Clearing away the cobwebs and sorrow (til there's none)

Well all, it's been a while since I've updated what's going on in the innerworkings of Kim-dom.

Yesterday Curtis and I took about 10 boxes of stuff to storage. It's annoying, but it needed to be done, from my point of view. Curtis' hopes, when we moved this last time, was to use this time for down-sizing and for getting rid of things we don't need. I've given away a lot of things that I don't use anymore, and a lot of clothes that I don't wear. But now I'm down to only having things that I'm either too fat to wear right now, or I don't have room for. But what's left are still things that I love, and I'm not getting rid of anymore. So back it goes into storage. My apartment is now (almost) completely devoid of boxes, and it's soon going to actually be clean. I'm going to feel 100% better when my nest is complete.

On top of that, I have some rather exciting news in that I'm now singing for an acoustic group. Our name is Acoustalyn, and we're two guitars, and sometimes a mandolin or violin thrown in. It's a folk-type flavor, and I'm really loving it. I'm a singer, and I'm pretty much only a singer. I don't know anything about the music business, and I'm not very driven to move ahead. Our organizer, Richard (who is also our songwriter) has a good business head with history in the music business, and he's always trying to push us harder to move forward. I need that, for sure. Lauren is the other guitarist. She's somewhat quiet, but I find that she's the voice of objectivity and reason when the three of us are trying to decide on things like which album cover we like, and whether Richard and I should both sing on a song or just one of us. I dig them both. It's a great union. We're recording our demo on December 13th and we already have some gigs lined up around the city. And that's just cool.

Curtis and I spent Thanksgiving day with Steven and Michele at their annual Misfit Thanksgiving (for folks who don't have anyone to celebrate the holiday with, or who don't get to go home for it.) That was WONDERFUL and we met some great new people. Then this past Saturday I had the good fortune to spend about 5 hours with my dear Ken and be part of his Thanksgiving preparations in Melbourne, AU. This hadn't occurred to me, but Thanksgiving is a very American holiday, so they don't do it over there. Ken wanted to introduce his friends to one of his own traditions, so he cooked them a Thanksgiving meal. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was able to be on a webcam with him for 5 hours and chit chatting as if we were across the table at iHop together. He was chopping his vegetables and mixing up ingredients and we both talked about life. There were even several lags in the conversation.... those comfortable sort of lags that one only has with close friends; the ones where no one might say anything for 5 minutes but that's just okay.

It was nice to get to spend some time with him; I try to do so every weekend, but I don't often get THAT much time. And I will likely have to do without him for the next few weeks while he grows acclimated to the gift of time with his new friend Jaret. In my experience, Ken has a rather jaded history with love. It's not that he has anything against it, it's simply that relationships have been fleeting for him. They've either started out like gangbusters and quickly faded, or they've just not been that interesting to begin with. Ken has so much to offer. I have never quite understood how he could have that much trouble with love, but the truth is, most of the relationships I've personally witnessed of his have been rather lukewarm. And then enters Jaret. I got the pleasure of meeting Jaret on the webcam the other night, and quite honestly, I'm completely smitten with him. He's sweet, he's handsome, he's intelligent, and ... well, I've just never seen anyone yet who I thought would be better for Ken. Jaret's chivalrous... and he's sensitive. He's not the type to play games or to lay blame to make himself feel better. Though I only talked to him for about an hour, it is already compellingly apparent that he's the type that if you were to lash out at him, he'd probably say "I'm sorry that I've hurt you enough to make you want to lash out at me." I may be exaggerating, but I truly get an awesome feeling about him. I've begged Ken for a picture of the two of them together, because the idea of Ken having someone like that in his life just makes me smile. Yay, Jaret.

Moving on... the Cat Hospital is awesome. I learn new things every day. I very much enjoy my boss, and I very much enjoy her partner and the other people that I work with. I learn more and more every day, and I wonder how many amazing things I'll learn before the year is through.

Curtis is working downtown at a bar called Annie's West, and though he's mostly only bartending for Happy Hour, he's getting lots of experience behind the bar. He barbacks and does the door sometimes in the evening, too... he's such a renaissance man. :)