Sweeeeeet.

Their show on Friday night at Mavericks was amazing.  Two days later, I’m still smiling as I think back on it.  They played all the classics (with the exception of Run and Hide) as well as a bunch more that I wasn’t expecting.  All told, I think there were about 20 songs, 4 of which were played as an encore.

The crowd?  Insane.  Virtually everyone in the crowd was singing along to EVERY song, including myself which (if you know me) is as far out of character as I can get.  It was phenomenal - if Danny stalled the crowd was there to back him up 100%.  I’ve never seen a crowd that engaged before, it was absolutely wonderful.  Early on in the show someone shouted out “new album!”  Cagily, Danny responded “well, this would be the first step wouldn’t it.”  I could almost cry.

The last few months of my life has sucked.  Stress on every front, biting off more than I can chew and over committing myself on what seems like a daily basis, no vacation to speak of and that’s all before the death of my mother and the death of my little girl… it’s sucked.  Friday was the first real, unqualified, unencumbered joy I’ve had in a very long time.  I’m pretty sure I had a shit eating grin on my face the entire night.

Well, at least during those times where I wasn’t singing my brains out

It’s been another rough week in our household. Our baby girl, Abby, took another bad turn. We’ve been down this path so many times now and there is no mistaking the inevitable destination. After a lot of soul searching and tears we decided to end her pain (and ours) before things got any worse. She was already at the point where she couldn’t walk more than a few steps without falling and she almost never went in her box. She had moments of happiness undoubtedly, but she would mostly just lay around looking miserable. She was never an active cat, but she used to have this spark about her. That spark was gone now, except for the times I was on the floor with her. Giving her a good scritch to the head or back (never lower than that - her arthritis wouldn’t allow it) usually perked her up… but I couldn’t spend all day on the floor.

We decided to ask our vet to come to our house to do the deed and thankfully he agreed. Neither of us wanted our last memories of Abby to be her freaked out and panicking at the vets. By doing it here we should have had a calm, peaceful Abby to remember. By having a date to look to, it also gave us some time to make memorabilia of her. The video camera has been out, snapping short clips of her whenever I catch her in a good spot. On Sunday we made a concrete tile with her paw prints, and also prepared a plaster kit and ink stamp. Given how stressed she got for the concrete, we decided to leave the plaster for after she had passed on - there was no sense making her last few days a string of unpleasant experiences. Instead, we pampered her as best we could while upping her medication dosage to a level that would harm her long term. It perked her up a little bit, but she was still not the same cat we knew and loved…

The downside to this route is that we had almost a week to agonize over our decision. I can’t speak for Lexy, but I would second guess myself every hour or so. Crying usually followed, but after I calmed down I would realize that we were doing the right thing. Keeping her going in this state is selfish. As much as I love her (and boy do I ever love that smelly little butterball) I knew it was time.

So, another member of the family is gone. This year has been so incredibly difficult…

I wrote the above a few days ago knowing that I wouldn’t be able to write it today. She went peacefully, without being scared, in the arms of her people. We miss you already Abby and we love you so very much. Goodbye.

]]> http://pookzilla.net/wp/2008/09/goodbye-princess/feed/ http://pookzilla.net/wp/2008/09/back-in-the-saddle/ http://pookzilla.net/wp/2008/09/back-in-the-saddle/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:30:17 +0000 pookzilla http://pookzilla.net/wp/?p=237 After a couple of failed attempts I’ve managed to paint something I’m not ashamed of.  I don’t think I love it, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.  It’s more spontaneous than the last two I’ve done (of which I’m too ashamed to photograph) but parts of it still feel a little artificial.

I agree with everything in this post.  Absolutely nothing to argue here.  However, I need to make a shallow observation here.

I F%&ING LOVE HER LOOK.  I LOVE her hair - if I could pull off bangs I would have been rocking that look ages ago.  Also, love the glasses - they’ve got a touch of the retro without being over the top, which I totall dig.  Combined and you have a look right out of the 50s and I don’t say that with an ounce of sarcasm.  If I had to label it, I’d almost want to call it “Fashionable Librarian”, a look I would love dearly to achieve myself.  I adore it.  Her politics are garbage and they’re more than a little frightening, but I dont have a lot of input to give there - she’s not going to be MY VP.  I hope her and McCain go down in flames, but at the same time I hope she spawns a new trend in womans hair styles.

I’m going to try a few more things tomorrow to see if I can’t get past it.  I’m the type of person to be easily discouraged.  If I dont kick the funk I’m not sure I’ll get back into it again.

After another 40 minutes on hold my first contact there is determined to shunt me off to the iPhone department for what could only be another 40 minutes of waiting.  I insist that it’s a SIM problem and ask him to verify the PIN he has on record.  The PIN isn’t even close to right.  I explain to him that the SIM I was using was the SIM from my old phone - the one that came with my iPhone was never activated.  He suggests that I put that SIM in and try again.  Still no dice.  Once again he tries to shunt me off to the iPhone help desk but again I insist that we check the numbers.  They STILL dont match.  Somehow during my exchange with them the other day not only did they disable my SIM card they reenabled one that I dont even have.

What the shit?

*sigh*