January | 2023 | Theresa Donahoe

Meet my latest clients:

Fiona and Jaz!

It seems that everyone is getting their post-covid travel in, and I am the official cat-nanny of the neighborhood! The one on the left is a lap cat and the on the right is the climber:

I swear these two could not be more different.

One of the skills I must learn as a cat and house sitter, is how to navigate the remote control of the owner’s television. I have never come across the same remote twice. You got your Roku, you got your Dish TV, you got your Apple TV and this latest house has Direct TV. I am always re-learning the channels. I just want my NBC, CBS, E! and Comedy Central. One cannot live off Netflix alone. I do actually like to watch network television – I’m old school.

Speaking of Netflix, I have found my latest favorite show to binge…

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is so funny. It came out in 2015, pre-Covid, but it’s so relevant now because the main character was living in a bunker for 15 years and then finally gets free. Talk about shelter in place. In some ways this show is almost therapeutic.

I didn’t realize that I am still sort of coming out of whatever psychological mind trip the pandemic did on me. Like I didn’t realize how much I missed dancing until I saw a cover band playing R&B music in downtown Oakland and it felt like my heart was going to explode. And last month I felt motivated for the first time in a long time to go shopping for new clothes and try on new things rather than just sitting around in yoga pants all the time.

All the rainstorms this month almost triggered my shelter-in- place trauma all over again. But knowing this time it would only last a few weeks and that the sun would eventually come back made this waterfall in the dog park worth it:

All this rain made me feel lazy and here it is, January 20th and I still haven’t put up all my Christmas cards on my refrigerator! Well, that’s mostly because I haven’t been home. I have only slept in my own bed seven days in December and only 12 days in January. That’s a lot of cat-sitting!

But they’re worth it.

Well, by my math, this December, I only slept in my actual bed for a whole seven days. You would have thought I was out on tour, traveling or something, but I was just cat sitting the entire time.

Bo Diddley

It’s a tough job loving all these felines, but somebodys’ gotta do it and it might as well be me, the official cat nanny of all my friends and acquaintances. And besides, I can always use the extra cash, especially around the holidays.

I spend Christmas Eve in Berkeley and we had the most perfect weather, it was unbelievable how gorgeous it was that day and night.

But then God said, “enjoy it now cuz it’s about to get craaaazy!“. Then the clouds came in, threatening my travel plans for New Years Eve-Eve. I had plans to go to SF to visit friends and shoot our Annual New Year’s Rap Video. A tradition we have been doing since 2020. No rain was gonna stop me now! This year, instead of parodying Rapper’s Delight, we decided to mix it up, Run DMC style:

I’m Picky Picky Picky!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0u4QfQD2n5twyfEjvkRDb9H5umStwchCV5tgqHvcMizmJJYRqvqjur4x9yxYzSkcsl&id=1047947811&mibextid=Nif5oz

Turns out that little downpour on Friday evening was NOTHING. I woke up Saturday morning to this:

I was sort of freaking out because my sister and I had plans that night – IMPORTANT PLANS!

We went to see my new favorite cover band, The Neon Playboys in Auburn and can I just say it felt so good to get out and celebrate after hunkering down these past couple of years?

Now where the heck is Auburn California you ask? Well, it’s two hours away from Oakland and I only know where Auburn is because I drove through it on my way to Grass Valley to attend my Uncle’s wedding a few years ago (and also to attend our Annual Donahoe Dominoe Tournament the one year he hosted).

I initially wasn’t going to go to this show and was ready to have another mellow NYE, but then I casually mentioned it to my sister to see if she would want to join me and SHE DID. And she drove through the atmospheric river to get us there! Okay, it wasn’t raining that hard on our way up, but still. This weather has been crazy!

These guys are really good and are worth the drive. When I was in my 20’s it was very “uncool” to see a cover band, (and quite frankly that’s because a lot of them suck) but not these guys. They play old school dance music, and I can’t tell you how bad I have needed to dance these last couple of years since my weekly hip hop classes went away after my gym shut down and then reopened to only limited hours. I don’t think I realized how much I have been mourning that part of me.

I have to say though, I think my favorite part of the evening was when this drunk chick got up on stage and tried to grab the mic from the singer. It was funny the first time, but the second time….

We danced until 1:00am and I didn’t get to sleep until 2:00am and then I automatically woke up around 6:00am! ARRGGHH! But the rain had finally stopped and it was the most beautiful New Year’s Day morning.

Here’s to 2023! Happy New Year!

December 23, 2022 – January 1, 2023