9.6.02 – sunshine

the past two days have been the most heart-breakingly beautiful fall days i can recall. the Poe-esque weather from the in the last post blew away and left behind it long days of golden sunshine, blue skies, and drier air. we keep the windows open in our 4th floor rehearsal studio and a cool, smooth breeze comes in to ruffle papers and the hair at the back of my neck. i’m surprised at how clear the air is in boston; i guess offshore breezes take care of a lot of the pollution. the trees are still green, but here and there i see a bright orange leaf on the street, like a promise of the vivid colors to come. i’ve never seen a new england fall, and i’m looking forward to the tour in october, as we criss-cross back and forth across vermont, new hampshire, massachusetts and the like.

i have a new friend: sunshine, the fat orange cat who lives several houses down on the sleepy, tree-lined street where i’m currently living. coming home from work around twilight, i walk turn into Hastings street and he’s out on the sidewalk waiting to greet me (or anyone else who might happen by at that hour, i imagine). i crouch down to pet him, and he moves around me in clock-wise circles: rub head on my right knee, rub head on my backpack, rub head on my left knee, and plot down and scratch his back on the sideway while i tickle his stomach. nibble at my hand, purr, and repeat. tonight, after 10 or 15 loops i got up to walk him and sunshine followed, leaping beneath me so that he could butt his head against my shin, weaving underneath my tripping feet, and then repeating from the other side. in this ridiculous manner we continue up to my house where he leaves me for the evening. i’m working much harder to win the affections of brownie, the house cat, who, after a week has finally deigned to let me pet him on rare occasions, but still won’t cuddle up or purr.

today’s adventure: driving a huge 15-passenger van thru boston rush-hour traffic. it took a while to pull my big-city driving skills out of the dusty closet where i packed them when i left san francisco, and then i realized that those driving skills were honed for a comparatively-tiny Honda accord, not the maroon monster we’d just rented for the tour. other than being paranoid about getting pulled over for a traffic violation and having the cop notice that the van i was driving smelled strongly of pot (i swear, the guys at the rental place must’ve been smoking out in it moments before they handed it over to us), the journey was a success. luckily the munchie-mobile (as it has been so-termed by the cast) is going out with tour III (i’m on tour IV), so it won’t be my problem if the van gets sniffed out by a drug dog or something.