myself immediately, after I listened to that message, "now I can use that 'fish without a bicycle' quote."

The caller happened to be the person who phoned in June to ask me, "Do you want two more cats?" "Do I want two more cats?" had been my calm response, which I repeated for emphasis. And I emphasized the words I and want. I could have asked, "Are you insane?" Apparently, my friend knew someone who wanted to get rid of her two cats because she had just gotten two dogs, or some such thing. Not my problem. I had no sympathy for the woman. The rest of the conversation is unimportant, other than I did advise my friend to tell the person not to take the cats to the shelter, but to keep them until a good home could be found for them. Well, he had thought of a good home--mine. The point of the story is, I guess he must think of me as a cat lady. As for the two cats, they are still in their home, and it appears they will be remaining with the two dogs.

For those of you who did not watch yesterday's GMA and 20/20 shows, I suspect you are still aware of the stereotypical cat lady, and so I need not explain how the "fish without a bicycle" quote pertains to today's blog post. Stereotypes, boxes with labels. Neatly packaged. As for my caller friend, thanks for the anecdotes.