Hint: it has to do with my date.
So why was April great? It just... was. It was a fantastic month, they actually DO happen! The weather finally started shifting and rearranging itself into a mostly tolerable temperature and such a thing tends have have a very subliminal yet profound effect on me. On you? I assume on everybody but y'all know what happens when you assume: you're an asshole.
Proof's in the pudding!
As I sit down to write this update I feel like in some ways, everything yet nothing happened in April. Does that ever happen to any of you? You know you experienced some great things, and at the time they were of course great, but when you look back at the reminders you just kind of go "oh, yeah." I dunno, maybe it's just me.
The weather was super nice at the start of the month and that got me out and running again. Unfortunately it was a short lived endeavor (for now) because the cold that remains and the WIND that remains is just too much for me right now. I feel like an obese asthmatic when I get home from a mile long run and that's just not right. Until the gale force winds stop, I'll be exercising at home. Because I know you care.
I can already tell this blog is gonna be a rambler. Sorry in advance!
I started painting again, I suppose that's a big thing? I used to limit myself to painting the "lyric" paintings but I want to expand into other things. The blue tree branch last year was a start but now I just want to keep going and moving on to other things. Anything really. And I would like an alternate means of earning money so what better way (until I'm published) than doing it off of my talents? I'm sure the things I paint aren't for everyone, but I think there's an audience out there and I'm hoping to reach them somehow. Have something you want done? Drop me a line. Thought my abundant free-time could possibly be drawing to a close, I still have free time. Get at me!
I went to Chicago around the middle of the month to visit Jillybean for the first time at her home. It was a great trip, filled with lots of walking as we have grown accustomed to over the years of knowing each other. I don't know why, either. It's just what we do. And sometimes we don't even talk that much, we just walk. It's nice having a friend you can do that with, not having to fill the voids of silence with words. Everything important has been said and sometimes it is just comforting being around someone you don't have to prove anything to.
Hmmmm what else have I got before I tie this up with a big bow... OH, the babies turned four on the 12th! I know, you forgot to send your gifts, but really that's okay this time. Paolo gave himself a new haircut (by licking the hair off his tummy (he had an 11-inch turd in his gut (you're welcome))) and Sophia decided it was time to start cuddling again. I know you've all seen my cats and you know they're important to me, but sometimes I forget what they were meant to do and what they ended up doing and thus, in the end, I take them for granted.
Constant companionship aside, they weren't meant for that originally. They were meant to fix something that was breaking more and more daily (my last real relationship.) I suppose the way two people might have a baby to see if it changes the demise of their love, these little tykes were brought in to mend a few broken fences. Ken called me one day while I was working at Express and said animal control in Green Bay had been called to pick up to strays from underneath someone's hot tub, and they found two kittens. The 'lil boy and girl were hardly a week old and filthy. Ken asked if we could have them (we hadn't discussed owning any pets up til that point) and I said we could take one of them.
One.
So then he sent a picture of someone holding the two of them in one hand and instantly my heart melted. How could I even think of saying no to one OR the other, splitting them up forever? I'm that person who humanizes pets (I think any great pet-owner humanizes their pets) and immediately knew as brother and sister, they had to be together. Fooooreeevvvvverrrrr (the way that kid from the Sandlot said it.) So they both came home that night.
Originally I'd named them Orion and Ellie but after a couple days of that, I decided I didn't like the names and changed them again. Ken didn't care either way so I was ecstatic to be choosy about it (control freak, right here (never got to name a pet before (fish don't count (or the pet rats in CA (...or my hamsters.))))) I loved a song called "Last Request" by Paolo Nutini and thought that would be the perfect name for the boy. Then I needed an Italian name for the girl to match it and immediately went to Sophia. Over the following months, Paolo became "my" cat. He always wanted to be on my lap when we watched TV, cuddled up with me at night when we went to bed, or he just tended to follow me around the house as I was the unofficial "mama." Sophia therefore took a shining to Ken and became more of his cat.
Our relationship bit the dust less than a year later, and Ken originally wanted to take her with him when he moved out. I protested, feeling even stronger than I did before that you shouldn't split them up because they were brother and sister. And even if the cats hadn't fixed "us" as a couple, we couldn't break up them as a dynamic brother and sister duo. So I kept both of them.
I've probably now put more thought into this than I need to but being single for so long and mostly just having them during my down time, I can't help it.
For a long time I looked at Sophia bitterly because she represented Ken and I didn't like that. But after that first year being away from him, she changed a little. She got really mean to strangers, HATED my mom, and only behaved for me and one or two of my friends. Since moving to the apartment she's been better and much more social, but still a bit tempermental around people. And y'know what? That's fine. They've been through a lot, they've been moved around a lot, and if she wants to be a sassy bitch to my friends so be it. She still cuddles up to me every night when it's bed time and that, coupled with the fact she's always had softer fur than Paolo, earns her a comfy spot at my side. As my cat now, no one elses. Paolo is still just a butthole that never leaves me alone.
Holy shit, this blog has become a love letter to my cats. Sorry 'bout that...
So, what else happened in April? Watched Miss T sing with Roadtrip on her birthday, rode the Metro in Chicago for the first time ever (surprisingly,) and had my first deep dish pizza. Ever. Learned sometimes it's the people closest that disappoint the most, set my oven on fire, and shared a second consecutive Easter with the Reynolds family. But most of all? I took me being single and struck a match toward it. If that match sets the whole situation on fire, we shall see, but all I will say until the next blog is that where there's smoke, there's fire.
And trust you me, there's a whoooooole lot of smoke around that singleness!
So this time I think I'll leave you with a video from Glee. Yes, Glee. Now, I'll preface this by saying I haven't been amazed by Glee in a long time (if amazed is even the right word (...excited?)) but last week it got to me. Rachel finally gets her broadway debut, nails it, and the group goes out to celebrate. Immediately I'm interested because they go to a gay club and then what's more, they perform "Pumpin Blood" by NONONO. The song is one of those songs that resonates with me, I found it last summer and had compeltely forgotten about it until now.
So the characters feeling excited, having fun the way they used to, and singing a really good song, all that combined... struck me. And I realized how right now, for the first time in a really, really long time, I'm genuinely happy.
It's been six years this month since I've felt this way, to be exact. Toodles gang (c:
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