Tag: cats

Coloring my way to…something


When I reached the end of the sketchbook I use to save my coloring pages, I began using the reverse sides of pages starting at the back of the sketchbook. I was doing a lot of coloring in May and June, including the drawing below from an old repurposed calendar. But cat and chick took up only the upper part of the sketchbook page.

 

 

 

On Thursday, I looked through my very small coloring books to try to find something that would fit on the bottom part of the page, but most of the drawings are vertical. (Books shown below next to a roll of tape to give a sense of their size.)

I decided to color the drawing on the front of that top book (at the time, I didn’t notice that it was on the cover) because I could place it horizontally. It fit.

Here’s a better look at the finished drawing. I used mostly gel pens and one pencil.

I told you there might be a lot of coloring pages coming up. Coloring is one of the most calming activities I have, other than the email and text exchanges with friends who are constant reminders, along with you who comment here, of how fortunate I am to know so many good, smart people. I have a couple of fun coloring pages, one from 2022, and the other from yesterday, to share soon. Thank you for being patient with me as I navigate extreme anxiety.

Yesterday Once More

Since I was only able to get about three hours of sleep Thursday night, even though I managed a couple of short naps during the day (the dogs approve of this lifestyle), my brain was too tired to offer me much that was productive. I posted to Photo Friday, paid some bills, and got the dogs in and out between rain showers, but mostly I gave myself over to two RomComs. Nor did I try to atone for passive entertainment by coloring or researching for the Neverending Saga. T.I.R.E.D.

First up was 1996’s One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney. George was looking mighty young in this film. At one point, his newspaper reporter character Jack describes Michelle Pfeiffer’s architect character Melanie as “luminous,” which is how I’d still describe her. Movie cameras love her. The one scene I always remember from this movie is the first time (of several) Melanie’s son stains her shirt. She carries a leather bag (how Jack envies this bag) filled with things a mom-on-the-go needs, and grabs one of her son’s T-shirts, emblazoned with a dinosaur, switching it with her shirt. TINY woman! But enough about their looks. The movie is frantic with the pace of two busy New Yorkers trying to balance work with parenting. They meet; they bicker; they negotiate; they commiserate over children who are sometimes maddening, sometimes wonderful; they give each other some grace with a lot of sass; they fall in love–all in the same day. It would take me hundreds of pages…or many books…to write such a thing. =)

Then after dinner last night (and an episode of the funny TV show “Ghosts,”), I wanted to keep myself awake long enough not to go to bed too early and then be wide awake in the middle of the night. I chose the 1995 Sandra Bullock (playing Lucy)/Bill Pullman (playing another Jack) RomCom While You Were Sleeping, about a misunderstanding taken to an extreme. Can anyone play more likable characters in this genre than Sandra Bullock? Equally likable is Jack, and unlike in Sleepless In Seattle when Bill Pullman lost the girl, this time, he’s the lucky guy. The talented supporting cast is by turns funny, sweet, and ridiculous. It’s a good comfort movie to see before bedtime, and YES! I slept six hours, woke up for a while, then slept again off and on for at least another two hours. SO GRATEFUL to feel rested in the morning.

Cats and dogs (both my Coventry novels have dogs) are always good in RomComs. These movies both featured cats. In One Fine Day, the newspaper editor keeps a cat, Lois Lane, in his office who is important in a couple of plot points. At one point, Jack’s daughter chases a stray tabby cat, who she follows into a store, where she finds the cat has kittens, including one named Bob. These cats, too, are all part of the action and plot development.

In While You Were Sleeping, Lucy has a cat named Mel (played by rescue cat actor Princess) who provides some amusing moments. When Lucy realizes that Peter, hospitalized in a coma, has a cat which no one in his family knows about (he was only catsitting), she gets into his apartment to take care of Fluffy, providing more comedic moments with Jack.

