Cats and Kindness

And now, to update you all on the past 8 months of my life.

Since I last wrote about the cats, Mama Cat ran away, hopefully to find a new home. She probably got tired of Tybalt & Scherzo (AKA "Itchy & Scratchy," thanks to Ray) bothering her and figured it was time to move on. Luckily, I had her spayed and the kittens neutered, so there was no chance that anyone was going to get anyone else in trouble in my neighborhood, if you know what I mean.

I tried in vain to get takers for the kittens, and so they have been staying with us. They're only allowed in the sunroom, so they're mostly outdoor cats, but they're getting more and more tame. Who am I kidding? Itchy, the more talkative and friendly lets us pick him up and has even resorted to doing tricks in order to get us to open the door for him (don't ask). Scratchy seems to have a multiple personality: Scratchy #1 will hide under the chair and run away whenever he thinks you're going to touch him, but Scratchy #2 is all purrs and love and will let us pick him up. He seems to alternate between personalities at the drop of a hat, or maybe depending on the weather, or if Mercury is in retrograde...I'm not sure. Sometimes he's Scratchy #1.5; that's when he wants to be petted but can't bring himself to actually relax while he's being petted. It's quite amusing.

November and December didn't bring as many caroling gigs as I would have liked. I think I'm really starting to see the underbelly of the bad economy. And to top it all off, I quit my job with those crazy lawyers in the middle of February. Mind you, I meant to quit by the end of January (it was my New Year's Resolution), but that's a whole different adventure. And I promise I will give you a link to the story as soon as I've written it. It just won't be right now.

March and April were good months for my singing career, what with Easter and all (thank God - pun absolutely intended - for those church-going Christians! If it weren't for those gigs, I'd literally be starving right now). And I seem to have broken in to the choral gig circuit - I'm afraid I have to say that it is probably due to the fact that during a gig I mentioned off-hand that I was once in the San Francisco Girls' Chorus. My contractor is a big fan (not that I knew that at the time). Since then, I'm sure it has been my talent (and perfect pitch) that has kept me in the loop, but I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks, SFGC.

Unfortunately, May was the beginning of my financial slump, which I have a feeling shall take a nose-dive as soon as I'm done with my current project, singing Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic. Summer is a bad time for us singers. I'm trying to figure out new ways of making money, since not only is the entertainment industry suffering in this economy, but the temp industry is also hating life. Nobody wants to hire, especially people like me who want really flexible hours and have enough experience and know-how to deserve a higher salary. Argh.

But hey, I'm creative. I've started to clean out my garage in hopes of finding something to sell on E-Bay. I did find a few things, but nothing that will pay the bills...nevertheless, my garage is getting clean, and that's something to celebrate. My garden is doing very well, and it's so much easier to stretch a dollar when you don't have to spend a dime on food. More on my cooking and gardening later. I have lots of musings about that, but at this point, I'm just trying to catch you up so you don't get too confused when I start waxing poetic about baking bread.

The end of May was full of drama and emotions for me. My great-uncle, Anthony Montalbano (my paternal grandfather's brother), passed away from cancer. It was blessedly quick, so he didn't have to suffer too long. My two aunts from Spain, my father, and my cousin Roger (both from CA), travelled to Long Island (where his family lives), so we had a little family reunion of sorts. It's too bad it was for such a sad occasion. The thing that we noticed was that there weren't very many of us Montalbanos left...the majority of the funeral party was from Lena's family (his widow). Another one of my projects is to set up a forum for the Montalbanos to share memories, etc. I purchased the domain www.montalbano.org - not that there's anything up there right now - but perhaps in my free time (argh) I can gather pictures up and put them on the website. Any objections, oh Great Montalbanos?

And that is what has been happening with me. Of course, it's been much more than that, but I'm hoping that this blogging thing will get me writing again. Sorry for the long wait.