I woke up in the middle of the night. I was sleeping on one pillow, and to my right was Princess Rilo sleeping on a stack of three pillows. I always think whoever pays the bills should get more pillows, but clearly, it doesn't work that way. However, I was comfy enough, so I didn't disturb her highness.
The Toronto Star recently published an article about how sleeping with your pets could make you sick. When I first got Rilo, I naively decided there would be no cat in my bedroom, let alone my bed. I didn't want cat hair on my clothes, nor in my sheets thank you very much. However, within a week I forgot to shut my door properly while I slept, and I woke up to you-know-who in my bed. I lost the war.
I don't really worry about getting sick though, despite the article. My childhood cats always slept in my bed, and I turned out fine, so I'm not concerned.
In the morning, Rilo will get up with me to have breakfast, then she goes back to bed and watches me get ready. She always looks so comfortable relaxing as I'm getting ready. At that time of day, I envy her life. If I get reincarnated as another being, I hope I have enough good karma to be a well-tended housecat in my next life.
Anyway, enough about the cat. I'm not a cat lady, I swear. I just find it hilarious that my roommate gets three pillows and gets to go back to bed when I have to go to work.
I've been tweeting a lot about how much I love the book I'm currently reading: Just Kids by Patti Smith.
It is written by *the* Patti Smith who was highly influential in the 1970s NYC punk scene. I first heard of her when I was in high school, and she worked on an REM record (she sings on the song "Ebow the Letter") and I remember reading magazine articles where Michael Stipe* was so excited to have worked with her. The second time I heard of her was in my "World of Popular Music" course that I took at U of T. (Yes, 1/40th of my degree comes from that course. It makes me happy. I loved that course). We were studying punk rock and I remember thinking "oh yeah, so that's why Michael Stipe was excited."
I saw this book when I was in a record store this weekend, and then decided to download it on my Kindle. I really do wish I'd bought the hard copy so I could lend it to people, but it was a bargain ($6) on the Kindle. It's so good. It won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2010.
The book centres around Patti's relationship with another artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, who was her soulmate of sorts. What I love so much about this book is how sweet of a person she is. I didn't expect that from a punk-rock pioneer I must admit. This book makes me really like and admire her a lot. When she was about 20, she moved to NYC without having any money, and lived on the street for awhile, but was determined to devote her life to art, and I give her so much credit for being brave enough to do that, and I'm happy to know it worked out very well for her.
I've also started listening to some stuff from her album "Horses" and I think I'll probably end up getting it sooner or later. (I bet wigsf just spit out coffee reading that I'm interested in some music from pre-1990s.)
Other than reading and being amused by my cat, my life is centred around marking exams and prepping for the new semester this week. Spanish class numero dos is tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that. We have to talk about someone we admire in class using vocab we learned in class last week. I'm going to talk about David Suzuki. We were told if we spoke about someone famous, we didn't have to bring in a picture, so ding-ding-ding, less work.
*AlieMalie - remember when we saw Michael Stipe at that restaurant in Austin as soon as I'd arrived in Austin? What was the name of that place?
5 comments:
Well Miss Rilo could have all of my extra pillows, I only use one to sleep with.
My friend has had a few false fire alarms in her building and she always laughs when she sees all of the women with their cats in the carriers standing outside...herself included!
Magnolia Cafe! mmmmmmmmmmm ...
heh, I remember that vividly, so awesome! if only we'd gotten there a few minutes earlier. and then that night, scooting our way towards the stage and then cheering so loud that galapogos could hear us on the NPR live stream all the way in Canada!
as for cats ... i came to the conclusion long ago that the cat wasn't my pet instead i was the cat's pet and they so generously offered to allow me into their life to care for them, feed them, pay all their bills and scratch them between the ears. in exchange, i am allowed to live with them. it's the only reasoning i can come up with to explain their crazy, entitled behavior.
Cat in the bed eh? Yup, war is over. You lost. Basically, you're now just a few cats shy of official crazy cat lady status.
Zig sleeps in our bed too, I'm not worried about getting sick but he does take up space. He likes my side near my feet, when I want him to move I slide my feet under his body but he usually just does a barrel roll and then just lays there sprawled across my shin.
That's the second blogger who has recommended that book!
Your Spanish class is WAY better than mine was!
I take it that you are not worried about getting kitten pox.
I have "Horses" and "Easter" of Patti Smith. They are very different albums. I told my oldest sister about them and I think she thought I was talking about Patti Smythe, who had some cheesy '80s hits. The early NY punk scene was diverse and usually not what people typically think of as "punk". Television is one of those early NY CBGB era punk groups and one of my favorite guitar oriented groups. Check them out, since you are going on a music related "dig".
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