Mar 8 2021

In my defense, February was a very short month

Rosemary

… A short month, also suddenly filled with new and immediately urgent things to do, as well.

To wit: I’m moving!

My sister’s plans to take to the road and live the nomad life meant that I had to find my own place to live. I wanted to stay in town, or nearby, because I have this office space, which I dearly love. But since I do have the office, and spend most of my time there, my actual living space needs are quite modest.

Luckily. Because, have you seen apartment rent rates lately? Yow.

I’ve been looking for a while, and an affordable studio finally became available. And now I have all that to do! A lot of throwing out of no-longer-needed items will take place, given that the place is so very small; also, many sessions of hauling things across town. Not to mention buying a bed! That must be done.

January was such a great month for writing, for me; but now I’m hanging on to it by my fingernails, so to speak, as I deal with Real World necessity. It should all quiet down once I’m in my place, snug and warm.

Another distraction (but a welcome one): I’ve been auditing an online class on Natural History illustration from the University of Newcastle, Australia. It was writer pal Laurie J. Marks idea, and we’ve been doing it together. She’s putting in many more hours of practice that I’ve been able to, some of her work has become just astonishing. I’m limping along with the time I have, but it’s been great fun, and illuminating.

 

Yeah, but they were doomed anyway.

I murdered four roses to do this

Also, it’s a good study for how Steerswomen see and think, right?

Other news: I got my first Covid vaccination. The experience has been pretty seamless — the town actually contacted me, out of the blue, once I became eligible. This in contrast to my many friends in big cities, who can’t seem to get an appointment for love or money, as the saying goes. But I’m scheduled for the second dose already.

One more thing: As ever, I’m late to the party on this one, but if you have not seen Derek DelGaudio’s “In and Of Itself,” currently streaming on Hulu, do it now. I can’t say too much about it, because finding out what it is and what it means is part of the artistic experience. I’ll just say that it’s a film of the live performance of a one-man show that was performed off-Broadway over 500 times, and it is a work of heartbreaking genius. I do not use those words lightly.

More later.

Oh, and I’m trying to catch up on my emails, so… some of you might hear from me.