Wallitner Weekly 27

Hello everyone!

A lot of productive things happened this past week.

This week has been very productive. Though I did consider renaming this newsletter from the Wallitner Weekly to the Wallitner weakly. I continued work on the theory textbook, met aa friend from college who moved to the area recently, and read a lot of poetry. I further developed my skills as a writer simply by living and watching and that felt good. However I spent so much time living and watching that I forgot to do any writing. I have to apologize for the delay with this weeks weakly release, for once, it skipped my mind.

I’ve got lots of plans for next week too!

Next week I hope will be the same as the last, but only the good bits and none of the bad. Progressing my passion, spending time with friends, living, watching, and writing.

yesterday we rescued a stray cat… and (s)he reminded me of You.

Several weeks ago my fiancee took it upon herself to replace the battery in my 1996 Toyota Camry. She did so because she claimed that the car was beginning to sound like someone (much like myself) who doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. A pained groan of resentment acknowledging that time passes without our consent… A groan that I never noticed, but she certainly did. She went to the O’Reilly auto-parts store, which I wouldn’t normally mention by name, but it is important to the story. She returned and began making the repairs. Upon seeing her effort, a small kitty cat came to assist. A very friendly, light grey with darker grey striped coat and wearing white knee high boots, kind of kitty cat. Given the kindhearted nature of my fiancee she considered this stray her friend and named her Reilly (after the auto parts store).

Over the next few weeks my fiancee would go on to make all sorts of kitty cat friends. Whether we were checking the mail, walking to the local coffee shop, or helping our friends move to a new town. My fiancee made kitty cat friends.

Yesterday was different. We were returning from our dinner and we saw Reilly on the sidewalk near our apartment. My fiancee had me pull over and after I had parked in our usual spot she returned to the car with her grey kitty cat friend in her arms. She had that “can we keep her” look. Reilly walked onto the roof of the car and immediately let me pet her and was very friendly. I then of course told my fiancee that we can’t have TWO cats in our tiny apartment. To which she agreed, but then stipulated, if she follows us home, then we can’t lock her out.

Flash forward a few minutes and there is a fresh bowl of cat food and a second cat in our apartment. We kept Reilly away from Midnight in case Reilly carried some sort of sickness, and after about an hour we took Reilly to the 24 hour vet to see if she had a chip or any indication of an owner. And to see if she was healthy.

Turns out Reilly is a boy… but doesn’t have any signs of an owner. They suggested we take Reilly to our usual vet in the morning to surrender him and let them take care of him, and double check if he had an owner. So we housed a stray cat in our bathroom overnight.

This morning my fiancee took him to our vet where they gave him a proper diagnosis and will be making sure he is fed well and then they will try to find him a home.

The story of Reilly the stray reminded me of one of my former theory professors. Of course this theory professor was not the stray, but the one who took in strays. She was the kindest, and simultaneously the scariest professor I ever had. She was the kind of professor, the kind of person, that you wanted to impress. To make her laugh was like seeing an old friend for the first time in years.

I once got a 60 percent on an aural skills test (I normally would do much better) and she pulled me aside and asked what had happened. I didn’t really have a good reason for doing so poorly, I simply thought I didn't have to study. She responded by telling me how she practices. She was easily the greatest pianist I had ever met. She could make one note sound like a symphony. She told me a story that I could never do justice. Simply put she said no matter how well she plays, she still practices like she doesn’t know anything. That story changed my life. I went on to average over 100 percent in that class because I treated everything like I NEEDED to study. I NEEDED to do the best I possibly could. And honestly it wasn’t because I needed a better grade, I could have just as easily passed with a C instead of an A. But she made me WANT to do better.

That professor was Dr. Maria Roditeleva-Wibe, and she passed away this passed week. She loved cats and she loved music. She came to CWU as an exchange professor from Russia and she was fierce. She changed my life and I will never forget the things that she taught me.

I was thinking of all of the strays (like myself) that she rescued. And because of the circumstances I never got to return as an alumni to thank her for it. So thank you Dr Wibe. You will be missed.