October 9, 2023: You Must Remember This....

I've been home almost two weeks.  It's funny to see the things I keep thinking about.

*MY FAVORITE LINES from the painting workshop:

1)     (The teacher, describing the rules of still life) - Everything has a light side and a dark side. (Beat.) Just like people.

2)     (A student describing past teachers whose admonitions were unhelpful) – He said, “Just paint what you see!” Then he looked at my painting and he said, “See faster! See better!”  

3) This exchange:

        Painting student A:  I don’t like arugula.

     Painting student B:  You like arugula.

A:  I don’t.

B:  You’re a lesbian. You live on Vashon Island. You like arugula.

(Actually, both A and B were lesbians. Maybe you had to be there. It brought the house down.)

*LINES THAT BOMBED:

We ate every lunch and dinner together, family style. It became a joke that I had a tendency to amass forks, mainly by hanging onto serving forks. This quirk is neither conscious nor purposeful; I also hang onto pens. I may have a deep-seated fear of being fork-less or pen-less, so once I get one, I keep it. (A savvy colleague used to walk into my office and take pens from my desk while I was sitting there. He was just reclaiming them.)

In any case, at one point, I had five forks. The guy across from me laughed and then looked down to see that he had three. I said, “See? It’s catching!”

The woman next to him, a sweet Southern lady, said, “You two could have a Fork Up!”

I said, “Technically, Betsy, I believe the term is a Fork Off.”

Betsy did not talk to me much after that.

*THINGS I (RE-)LEARNED:

I am an acquired taste.

I am deeply grateful for all those who are used to me, and cut me loads of slack.

*THINGS I LEARNED:

There is such a thing as soap made with snail slime. And there are charming elderly ladies with terrific skin who will try to sell you a bar, propounding its amazing ability to make YOUR skin look just as good. And you will NEVER KNOW if it's true, because you will have left your purse behind in your room when you left on this excursion.