Twist of Lemon

Well it has been nearly two months and I am still coming to terms with the loss of Grim. So I thought I would take the time and write down some of my fondest memories of him.

Malgrim was one of four kittens of a friend’s friend’s boyfriend’s cat. One kitten looked Himalayan, two were tabby and one I think was black. I don’t remember what made me choose him, except for the fact I was looking for a tom cat. As a kitten Grim had the largest ears, his first nickname, of many over the years, was beanie head. The rest of him was so cute and tiny. I got it into my head, after hearing that most cats actually like water, to test this with the new kitten. So what better way to test the theory than to bring my new kitten into the shower with me? Did I mention that it was one of those showers with the sliding door? Grim wasn’t very pleased when I turned on the shower, there was a bit of blood before I managed to get the door open, and him out of the tub. I have never seen such an evil look on a cat before or since. At the time I wondered if he would ever trust me again, but he was forgiving. It was so nice having him curl up on my bed at night to cuddle with me. In the mornings we had a ritual. I didn’t wake very easily, so he would take a running leap at the bed to land on my bladder. I would bolt awake, run to the bathroom and when finished fill his food bowl before going back to bed. It wasn’t the most pleasant system, but it worked for us.

A few weeks before he was to be fixed Grim managed to rip open a screen to the window of our ground level apartment. I was panicked, spent hours searching for him, and eventually left a bowl of food by the open window. Later that night I awoke to strange sounds coming from the kitchen. I found Grim coming back in the window, pulled him into the room and shut it. He took one look at me, could see how ticked off I was, and decided to sprint to the bedroom. I beat him down the hall and shut the bedroom door in his face. I was damned if he was going to go carousing all day and then come home to cuddle with me! The next day I opened my bedroom door to find every cat toy in the house piled there as a plea for forgiveness.

Eventually we had to more to a new apartment. During the move I worried that Grim would be bored, as I would have to leave him at home alone during the day. So I decided to leave him a sock filled with catnip as a toy to while away the time alone. I came home that afternoon to find Grim splayed out on his belly, drool covered sock in his mouth and my entire kitchen floor “mopped.”

I could go on, there are numerous stories of cute, funny and crazy things Grim did in his life. But the most important thing was that Grim gave me unconditional love during the years I needed it the most. During my time with Grim, and before I met my partner Brain, I lived in about ten different apartments, had about ten different low paying jobs, had about twenty different relationships, and as many breakups. People often think of cats as being standoffish, but whenever my heart was broken Grim was there trying to comfort me.

I still miss him.

I want to post more about his life later, but I just wanted to let people know that Malgrim, our eldest cat [17 years] passed away this evening.

So this evening Brain and I met up with our friends Gabby and Joong to see the movie “The Fall.” Here is the trailer:

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Brian thought the film was too long, and Gabby thought it moved too slowly. We did agree that it was visually spectacular. I thought the movie did a great job translating the peculiarities of a child’s imagination. It shows a child’s vision of a story she is being told, complete with updates along the way as the details of the story changes. And did I mention it features my American TV boyfriend?!? After the show we all went out for dinner to Chino Latino. I thought the food was decent, but we had a bad server tonight. But the company was good, and we all went out to Drink for, well, some drinks. So a good start to the weekend, time with friends, an interesting movie and good conversation.

It has been a long week. After what seemed like an eternity of travel I arrived home from Jersey late last Tuesday night, and I just haven’t been in the mood to post for the last week. Work is starting to seem like, well, work. Good thing I have a training class tomorrow, something different to think about for the day. So want a recap of my week? No? Tough.

Since I don’t do well sleeping in beds other than my own I was super tired once I got back into town. I’m talking going to bed at 6 PM tired. But luckily after a few days of that I was back on track, just in time for the weekend! Friday night Brian and I got to go out to eat and then to a movie with our friend Sue. Sue is good company and I even got to meet her cats, one of which easily beats my cuddle lump Elliot in the size department. We went to see Iron Man, which despite the good reviews I was unsure about. I don’t know about you, but movies featuring Robert Downey Jr. as the lead worry me. And I am not big on non-mutant Marvel superheroes. But this time the critics were correct, it was a decent film that held our interest throughout. Dinner was good too, except for me dripping almost every course onto my shirt. Thank goodness for Sue and her trusty Tide pen!