This afternoon, Tom and I both had hair appointments with Larry in our old ‘hood. That’s three hours in the shop, the drives there and back, plus picking up dinner for us and Debby on the way home. We wanted to thank her for sitting with our dogs for those hours. We’d been a little concerned about Eva, who was hacking and coughing periodically before we left. We gave her some warm water with honey, which can sooth an irritated throat. She didn’t have a fever, and none of the dogs have been around any other dogs who could have given them anything like kennel cough, but since she wasn’t interested in breakfast this morning, we wanted to be cautious. Debby said she only coughed a couple of times, though she did cough a lot when we got home–maybe she was over-excited, because Tom is her whole reason for existence. Seriously, she starts watching the front door an hour and a half before he gets home from the office. But she ate her dinner with no problem and hasn’t coughed so far since dinnertime. Fingers crossed!

My hair is very short! Which is fine, but strange to see in the mirror. And since last night’s film got me in the mood for more Sandra Bullock, tonight’s DVD rewatch will be 2000’s Miss Congeniality, with Sandra Bullock as FBI Special Agent Gracie Hart, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, William Shatner, Ernie Hudson, and John DiResta among the cast. After the movie, I’ll read a while before I get another hopefully good night’s sleep on this Labor Day Weekend. If so, tomorrow: WRITING!

Sunday Sundries, the Nostalgia Version

Because of comments on this website, I decided that today’s topic is Blog Nostalgia. Here are blasts from the past.


“From September of 2014 to July of 2016, I, Snoopy, used to be a big deal around these parts on Saturdays!”


“Hi, it’s me, Katnip. For over a year, I tried to decipher clues that sent me and my sidekicks John Riley and Cuddle on 58 adventures to find something called ‘Lil Eddy.’ Finally, on March 10, 2014, as pictured here, I was about to meet my destiny. And the story and posts just…stopped. It was fun while it lasted.”


“Bon jour, remember us? We were the LiveJournal blog’s original Runway Monday models. We kicked off twelve seasons and helped add dolls models to someone’s collection–more than anyone wants to count. Then our designer decided to put away her scissors and needles or she stopped watching “Project Runway” or something. JUST LIKE THAT, we were mostly out of jobs except for occasional cameos. These days, a few of us pose as doll models for a writer’s characters. The writer looks a lot like our designer–except ten years older.”


“EXCUSE us! Some of us ALSO appeared on seasons of Runway Monday, three of them in fact. Same designer, same sad relocation to bins after the flood destroyed the bottom of our display cabinet. Don’t ignore our contributions just because we’re monsters.”


“At least all you dolls came through the flood okay. We were part of the Magnetic Poetry 365 project in 2011. Some of us didn’t make it out of the Harvey flood. It’s okay. Magnets may vanish, but words and poetry are forever.”


“We’re the Legacy Writing banner from 2012. Yep, an entire year of nostalgia featuring photos representing memories, family, and friends. The best part is… We STILL make frequent appearances here. Sorry to the dolls and action figures who were ‘retired.'”


“It’s me. Roxanne. NO NEED TO SING THAT SONG, please. I kicked off a series called “Pet Prose” in January 0f 2017. It featured rescued dogs and cats who are writers. You’d never guess we weren’t written by a human because we chose to tell regular stories, not be ‘talking animals’ writing about ‘animal things.’ By December, 56 of us had a chance to be creative and use our voices, even as we found new and safe homes to live in. We think it may have been the thing the content creator enjoyed the most, but DON’T TELL THE OTHERS.”


“This little happy book series goes waaaay back, a chance to be interactive with readers on Wednesdays from 2008 into 2010, and later guest appearances on special posts. You picked the numbers, the book gave you answers. And sometimes, the content creator gave you photos with your answers.”

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip down memory lane.

Sunday Sundries

Today I hope to conclude the bookmarks discussion prompted by Mark L. It’s a shame he’s unable to see these posts at present due to various technical issues. I miss his comments and look forward to interacting with him again soon, both here and on his online journal.

