Doug Visiting

Doug is visiting from Cali. He had an interview in Baltimore Monday with Catholic Social Services, same group Jacqui interviewed with last year and that she turned down because they expect 80+ hours of work per week. Doug says if he goes, he will work 9 to 5, period. Good for him. Well, I hope he gets an offer and decides to take it. It would be great to have them living nearby. Kind of funny coincidence in a way, since I've been spending so much time recently looking at Tracy Helgeson's work and her blog. Well, I wanted to add an image of heres here but can't figure out how to do it. Sigh.
Anyway, she lives somewhere in upstate NY, which means only Not New York City... they're so city-centric, those people... I found her through a gallery In Groton and thought she might live near there, but it's somewhere else, really up-state, I think, not side-state like Ithaca. Anyway, here is Doug and we all used to share a house in WEST Groton, not too far away. I remember being over in Groton one day and coming back to our big Victorian farmhouse in West Groton, and I could see that there was a blizzard coming, literally, and that it was going to be a total white-out situation. I barely made it home.
I ran around yesterday doing all kinds of stuff --- dropping off slides for duplicates and CD, plus getting the new little quilt photographed there at UPhoto, going to College Park tennis to see if anyone had turned in the turq. sweatshirt I stupidly left behind the other night.... NO, someone has stolen it ... which is too bad, 1) because I liked it, great turq. color, 2) it had been Steve's father's. So I feel esp. bad about that. Then I got the car washed -- covered with pollen, which will just repeat repeat for the next couple of weeks. Then to the post office to mail in an application for a show.. but no, I had to go to the bathroom, and there would be no bathroom at the post office, so where to go? Have lunch, but where in downtown Silver Spring? I was coming around Spring Strret to Georgia on my way to the PO and decided just go to the Woodside Deli. So that's what I did. Had a falafel, where they cleverly cut the pita into 4 pieces and let me assemble it myself instead of stuffing everything in a whole pita and it being too big to get into one's mouth. Plus a choc. malted. Sigh.
Then after that to the art supply store to get some oil sticks. I really want to try painting but am not ready for the whole oil preparation thing that seems to go on with oil painting. The colors were pretty limited, but I can give it a try.
Then I wanted to check out Pyramid Atlantic, that I had been told by a lady at the ArtDC show to definitely check out. And there it was, almost across the street from the art store, where I've NEVER noticed it. But it looked so ratty, hardly any cars in the parking lot, and I was feeling really tired, so I didn't stop.
Went home and yes, Doug called and he was in Columbia, only about 20mins. away, so so much for a nap, though I did lie down on the couch. We went off to a movie, after much reading of the little blurbs in the paper, and picked one in Bethesda, The Namesake, about an Indian family who come to the US. We all liked it a lot. And there was this one scene with a fabulous painting on the wall that I WANTED. Huge. Gold yellow background, rough painted leaves, with big rough painted parrots all over it. Afterwards, we went to Jaleo for dinner... lovely evening, and everything we had was yummy, along with Sangria, which I haven't had in ages, AND paella, which I've been having a craving for for weeks, but the paella was only so-so.
Then we went to Barnes & Noble and I spent a ton on books. Sigh. Have to get reading. Plus a crossword puzzle book, which already seems like it will be too easy --just filling in the blanks, which gets boring. It said Challenging!