Saturday night I had tickets for Lily Tomlin’s appearance at St Kate’s. Rachel M agreed to be my date. We started out the evening at the Chatterbox Pub in St. Paul. The food was pretty good, I didn’t get to try any drinks, but the atmosphere was great. Check out their site, they even have games for guests to play. I was a little disappointed in the main event. I had seen Lily Tomlin in the Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe years ago, and about half of the show this night was a reprise of characters from that show. Rachel mentioned she would have liked to have seen more of the Edith Ann character. The best part of the evening in my opinion was the Q&A session after the main performance.

Sunday I felt down again, so I called over to the folks and made my excuses. Don’t feel bad my Mom was sleeping anyhow. I then spent the whole day watching episode after episode of Corner Gas as I now have the first five seasons. Great show, very Canadian, very charming, often quite funny. If you ever do see it, ponder which character you are most like. I think I am a sort of cross between Emma and Brent. I have actually been watching episodes every night since Sunday and am now ready to start on the fourth season.

Well last night was the big work going away party for one of the engineers at the plant and me. About twenty people showed up and I had a really nice time. Nice to know that even though the site is going to hell in a hand basket that there are still good people that I am going to miss. People kept buying me drinks, and I got to play one game of darts and see the lunar eclipse, so fun times! Unfortunately one of the drinks most often bought for me were cherry bombs. Cherry bombs for those not in the know are a shot of cherry schnapps in red bull. Too much red bull later in the evening makes it very hard to sleep I soon found out. Today at work was terribly busy and and I found myself trying to train the new kid on some computer work while I was testing product from across the room. “Yeah so you see the cell which says count, well you copy that number onto the other spreadsheet and it will then calculate the amount of culture you need to add to the blend. No the cell that says count, oh ok I’ll be right there just let me finish plating this one thing…” Fun times. Today was the last day I will see my [now former] boss, and he gave me a heartfelt thank you for my hard work over the last few years. I am not sorry to leave, but I am sorry they are going to be in such a hurtbag with me gone. Well I am sorry for him, not some of my soon to be former co-workers. Tomorrow is my last day, and I wish I could say I was going to slack the whole day, but I don’t think my conscience will let me do that easily. I will be happy to be done, so i can concentrate fully on getting the house ready for sale, and Brian and I ready for the move.

Tonight I managed the replace the bulb in the passenger headlight of the stratus. I feel so, well, competent adult when I am able to do little fix it jobs around the house. I know I am in my third decade, but I normally feel pretty young and inexperienced until I put in a new water softener, or explain office politics to the new guy at work. Trying to choose a Realtor makes me feel anything but competent.

Well tonight I asked Melby to go to the mall with me to look for clothes for the new job. My dress code is going to be business casual. Why do they call it casual? I mean really, at the job I am leaving I get to wear jeans and a T-shirt, that seems like the definition of casual to me. And it is a business, so why can’t we call that business casual and be done with it? But now I have to wear slacks and decent dress shirts. So that required a trip to the maul. Dave decided to come along too, as he needed some new slacks as well. I tried on about fifteen pairs of pants before finding two styles that seemed to fit fairly well. I also picked up a few shirts. So after the trials of shopping we decided to go out for dinner. We ended up trying a newer restaurant in Rochester called Avocados. We had a rather nice time, the chairs were comfy, the food was tasty and the chocolate banana soufflé was absolutely terrific!  The menus need some correction though, as Mel and I had fun finding typos, like the “stwaberry” daiquiri.  All three of us had a tasty meal and good conversation.  It is going to suck not seeing those two as often after the move.  Who else would end a perfect evening of shopping and dinner with a trip to whip shitties in the K-Mart parking lot?

Well it has been another day of phone calls and plans.  It seems that I have convinced the new company of my need for temporary housing and they suggested a stay at an extended stay suites.  Well I think that would cost too much money, and I thought an apartment would be a cheaper and better alternative.  So after a discussion with the relocation people [as I am now AUTHORIZED!! woot!] they can help us find an apartment for free [as they get a finders fee].  So the company is going to increase the spending money they are giving me for the move, and we will be finding an apartment for March 1st.  The first of the two Realtors they are sending over will be looking at the house on Monday.  So this weekend will be all about cleaning up for the Realtor.  And the pets are doing well, Brian went to see the cats, and my folks gave me an update about the dog.  Mercury is slowly learning to adapt to the new digs, and the folks are slowly learning to interpret his various looks and noises.  I have spent a good amount of time on the phone tonight catching up with friends.  Fran is packing to move house this weekend to another apartment with her pup Oscar.  Melby called and waxed rhapsodical about her new glasses.  Mary has made tentative celebratory plans, and my friend Nancy from work is slowly getting better after her surgery.  I feel completely updated and happy.  Cheers folks!