These are the rest of the bookmarks I found inside books on the living room shelves. The first batch includes books I shelved unread (I don’t actually keep a TBR pile because I wouldn’t know where to stack it). I put bookmarks in them as little flags to help me find them when I’m looking for something to read. These are on my music shelves.

Joe Nick Patoski’s Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. I very much look forward to reading this when I’m ready for another biography. (I think the most recent three I read are on loan to Lynne: one each on Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mellencamp, and Bruce Springsteen.) Willie’s bookmark advertises the animal rescue group Scout’s Honor Rescue. This was the organization to whom Lynne turned over two dogs she found tied to a fire hydrant on her way home from work one night. The poodle mix, Curly, was adopted immediately. When she took the chihuahua, Paco, to an adoption event, she realized she couldn’t let him go and adopted him herself. He was part of her family for years before crossing the Rainbow Bridge. I adored that little guy.

More Scouts Honor memories: Tim fostered many dogs for the group (Tom and I fostered less than a handful). Pixie was Tim’s first foster fail and became Rex’s “little sister.” Later, someone reached out to Lindsey about a stray dog living in a parking garage and being cared for by several people. The property owner was going to call a kill shelter to pick her up. Scout’s Honor agreed to take her into their adoption program if Lindsey could catch her, and Tim agreed to foster her. That dog was Penny, who became Tim’s second foster fail and Rex’s second little sister. All three lived great lives with Tim, bringing much joy to friends from The Compound, Doll House, Houndstooth Hall, RubinSmo Manor, Fox Den, Fairy Cottage, and Green Acres/Half Acre Wood. Rex, Pixie, and Penny are reunited with one another and all their dog and cat buddies at the Rainbow Bridge.


That’s a bookmark for the Timothy James Beck novel I’m Your Man in George Plasketes’s biography Warren Zevon: Desperado of Los Angeles. It’s not his only  bio waiting for me, and I suspect these were moved to the pile after I read Crystal Zevon’s I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon.

 

 

The other bio is Nothing’s Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon by C.M. Kushins. The bookmark inside the Kushins book is from Garden District Bookshop in New Orleans. I didn’t buy the book there, but I’ve purchased others from them during various Saints and Sinners festivals, and anything New Orleans-related seems like a good bookmark for the untamed spirit of Zevon.

Somewhat related to New Orleans (if you read long enough, you’ll get the connection)…

I initially became aware of writer Mark Doty thanks to my friend James, who gave me one of Mark’s memoirs and invited me to attend  a Mark Doty reading and booksigning with him back in the mid-nineties.

I continued to go to appearances Mark made in Houston. From one of those, there are two bookmarks in this copy of My Alexandria: Poems By Mark Doty. One is from Brazos Bookstore, which is almost certainly where I went to hear him read from the book in 1998 and had him sign it afterward.

 

 

 

The second bookmark is from Twelve Voices: University of Houston Creative Writing Program & Imprint, Inc. Doty was the John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the graduate program at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program for ten years.

Above are more books from his appearances. All are signed, and some are inscribed with specific messages based on our conversations.

Once, I admitted to Mark that a few years earlier (before he was part of their faculty), I’d applied to U of H’s MFA program in Creative Writing. I felt driven to do so by my late friend Steve’s plea that I create fiction from my experiences with the HIV/AIDS community and not let my friends’ stories be forgotten. I’d tried, with very little success, to do that, and wondered if a writing program might help me find my voice.

I knew what a longshot it was. From their own site, the program advises, Admission to our creative writing program is extremely competitive, with up to 20 new students across the two genres selected each year from the hundreds of applications received from around the world. I’d long been out of the academic world, and I had no outstanding writing samples to submit with my application. I was disappointed, but not surprised, not to be accepted into the program.

From then on, my inscriptions from Mark in his books always included encouragement and best wishes for my writing. And then, in a most unexpected way, I did find a voice for telling those stories when I began doing a fun writing exercise with my friends Timothy, Timmy, and Jim. I could recognize the spirit, humor, and sadness of the friends I lost and their larger community in what I was writing with them. When we had a draft of a first novel that grew out of that exercise, I began sending it out and got dozens of rejections. I shared that information with Mark at a signing in 1999 for his memoir Firebird, telling him I was happy to be writing but sad that the writing wasn’t finding a home. This is what he wrote when he signed his book that night.


