I Hate to Complain, But . . .

This effing job search has me tearing my hair out. I answered an ad on a site for music instructors. The ad said this shop needed a violin instructor for five students, as its old instructor moved to a different part of the city.

Sounds perfect, right?

Wrong. After I answered the ad, the woman e-mails me back saying that instead of inquiring about my credentials, she just thought she was requesting a free ad from Google.

I am ready to scream.

Cat Update Part III

G. (I'm not calling him by his full name for fear he may not be able to stay) ate this morning! With gusto, I might add.

Bad news is, he's still hissing at Orson. I may just start squirting him with the water bottle when he does this. D did it, and said it stopped G. in mid-hiss, but it didn't upset him. I just don't want a household where the cats barely tolerate each other's presence.

Only time will tell, I suppose.

Could be worse

The cats didn't kill each other during their first day alone, and I aced my first film history quiz.

Still entirely too much hissing going on with G., though. He was a semi-outdoor cat, so it's a little surprising. Perhaps it's being cooped up indoors now.

Perhaps things will improve tomorrow.

Cat Update the Sequel

G. (the Siamese) broke out of D's bedroom this morning. Good thing I was awake. I was on my way to the bathroom when I saw G. poke his head around the corner. O's avoided G. so far this morning. But now G. is just too curious and keeps following O. around—at a safe distance, of course. He sits behind things and peeks out at O.. He still hisses, but he doesn't bunch up all Halloweeny, like he did at first. O. just walks in the other direction when he does that.

So, progress.

EDIT: Or not. D had a really bad allergic reaction last night. And G. kept him up with his caterwauling. Sigh . . . I hope we can hang in there. I don't think D wants to keep him.

Cat Update

G. is resting comfortably on my bed with the door open, a good sign. He spent this morning cowering under D's bed and part of the afternoon in D's bathroom. But he seemed much too curious and wanted to be let out, so I let him out. Then he came into my room, explored a bit, leaped onto the bed in that graceful Siamese way, put his head down on his paws, and dozed.

O. came in just a few minutes ago to check out G.'s food and water dish (I've had to squirt him with the water bottle three times to keep him away), and G. didn't hunch up like he did before. He was calm.

Granted, the cats are still on opposite sides of the apartment. But I'm seeing some good signs. The only worrying part so far is that G. hasn't eaten since he's been here. That, and I've been sneezing like crazy today. I hope it's just a one-day thing. (Please?)

He's really very friendly and affectionate. I hope he can stay.

New Cat

We just brought home a new cat. Well, new to us. One of my profs needed a new home for his Siamese kitty, as his wife had a severe allergy.

We don't know yet how he's going to get along with O., our other cat. O. is big and fat, but gentle and sweet with other cats, generally. At least, he was with Ella. But so far he's hissed at the new cat, so I don't know how it's going to go. On the other hand, neither have raised their hackles yet. We're just introducing them gradually, keeping G. (the newbie) in the small bathroom, where he seems comfortable, and bringing him out every couple of hours to "roam" while in D's arms.

G. is a beaut, a Siamese with jewel-like blue eyes. He's very affectionate and sweet. At first he was frightened and hid in a small section between the wall and the sofa in the media room. But now he seems curious. A little later I'm going to take a bath in "his" bathroom. We'll see how he reacts to that.

I really do hope they get along. O. has been lonely since Ella died, even though they weren't the best of friends. I think he misses having a buddy. And G., according to my prof, "plays well with others" from the neighborhood. I'm hoping they'll play together and give O. some much-needed exercise.

Hello?!

I just finished watching A Streetcar Named Desire. All I can say is . . . that Marlon Brando was some serious eye candy. Yes, I know everyone raves about the acting, the writing, the score. But to tell the truth, Brando's back muscles impressed me more than anything else. Holy sweet cheeseballs on a platter. Hard to believe he, uh . . . expanded the way he did in his later years.

I totally missed the sexual tension between Blanche and Stanley, except for in the first scene where they meet, but then I'm really bad about picking up on things like that.

Could be why I haven't dated in a while . . .

Also . . .

I was just reading Paul Bowles on Music. Turns out not only was Paul Bowles a composer and music critic, but a successful fiction writer as well. Shall have to pick up something of his soon.

Coffee

You know, it's sad how much I depend on coffee these days. I've switched to tea for most mornings, and I enjoy drinking it. On the whole, I don't feel as strung out, and I know I'm doing my health a favor by drinking it. I could drink Earl Grey (loose—no bagged tea for me, thanks) all day and be one happy camper.

