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Last Sunday mrguy and I had a few things we were interested in that were being sold at a local auction house. At the same time, we'd invited the mama and her caregiver over for lunch. Mrguy got the idea to put the live auction on the tv in the Kitchen-Den and we watched it while we ate.
There were several dozen lots of modern and contemporary art being sold, and you haven't lived until you’ve heard mom and her caregivers' responses to that art. They were hilarious. Of Frank Stella (a print that I *really* liked that a big black squarish object): "What’s that? What’s the thing for the barbecue? Coal? It’s coal. Mom and I are going to the store and get some coal for the barbecue and *BAM* seven thousand dollars!!"
Of a Wayne Thiebaud watermelon painting, starting price $70k: "Seventy thousand dollars? For a watermelon? Mom! Mom! We’re going to go get our watercolors and do a guava. Seventy FIVE thousand dollars." We all laughed so hard.
Meantime, Mom was describing how you could make hanging hardware that would let you hang a painting any way you want so if you get tired of looking at it one way you could rotate so you had another side hanging up. She should patent that.
Unbeknownst to them, mrguy and I were actually bidding on a few items, including one of their least favorite paintings, which I thought was beautiful. I am now the happy owner of a painting by an old neighbor of mine. From just the period I wanted. It was cheap.
And so fun. We will definitely do this again. The mama was very into it.
The last few weeks have been something. Rain. Rain. Rain. Discovering why the floorboards in the Lady Room closet were discolored when we bought the house (oh, it leaks in there). And some good stuff.
The Real Housewives and I got together in our home town. This is the first time I've been there with them since high school. The old place was looking pretty. I'd forgotten about all of the Art Deco buildings downtown. We ate lunch at the restaurant where we had our 50th birthdays. Completely delicious. Parking meters are freakishly cheap, but when you've got that much tax revenue, parking meters are probably there just to make sure people move their cars every once in a while.
At the factory, I discovered a new flavor of Torani syrup that is oddly compelling. I just open the bottle and smell it. Then I put it back. Also the head of our bigger company came to talk to us about things, which was super interesting and reassuring. He's the only person I've ever seen in person who had almost as much charisma as our former CEO.
Today there is a break in the rain. I'm going to the city to watch 8 hours of films about the Japanese Internment. They do this every year, but this year it seems like the important one, since our orange overlord probably considers incarcerating Americans as a viable option in the future.
I grew up with flat feet, in a family of people with flat feet. Ten years of waiting tables in cement-floored restaurants contributed to my bunion situation, and I have been ok with that.
My work now is a little more sedentary, except when I'm working in a museum. Then I'm on my feet all day and night. I cope by bringing a variety of shoes to keep my feet from being in one position for too long. Sometimes the best shoe is my tabi shoes, because it keeps my big toe in line, even thought it's basically like walking barefoot.
New, stabbing pain on the top of my foot took me to the podiatrist. I figured it was time for bunion surgery. Instead she fitted me for orthotics. I took pictures because the whole thing looked so weird.
This is the casting process. I never broke a bone as a child, so this is my first experience with plaster gauze:
And here is the casting. So deeply weird. I have the orthotics now. It's like walking on a rock. But I'll stick with it for a while.
52 days until our trip to Germany. Gotta get this foot thing under control!