Mark Doty. For Becky, who will be persistent–9/99 Houston.

Because of that, I decided not to give up on behalf of the entire TJB team. Timothy and I both read a first novel by another writer and agreed that his tone and subject were similar to what we were writing. It seemed worth reaching out to that author’s agent, who submitted the manuscript to Kensington, and all that writing and submitting ultimately turned into the five Timothy James Beck novels. Persistence can definitely pay off. Thank you, Mark Doty.

I’ve also had the pleasure of interacting with Mark at Saints and Sinners literary festivals in New Orleans. At one of those, I went to a panel where he had his attendees do a writing exercise by giving us a prompt. What I wrote gave me a scene I hoped to use in a Becky Cochrane contemporary romance novel if the publisher wanted a third, but my editor wasn’t enthusiastic about my third Coventry idea (I believe it was titled A Coventry Homecoming). Last year, I modified what I wrote during Mark’s panel and included it in the sixth novel of the Neverending Saga. Hold on to your scribblings, writers, you never know when you may find a place for them. And published or unpublished, NEVER STOP WRITING. (I have to remind myself of this constantly.)


I know with certainty that I’ve read this Louise Penny book, although it has a bookmark in it. I think that little angel was probably another bookmark that belonged to my mother and remained tucked inside the novel even after I finished reading it. Louise Penny is among my favorite authors and I’m up-to-date on all her novels. Except…

Recently, Tom and I were talking about the novel Bill Clinton cowrote with author James Patterson. I bought it, read it, liked it. (They wrote a second, but I don’t have it. Yet.) Tom asked me if I’d ever read the novel Hillary Clinton cowrote in 2021 with Louise Penny. And I said, “I’m pretty sure I got it from Murder By The Book, but I haven’t read it yet.”

 

Sure enough, there it was on the bookshelf with its “flag,” a bookmark from Detering Book Gallery, a fantastic bookstore, now closed, that was managed by our friend Steve V. No bibliophile who experienced Detering could ever forget what a joy it was. This political thriller would be a strong contender for my next read except that every.single.day, I’m heartsick because of politics.

The Clinton/Penny book is on what I guess could be called my executive branch shelf, where I spotted another book with a bookmark.

Both books were published in 2005, and I don’t remember if I read President Carter’s, but I definitely know I purchased, read, and relished all of Harley Jane Kozak’s Wollie Shelley mysteries after I got them from Murder By The Book.


Sadly, I just missed a booksigning at Murder By The book with my friend Dean James, writing as Miranda James, for his latest Cat In The Stacks Mystery, Requiem For A Mouse. You can bet I’ll be getting it from MBTB soon and adding it to his shelf, where here, you might spot a couple of bookmarks. I must have been reading the Southern Ladies Mystery Dead with the Wind at Mister Car Wash, judging by the bookmark. On the shelf in the background, another Murder By The Book bookmark is tucked among those Cat In The Stacks paperbacks.

I believe this concludes three Sundays of Bookmark Inventory. Thanks for following along. Sometimes, this site contains the only writing I can find the heart or energy to do. These three posts gave me a chance to express my deep regard for other writers and their work, my commitment to my own writing, and my gratitude for readers, including those of you who read here. Writing can feel like hollering into the void sometimes, so thank you for when you comment here or email or text me to let me know you’re still out there reading me.

Tonight, we’ll start seeing the impact of Beryl on our side of Houston. Possible street flooding, trees down, power outages. We’re preparing as best we can. I’ll update when I’m able. Everyone stay safe.

Happy Caturday!


I don’t have cats, but in solidarity with those who do, I thought I’d dedicate part of today’s post to cats. Mainly because Debby gave me this cool Haunted Cat Tarot deck for Christmas. Any particular card you’d like to see?

