This is not.

(Since writing this I have adjusted to Paris time, though still am amazed it is only just beginning to lose daylight at 10pm.)

SLEEPLESS IN PARIS

Wide awake again at 2-something a.m. Tonight I tried going without sleeping medication as the half-dose I took in the middle of the night last night encouraged me to slumber until after 12 noon! No wonder I am not tired now, you say! That and the fact my body still believes it to be in California where it is late afternoon. Which makes me wonder why they don’t have Judge Judy dubbed in French here……? If they do such heights of creativity as that supposed-reality-in-Laguna-Beach “The Hills” and “Family Guy” why why POURQUOI is there no “Judge Judy” here?

Lying in bed awake a bit ago I was SO THANKFUL to hear the high whine of a mosquito. Have I lost my mind? Not quite. Tonight is the fifth night in our apartment and on or about the third day I noticed bug bites on my legs and even one on my face. I became a bit creeped out as we are sleeping, eating, sitting, even drying off with things which are rented. Immediately I recalled the episode of Judge Judy where the family bought a NEW mattress, slept on it, got bitten all over and found it infested with BED BUGS!!---and we are sleeping eating sitting etc. on RENTAL furniture!

And so tonight may possibly be the first time I have ever found the sound of a mosquito whining in my ear to be a good thing.



Things I have yet to appreciate or be thankful for:
*stepping in dog poo
*dark hairs growing out of my chin
*the price of gas, and the fact we’re growing corn for fuel while much of Africa starves
*losing my mom

Should my jet lag continue I will be adding to this list, one of which will be “sleepless nights.”

*This now seems hopelessly out of date, but that's what happens when one has only
brief connections with the internet in the space of 2 weeks.

Fab and Slab


Yesterday afternoon we arrived at our apartment in Paris, and it is even more FAB than I remembered. The journey was long, starting with a 3+ hour delay leaving SFO. We arrived in Francfort just in time to scramble the mile and a half (not really an exaggeration, I don’t think) with our ridiculously heavy carry-ons plus Twig to the gate where our connecting flight to Paris had just left. Tired, frustrated, out of breath and sweating profusely we glowered our way back toward where we started in order to re-book a flight to Paris. Passing the Luftansa biz class lounge Craig thought perhaps someone there would be able to help us, and while he asked I entered the lounge and nabbed us a liter bottle of water. The receptionist click-click-clicked on her computer and said “There’s a flight leaving in 20 minutes from A 10. I’ll call ahead.” Off we ran back the way we’d come, and Yes! they had space for us.

Unfortunately our bags did not make that last leg of the journey. We were told they would be delivered to us last night, but “non.” Just now got a call they will be delivered late this afternoon! Thankfully the furniture rental package included a washer and dryer, so we ran our sweaty things from yesterday through a wash and dry, and had clean clothes to put on this morning. I used a large kitchen fork (yes, really) to comb my hair after my shower, but at least I have clean panties to wear!

Adjusting to urban life will be just that, an adjustment, but all three of us are giving it a go. Last night around 10:30 Twig needed to go outside, having not done so since leaving home in Oakland. On went the shoes, socks, jacket, and down to the street we went. Like a trooper he peed in the small square of dirt around a tree right on the busy street. We proceeded on our way and moments later I glanced back and he was pooing directly in front of a restaurant door with one of the workers standing in the open doorway! Thankfully the worker was pleasant (or perhaps he was cursing us while smiling & laughing??) and I immediately scooped up the droppings in a plastic bag and felt as proud of Twig as I would a 2 year old going on the toilet for the first time.

One of the other things we will be adjusting to is the amount of street noise. It is not terribly intrusive if all the windows are closed but yesterday was warm and keeping them closed made it much too hot to sleep. We are sure to find some balance but for now we hear every car, bus, horn, scooter, motorcycle, siren and drunken person calling to their friends. For those of you who may visit one day, be warned and bring ear plugs. Also, pack a toothbrush in your carry on so as not to have to share with your travel partner should your luggage have the same fate as ours!

I have just reached that time of the day when my body says “Why are we awake?—it is 3:30 in the morning where we come from!” Being this tired may even make lying down on that slab the rental furniture company calls a mattress seem appealing. Just a wee little rest, we think………bon nuit!

Wedding gift for Amanda & Derek.
~acrylic paint, spray paint, decoupage on plywood~

The Biggest Heart

How old is old enough to die? Never, and certainly not early 60's. My auntie PK died yesterday. We got a call Thanksgiving evening saying she had been found unconscious earlier that day, and a brain scan indicated a "massive brain hemmorrage."

Our family uses the phrase 'silly goose', and PK was certainly that. She had a huge heart, especially for the underdog, and if she was on your side you had a friend, a champion, a bulldog on your team. She was Generous, Opinionated, sometimes Obsessive, and loved to laugh. PK loved treasure hunting and bargains and was an amazingly talented (self-taught? god-given?) artist. She was a sister, a mom, an auntie, a friend.

