Boo Boo Kitty died today… she was getting sicker and sicker. I thought she was going to die on me here at home — she’d been deteriorating steadily since she first got sick, and was getting more dehydrated even though I was giving her the liquids. She’d seen the vet several times and we tried all these different things but nothing really helped. Anyway, she’d been very weak and vomiting a lot the past few days, and today she was shaking and having a lot of trouble breathing, and trying to drag herself behind the furniture… it was really bad. I took her to the vet and he looked at her, and we talked about it and decided to put her to sleep right there. It was very very quick. He just gave her a shot of anaesthetics — she put her head down and that was it.

Yeah, I’ve been crying a little. But, you know, it’s been a long haul for Boo Boo Kitty, she had it really tough lately. She wasn’t the same cat after she got sick… now I really know what the vet was talking about a MONTH ago when he said it "wouldn’t be wrong" to put her to sleep right then, as soon as we knew about the kidney problems. I had to give her a chance, though… I wish she would’ve gotten better, but she didn’t. Poor Boo Boo! I want to remember her the way she was before, as the little roly-poly puppy-dog kitty she used to be, but it’s hard because I have all these bad memories of the sickness. ::sigh:: I’ve never had to put a pet to sleep before, it really sucks — that’s pretty obvious! There’s nothing much you can say except it sucks.

Aaaaaaaanyway… my OTHER cat Junebug is fine, and loving all the attention she’s getting this evening, thank you very much!!

Other than the CAT thing, I’m feeling pretty alright, considering! It feels kinda cool to be "free" again, even though I’m not exactly livin’ it up or nothin’. I did hang out with Rian Murphy a little the other night, that was great… he was actin’ the fool to try to get me to smile, ‘cuz I was all down in the dumps about the breakup. And it worked, he’d set me into three or four giggling fits by the time I left. I’m sure it’s all part of his duties at Drag City! Not really — he’s my friend and he cares about me and he wants to see me happy. And THAT makes me happy! :-)

AND… I talked to Ryan Hembrey yesterday, it was cool… everything’s copacetic. :-) We’re rehearsing tomorrow, with someone new… it’s this guy Steve that I met ten years ago in New York. (I might have talked about him in my diary already, I forget.) See, there’s a little tour coming up, I’m gonna do some shows opening for David Grubbs, and Ryan can go with me but Gerald can’t. We could do it just the two of us, that way maybe there’d be room for Ryan to bring the upright… but it would sure sound better if we had a third person, be it drums or guitar or whatever. I’m working some different angles. Or, uh, maybe I should re-phrase that… RYAN is working some different angles, while I sit here on my BUTT. :-) Well come on… Ryan’s from Chicago! He knows people… and he’s more motivated to get shit happening than I am… I’m just lazy.

I’m going to a wedding with Ryan in Detroit this coming weekend… I’m going to be Ryan’s date at a wedding!?!? Well, it was all planned out a long time ago. It’s a mutual friend that’s getting married (Ben from the Immigrant Suns) and I didn’t really want to miss it even though Ryan would have let me off the hook if I didn’t want to go. I hope I don’t cry at the wedding, I’ll look so stupid… the last time I went to a wedding it was really embarrassing. It was Joe Ferguson’s wedding maybe a year ago, and I was sitting there with Deanna Varagona and Jeff Fisher, among other people, waiting for the ceremony to start… I was having REALLY bad allergies that day and so my eyes were all red… and Jeff was teasing me, saying "You’re crying! You ARE crying, look at you!" and I was all, "NO! I’m having allergies, I am NOT crying, SSSShhhhh!!!!" And I’d look at Deanna and she looks back at me like, "Are you crazy, you really are crying!" And then I really DID start crying, just due to power of suggestion and because I was laughing too hard while trying to be very quiet about it. It was so funny!! To us, at least… probably not to the people sitting around us!

Anyhow, enough of my blabbering… tomorrow should be good. A rehearsal and then the Danielson Family at Lounge Ax… I can’t wait!! I’m so excited to see them.