When I took her to an appointment earlier in the week, I took this coloring book with me.

I’d already torn a page out of it at some point, and I decided to color that one. But I wasn’t sure how to color it, so I looked up various wild cats and found this one to inspire me.

Here’s how it turned out.

What I do have is dogs. The other day, after a frantic round of digging, which she isn’t supposed to do, Delta apparently found somebody’s last marble.

It’s all cleaned up and put with the other marbles now.


Meanwhile, Anime had dental surgery yesterday morning, and she’s had a miserable two days. She started drinking water again sometime around noon today, and this evening, she took some meatballs (canned dog food rolled around her regular meds and her pain med). She’s finally stopped dripping blood from her mouth and is overall a lot more comfortable tonight. Through it all, she’s been very sweet and stoic, so clearly it wasn’t her last marble Delta found.


The tree has been stripped and all the ornaments and decorations have been put away.

Except we have to find the bin that has the box that my vintage Holt Howard angel goes in. Meanwhile, I posed her with an appropriate old Southern novel that I haven’t read in decades and probably should read again.

Sometimes when I get really busy, I forget to eat. When tonight’s light meal of a BLT, half an apple, and some potato chips seemed ridiculously good, it occurred to me that I’d only eaten yogurt with the water and coffee I drank today. It was a good sandwich, though.

A day of baseball

Photos from my Wednesday, when I was the guest, along with Lindsey and Rhonda, of Lindsey’s father at an Astros baseball game! (Tom went with them to a game a long time ago, and it was my turn this time.)

I’ll start with some souvenirs.


Another cup! Doesn’t say “Minute Maid Park,” but it does say Astros!


Lindsey bought a couple of these little hats that were then filled with ice cream. She and her dad shared one, and I took a couple of spoonfuls from Rhonda’s, and then she gave me her hat after she finished her ice cream. I took the second photo with an official league-sized baseball to show its scale.


Took this one of Astros number 30 player, right fielder Kyle Tucker, at bat.


Yesterday, every fan at the game received a free replica Kyle Tucker 2022 World Champions ring.


Back at RubinSmo Manor after the game, Pepper stopped playing for a few seconds to admire it.


While foster cat Tofu hung out next to me taking it all in.


This isn’t my ticket; our tickets were on Lindsey’s dad’s phone. It was likely the ticket of one of several guys sitting in our row. We were seated in front of the press box, and at the end of the seventh inning stretch, members of the media tossed bags of peanuts into our area. Rhonda just missed snagging a bag when a guy taller than us grabbed it. At the end of the game, he turned to me and said, “I feel like I stole these peanuts from y’all,” and gave me the bag, which I in turn gave to Rhonda, whereupon Lindsey’s dad said, “Give them to Tom since he couldn’t come to the game!” That’s exactly what Rhonda did when Tom came to pick me up at their place later. Thank you, stranger, for the peanuts and maybe the ticket. More good baseball vibes.


This little fan sat in front of us with her grandparents and mother and was SO good the entire game.

These are some photos Lindsey took of the day.

Going to what in the pandemic would be called a “super spreader event” was something I did because I was almost always masked, Lindsey and Rhonda were masked as well in highly trafficked areas and inside our Uber rides, and all my companions were considerate of my concerns and in helping me be comfortable. Lindsey and Rhonda invited me to join them at this game around the beginning of July. They knew I’d planned to go to a baseball game (albeit in Chicago to see the Cubs play) with Lynne in 2020 before the pandemic put an end to all travel plans.

Like people all over the world, I was bummed that all the things I intended to do in 2020 never came to be, plus I lost my job, and of course, since then, I’ve had to face the fact that chronic anxiety became part of the new pandemic/post-pandemic me. There are several reasons I’m not able to travel these days, only minimally related to my health, and my family and friends outside of Houston are understanding about that. The way friends like Lindsey, Rhonda, Lynne, and Amy, and family like Tom, Tim, and Debby, help me navigate and adjust to how to “do” life, going places and seeing people in ways that make that easier, gives me a quality of life I wouldn’t have without them.

