Even Cowgirls Get the Rhythm and Blues

Another amazing year of live music is ending. Going to see bands live is truly one of my greatest joys and I am so thankful to my husband who always seems to come through with the tickets I desire most. Thanks honey for making many of these shows possible. Here is a list of shows I saw this year.

1. Kenny Rogers (meet and greet after too) February 11.
2. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (Reigning Sound opened) March 13.
3. Chris Cornell (favorite concert of the year) April 6.
4. Fitz and the Tantrums (April Smith and the Great Picture Show opened) April 11.
5. Freight Hoppers, April 23.
6. Stone Temple Pilots, April 23.
7. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, May 9.
8. Al Jardine (of The Beach Boys, and went to the meet and greet after) July 9.
9. Glaze (Decline of WNC) July 26.
10. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, August 6.
11. Dreamers of the Ghetto (at Hopscotch Festival) September 10.
12. Superchunk (at Hopscotch Festival) September 10.
13. The Flaming Lips (at Hopscotch Festival, most mind melting show of the year)September 10.
14. Fitz and the Tantrums ( Walk the Moon opened) November 3.
15. Nice Guys Help Club, November 11.
16. Eccentric Soul Review (Ronaldo Domino, The Notations, Syl Johnson) November 19.

Happy/ Sad

A lifetime ago, when I was about 21 years old I met a boy, barely 18, who had a little crush on me. He did many sweet things to woo me. Not the least of which involved a 6 hour round trip drive to buy me a t-shirt. We went on a few dates in his red station wagon, to movies, for coffee. He had a band that I used to enjoy going to see at 31 Patton and Vincent's Ear. But my favorite thing this sweet boy did was to make a mixed tape for me to enjoy. I kept that mixed tape for many years. Through boyfriends, cars, cd players, spills, crunches...The case and cover was destroyed long before the tape. I remember the insert. One side was a page from a comic book. The other had the bands written in his lefty scrawl. On the actual tape were written only two words. On side A was written "happy." On side B was written "sad." That boy is now my husband...and as luck would have it, every once in a while when he is listening to music in his office I will run in there and exclaim..."This song was on that mixed tape you made for me!" The list is the songs I have recognized so far.Today is our one year anniversary. Crazy to think it's been a year already. Anyway, in celebration, here's a little something. A partial playlist...

• Hot Freaks--- Guided by Voices
• Sweat--- Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• Carla the Stripper--- Presidents of the United States
• Do You Believe in Magic?--- Lovin' Spoonful
• Blues Explosion Man ---Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• Puffin' on a Pot Pipe--- Lou Barlow (and Friends)
• Soul and Fire--- Sebadoh
• I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby---Barry White
• Echos Myron---Guided by Voices
• I Am So Into You---Shutter to Think
• Driveway to Driveway---Superchunk
• My Valuable Hunting Knife---Guided by Voices

Pissed Off About Being Pissed On

I put my cat, Frank, out today. That was about 5 hours ago and now it's raining and the guilt is setting in. I went down in the basement to do laundry and the cat was just hiding in the bushes and would not come into the basement despite the rain. He was meowing constantly and even now I can hear him out there. I just can't take his pissing any more. I don't know what else to do. I have tried many products that claim to eliminate or change smells so that the cat will no longer pee there. I have kept clean litter boxes. I have rubbed his nose in it and yelled. He just keeps peeing on any and everything. Today, I was gone for 30 minutes and he pissed all over my new sofa. When I say all over, I mean he apparently perched on the top/back of the sofa and pissed so that it ran down the back cushions onto the seat cushion and then splattered as he jumped off the cushions and onto the arm making sure to leave splashes and drips. That was him laying the final straw across this camel's back. I rubbed his nose in it, yelled, and tossed him out. The more I thought about it, as I cleaned my new sofa, the madder I got. And as I worked I began to catalog all the things he has pissed on over the past couple of years, many of which could not be washed and had to simply be thrown away. A blog I like cataloged all the inappropriate things her dog had eaten in his lifetime after his untimely death by eating the wrong thing. I honestly hope it does not come to that. I have food and water on the porch, and come winter I guess I will reexamine my resolve, but for now he is an outdoor animal.

Things Frank has damaged/ ruined by pissing on them in the past few years:

• My new sofa
• My old sofa
• 2 upholstered chairs (one of which had to be thrown away)
• 2 suitcases
• any pile of clothes left for more than an hour on the bathroom floor
• plastic grocery bags left on the floor
• many pieces of paper (including student work, bills, legal documents, etc) which he knocked of my desk or the kitchen table then pissed on
  
• old comforter
• new comforter
• bed left with no comforter
• his favorite carpet spots in the living room over and over and over
  
• in the fire place ashes
• in the kindling box
• all over the bottom shelf of my antique bookshelf which ruined all the books on that shelf and damaged the wood on the bookcase
• in the laundry basket
• my purse left on the table
• book bags left on the floor
  

I am sure I am forgetting something, but please tell me you understand. I just can't deal with this another minute. I don't want him dead. I don't want him gone. I just want him outside where he can no longer ruin my home or the things in it.

(As a side note, it has long been suspected that since I rescued the cat from an ex-boyfriend's house that he is some sort of automaton sent to my house to reek havoc on the lives of my husband and me. Something to consider anyway. )