But.

Nothing beats a hot cup of coffee. It's one of the reasons I look forward to winter. That, and potato soup. (Not together.) I just think it's sad how my concentration is zero before my shot of caffeine, that's all. It's like my IQ goes from 0 to 100 in the span of five minutes.

Okay. Off to go for a short run and find a job, or something.

Goodbye Cruel Student Health Center . . .

Doctor tomorrow. Please keep your fingers crossed that I get some antibiotics. Please also keep your fingers crossed that it will be covered by my insurance.

Going to bed.

Nighty night.

Playing

Yesterday a friend came over and we played through some duets. I played double bass and she played cello. I thought we sounded pretty good, but I need to find some material written for double bass and cello, instead of music written for two celli like we had. Or I may rent a cello, because the music we were playing wasn't half bad.

We both joked about 'making the cat cry,' both being so out of practice, but I was pleased that we got further along than we anticipated. We're going to work on the pieces we picked out and then find some other pieces, too. I may even write some stuff, if I'm feeling really ambitious. Can't remember the last time I've played just for fun, so I'm looking forward to the next session, whenever that is.

The only downer was this stupid cough I have, along with the fact that whatever it is I've got is moving up into my head. Sigh. Well, I've got a doctor's appointment this week, so hopefully he'll give me something that will make this go away. It's been a little more than two weeks now.

Still really early in the semester, so I'm not sure how classes are going. I'm learning software in one class, and that is the class in which I am a bit of a problem child. I hope that will change once I'm well.

Good News and Bad News

Good news is that school is going fine so far. There have been minor problems with the book buying business, but once I get everything in from Amazon I should be all set. The bad news is I am coming down with something . I suspect it's another sinus infection; I have the same symptoms as last time. Sooooo . . . I will make my first trip to the health center on Monday to see about getting drugs. Er, medicine, I mean.

One interesting thing I'm learning about is the magic lantern, a device people used to make mini-light shows long before the first camera was invented. The article evokes images in my head of what people must have seen back medieval times. Anyone who wants to pontificate on this marvelous device is invited to do so in the comments. I'm feeling the stirrings of a new short story centered around this. We shall see.

Oops

Okay - I didn't realize this blog was privatized already. It should be public now and will be for awhile. Sorry!

Paca's Story

Hope I did this justice. . . .

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First Day of School

I felt like a first-grader, the new kid, walking into school yesterday. I suppose we all did, except I was the OLDEST first-grader in my class. (Well, there is one guy who looks to me my age, and when I was talking to one of my classmates later, she said, "Wow. I thought you were my age." "How old are you?" I asked. "Twenty-five." Awwwwww.) I arrived at the building almost twenty minutes early, and decided to try to find a nearby store where I could buy a notebook. Notebooks are up to $9.49 at Walgreens in downtown Chicago. So I nixed that plan, as that would have taken a quarter of what I have left in my checking account. (Still haven't received my refund. *taps foot impatiently*) Wrote on a notebook I carry around with me for writing stories.

It was a loooong day. Nearly all my classes ran way over, leaving about a ten-minute break between each class, instead of the 40-minute and hour-long breaks that were scheduled. I'm not complaining; took me back to the undergraduate days when dinner was a granola bar and an apple juice. And it's only one day a week. One of my professors rescheduled one of our classes, so now I have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. Which is nice, as my commute is an hour.

The classes are very interesting, and I like my professors.

It used to be, I'm ashamed to say, I would find myself inwardly rolling my eyes at D whenever he would start pontificating on film history. Boy, did that change yesterday. Yesterday I found myself very glad D is a history buff/historian with a huge collection of DVDs. I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned with him. Naturally, I'm also looking forward to using his DVD collection. It's possible I won't have to check out much from the library, depending on what our assignments will be. We'll see. Next week we'll start German Expressionism, and D has a whole box of DVDs about that. Not to mention, he has plenty of films by Alfred Hitchcock and Akiro Kurosawa, two of our choices of directors we'll be assigned to write about. I don't know whether he has anything by Luis Bunuel, Fritz Lang, or Francois Truffaut, though.

Not to be overly-confident, but it struck me yesterday that I'm walking into this with a lot of real-world experience, which I expect to apply to my studies. Even my experience in educational publishing should come in handy, with all the writing and editing I've done.

I finally feel as if I'm in my niche. Let's hope I'm not wrong.