Friday Gospel According to AngelBoy

Too noisy, too many people who don't live here, too much going on around here today for AngelBoy, my middle cat. The sensitive one. The gorgeous little blue-eyed boy-cat who will not eat out of any other dish other than his blue plastic food bowl, nor use any litter box if it isn't blue.

Poor thing is having a rough time today. Not only is the workman here (painting the new sheetrock wall in the closet and (!) the entire closet) but our lawn guys were here as well, along with the neighbor's tree service. Between the electric sander making noise in the closet, the lawn mowers howling outside, and the buzz-saws pruning the neighbor's trees, AngelBoy had no place to hide. I had to keep picking him up and reassuring him that his little cat-world wasn't coming to an apocalyptic end. He's right now underneath the fainting sofa in my sitting room. All of my husband's shirts are draped over that sofa, being that his closet had to be emptied because of the work on the master shower. So I guess AngelBoy feels protected underneath the canopy of shirts. I haven't heard a meow out of him in over an hour, but every few minutes I can hear his tail slapping the carpet in frustration.

This cat definitely does not like noise. I can't even blast my Barry Manilow CDs in this house because that blue-eyed cat will have a hissy-fit. So Manilow has to sing his heart out at a more reasonable level if AngelBoy is inside the house. (My apologies to Barry.)

I nearly over-slept this morning, after not getting much sleep during my husband's snore-fest last night. I opened my eyes this morning to find ShadowBaby purring in my ear-- he was curled up on my pillow. As my eyes focused on his golden cat-eyes, I realized that the sun was out. I looked at the alarm clock and saw 8:15 in little red numbers. Just as I was about to close my eyes again and enjoy the purring, I remembered that the carpenter would be here to finish the work on the closet.

So here I am, no worse for wear, with about five hours sleep. Of course, my husband slept very well. He didn't even hear himself snoring. I don't think the snorer is ever disturbed... it's always the snoree who is walking around like a zombie the next day.

This zombie has been hanging up Halloween decorations. Big paper-honeycomb orange and black pumpkins. The kind of "vintage" decoration that folds flat-- but open it up and clip the ends together and you have a wonderful orb of crape-like paper that makes a wonderful crinkling sound. I've got them hanging up in the living room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen. And the ones that I hung from the air-ducts twirl around when the air-conditioning clicks on. And that crinkle sound is magical as the air passes through the honeycomb sections of the paper. Sort of looks like an orange and black disco ball, without lights. They all look very festive, very Halloween-y.

I also moved the drop-leaf table from the TV room into the living room. I put it behind the sofa... our sofa is in the middle of the living room, not up against the wall. So having that table there for the party will give us extra seating. Usually, we use the screen-porch tables for over-flow seating for our parties, but I'm planning on keeping Gracie and the cats out on the porch for this party. I can't have friends going in and out of the porch with 'the kids' out there-- too much of a chance for the cats to get frightened by the (hopefully costumed) guests. (And all of our friends know that in this house, dog/cat-safety is Rule #1.)

I've also been phoning some of our friends who haven't responded to my "RSVP" on the Halloween invitations. Mostly everyone responds right away... but there are always a few stragglers. And as soon as they hear my voice on the phone a week before party-time, they say: "I know why you're calling...." So far, there will be 21 of us... I'm still waiting for call-backs from three couples.

Everything is going along on schedule... both the work on the bathroom shower and closet, and the Halloween party preparations. As long as all of the workers are gone at least two days before this party, I will be perfectly content. So will AngelBoy.