The Comfy Chair

We all love that feeling of your favorite comfy chair, and I've recently discovered that's how I feel about my relationship, too! Let me explain with a little story...

About six years ago, I was asked with my coworker and friend Nancy to look for a recliner to use in our work's break room. We went that afternoon to a number of furniture stores, trying out recliners. I think we must have sat in over 40 of them, total. But finally, we arrived at an oversized blue/green recliner (picture is above). I remember when I sat in it, I had a feeling of peace; a sort of instant relaxation, like slipping into a hot shower. Nancy agreed, and we ended up getting the chair.

Since then, the office space has moved around, but the chair has kept with us, and I often sneak up during lunch for a quick nap. I am not generally known to nap sitting up, but there's something about the comfort of this chair that does it for me. Also, it reclines into an almost flat bed-like position; ideal for sleeping.

Anyway, I've recently noticed that the moment I even enter the room the chair is in, just the thought of being able to sit in it brings a wave of relaxation to me. Then, as I sit down, I just about sigh with relief and have a tough time not sleeping right then.

The point of this story leads me to last night. Hunter wanted to leave the TV on, when it was time for me to go to bed, because he wasn't yet tired, and the TV helps him sleep. I mentioned that I would have trouble falling asleep, since I focus on the dialog, and can't tune it out as white noise. He responded back by saying, "But hon, you fall asleep all the time when we're watching TV together." I realized he was right, but there was a difference. In the times that has happened, we've been snuggling. And then it hit me: Snuggling with my partner provides the exact same feeling as the office chair I love, back at work. All the cares, worries, and tension just drains away, allowing me to make any outside annoyance become white noise.

If someone had told me about this when I started this blog, I wouldn't have believed them. "That's stuff for the romance books," I would have said, "That doesn't actually happen... I can think of plenty of things a person would worry about snuggling: 'Am I crushing their arm', 'What if I want to get up', 'Am I squeezing too hard', et cetera." I'm very happy to find out that's completely untrue.

I hope you all have someone special in your lives that provides the same result!

Post? Yeah, okay...

I don't post here much anymore. But then again, I don't think anyone reads these anyway... Lately I've been offline most all the time except for when I'm at work, when I need to be using a PC all day anyway. Having a partner as a companion makes RL that much more interesting, so we've been off sharing it together.

This weekend, we have helped organize a furmeet/picnic/bbq thingy out at Fern Ridge Lake, and quite a few furs said they would come! Yay! Finally, a chance to meet folks in the area. I've been wanting to meet some more like-minded furs in quite a while from the Eugene area, and this year there are lots of meets going on. I am excited!

Jaycatt and the Harvest Moon

jaycat and the harvest moon
Originally uploaded by isfullofcrap

Crap Mariner took this picture of me accompanying Frogg on the Neil Young song "Harvest Moon" as we played it at the Luskwood Amphitheater. How cool!

Just another update :)

First, sorry I haven't been keeping this journal up to date lately. Guess I've just been busy with other things. :) But Hunter's out of town this week, visiting his folks in LA, so I thought I'd use some of the extra time to write to anyone who follows the blog.

Things have been going better than expected with the cats. About a week or so ago, we decided to get both their claws trimmed and let them start interacting. At first, Samantha would tear off after him at first sight; cornering him on top of a chair and hissing at him until she got tired of that and sulked off. But now, she notices him, and only if he gets close or tries to pass does he get the hiss treatment. She's even letting him into the bedroom where she sleeps, as long as he keeps to himself (which he does quite nicely). So, they seem to be co-existing in that way, well enough. However, he has a habit of behaving like a normal cat, which is to eat her food when she's not looking. Samantha typically eats a bit at a time, not right away, so this has been a little problematic. We're still locking him away in his room at nightfall: partly to let her have the comfort of going down to eat without him around, and also to keep them from potentially fighting in the middle of the night. None of us want to get woken up by angry kitties :D

And the birds in the eaves have finally hushed! I researched how to do it and the starlings in the attic are gone :) An exterminator came out with some much better covers for the attic vents and sealed it all back up. Frogg is extremely happy, and they were always directly above his window and would wake him up every morning. He even has a song about it, that I can't remember the title of at this moment.

Another great news item: Frogg and I have been asked to play at the Florence, Oregon Sunday market on June 14th from 1PM-2:30PM! It'll be the longest time we've played in public (1.5 hours) so far. Sure, we've played at our local block party, but that's not the same. I hope it goes well, I'm really looking forward to a long stint at the piano in public! Frogg says we should make up a set list, which we've never done before... Sounds good to me!

The Luskwood "first Friday of the month" shows are also going very well. I can't believe we've been playing there over a year now! Tonight is another of those nights, and I'm really looking forward to it. They are a great audience, and the organizers and people who help out couldn't be better. :)

That's all for now, hope to write more sooner!

Let's Dance!

Let's Dance!
Originally uploaded by Jaycatt

Here's a picture taken from last night, when I turned 4 years old in Second Life!

