Kitten Wars 2/15/15: Perfume is in the Nose of the Beholder ….

17 Feb 2015 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , , ,

Kitten Wars 2/15/15

Well, Teeny has been in one of her more affectionate heats of late. Alex and I have been going around removing anything that might possibly smell of us so the she doesn’t follow along and “scent” it up with that lovely (not so) perfume of hers. Evidently, after our walk, Buddy came back smelling a bit too much of me. Now I freely admit that I gave him a big hug and good pet after being such a wonderful dog, but I surely did not intend for the cat to determine that the dog was now free game. Doing the creepy crouch heat walk of hers, she made her way over to where he lay watching her with one eye. She sniffed the air daintily then promptly turned her rump towards him and perfumed his nose up properly. You’ve never seen a dog rise in such horrified confusion as poor Buddy did. He tried racing around the kitchen, running into the walls as tears welled up in his eyes. Finally, he ran over to where I was on the couch and started shoving his nose under all the cushions trying to get rid of it that way. Meanwhile, Teeny lifted her head up, looked over at us with enormous eyes and blinked as if not realizing just quite what she had done.

Needless to say, the dog got a good bathing of his nose. He has been keeping his distance from her rear ever since. Its kinda cute, he’s upset with her so he will do a quick pounce-bark at her, then remember what she did and run away.

Robin Williams and Koko

13 Aug 2014 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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

Drumming Therapy Anyone? 8/3/14

03 Aug 2014 2 Comments

by Quietude's Junction in journal Tags: , , , , , , ,

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!