For many years PK endured much suffering with her health. The docs never seemed to be able to figure out what the problem was, yet she kept on through the overwhelming fatigue and incapacitating months-long headaches. My mom, her sister, says she was very brave and never gave up hope. At times she gave up some things, like opening her mail, but never hope.

We love you PK, and will deeply miss you.

Red Toenails; acrylic on canvas; 24" x 30" (i think)

Untitled as yet; acrylic etc. on canvas; 24" x 48"

ORCHID CHAIR
(a.k.a. "Keep an Open Mind About Chartreuse")
original; mixed media; 24" x 36"

For some reason lately I have found it even harder to post here to the blog. Perhaps it is due to the jacked up way in which one must go about getting a photo from iPhoto to a new post. I just hate it when the rules or process I have learned changes...imagine if every few months, or every time you got a new car, all the traffic rules changed! "So sorry ma'am, green now means STOP---didn't you read your new RoadRules Installation Manual? Oh, and if someone hits you from behind: your fault!"

This pic is of one of my recent paintings...one of the things I've been doing while not posting to the blog. There are other things I find it hard to do lately, some of which are:
mop the floors
cook (I'm assuming toasting bagels does not count)
write thank-you notes for thoughtful birthday gifts (you know who you are)
fold laundry
not be bitter and angry when it rains (today)
call anyone.

The good news is that i have been painting a fair amount, so will perhaps post another example soon-ish.

Tic Talk

Here is the finished piece I was commissioned to do through a connection Holly has (thankfully she was too busy to take the project herself, as she is the REAL artist, and if I knew more about computers I would insert a link to her website so y'all could see that for yourselves. I'd say something clever like go 'here' and the word here would be underlined and turn blue and when you clicked on it Holly's artwork would magically appear. Unfortunately we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way and you may go to dubdubdub dot hollysharp dot com). But enough about Holly, back to me!

So this piece was commissioned as a gift for a guy named Tic as part of the celebration of his 30 years at a parTICular organization. His colleagues (and friends?) were asked to submit three words describing him, and my job was to take that three-pages-long column of words/phrases and put each and every one of them onto the piece. I believe today is the day he was to be presented with the piece, so fingers crossed!

COMMISSIONED

My friend Danelle stages houses which are for sale and contacted me last week to give her a hand with a current project in Berkeley. She put me in charge of the custom artwork with generally specific instructions and 3 canvasses (is that the plural for "canvas"?). The instructions were the following 3 words with the corresponding description of an image, done in "70's-ish" font:
"fly" with 3 birds
"dream" with clouds, and
"hope" with a horizon.

Whaddaya think, did I nail it? Danelle thought so. And I thought it was SO FUN!

I am back to painting after traveling. It feels great! This one is intended as a wedding gift for Josh & Marilyn. I tried something new with it which I am quite excited about. From thrift stores I bought a bible, a dictionary and a hymn book, took out a few pages, sprayed them differing colors, then tore the shapes to make wings for the birds (adhered them with decoupage glue). So fun!

Mockba = Moscow
and
Ballerina inside a metro station.

Map of the metro.

One of many scowling Russians.

Moscow's version of Starbucks.

LAST NIGHT IN MOSCOW

Sorry John, but I actually hope tonight IS my last night, and day, in Moscow. Moscow and I just didn't "click" like say Paris and me or Florence and me. But (s)he started it!--(s)he just wasn't very nice to me right from the start. What with the film of dirt everywhere, the nasal-burning air pollution, the masses of people, the pushing masses of people, the scowling & pushing masses of smoking people, the busy and nearly indecipherable metro system, the lack of any language other than russian, AND the fact that they use an almost-entirely-different alphabet! When you don't even recognize the letters it becomes extra difficult to track words.

But we made the best of it, or at least the best we were able to make of it. We navigated our way around several times on the metro all by ourselves (and the 7 million other daily riders), meaning WITHOUT a russian-speaking guide, as some lightweights are known to use. Once we got the hang of it and understood how to determine the direction of the various train lines, it felt do-able, and is a seemingly comprehensive system---it has a lot of differing lines and stops anyway.

Observing some of the cultural differences and/or customs has been facinating. People park pretty much anywhere, including on the sidewalks and the rounded parts of street corners. Crosswalks are "use at your own risk" and on more than one occasion I watched drivers speed up to get into the crosswalk as people stepped off the curb. It appears perfectly acceptable to crowd and push in front of others when there is a bunch-up at say an escalator or a train. It's ok to drink beer or whatever on the street or the metro or wherever...it was odd to see people sitting on the train, beer bottle in hand. Thankfully the metro is one place smoking is not allowed.

Today we went to a well-known convent with more cool onion domes. Tomorrow Craig is off to Bucharest, and I am bailing and heading home!

Today I almost got eaten by a wolf!

OZZ F3ST COM3S TO MOSCOW!

Moscow sights.