Down in Togo as Narrated by Grover

So my good friend Basil just got back from two months in Togo. Apart from being slightly confused and talking to me in French (I don't understand French unless the sentence contains the word croissant), he had some valuable life lessons to share. Grover would explain these as follows: goats are fat, colors are everywhere, time doesn't exist, and yams are great. I will discuss these topics further when I see Grover in 10 days or so.

Grover's Playlist, Part 4: Groovy Grover

These are a few tunes Grover and I like to listen to as we lie under the sun with popsicles. And to answer your question, Grover's favorite popsicle flavor is milk.

Trentemoller - Moan, a gurgling gem that will lull you into a state of relaxation and clarity.

Beirut - Nantes, fresh and collected, something to fall asleep and wake up to.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks, a crisply strange exploration.

Grover Gifts

I will be having some one-on-one time (this makes me think of The Bachelor, which I believe to be one of the worst and best TV shows of all time) with Grover in two weeks. And I don't want to disappoint in the gift department. My gift ideas are as follows:

- A tiny alphorn
- An expresso cup and saucer (that I already bought) with a picture of a cheery black and white cat on the side
- A cashmere sweater
- a yodeling stuffed animal (this is something they sell in chocolate and tourist shops)
- a swatch

There are some things you just can't express with words alone.

If Grover was a Human...

 If Grover was a human, his favorite words would be colossal, grievous and waggish. His favorite meal would be a dainty steak with roasted rosemary potatoes. His house would be decorated in the Italian Style. He would live in a metropolitan area in a neighborhood with several beautiful parks. His hobbies would include baking pastries, cleaning his bathtub, and using an expensive cell phone. He would be the CEO of an international company. He would have many high society friends but just as many middle-class acquaintances. He would drink red wine at dinner and scotch at parties. His type would be successful and confident. He would be 5'11" and wear suits without ties.  

The Miracle of Life

My good friend Clementine grew up in a household with many cats, but even her feline-oriented charm was no match for her new roomate's cat. A big part of cats who have destructive and rude personalities is that they just need some time and respect before they can begin to trust and enjoy you. They have daddy issues. Grover is shy but not rude, and certainly not destructive. This is why it was very easy for me and Clementine to learn about how to love cats before we were faced with some difficult ones. The success was imminent: after a few weeks, the rude cat allowed Clementine to hold her! Over in Oregon, Grover is nodding his furry head in congratulation. Well played!

Faces of Approval:

 

Grover's Playlist, Part 3: Feel the Waves

Sometimes, things get a little revved up and it takes a beautiful song to turn all that energy into something positive. Grover is a big believer in positivity.

Jónsi - Boy Lilikoi, prone to furry feelings of delight. I say this because in concert they all wore slightly furry costumes.

Crystal Fighters - Xtatic Truth, fast-paced but soft, somewhere inbetween daydreams and real life.

Scissor Sisters - Any Which Way, funky in the best way possible with an ironically provocative message, accompanied with a great happy-dance-feeling.

Tunng - Hustle, sad lyrics with twinkly guitar and light vocals, something to drink lemonade to.

Monogamy...More Like Grogamy

When I was little, I often imagined Grover with several impossibly tiny mini-Grovers around him. But Grover is fixed and, more importantly, doesn't care about romance. I have learned a lot from observing his social interactions: all he searches for is peace, friendship and respect. I am proud to say that my cat is special and he knows it. He is always satisfied with himself, and doesn't regret anything. I wonder how the human race would interact if sex didn't play a roll anymore...the world might end, and ideas for TV-Show storylines would get scarce. This problem would be solved if Grover was made a movie star.

Grover's alter ego-

Grover's Playlist, Part 2: Borderline Inappropriate

Grover is, if anything, a badass. These songs are evidence. There are times when something questionable is a lot more fun than something acceptable. These times are almost all the time.

Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You, a song that promptly dives into solid sound with a light heart and some anger

Das Racist - Rainbow in the Dark, a blur of motion, built on a foundation of crazy

Bonaparte - Boycott Everything, creativity at its finest, if slightly offensive

Side Note

Did I mention that I have a dog too? His name is Lucky, and he is a slobbery beauty. Grover kind of steals his thunder, but that doesn't mean that there are any competitive feelings between the two. This is because Labradors aren't allowed to be jealous. Lucky matches Grover in that he is black and a little white. He doesn't match Grover in that he is blind and weighs 100 lbs. Now that he's blind, sometimes he runs into Grover, but Grover, being the gentleman that he is, lets it slide every time. Although he is higher-mantinence, I also love Lucky. He just wouldn't know what to do with a blog about himself. He's too modest.