So Thursday night I got all my crap together, got the [very happy actually] dog off to the kennel and drove up to Minneapolis. My friend Cara was in town for a training class and I was excited to be able to see her for the first time in about five years. Unfortunately I only had time to do dinner and a little chatting before I had to make my excuses and head for my parents home. After a terrible nights sleep [nerves and not my own bed] I got up bright and early, hung out with the folks for a bit and drove to the dairy plant where my first interview and tour were to be held. The interview was with the director of HR and the plant manager. It seemed to go very well, and then the plant manager took me on a tour of the facility. The most interesting thing I saw was the part of the plant where they form the new milk bottles from plastic resin. Sort of like my own personal episode of How its Made! So two hours at the plant, and then the quick drive over to the corporate offices in St. Paul. Once there I was taken out to lunch by the VP of operations and the director of quality. Then back to their offices for another hour and a half of interview questions. Seemed to go well, then for another 45 minutes to an hour being interviewed by the regulatory manager. Whew all done! And I was done early, I was told the process would probably go on until four in the afternoon, but it was only three! So drive back out to the folk’s place, change clothes, answer the parent’s questions about the experience, and back on the road to St. Paul to see Mary. Hang with Mary for an hour or so then Brian came by and we all went out to dinner. After dinner, Brian took me to a party his school chums were having. It was a mustache themed party, and Brian won for best 70s Gay Cop ’stache!

Mel and I got a little lost trying to get home from the game on Monday. No biggie, we probably spent all of ten minutes getting reoriented. But it gave me a good lead into this video:
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Ok there are very few sports that I would actually choose to go see, but hockey is one of them.  So when Melvin told me she had a spare ticket to see the MN Wild on Monday I jumped at the chance to go.  I had a great time, but it was enough out of my typical routine that I had quite a few observations.  Whether they are interesting observations you will have to decide.

Mel was right, the music at the game was very entertaining.  She made a comment about someone breaking into her CD collection for the game, and I believe she may have been correct.  But really what is a hockey game without AC/DC?  Everywhere you looked there were LED signs and displays.  Mostly they were just ad space, until the Star Spangled Banner.  Then all the LED displays all over the arena show the stars and stripes, and a freakin’ Steven Colbert-like FLYING EAGLE!  It was one of the hokeyest things I have ever seen, but the song was well sung. Oh and those LEDs are also not so flattering, especially the big score board/ TV screen.  The two teams were out on the ice doing some practice shots, and they looked very nice.  Buff, good looking 20 year olds.  Then before the game starts they show pictures of the different players up on the big board.  And those damned LEDs made them look like they were in their late 30s!  Not flattering.  And speaking of buff 20 year olds, I cannot believe how flexible those goalies are!  Without all the protective padding some of their practice stretches would have been quite risque! [Note to self - go to more hockey games]  It may have been just me but I got a definite gay vibe from some of the guys in the crowd.  Not that they even noticed me, but it appeared to me that a few of them might have been at the game for a date or something.  Good lookin’ crowd too.  [Must see more hockey games]  Not they guys sitting behind Mel and I though.  Let me break it down for you:

• Guys no one needs to hear you chewing
• No one wants to know where you are putting your spitter.
• Learn to enunciate!  The only thing worse than having to hear your conversation is unconsciously trying to interpret it!
• Don’t act like the big man when you can identify the band from the song clip [Violent Femmes] and then mangle the freakin lyrics! [Who cannot remember the first few lines of "Add it up"?  Really!]
• The players are getting paid to play, the coaches are getting paid to coach.  No one needs you yelling your suggestions , and really I don’t think you know best or why are you paying to watch?

So they only drawback to whole experience was that it was on a Monday and I couldn’t drink.  But there is always a next time.