The Feline Waltz

That's right the little kitty liked me a bit too much.  I grew to know the two cats quite well over the past week.  I learned that they were actually the neighbor's cats.  The one with the darker coat and collar was called Lang and the white one was called Lucky.  I never had a pet except for a couple of goldfish.  For years I was terrified of cats and dogs after my neighbors dog cornered me when I was about six or seven.

Saturday night after supper I went to Target with my uncle Ringo and my grandparents.  I bought some stuff for the apartment and browsed around for a bit.

The next day, the four of us, and my other uncle, Aubrey, and his son Valen, would all go for "Yum Cha," basically Dim Sum.  I hung out with my cousin and uncle and learned a few bars of "Stand By Me" on the piano and went back to Ontario.

Monday I went to a mall and spent most of my time in Borders, but before I left I stopped at an EB Games and asked where the older PC games were.  I actually saw some older titles repackaged as classics: Half-Life and The Sims.  The Sims was a popular game around the year 2000 in which you control the really mundane aspects of simulated peoples lives.  They start off in a new place and you buy them furnishings, get them a job, etc.  The system requirements fit my old hand-me-down laptop, so I was excited, since I remember playing the game a bit in college.  It was between that and the older game, Half-Life which was the revolutionary First Person Shooter that didn't have level breaks and didn't cut away for expository scenes, making for an immensely immersive experience.

I spent some time chatting with the clerk about computers, Windows 2000, old computer games (he looked to be a few years older than me), and he mentioned that The Sims would be less likely to be around in other stores as the classic edition was released before Half-Life's, so The Sims it was.

I forgot just how addicting the game could be.  I was up pretty late and slept late and therefore missed my chance at a ride on Tuesday.

So I hung out with the cats.  I had reported last week that Lucky was the one that "liked me too much."  When I first met Lang he was a scaredy cat shyly avoiding approaching humans.  Well, that all changed this week as Lucky was usually nowhere to be found and Lang ran up to me and butted his head against my leg.  He grew to be so loyal a follower that it was usually hard to open the front screen door without him attempting to jump in.  Although I don't think that had anything to do with me.

They're quite young, no more than six months.  If you attempt to feed them something, try to feed them separately, as Lucky is the more aggressive eater.  Lang meekly pokes his head in and tries, futily, to get a little bit.

Here are some things you should not do with cats:

* Try to fix your loose shoelaces.  If you untie your shoes, they'll finally notice these string things and attempt to bat at them

* Wear clothes you care about.  They will get holes in them.

* Feed them meat that doesn't stay in the bowl.  I fed them some Corned Beef Hash (thinking it was similar enough to pet food) and they seemed to like it, but so did the flies.

* Step on their feet.

On Thursday, I stepped on Lang's foot after lunch and heard a crunch and a loud yell!  I ran inside and got some milk to apologize, but he reverted to his shy stance avoiding all contact with me.  It wasn't until later the next day that we really made up.

But in non-cat news, I spent Tuesday applying for jobs and Wednesday at Staples and Kinko's getting three of my six articles laminated (seven if you include this article in which comedian David Rattigan reports on the Boston open mic scene for the Boston Globe; eight if you include the article I wrote for Imagine Magazine two years ago), along with three letters of recommendation I requested my last semester at Emerson College, printing three different types of resumes (comedian, actor, and business), and then copying all said items.

As I had done the previous Wednesday, I tagged along with my uncle to his private lesson for a kid that might be transferring to Emerson.  As the previous Wednesday, after leaving that lesson, I got dropped off at K-Mart to hang out while my uncle taught across the street.  I browsed around checking to see if I needed anything for the apartment.  I don't think I did.  I already spent quite a bit of money lately.  But that evening I really got a sense of how good a drummer my uncle is, and how much of a passion he has for what he does.  He's also a really good, laidback teacher.  He showed me a magazine clipping that a friend of his got him once.  It was a picture of Ringo Starr.  He autographed it "To Ringo, From Ringo."

Friday after lunch I saw some more pictures.  These were from my trip to Hong Kong.  It was in August of 1983.  I was about twenty-one months old.  I still haven't picked up enough Cantonese to understand my grandparents fully, but I really enjoyed looking back at those pictures.  I actually remembered the subject of one of the pictures.  I was sleeping on what appears to be a wooden counter, but that was my bed in Hong Kong.

Today, I'm going to an all day seminar in Hollywood, Tuesday I move into my apartment, and Wednesday I'm going to a comedy shorts film festival.  I think I'll probably miss those cats.  I'll try not to like them too much.

Thank you, I'm Eric Cheung.  I'm on MySpace and Live Journal.