Happy Post-Thanksgiving

Noodle pudding! Mashed potatoes! Peking duck! Yams!

Must...go...to...gym.

Happy Birthday, Marlen!

Today was Marlen's birthday. To make up for the past five years of absence, I decided I'd go all out. I got her a nice new Calphalon stainless steel stir-fry pan and a chocolate ganache cake from Whole Foods. We cooked a tasty dominican meal of moro and beef and invited over Marlen's boyfriend, Mark, as well as a girl that we could potentially live with. Large topic of conversation was how much Marlen hated the cat. Poor kitty. Though..the potential future roomie has a cat, which may not jive so well for her. After dinner, Mark showed me some tango music and then we practiced for a bit. He does far more complicated things than my tango teachers have done. Fun fun fun. Too bad Erica wasn't here, she would have really enjoyed this evening.

Sleep

I decided to go to bed early last night because for whatever reason, I was sleepy at around 10:30, and I figured I might as well get a good start to the week. So, I went to sleep. And then, starting at 4 am, the cat starts trying to get into my room. He pounds on the door, and then goes around to the kitty door on the side that I locked, and starts scratching, and then goes back and forth again. Then, he started meowing, over and over and over again. This morning when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I let him stay with me. But when it comes to peeing, I can't have an audience. So I kicked kitty out. And he MEOWED the whole minute. O dear. Neediness. Blech. So...I didn't get a good night's sleep.

And on the L train this morning, there was a medical emergency. We stopped for 15 minutes at Lorimer and then another 10 minutes or so at First Avenue. People around me were most agitated. I saw it as an opportunity to get some "quiet" quality sleep time. Still, the medical emergencies - if you feel like you're going to pass out, could you at least do it on a platform instead of on the train so everyone can get to work on time? Alice was on the same train as me, so we comiserated on the elevator. Delightful.

Kitteh

It's been about a decade since mom gave Goose away, so I guess there are things about having a cat that I didn't remember.

Things I like - kitties that will crawl up and get all friendly when I'm lonely; kitties that do really funny things like sleep in a wierd position; kitties that sneeze.

Things I don't like - kitty hair literally floating through the air, kitty hair on my clothes, kitty claws and teeth on the plastic bags (Goose never did that, but the roommate's cat does...I try to take them away when I see him chewing), kitty claws and teeth on me (ouch), kitty meowing out of loneliness at 7 in the morning and trying to break down the door.

I suppose I could kitty-proof my room and let him in, but I'm lazy.

Nostalgia

I just picked up a violin today and played for the first time in... I don't know how long. I didn't realize it, but I really missed it. What's frustrating is that I seem to have completely lost dexterity in my left hand and the right is just as sloppy... It got a little better after half an hour, but I have a lot of work to do if I ever want to get back to where I used to be. It's just a lack of strength and precision when I hit the notes that's bothering me. At least my shifts are still pretty clean...
One of the girls I live with plays violin in a rock band - it looks like she took lessons a long time ago but stopped before it was really completely ingrained in her head so she has some thing and not others. Stiff vibrato, prefers to play at the tip even at the parts that really should be at the frog...whoo jargon! I gave her a mini violin lesson, but I don't know if she'll take me seriously or not. There is, after all, that nagging little voice in my head of my former violin student telling me I was a bad teacher.
Well, I'm thinking of bringing my violin over to NY along with my Pleyel duets. I think my old violin teacher will be pleased to see I can still sight-read without any problems. I guess that's the one thing I got out of all those years of not practicing.

What a great day. Welcome to a new era!

Freedom

Today, I moved into my new place! It's really great! My roommates are really cool! And we have a cat!

Cat, by the way, seems to have fallen in love with me. He walked right up to my face at one point (I was sitting on the floor and he was on the coffee table) and stuck his nose right onto mine. Cat kisses! And then he jumped off the table and started rubbing up against me and lay down next to me with his tail curled over my leg. And now, he's on my bed...on my blanket...and he just farted!!!! Yah...on my blanket...guess I'm doing some laundry now.

I inherited whatever Daddy has that makes cats adore him.