Local theater is awesome

Last Saturday night, Hunter and I attended a dinner theater here in Eugene, at a place called the Actors Cabaret. I've known of the place for years, ever since I was in my 20s taking the bus from the old downtown station on 10th street. I'd be waiting for the bus back to Springfield from my night class, and directly across the street was this wall mural of a bunch of varied silhouettes of people of different sizes and shapes, all kinds of costumes (done as shadows, of course). I would look at it and imagine the different types of folks, and what might go on in that building. One day, I walked over to take a look, and noticed it was a live theater establishment, that actually had dinner theater! Ever since then, I've been wanting to try it, because I thought the idea of eating and staying to watch a show would be really kick-ass. Yeah, I'm showing my 1980s upbringing there, so what :D

Well, as I mentioned earlier in this blog at the end of last year, Hunter and I went to see A Christmas Carol, a musical version, at the Hult Center, and really enjoyed it. Turns out it was performed by the Actors Cabaret. Outside the performance hall at the Hult, there was a table with flyers of other upcoming shows. One of the shows was the musical The Producers. It's always been a favorite of mine, and it's Hunter's absolute favorite. We waited the four months, and got tickets, and the dream was realized last night!

We got there about 6:30PM, and got to our table. We'd already paid the extra, so the meal was no charge except for the drinks and dessert. One of the waiters we recognized as Bob Cratchet from the Christmas Carol :) We each had a pasta dish (which was okay), and right about when we finished eating, it was 8PM and the show started.

Wow! These folks are non-profit, but they put on one hell of a show. Now, Hunter was extremely familar with the songs and everything, and said they just did a bang-up job. I was very impressed how much sound and choreography they could get out of such a small space! The actors were very believable, and a ton of fun to watch.

At intermission, we got a couple of drinks and sipped them throughout the second half. At no time was I looking at my watch, and I was sort of surprised when 10:30PM rolled around and the show ended. What fun, and a great evening out! We definately plan to do it again :) Sorry I missed being at Heron Island that night, but it was well worth it for me :D

We've got plans to see "Curtains" now, when tickets become available.

Update from the cat!

Hello there everyone! Lots has been going on, but I thought I'd update you on a few things that have been happening here in my blog :)

The big news is that we got a new cat! Samantha is still alive and well, but last Saturday the 14th Hunter and I were down at the PetSmart getting fish supplies (did I tell you we also have a fish tank and a couple of fish, too?) and the Florence Humane Society was there with some of their strays. Well, there was a particular cat that was extremely friendly, in spite of being in a cage and being surrounded by noisy customers and such. He'd roll over on his back right there and nuzzle you through the cage mesh, it was extremely cute.

I had pretty much made my mind up a long time ago that I wasn't going to get another cat; mainly because I didn't want to stress Samantha out, and I wouldn't have much time to devote to integrating them. Well, Hunter and I talked it out for a long time, and with him here, that's possible! So, here's a picture of the new kitty, Remington (named by the shelter). I call him Remy (like Remy Martin, hehe):
He's really a well tempered cat, and pretty much nothing phases him. He's about two year old, and "altered" of course (they don't like to use "fixed" anymore because it implies something was broken). As of today, Samantha is still getting used to him, but we have been taking it very slow. Here's our steps so far:

1) Keep Remy in a separate room from Samantha (who gets the full roam of the house).
2) Introduce sock rubbed all over the cat to the other cat (no problems from this except lots of curiosity).
3) Put Samantha in Remy's room and let Remy have run of the house for a little while (this worked well, too, with Samantha sniffing around curiously and finally settling down in the room).
4) Put Remy in the cat carrier, and allow Samantha to come in the room to see (first time, Samantha hissed and growled and was extremely nervous, but second time, she just watched, so this went well too)
5) Bring Remy in carrier into bedroom where Samantha sleeps for her to check him out (she hissed a bit more at him, but perhaps did not expect him to be allowed into other parts of the house)
6) We tried letting Remy out into the bedroom where Samantha was, and with one hiss he became submissive, rolling around on the floor. Only when he attained higher ground by jumping on the toilet did she freak out and chase him around until he hid. I think this is normal, though, and it seems she wants to be dominant cat, which is fine! Remy is very easy-going and will take to it well.

Remember, Samantha's been without another cat in her life for over 10 years, as she is only an indoor cat and was rescued from not ideal conditions behind a bowling alley ;)

Okay, that's the big cat news! :D In other news, yesterday I was part of a "career day" at the local middle school, where I got to represent the Utility I work for, and let kids know about why it's a good field to go into. As part of that, we asked the kids what they liked to do and what kind of job they were looking for. Most were interested in sports and the entertainment industry (I guess those are the new "fireman" and "doctor" type jobs), but one kid in particular was actually interested in going into taxidermy. I was a bit surprised, but it takes all kinds :D He had even researched it and discovered a local taxidermist he could intern at, and was planning to after high school. Well, it's good to have goals... ;)

Ah, one other thing of note is that my birthday is tomorrow, yay! March 19th for the win! :D I'll be 38 finally.. Back in the even numbers. Not long now until the "Big Four Oh" I guess, but I think it'll be great :)

Take care everyone, talk to you later!