So a few things happened today. Where do I start? It’s Sunday, and I had an eventful day.
First the cable guy, actually the Internet guy, comes over and fixes my router and resets my connection. Because I’ve been having Internet issues, and I’ve had to get Internet service by turning my phone into a mobile hotspot. Which is a pain. But now it’s all fixed, so that’s good.
I go out around 6pm to get an iced cold brew from the Dunkin Donuts on 30th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, and just as I enter the store it starts to pour. I mean like in buckets. I take a seat with my large cold brew and watch the rain cascade down in waves of flowing water. Man, this is a powerful storm.
The rain finally lets up after about 15 minutes, and I make my way home. The storm was one of those brief, violent blasts of nature that flickers out of its own accord.
At home I make a grilled salmon dinner, and I serve it with some dijonnaise sauce, which is just mayo and mustard with some Tarragon mixed in. It’s goes really well with salmon. I add some sliced tomatoes and a piece of buttered bread, and boom! I have dinner all ready to go.
After I eat, my friend Mitch text me and asks if I want to chill for a little while. Mitch lives right across the street from me, and we went to junior high school together.
I say sure, come on over. So he comes over, and the first thing he does is go straight into my bedroom to see if he can pet my beloved adopted cat Copper.
She’s really shy, and I’m the only person she’s let pet her since I adopted her. But Mitch has been getting closer and closer as she gets used to him. She usually hangs out in the bedroom, so that’s where he goes.
A couple minutes later Mitch emerges and says “hey Charles! I pet her!” I say congrats, man, that’s awesome. And it is. Because it means Copper’s world is getting bigger, and she’s allowing more people into it.
Then Mitch and I watch a little boxing on YouTube in the living room, but he soon heads back into the bedroom for some more time with Copper. He comes out a few minutes later and says he pet her again, this time twice. First he pet her when she was on my laundry on top of a chair in the corner of the room, which is her favorite spot. Then he pet her for a few more seconds after she jumped down onto the floor.
This is great, it really is. I’m psyched.
Eventually Mitch heads back across the street to his house, and I watch a little more boxing. Then I call my mom, and we chat for a good half hour. Next I turn on some music on my Google Home, Numb/Encore by Jay Z and Linkin Park. It’s a dope song.
But between the craziness of the storm, the music, Mitch’s visit, cooking dinner, talking to my mom, and watching boxing, I realize I’m really revving.
So I head into the bedroom to check out Copper, my human chillout machine. She’s in her spot on top of the clothes on the chair.
I walk over and start petting her while she lays there. Wow, this feels good. I immediately start to relax, and my pulse slows. After a few seconds she climbs onto the TV stand, and then she jumps onto the floor.
But we’re not done. I lie on the bed in my usual corner spot, and I drape my arms over the bed, and I pet her while she saunters back and forth on the floor.
I pet her along the top of her coat, and I pet her while she lies on her side, and I pet her on the top of her forehead, which she loves, and I pet her on her cheek, which she also loves. The I do a combo and pet her on the forehead and cheek at the same time, and she’s in absolute heaven. So am I.
The petting session lasts about ten minutes, and then she lies on her side in the middle of the room and just stretches her arms and legs out and chills.
I take this as my cue that she’s had enough for right now, and I lie back on the bed.
Man, I am in an altered state. All my thoughts have slowed. My mind is clear. I really and truly feel, and I know this sounds corny, but I feel that I’ve reached a higher plane of existence. It’s somewhere between the 3rd and 4th dimensions of the universe that Neil DeGrasse Tyson speaks about so eloquently.
I stare at the ceiling in the darkened room, and I just let thoughts float by. This is better than any meditation app I’ve ever used, and I meditate a lot.
Finally after about twenty minutes of lying in bed, I sit up a little, and Copper is standing right on top of the TV stand across from me, staring at me with wide eyes.
I say “hey Copper, hey beautiful, that was great, how are you feeling?” She looks at me with an expression of love, affection and curiousity all at the same time. Does she know what I asked her? Who knows? I’m reading a book about how to communicate with animals via mental telepathy, so maybe this is our first experience of communicating that way.
In any case, it’s really cool to see her standing there, her regal bearing putting her beauty on display for all the world to see.
Finally after about ten minutes I sit up, and man am I zonked. It’s like I just stormed the beach at Normandy or something. Well, not really, but I do feel really rocked.
I slowly get up, collect myself, and go into the living room to write this Copper’s Corner.
This was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had with an animal, and I won’t soon forget it.
So thank you Copper. You really chilled me out and took me to a plane of higher existence.
But most of all you made my day.