Grover's Playlist, Part 1: Kinda Trancey, Kinda Dancey

Of all the music I share with Grover, these are a few of the beats that impressed both of us.

Caribou - Sun, definition of a dream, and also I saw them in concert in Zürich! 

The XX - Crystalised, a beautiful, soft, stirring song which is good for bonding moments.

Faithless - Insomnia, an electronic paradise of sound, soothing yet invigorating. Like Grover.

Grovalicious

There is a fat-cat trend. Grover does not follow this trend. He has a slim, fit figure and a shiny coat of hair. The way I see it, the fat-cat trend was created by cat owners who overfed their cats and then decided it was a personality trait. True, it is amusing to see a fat cat ambling around looking around for the next dish of food. But would it be as funny if that cat was a human? Grover sees right through this sham of cuteness. My grandmother once had a cat that looked like it had swallowed a balloon. That cat stopped looking like a fat cat and started looking like a dead one. Cats aren't overeaters by nature, and Grover is all about nature.

Grover the Great

Grover is not just one example of a good cat, but actually the good cat to which every other cat is compared. Grover is a living legend. When I was 11 and lived out in the country, I spent every Friday night alone in the living room watching FRIENDS and eating ice cream with Grover. When I left for a year and came back, he feigned disinterest but followed me everywhere. When I was falling asleep in bed, he would come to the edge of my comforter and head-butt it until I let him under the covers, where he would set up his domain and scuttle around. 

"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." - Mark Twain

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer

Frankenstein and Allusions to Grover

I began reading Frankenstein today because it was on display in the English section of the library and I remembered the time when I was 12 when I "tried" to read it and then stopped. The character Robert Walton writes letters in the beginning of the book and blabs a lot about his lonely childhood and need for a friend who he can brag or cry to, and says that "I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans".  Sadly it was the 1700s and Grover was unavailable for comment. However, these quotes made me think that Old Robbie felt Grover's presence:

"Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms"

"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend - and of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my lot"

"He will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures"

"His lustrous eyes dwell on me with all their melancholy sweetness; I see his thin hand raised in animation"

Memories from a Socially Successul Day

Thankfully, this guy was waiting at home for me. As always, he was both disgruntled and pleased.

Grover in the Future/Grover is the Future

Since I haven't seen my furry friend since June, I'm going a little crazy from withdrawl. Sometimes I have dreams in which he is on my bed snuffling around like old times. Then I wake up and am either alone or my boyfriend is asleep in a very unfeline manner, which does not fulfill my Grovin needs. So I'm super excited that I'm going home for a month in April! I will be in the arms of my favorite cat (or rather, he will be in my arms, and I will be singing a song composed by me for him). It will be an eventful and refreshing visit. Not to mention I could really use a break from Switzerland. Not that it isn't a jazzy country, but the culture can get a bit narrow sometimes. There is only so much sausage and cheese a girl can eat. What the Swiss need is Winston Churchill. What the Swiss need is Grover.

Nano Mania

There's this thing going on in Switzerland right now called "nano mania". One of the two largest grocery-turned everything stores in Switzerland is called Migros and has this new policy where for every 20 francs (20 dollars) that you spend, you get one nano. The point is really no point at all: the logo is "stapeln, purzeln, sammeln: die Nanos sind da" which means "stack, tumble, and collect: the nanos are here". And that's really all you can do with these one-inch tall plastic pill-shaped toys with weights in them. I suppose you can swallow them too, but a four-year-old already did that and it didn't sound like a lot of fun. And they're impossibly hard to stack; it took me a whole five minutes to get one on top of another, and I have yet to achieve a third. All I have to say is that if nano mania could be this successful, so could Grover mania. If only Grover was here...

Notables

 That's me. Some people tell me I have a wise soul.

 This is my boyfriend. He lives in a castle/hotel in eastern Switzerland. He also lives in Zurich part-time because he goes to college there. I live with him in both places because I have a ridiculous amount of free time and also he gives good hugs.
 

 That's Grover. He doesn't really need an introduction.