Four Pounds, Six and a Half Ounces

It's simply amazing how four pounds and six and a half ounces can change your life.

Apologies, dear readers for my absence! I've been keeping up with all of your adventures, but at the end of the day I haven't had time to post anything myself. Yes, there was a brief posting on Wednesday, but that hardly counted, and as Vaguely Urban pointed out, it was a tease of a post. Just feels like I've been going non-stop for days now. Amazing how busy one person can be even without gainful employment.

So I started this post sitting at my other desk -- I have three. That particular one used to be my father's. He left it here after the move, and I've been meaning to get it cleaned up to use as a writing desk (it's one of those old roll top desks -- great for paper and pen, lousy for the laptop). And while I look forward to using Dad's roll top for some serious old-fashioned journal writing, I've relocated back to the office to finish due to the roll top's complete inability to properly hold a laptop. As per usual, I'm using what was once my grandfather's desk (and for the record, the third desk that I own is decidedly mine -- I just haven't used it in years). Funny how the older desk that was built when computers were the size of my office is the one that best holds the laptop.

Digressing. Refocusing.

For the past week I've been cleaning my room. Well, really I'm almost done with stage one of the cleaning. It's going to take some time. Apparently several stages. But then that'll happen when you move in eight months ago and never really unpack. It's like an archeological dig -- I keep finding things that I haven't seen in ages, clothes I'd forgotten I owned, and books I've meaning to read. Each box that's unpacked is like a time capsule... albeit from February of this year. But hey, things can change quite a bit in eight months. Or some times in eight minutes.

Still digressing. Let's back up a week to last Friday.

Went to see a slew of my friends in a play called "The Passion of Dracula". And just because I'm really proud of the postcard I put together for them and I'm dragging this story out, I thought I'd share it here.

The show was fun. Lots of special effects and fake blood. Solid acting (always a plus). And a cast that was enjoying themselves (crucial in my opinion). An enjoyable evening at the theater.

It was the events outside the theater that night that warrant this story. You see... the theater at which I spend most of my free time is located on the outskirts of my hometown. It is, in effect, in the countryside. Honestly, it's not more than a ten-minute drive from the edge of town, but once you cross the bridge over the reservoir, the rural nature of the surrounding area is quite clear (you can even the stars out there -- yeah, country).

And it was out there, in the gravel parking lot of this old theater, that we found a tiny gray, golden-eyed, kitten. He's more like a small cat than a kitten, but he seemed so tiny winding between the cars in the lot. He had spent the hours prior to the show as any stray would, trying to get into the theater where there was some warmth and lots of people (and food). And then he spent both intermissions snuggling inside of my pea coat. Lucidity, Keaton, Zubov, and I brought him into the car to warm him up and he happily explored the new space and nestled against us like a heat seeking missile. This little guy is frackin' adorable. And the motor on this one. Purrs like a champ.

So of course I brought him home. We called some of the theater's neighbors first to make sure we were absconding with someone's beloved pet and when no claims of ownership had been made and it was certain he was a stray looking for a home... home he went.

It's now been a week. We named him Apollo. He's been to the vet and had a check-up. He's about 4 or 5 months old and healthy as a stray usually is. He had some shots and took some meds and has been eating well all week and now he's just ducky. And I'm still trying to figure out how he's going to stay here at the house. See, Zubov and Kirby are both allergic to him and while one of them is keen on keeping him, the other has expressed reservations. Yeah, so we're working on that 'cos this little cat is way too awesome for me to part with. It's amazing how much personality something so small can exude.

For now he's happily living in my room (thankfully it's the master bedroom and thus, quite large), playing with his toys (though he likes hunting down my ties and stealing my freshly washed socks from the laundry basket more than anything I actually bought for him), and he follows me around quite a bit -- he likes to sit on the bathroom counter and watch me shave and brush my teeth. I'm telling you... frackin' adorable. He's also recently taken to pouncing on my keyboard and swiping at the cursor on my computer screen. Another reason I had to relocate downstairs to finish this post.

And now it's done, so I'll bid thee adieu and head back upstairs to hang with Apollo.