Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Fortune Cookie: It is a nice day.



This is my entry for the Small Format Art eBay group's monthly theme week. The theme is masks, and the title of my piece is 'The Mask of Self-Deception', something I, of course, know nothing about. I put a price of $2.99 on it on eBay. It was fun to do.

Well, someone's been reading my blog, anyway. A woman named Pat Jacques, formerly Beal, whom I lived next to all through my childhood, emailed me, having somehow found me through this blog, I guess. It was a little startling to see her email come in; it's been so many years since I've seen her--around 15, I guess. I haven't heard back from her yet, but I can't wait to hear what's happened in her life. Most of us have a few twists and turns, I guess.

A couple of other exciting things have happened in the past week, one good, one bad. The good thing is that a woman who's on two of my Yahoo email lists posted that she was having her first solo show at Windham Arts. I thought, could there be two? So I emailed her, and, sure enough, it's the Windham Arts on main street in Willi, and she lives in the area. She invited me down to the gallery Friday, when she would be covering it for the afternoon. So I went.

She had some great stuff, but the thing that surprised me was that I didn't think any of it was absolutely beyond my capabilities. She herself had only started working in art about 3 or 4 years ago. She was very nice and very encouraging. I left there all fired up and completed (well, almost) a piece that had been stagnating for six weeks. I'm pleased with it, too, which is always a good thing.

The bad thing is that I arrived at my therapist's house this morning to find that Pat and Cathy had just themselves arrived home from the hospital. Pat was driving into the sun, which was flickering in her eyes, and she had a grand mal seizure. It wasn't her first, but she hadn't had any in a long time. Now she'll probably have to go back on Depakote, which she stopped taking because it exacerbated her osteoporosis. She's 75 and very healthy, but that's still a little scary. She's just a great woman and I've grown very fond of her.

I'm up and down and all over the place. Haven't been this labile for a while. Partly it's from hearing from my ex that my son is not being well-treated in Hartford Correctional. He's had a jaw abscess now for several months, and he's not being appropriately medicated or adequately treated. They're also stalling on getting him the physical that will clear the way for his transfer to Lebanon Pines. The trip that the PAIMI advisory council made last week to interview Garner inmates convinces me more and more that DOC and the state in general view prisoners as subhuman, not worth adequate food or medical and psychiatric treatment. Adam's father has hired an attorney to see if they can be made to shape up a bit. I'm very tempted to give the commissioner an earful. It was clear the day she came to the PAIMI Council meeting that she views us as pains in the ass. I don't have a problem with that. I'll be very happy to live up to her idea of me.

I think I'm going to write a book, if I have enough time left. It's all coming together. Annie Dillard mindset, my own illustrations with some of John's photos. Since there are many chemo-induced blank spots in my memory, it'll have to be vignettes, short stories from my life and the lives of my family and others close to me. I might use the F word. Hmmm.

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