THINGS TO DO WHEN YOUR UNEMPLOYED

1. Do some marketing for sister-in-law's new store: The Mint Fashion Exchange. Got her all hooked up online and with an ad.
2. Take professional photos of artist's installation at LACMA. Diaz rocks.
3. Plan for trip to Ireland/Scotland/Holland. Yo Yeah!
4. Make lots of delicious and sinful desserts, like coffee ice cream (I added a hint of cinnamon).
5. Go swimming a lot.
6. Help husband with an art handling job at Tishman Speyer.
7. Apply for unemployment and send resume out. So much fun.
8. Try to figure out what are the most important things in life.
9. Spend too much time on Facebook.
10. Watch Bill Moyers. He rules!
11. Read Murakami's Wind-up Bird Chronicles and love it.
12. Celebrate my mom and Bettie's blue ribbons in the Iowa State Frickin' Fair!!
13. Freak out over the Olympic opening ceremony performances and watch the fish Michael Phelps win 8.
14. This list could go on and on and on....

HIGH SURFLINER

On my first day of freedom (Aug 2) after the gallery closed Jonathan and I went up to Santa Barbara to a good-bye party for funny guy Allen Hurlbert. He left for a faculty position at UNC, which is so far away. Jamie and Sus convinced me to stay over with them and help make interior design decisions for their new faculty house at Cate. It was fun. We made a huge train track around their family room with Willy's toys... and made lots of progress on their furniture and artwork arrangements. It's paradise up there.

ANYWAY, I took Amtrak's Surfliner from paradise to LA. I sat on the top level facing the ocean and it was the best trip. Sus was going to give me reading material for the trip, but so glad that didn't happen. Started with a random girl near a campsite snoozing in a sleeping bag in the middle of a field of brush near the tracks. The light. The colors were at an all-time high. Then, there was the kite surfers and the big banana at the Ventura County Fair. Next, rows of perfectly planted beans and subdivisions before the collections of wood palates, storage units, mobile homes and oleanders lining the tracks. Enter smog. Approaching our 'hood, I see project houses I didn't know about, a crazy metal materials yard/business and finally the men's jail. In the train gate hallways there's a man with an ankle tracking devise and a woman and child running with absolute glee. While waiting for Jonathan, follow the music I heard and run across the street to historic Olvera Street, where there was a beautiful 'traditional' Aztec drumming performance with dancers in full regalia, and around the corner more music by a Mexican band. I had sensory overload by the time I got home. I feel I travelled more than the 82 miles that day.

MORNING'S IFFY FISHY WRIST

This damn RA is a pain in the... wrist. Woke this morning to some major pain. Can't bend my wrist forward or back too far. Daily tasks blow up to almost unmanageable proportions and it takes focus and determination to pour the coffee, spread the jam, pluck the eyebrow. I've been away from my swimming routine for a week and wonder if that's the difference. Hopefully enbrel's effect is not waining. Or, maybe it's sympathy pains for Mom's broken wrist. Hmmm.

Pat lightens the day by sending the photos of their fishing trip to Michigan. My two brothers (Pat left & Sean right) and Sean's boys. So excellent.