Castor and Pollux

The Cat Distribution System is a contemporary term that describes the phenomenon of cats entering peoples' lives unannounced and getting adopted. When my mother and brother's cat Cassidy passed away unexpectedly, I would normally recommend giving some time to process. However, it was already known to them that Lee-Anne's sister-in-law had taken in a litter of kittens and was trying to find homes for them. 

She was in fact hoping to find someone willing to adopt a specific pair that had bonded, preferably to someone in her network as their children had grown attached to them and would want updates. To make it seem even more fated, Cassidy's passing occurred weeks before mine and Lee-Anne's wedding, which would bring the two families together for the first time ever. The Cat Distribution System was in effect.

Meet Castor

And Pollux

I remember them as Castor, the colour of cast iron, and Pollux, rhymes with tux. Originally Castor was named Bonsai and Pollux was Birch, as their litter had a tree name theme. My mother and brother renamed them as the two brightest stars in the constellation Gemini, which were in turn based on two brothers in the Greek Pantheon.

According to legend, Castor was the son of the King of Sparta, while Pollux was the son of Zeus, both with the same mother. Pollux asked his father if he could share his immortality with his brother, which he obliged. After many adventures, Castor was killed and Zeus offered Pollux the option to share Castor's mortality as he did his immortality, to which he agreed. Because of this, the two alternate between Hades and Olympus in the afterlife.

It was a coincidence, but the kittens' astrological sign is actually Gemini.

Lee-Anne's sister in law came about this litter of kittens because she lives on a farm and they have barn cats. Naturally, this results in the occasional batch of kittens, and is in fact how we got our cat, Finn. Because of this, we know that Castor and Pollux at least have the same mother as Finn, making them half-brothers, and Lee-Anne's sister-in-law says she thinks they have the same father too.

Something about the shape of Castor's nose makes him look like he'll turn into a big cat, whereas Pollux looks like he'll develop into a noodle like Finn.  They both have bony notches at the ends of their tails, and Castor's is only about half-length. The notches are funny because Finn has that too, so I guess it's genetic. As far as personalities go, they are quite similar, but Castor gets described as more "affectionate" whereas Pollux is more "playful"

My biggest worry about adopting two new kittens was that they would overwhelm the resident elder, Thor. Conventional knowledge suggests that you shouldn't have cats of drastically different age categories. However, it has been our family's philosophy to have cats of different ages, the idea being that the younger cat brings out the kitten in the older. Despite seeing some success with this model, even I had apprehensions about bringing two 3-month-olds to live with a 20-year-old. That's like introducing a three year old human to a hundred year old.

However, our family model has appeared to work in our favour once again

Despite being very playful and rambunctious with each other, they are apparently quite gentle with Thor. Pollux was the first to engage him, despite being the rowdier of the two.

Me and Lee-Anne got to visit and properly meet them about a month after the wedding. I got to see first hand Thor approaching and engaging Pollux.

Central Art Walk and Meeting Mike Morrice

Kitchener hosts a few events called "art walks" where local artists display their work from their homes. Sometimes people from outside the neighbourhood will collaborate with locals to display their work as well. Last year I went to the Frederick Art Walk which I think is the most prominent one, but we have one for our neighbourhood as well, called the Central Art Walk. This time I was able to go and so was Lee-Anne.

When I did the Frederick walk I was too shy to go into most peoples' houses or linger at stands for too long. I mostly went to see my friend who makes bowls. This year I felt a little braver with Lee-Anne and we did a more complete tour.

The building that I work in hosts a few artists so we started there. One of my coworkers helped in organizing it and a few people that I serve were volunteering. There were I think seven locations on the art walk with two of them hosting multiple artists.

The definition for art was fairly flexible, so it wasn't only painters. For whatever reason, all the people hosted at my work were photographers. Lee-Anne asked for someone's business card but the guy misunderstood and showed her one of his photos at the size of a card. Lee-Anne wound up buying it to avoid the awkwardness of explaining the misunderstanding. It was a nice card though.

One of the places had knitted creations. We were wearing orange shirts because the walk was held on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, so the person directed us to some plushies of nature images because a percentage of each purchase would go to an Indigenous organization. Lee-Anne bought a pair of mittens because she used to have a particular pair she couldn't find a replacement for, and the ones being sold were "lined" in a similar way. The outdoor wear had a portion of the proceeds go to helping with our homeless crisis. Gearing the charity to relate to the product was an interesting way of doing it.

Another place had a lot of wall art and quilts and we got a frame covered in colourful buttons. The person there was really talkative and had a job similar to my brother's. She said that he could "come cry on her porch anytime" and I realized that was not only kind, it was also pretty doable. At this point I realized that I wasn't just admiring local art, I was also meeting my neighbours.

There was a guy selling carved wooden spoons. This was particularly ideal because we got those wooden bowls from our wedding shower and were thinking about getting some matching cutlery. I know for a fact that the guy who made our bowls did the Central Art Walk last year because he stored some of his stuff in our building. He wasn't here this year though. Regardless, since most of the artists seemed to know each other and because of the similar products, I asked the spoon man if he knew my bowl guy. He said he didn't, but apparently he's done some collaborative work with a guy that makes bowls, so it is a pretty natural combination.

We picked two spoons, one for each bowl. The guy said the one I picked was apple wood and the one Lee-Anne chose was crabapple. Lee-Anne said it must be because she's crabby, which was the obvious joke and I was happy she said it so I didn't have to.

The last spot had some paintings and there was a soap maker who gave us a sample.

