Sometimes this human is just a slow learner, evidently. Under the mistaken notion that if I left a costuming project on the table that the cats would leave it alone, I did just that. Teeny decided to educate me on that idea by making it her new “kitty nest”. Coated in fresh long haired cat fur, I decided that the linen had to be washed before I could return to my project. I’m guessing that was the wrong idea. As I began gathering up 10+ yards of fabric for the washer, Teeny hopped up on the table and plopped down in the middle of the fabric daring me to move it. Until this point, Teeny has been fluent in human and English, but when I told her “down” and “off the fabric” she decided that she no longer understood those words and glared at me. When I moved my hands in to pick up the fabric and pull it, to quietly physically urge her off, she placed her paw on my hand and narrowed her eyes. We spoke about this one cat to human and human to cat. Being the determined human that I am, I finally picked her up and put her back on the floor then swiftly grabbed up a few yards before she bounced back onto the table where we began again. This time I didn’t bother with telling her “Off”, I just picked her up and put her on the floor. Nonchalantly she turned her head over her shoulder and did an annoyed but non-threatening hiss at me before raising her royal head as high as it could go with her tail straight up as she walked out of the room. Human:1, Cat:0. I’m sure she gets points for nerve and presentation.
Kitten Wars 8/17/14
17 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in journal, Kitten Wars Tags: cat, Cats, determination, fun, journal, kitten wars, teeny
Kitten Wars
14 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in journal, Kitten Wars Tags: cat, dog, humor, Kitten, kitten wars, relationships, slice of life
Well the battle grounds have moved from the living room to my bedroom once more. While it was once a war, we are living in a strange glow of peace for now. Where once Cleo ruled supreme as queen of the quilted comforter, I am finding more and more that Teeny has decided that her daytime rest area and night time haunt happen to be my bed. I have found where she has arranged my covers to suit her over and over again. Of late I am now finding a cat occupying that place and not the fluffy tail of the one who would slink away. She has become much bolder as she knows us all. Cleo does not seem to mind being usurped as she has been making it a habit to curl up next to Teeny while they clean each other. Buddy feels quite neglected by all this because he has known from a very early age that DOGS are NOT allowed on the bed. Being the mostly rule abiding canine that he is, he puts his head on his paws and sighs when they start up with the girly cat-ness that they are.
Robin Williams and Koko
13 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: film clip, friendship, fun, Koko, language, laughter, love, Robin Williams, sign language
This is one of my favorite films of his. Robin Williams is so gentle and sweet with Koko. The Gorilla Foundation recorded it. I found it on youtube and just fell in love with it. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GorgFtCqPEs
Bright and Shiny, Fresh and Filled with Hope
10 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in journal, teaching Tags: hope, remodel, remodeling, school, school year, teachers, teaching
The new year began on Wednesday and the students all came with their excited faces and laughter. They brought energy to the freshly remodeled school that had remained empty over the months of summer. With them came the actual heat of summer as Georgia has had an unseasonably cool June and July. As they trotted, skipped, and danced their way around the fresh paint and the workers still making the “final” adjustments all of the flaws from the tired old school of last year faded away making this truly a new year.
Last year we were forced to become accustomed to a school that had no ceiling tiles, wires hanging all over the place, and a depth of dust from the remodeling that no one should ever be required to be around. We came back from Christmas 2013 to find our school a shadow of what it had been with all of its assorted guts beginning to show. By the end of 2013-2014 we knew intimately the innards of our school and it was not pretty. Its strange how that became the accepted norm while bringing all of our morale down despite any attempts at the hope of the fresh school of the future. By the end of May we were all trudging along, frantically sorting, chucking, and packing all of our belongings so that the workers could get to their main work while wondering what they had been doing since January if summer was to be their main work. Admittedly, tempers were short, sleep was even shorter. More fights broke out than normal. The students truly didn’t understand why they were constantly upset, but it was the tiredness of their surroundings, the feeling of hopelessness from the dirt, the dust, the wires, and everything else weighing upon them. As a faculty and a school, summer could not get there fast enough.
So, coming back to this new school, and it is a NEW school, with its bright paint, tiled floor, and new classrooms with shiny equipment, is a true blessing. The students feel the hope that is there and are building from it. May this year continue in its cheer, its laughter, and its fun.
Kitten Wars 8/3/14
03 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in journal, Kitten Wars Tags: Cats, dogs, early morning, heat, journal, kitten wars, waking up
Teeny is in heat. Any cat lover out there knows that each female cat has her own version of heat. While Cleo tells you about hers vocally and loudly in the middle of the night, Teeny is fairly quiet with purrrupping and bumping galore. While she is very receptive to human interactions (PET ME NOW, HUMAN) as she bumps her head into us, she is NOT receptive to dog interactions what-so-ever.
Poor Buddy was sound asleep on his bed this morning when Teeny went to bump into me. She was bumping my legs so forcefully and constantly that I was tripping over her. Evidently, she wasn’t looking where she was bumping and when I stepped by Buddy, she bumped him instead of me. In utter shock that the dog made contact with THE CAT, Teeny bounced back and hissed fairly loudly at him waking him up. As he opened his eyes very slowly from his deep slumber, Buddy got an eye full of angry cat telling him just how wrong he was for letting her bump into him.
