ART, DRUDGERY, ROBOTS, AND DESPERADOS

Well, today was a tale of two halves. The first half was great. The second was frustrating. Early on, I was in my own element and feeling good. I even looked in the mirror and liked what I saw. Not in any narcissistic way (much), but I like the way I look. I like me. Anyway, I spent the early part of the day thinking a lot about going back to school, and about some of the great responses people gave to my last blog. Thank you all. Then I drove down to Dallas, to the Whole Foods Market, where my great friend, Amanda, was showing her wares at a big art show. She introduced me to the other artists as "a writer". I'll luv her forever for that! It was really fun to see all the wild painting, sculpture, jewelry, etc. and the artisans (many of whom were very attractive females!). Amanda has dyed her hair this outrageous reddish colour that, definitely, suits her. I really dug one of her paintings; a surreal sort of collage of images related to the elements. I loved it and I bought it. Eighty-five dollars. A small price to pay to support good friends and the arts. I wish I had a picture of it to display here, but I don't. I do, however, have a picture of Amanda with her funky new hair. I borrowed it from her blog. (Hope you don't mind, Mandy.) That's her, to the left. Isn't she cool? Dig those puckered up lips, the krinkled nose. It's like somebody farted. Anyway, I now have two Amanda originals, and I'm betting, someday, they'll be worth some money. Hang on to her, Jordo, she's a goldmine!
So that's the good part of the day. The bad part began as soon as I got to work.
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Then, after work, things got truly weird. I came right home and started blogging, but then I got a distressed phone call and I had to log off and go see what was afoot. A situation had arisen that had nothing to do with me, personally, but involved a desperate friend (musicians!) who needed help. He was asking a lot of me. Too much, as it turned out. I absolutely refused to do what he asked. That's about as much as I can say about it, except that I'm certain I made the right decision, and I earned my own respect (and his, too, I think) from how I handled things. Sometimes, you have to tell a friend that they've made their own mess and now they have to clean it up. Other times, you have to tell them that they're completely crazy, and they're stretching the limits of your friendship. This is all very cryptic, I know, but the episode was so unusual that I had to get out of there, pronto, and come right back home and finish blogging. Now I'm safe and sound with Rerun, my attack cat.