The Art Walk had a system where, if you got a card signed at each location, you could submit it for the chance to win a prize. I accidentally left my card at the spoon place, and since we only had one location left at that point, I just missed out on being able to enter it. However, on our way back the spoon guy saw us, shouted us out and asked if we forgot our card. I said yes but not to worry about it because it wasn't the reason I went on the walk. He said he'd vouch for me and submit my card.

That worked out for us because one of the locations seemed to be closed. Because you needed seven signatures and they were doing it by location not artist, one house being closed meant you couldn't complete your card. So maybe I'm the only person that was able to submit mine, and now I'm guaranteed to win. We'll see.

Here's a pic of most of the stuff we got

We dropped by my office on the way back to get a cup of water. One of my coworkers was there because it was still being used to host art, and she introduced me to the person she was talking to. The guy shook my hand and said "Hi, I'm Mike". I said "Hi Mike, I'm Gryphon". Lee-Anne burst out "I'm such a huge fan!"

It was Mike Morrice, our local MP and representative of the Green Party. When Trudeau sprung a surprise election, our riding didn't have a Liberal representative, allowing third parties to have a relevant chance. The Green Party took my vote and wound up winning. I had recognized him but pretended I didn't as a self-defense mechanism, but Lee-Anne reacted differently.

We'd seen Mike in the news regularly at places that we frequent, like the Iron Horse Trail, Victoria Park, and Cherry Park. Finally our paths crossed.

It's almost as if he walked right into our living room. There he is, in the building where I work, under decorations for our wedding shower. We'd have been happy to just see him at a local event, but he was introduced to us by a friend and we wound up having a conversation with him.

He was the one who asked for the photo. I thought he was just being charitable and offering us a pic with him, but when my coworker said she'd send me and Lee-Anne an email with the photos, Mike asked if he could get some taken with his phone.

He was familiar with both mine and Lee-Anne's work and said that Lee-Anne was now the most local CNIB employee he knew. He offered us a business card which had brail on it, topical because Lee-Anne has, and works with people with vision impairments.

I told Lee-Anne that I've gone through several periods of life where I felt charmed, like everything was just slanted in my favour. After the wedding and everything surrounding it, and at the end of this day, Lee-Anne said she felt like she was experiencing this "charmed" phenomenon.

Wedding Pictures

We got our wedding pictures. I made a Gallery post for them here:

https://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2023/10/wedding-photos.html

He sent us 300 and I whittled them down to 50. I've got descriptions for a lot of them on there. Some of it is repeat information from my post covering the wedding.

The place we got our rings from was a jeweler's next to the train station homeless encampment. We'd walked by there a bunch of times when catching the train, so it was nice to go somewhere kind of familiar. The strip mall there seems mostly geared toward weddings. In addition to the jeweler's, there's a custom cake shop that showcases wedding cakes and there's a cookware store that has registry information. I know that because even though we didn't have a registry ourselves, we received a gift from there. There's also a tattoo parlor and a health and wellness shop, which doesn't quite fit the trend.

It feels like an odd theme for a strip mall next to an encampment, although I'm sure the businesses predate the tent city. With all the talk about how the homeless population is harming local businesses, there's a side of me that derives pleasure in supporting one partly because of its location. The general sentiment is likely still true, but not because of us.

We were going to shop around, but after looking at rings and consulting Lee-Anne's mom, we were told that we wouldn't likely find a better deal. Each of us just got a basic gold band. After getting sized, I found out my finger is a 13. I thought this was funny, because my shoe size is also 13 (obviously not by the same measurement, but still).

It was a an independent business with a long history in Kitchener. I like the smaller scale, but I'm not sure how humble a jeweler can be, just based on the premise of the product. I find it fascinating to talk to people who have a passion for something I rarely think about, which applied to my experience there.

For my clothes we went to a Moores. It's a chain but I had a bit of an association with the specific location. I supported a guy for years that had a fairly strict routine of touring the area, stopping at different locations to look at things that sparked memories of his past. One of the go-to places he'd always want to stop at was this Moores. All the employees were very hospitable to him and I knew most of them, although there had definitely been turnover since I'd been there last

I was able to buy my shirt as-is but I had to get sized for the pants and vest. Last time I'd been sized for clothing was in Mali, where you'd buy material from one location then bring it to a tailor that would make something to your specifications. This was my first ever time doing such a thing in North America.

The colour we went with was also something that only came on custom order. We decided on tan to go with the warmer theme of the party. Originally I was just going to wear pants and suspenders with a tie, but we got talked into getting a vest as well to distinguish myself from the best man.

Similar to jewelry, anything in men's fashion above business casual is not something I usually think about. I had a pretty static view of what is and is not acceptable for a man to wear to formal occasions until Lee-Anne started making suggestions. Despite having interacted with many Moores employees over a wide span of time because of the person I used to support, I never noticed how varied their attire was until they started giving options and talking about their own preferences. Turns out ,en's fashion people really like paisley. I wonder if it's a coincidence that it's the most flowery pattern a man can get away with wearing while adhering to societal norms

I barely knew how to tie a tie. In fact, before my own wedding I don't think I'd ever been to an event that called for it. One time when I was young, Secondchance Employment Counseling was giving away whole suits for free. I got one and this inspired me to learn how to tie a tie off Google Images. Since then, I think I only wore one to a dance during Canada World Youth and to a student fair in college where I had a stand for one of our projects.

So it's a bit pathetic, but when I was trying out my clothes at home, Lee-Anne tied my tie and when I took it off I loosened it but kept the knot. When I was getting ready for the wedding, I just tightened the pre-tied knot. I didn't really think it would work but I asked multiple people who said it looked fine