deusexmachina

icmn's mom said:

December 17th Saturday 8:30 pm drinks at the new Pearl Jazz Club on
2nd Street Eureka to celebrate my 50th
December 21st Wednesday The Solstice. I am 50, means not a hell of a
lot and a great deal at the same time. i must now change my 4s to 5s.
December 22nd Thursday I drive with my best friend...Nikita the Akita
to hopland. We stay over night in a spendy hotel room at Fetzer
because, well now, 50 will mean a lot. Atleast till year's end.
Arrive Berkeley 23rd...sleep in Richmond hills or chez Ian on Tyler
24th/25th Do the dysfunctional dance at M and P's. Hallmark
holiday...emotions high. I pretend none of it bothers me...secretly i
am keeping notes for a therapist if i ever decide to see one.....
Return to Berkeley till January 1st. I eat breakfast lunch or dinner
with Mel and Rainey. Rainey and I walk a few times for atleaast 5
miles so I can get in shape for my alpine ski trip in April in the
French alps.
Sleep study with Ian at Children's Hospital on the 29th. Get reminded
that my son is terminally ill...then i remember that that is not news
and we run out happy and laughing at all the baloney. We celebrate the
New Year...we are alive and still laughing at our own personal humor.
January 2nd I am in L.A. seeing friends and then driving to Tucson
with my pal Ron...car trip till the 8th...
Blast back to Humboldt by the 10th when the German arrives to break my
heart. But i am stoic and know that being a buddhist is impossible. we
write cards jointly to his wife Claudia to tell her we think she
should have come instead of him...Markus and I welcome the distraction
of Mel and Rainey, our ol' friends from the day my tooth was pulled by
a charming young dentist somewhere in south Lake Tahoe just before
completing day 14 on the back of the yellow BMW 750. Mel and Rainey
have us in great fits of laughter...life is some funny dance we all
just sort of roll through depending on your day.
Markus flies out a week later and I paint 5 brilliant oils. Vey
abstract. My emotional outcry. Best work ever. i am exhausted and
pleased and pained.
Fly to Mexico on the 4th of February for 10 days with my scottish
girlfriend Gil...Her brilliance reminds me that life is always a glass
half full (even comppletely full) when we have the friends that keep
us going.
February 18 and 19th Gil gives a great workshop at the Ink People in
Eureka on Book repair (she was a book repairer at St. Andrews
University for 25 years). She does a fabulous job. Many people have
given her personal family treasures to do. She decides that since she
makes a wee bit of pocket money in coming that she will bless us with
her presence every year. Perhaps Mel and Rainey have stayed that
weekend and enjoyed the workshop too....we have lazy dinners by the
fireside and drink either good wine or fabulous single malt scotch and
practice our penny whistles that they tried to take at the security
gate when flying out on that cheap plane to south of the border.
Then i finish all the required paintings for the April 1st show at
Piante Gallery.
Again Mel and Rainey have joined me. Mel decides he has to be a
reporter at large and gives me an incredible review. I love him
forever for this and promise to make them a better than average bed
and breakfast breakfast. maybe i'll throw in a little irish steel cut
oats or something. Well....
life just goes on and on like this. the b and b is yours. you can come
when i am here or not, though the first round would help me in showing
you how the bits and pieces work...
then i will just give you a key and calendar...
Can you tell i think you two are keepers???
cheers,
jen