Photos: John Simmons and Pitch

John Simmons had had a cat, Wylie, but he died in the fall of 2008. I missed having cat energy around the house so Tim and Sandi generously gave me a cat from their extensive collection. This cat fit right in beautifully. We had a great time figuring out what to call him. Eventually we settled on "Pitch", because he is mostly black, but John Simmons calls him "El Gato Negro" because he is from Española (the cat, not John). John wrote a song about Pitch, it's funny and cute and wordy, as a lot of John's songs are.

John Simmons at 2710 San Joaquin

I regularly had people over for dinner and John played music at a lot of these parties

Pitch

Pitch joined me in the sunroom for a cup of pomegranate juice

Funny Times in the sunroom and a cup of cocoa -- it doesn't get any better than this

Out of Town Events

From April to June, I lived and studied at the Tensho Kotai Jingu Kyo headquarters in Tabuse, Japan

In October, I attended the National Equality March in Washington, DC