In true dog fashion, Buddy lifted his head, looked at me, then put it back on his bed, covering it with his paws as Teeny flounced away. Its hard being the only male pet in this house sometimes and a dog at that.
Drumming Therapy Anyone? 8/3/14
03 Aug 2014 2 Comments
in journal Tags: djembe, drumming, drums, friendship, fun, middle eastern drumming, relationships, therapy
I had the most fun yesterday. I always knew that drummers usually have the biggest grins when they are playing their instruments. Well, I may have cracked the reason why. Drumming releases stress in the best way!
By nature, I am that person that shies away from meeting groups of new people. I much prefer one to one interactions with good friends. So, it was a huge step for me to actually go to the drumming circle in the first place, but I trusted Rick since I’ve known him 30 years now. He and I have sung in all sorts of chorister guilds together and have maintained a very strong friendship, if distant due to my living anywhere from 100-2500 miles away at any given time. So whenever we would get together it was always hugs, catching up, and fun.
Over time Rick has stayed true to his music and even cut a CD with a group of Middle Eastern musicians, while I have gone in and out. So, when he asked who would be interested in joining up for a percussion group, I contacted him and said, “Sure, but I don’t have a drum”. He gave me the places to go to and offered to join me in hunting out a good one at a decent price. Well, somehow the day of the meetup came and I still didn’t have a drum. Let’s just call it life.
We met up at a store before the circle and he told me I needed to go to another store, but that the circle was due to start. He said that there would be spare drums so I could still participate! Nervous, shy, scared, didn’t begin to tell the story of my emotional grid, but there was a thrumming excitement coating all of it. I met up with everyone. My son joined us and for almost 3 hours we played, we learned, and we drummed our hearts out.
I left with directions to the third store in the Atlanta area to look at drums. Rick told me straight up that when I found the one that was mine, it would speak to me. So, I entered the store and when the guy asked if I needed help, I told him that he was gonna need to really help me a lot ’cause I was there to buy my first drum. Instead of taking advantage of me like so many others could have, this guy joined the excitement bandwagon and began pulling down doumbeks and djembes of all sizes. Then he brought a chair over and showed me how to sit and the proper tilt. He didn’t try to sell me the most expensive one. Matter of fact he told me it was too big especially for me to learn on. He brought me a wide range of prices. When I hit this one drum we looked at each other and grinned. It spoke with a clear sweet sound that was all for me 🙂
So yesterday was day one of my drumming experience. I’m sure my neighbors will get sick of hearing middle eastern drum patterns after a while, but I’m sure gonna have fun until they do!
New Year, New Students, Fresh Start
01 Aug 2014 3 Comments
in journal, reflections Tags: art, bulletin board, expressionism, learning, moon, night, painting, reflections, starry night, stars, students, summer, teaching
Each school year I create a “mega” bulletin board that guides the theme for the year. I’ve done paper rainforests, waterfalls, and jungles. Sometimes I choose a science topic that the kids will be studying. The 2013-2014 school year found me doing Space Exploration. I’m guessing that I was quite the strange one at my latest school because people would drop by just to see how far along I was with that bulletin board. Once I finished it, I had a couple of teachers asking if I did murals for side money. I don’t. I make my murals just for the kids. If I did it for money, it would cease to be fun.
At the end of last year, when I was taking down my bulletin board, I was approached by a few colleagues who asked me what I planned on doing with my star burst bulletin board as I was rolling it up and putting it into the trash. They were dismayed that I had spent a few days painting it only to throw it away at the end of the year. I think one of them actually took it out of the trash and carted it away later, but I can’t prove that one. I only know that it developed legs of its own before the custodians came around to pick up the mounds of end of the year trash.
Of course, the follow-up question was, “Well if you’re throwing that one away, what do you plan on doing next year?”
Not giving it much thought, I said, “I think I’ll do something like ‘Starry Night'”. I know better than to answer questions off the cuff like that. It always sets me up for something later on!
At this point, I need to inform you that I have no formal art training. Matter of fact the last art class I took was in fifth grade which was back before Star Wars came out. So, I was being a bit facetious in my reply, to say the least. I do not consider myself an artist, but rather a dabbler. Well, my colleague took me at face value and was fairly excited that I was going to go for it.
I had all summer to think about it, forget about it, and come back around to it. For some reason, the idea just wouldn’t leave me alone. If I wasn’t thinking about that painting, I was hearing Don McLean in my head with his version. Something somewhere was trying to tell me to try it!
So, here’s a picture of the bulletin board that I made for the 2014-2015 school year. I used navy blue bulletin board paper and acrylic paint. I did not overhead project it. I even went so far as to intentionally leave elements out. This is my impression of the picture only, but boy did I have fun painting it over the last few days 🙂 I’ve had lots of people dropping by just to see where I was with it. I’ve had people sharing stories about when they first saw the original, when they went overseas to the various museums, or when they listened to …. Don McLean.
rhonwynalyna 
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