I realized with a bit of anxiety that February is approaching. It's not my favorite month of the year. For one thing, it's often one of the worst months for winter weather in these New England climes, although as far as winters go, this one has been milder than most thus far. For another, February is grey. The bare trees are grey, the skies are grey. My mood is grey.
I shouldn't be too apprehensive - there are a couple of very enjoyable things on the calendar this month. For one, we have tickets to a swing concert (a Benny Goodman tribute!) at the Shubert, which I'm really looking forward to, and we will be celebrating Valentine's Day at Le Petit Cafe (and we haven't been there in a long time). And it's a short month, so maybe it'll go by quickly and then the trees will begin to bud.
I have many things on my plate, and only 24 hours in a day.
As always, I am amazed by how quickly the world can swing from bright and shiny to slightly troubled. This, too, shall pass.
The Continuing Saga of Willow, and I Settle Into 2006
Willow is becoming quite the entertainer. She spent a good deal of time downstairs today, coming down for breakfast this morning, and then accompanying me down after I changed my clothes when I got home from work. She hung around and played for a while, and then ate dinner. After that, she ran Oscar around the dining room for a while (he looks put out, but I think he's secretly having fun), scratched on the scratching post, and then headed up for a post-dinner nap. She allowed me to pick her up twice this afternoon, with no scratching.
Bryan is back in school, and this has been our first "normal" week back at work since the holidays. I've been feeling strangely energized this past week - and I'm hoping to take advantage of that. I'm trying to set some goals for the year in various areas of my life, and last night I asked Stephe if he would help me settle on one for tai chi. I'm going to start going to the Wednesday night class, which is going to be an interesting mix of discussion, book club, philosophy and assorted other 'non-sweaty' stuff (to use his term), and it sounds like it will round out the Tuesday class nicely.
This weekend I'm in the studio come hell or high water.
The lovely Miss Willow has been in the bathroom for a full week now, and has clearly grown bored in her glorified prison. Better still, she's becoming friendly and affectionate, and misses us when we're gone - I even managed to pick her up briefly yesterday and plant a kiss on her head. She's been heading for the door more and more frequently, and this morning, when I left the room after saying goodbye before heading off to work, she bolted for the hallway.
Fortunately for me, the hallway must have seemed a big and scary place, because after a very brief perusal, she scurried back to the relative safety of the bathtub. In any case, it's time to integrate her into the life of the household, so this evening we will escort her downstairs and hope for the best.
On Tuesday, we took the step we had been discussing for nearly a year now - we went to the animal shelter and adopted another cat. I wish we could have taken home three or four of them (animal shelters are sad places, in spite of this one being well-staffed and well-kept), but we came home with a small feral girl, approximately five or six months old, whom we have named Willow.
She is a tiny and lovely little creature, nearly all black save for perhaps a dozen or so white hairs sprinkled here and there. Even her nose and paw leather is black, as are her whiskers. Her face is dominated by huge golden eyes which regard us warily when we approach. So far, she has chosen to hide behind the toilet when we come into the room (she's sequestered in the bathroom until we tame her to human handling), but we are excercising great patience and treating her to large daily doses of affectionate petting and attention. In two days, she's made small amounts of progress, but I think it'll be a while before she becomes fully integrated into the family.
I'm glad we brought her home. I think if she had stayed in the shelter much longer, she would have become un-adoptable. As it is, I think we still have a bit of work ahead of us, but honestly, I can't think of anyone better prepared to do this than us.
