I am sitting here at my brother's computer, here in Houston, to post to my Blog. I have been gone since Friday. It's been a long, fun week-end.

I came out for my nephew's 11th Birthday. He had a sleepover at his Mom's and none of the kids got any sleep. We were waiting for him at Sk8 Park in Spring the next afternoon, when his Mom brought him in. He looked like he had lost his best friend...but no, he wasn't depressed, only totally exhausted. He started waking up when his friends started to arrive. I wanted to make sure that I got some skating in myself.

But I started blabbing with the parents for a long time and decided to go and pick up the skates just when they started serving the Pizza...... When the pizza and the coke had all been consumed, the kids headed out to the skate rink again and I went for my skates. I was out there only a short time, just getting my sea legs again , after a long absence from skating(inline), when they announced the Birthday Kids were going to be served Birthday Cake. And soon after that the opening of the presents. It reminded me a little of the Chuck-E-Cheese party they had for my nephew about three years ago...except there was no Chuck-E-Cheese....just a tall fuzzy yellow creature who lured me into the partner dancing phase of the Hokey Pokey. (there were not too many other crazy adults out there on the rink then.) But that was the first opportunity for me to finally get out there to skate.

My brother's fiance took some pictures with her Digital Camera of the day's events, including me in a cozy hug with the Big Yellow Fuzzy .

After the Skate Party we headed home with a totally out nephew, who was deposited on my brother's bed.

I finished wrapping his gifts, and then we all left again for a dinner at Shogun with some parents and kids to celebrate my nephew and another 11-turning child named Meagan. The Shogun chefs were at their performing best flipping grilled chicken(at your table) into the kids' open mouths. That woke up my nephew, as he had been sleeping through the hor'd'oeurves.

I will be leaving tomorrow, Monday to get back home. As I sit here typing away, everyone else is asleep at almost 11:30. For me it still feels like 9:30. (I can never adjust to time zone changes.) Their two cats, Toby and Wolfie are keeping me company. Or rather they are 'sleeping me company'. I will be reluctant to leave because of missing everyone again. But I also miss Luigi and Sammy( my cat) as they did not travel with me.

It's been a nice week-end and although I think of Zeenie on and off and cry intermittently, it was the kind of week-end that kept my mind and body active and a nice reprieve from my mourning.

Thanks for a great week-end!!! Nice to see y'all again!!!!

SleepOver:

Greg
Elizabeth
Ryan
Kim
Corey
Shane
Richey

Sk8 Party:

Pam
David
Pam's in-laws

Shogun:

Mimi
Lee
John
Scott
Kirsti
Meagan

The last week I was not out of town, but out of sorts. My Cat became very sick and I had to put her down yesterday.

I feel very lost and depressed. Every thing reminds me of her and I can't seem to get myself together. I have not slept well in the last three nights and have lost almost 5 pounds. Endorphins, creativity and any kind of excitement or motivation does not seem to be in my system right now. What is so incredible to me is how one can get so attached to these creatures and feel such a devestation. I cry intermitently.

Luigi is out of town til Wednesday. I did not want to come back to the apartment after being in that horrible moment at the Veterinary Clinic alone. My Mom spent the night with me and I spent the remainder of the day with a friend of mine and my Dad and Mom.

The long saga started
here in the April 6th 2002 entry.

It's been over a year and a half and she had been doing pretty well. But two days after returning from my conference in San Francisco, she took a turn for the worse.

Zena(Zeenie) my little black cat is gone. The cat in the picture is Sammie.....I am glad I still have him. But it's going to take a long time for me to heal...it hurts that much.....

My long absence is due to a business conference I went to in San Francisco. The flight back to L.A. was cancelled because of the fires in Southern California. We eventually had to rent a car to get back to L.A., and saw one of the Simi Valley fires coming out of the Grapevine on Interststate 5. But that is another story.

Yesterday I went to the Pet Store for some cat food for my poor sick cat. As of this writing she is better. But since her bloodtest showed a kidney problem, I am hoping she will pull out of it again. (See entry for April 6 2002). In any case I got sidetracked getting to the cash register to pay for the food. In the back of the store were cages of different types of rodents, amphibians and birds. The cage that intrigued me was near the bottom, close to the floor. About 20 little white mice occupied a ten gallon glass 'cage'. There was a green wheel towards the front of the glass divider. Three or four of the mice were on it at the same time.

I realized that I had been smiling widely for a couple of minutes as I contuinued to watch the show. I just couldnt' leave....it was that cute. A mouse who was the fastest 'runner' would control how fast the wheel was spinning around. The other one or two mice were also running but because the speedy one was way ahead of them it created a Funhouse kind of ride effect. The other two slower mice were spinning upside down and around again with the help of the fast paced little feet of their little running friend.

It was a real kick to watch . I stood there with an armload of catfood cans(not electing to use a basket to make things simpler for myself.) And I just kept looking at those tiny white furry mousies doing their little funhouse tricks. Sometimes a mouse would fall off or end up underneath the spinning wheel(didn't that hurt?) or go over to the corner where a pile of mice were sleeping on top of each other. Equally appealing was watching a mouse wriggle up to the top of the pile to get out. They all just kept on sleeping as if nothing was going on. I guess they liked the warmth of a mass population bed.

Two little girls came by and squealed in high pitched giggles at their mouse funhouse discovery. I had one of those strange, out of body-future-past-dejavue experiences where you feel a little off. Maybe because I felt something that reminded me of what I felt like when I was a kid. Or perhaps it was just a moment from my busy week where I actually stopped to feel 'awake' and aware of my surroundings. Or maybe it was only a dejavue sense of experiencing this before. Whatever it was, it made me feel very up and joyful and glad that I was alive at that moment. The depression from the unknown health of my cat, and the long last week of stress, and catching up for losing some work days just kinded of floated away.

Must be strange , you are thinking, that I could get that way from a bunch of little white mice. I'm not sure why, myself, but it did perk me up. There were other warm furries in that Pet Store that would have kept me there watching for a while, including two adorable puppies at the front of the store. But I had to get back home.

Before I left I saw a sign in front of a cage with a single,very stoic, and very still Toad. The sign read "By(their spelling mistake) a Terrarium and get a Toad for only $9.99!!!" Poor little toad. I wonder how he would feel if he knew he was worth only ten bucks. I paid for the catfood and laughed all the way back to my car. You don't have to take Peach to a bar or a party, or out to a dinner at an expensive restaurant or even on an all-paid giant shopping spree.......just take her to a pet store and she'll get her kicks from a bunch of white mice and a toad!................