Once again, as I described in yesterday’s post, baseball has come to have wonderful associations for me. I’ve woven my new respect for the game into the lives of a couple of my characters in the work in progress, and “Papa Smo,” as Lindsey and Rhonda call Lindsey’s dad, told me great baseball trivia during the game in the name of “research.” Lynne, who has been a huge baseball fan her whole life, is glad to have me come on board and like Lindsey, Rhonda, and Tom, is always happy to help me understand the game better.

These are great memories that will carry me through the coming days when I monitor my health for any signs of Covid exposure because while, as they say, “the pandemic is over,” the virus hasn’t gone away and is having a bit of a summer resurgence, though fortunately most people are not as sick, or not getting as sick (thanks to their immunity from either having had Covid or because of vaccinations) or being hospitalized as much. This, too, is just part of anxiety and something I work to manage. Such realities are one reason writing and creating and having interactions via this blog and my Instagram account are so helpful to me. Thank you for reading here and commenting or emailing about posts; you all lift my spirits.

I spy…

…my very cool new friend I just spent a few days with.


Simon, rescued and named for another very cool cat from the past. (I am not the mom/rescuer/namer of either of the Simons.)

I was out of town for a few days, and I’m home now. I’m still trying to decide what I want to share about the trip.

Almost Nothing But Trouble!

Trouble Cat Mysteries No. 1

Back in March of 2020, before I knew I’d be laid off, and when I was still in the habit of reading fiction, an opportunity presented itself for a great sale of a mystery cat cozy series launched by Carolyn Haines. The first book, Familiar Trouble written by Haines, invested me in this cat turned sleuth. The twist was that except for occasional revisits, each of the books in the series would be penned by different authors. As a big fan of Haines’s Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series, I trust her recommendations and bought and downloaded all the Trouble novels then available.

Then… the pandemic happened and brought with it my inability to focus on reading fiction. Since I’ve been trying to remedy that in 2022, I opened my Kindle library and dove into a world of Trouble. I am not a bit sorry, as I’ve enjoyed all of Trouble’s adventures and getting to know lots of characters in different locales, being introduced to new writers, and enjoying some human romance along the way.

Considering world events and national events–including things that should have been bigger news but which have come to seem routine instead of the cultural shocks they are–for me, March became about reading for the pleasure of escape–no research and all non-fiction.

Following is  what my birthday-month reading list was–the Trouble Cat Mysteries in order:

The last one, Year-Round Trouble, I read in paperback rather than as an ebook like the rest of the Trouble mysteries (thanks to Dean James for making that possible).

In non-black cat reads, I read the exquisite 17th Inspector Gamache 2021 offering from Louise Penny:

I also caught up on Miranda James’s Cat In The Stacks Mystery series:

Received the below as gifts from Tim during the pandemic and now have read them.

I ordered the most recent two in the Plum series and will read those in April.

Just for fun, while I was waiting for the 27 and 28 Stephanie Plums, I reread these three Lizzy and Diesel books on my Nook. I wish there were more in this series, and I’m always happy when Diesel and other characters from the series show up in the Plum books:

That’s a total of twenty-eight! I know that won’t happen again, because I have a lot of nonfiction still to read, and that’s much slower for me than fiction. But I do feel like I’ve made up for lost time and am back in a novel-reading mindset. I’m glad, because I’m four books behind in the series of another favorite writer.

I watched very little television, listened to only one podcast, and slowed down on my own work in progress. I need to hit that writing hard so I can finish the fifth book and get to the sixth one!

Button Sunday

I know a lot of people who’ve lost beloved companion animals lately and know this button is true, as do I. Today, February 20, is National Love Your Pet Day. Whether your pets are furred, shelled, hoofed, finned, scaled, winged, or feathered, love the ones you’re with, think about the ones you may live apart from, and cherish the memories of those who’ve made the world a better place for you.