Surgery--Again

Always good to come home to good news. Been wondering how you were doing Roberta. Seems you are truly on the mend. (Will check in again. Trying to catch up with a million things.)

Ah. I just knew singing was next, Roberta!

This is wonderful.

And you drew a picture of dancing (as well as doing it), too!

Excellent!

Life is looking good!

Tai, Glad to see you back. Thanks for checking in.

olga, There's singing and then there's singing. But considering that I have no voice, it was close enough. The therapist recognized the tune and joined in.

Sheila just left. What a woman. What a friend.

She brought me a lamp. Yes, it's been dark here.

We moved the file cabinet out of the closet, so not only can I access my files again (and get organized), but I have reclaimed my closet. As a matter of fact, while I was sweeping the closet floor, I stomped the broom down and said, "I reclaim this land in the name of me."

A big metal file cabinet at the fringe of my living room doesn't look great, but it's FUNCTIONAL. Happy. (That's as close to a kvetch as I'm gonna get for now.)

FREEZE, you bums.

Nobody gets out till I find what I'm looking for.

I won't bore you with details, but I will say that my mother's breakfront is polished and shining, inside and out. I've got more storage space than I know what to do with.

I decided to display my beloved elephant collection. It's a wonderful collection with beautiful pachyderms of various sizes and shapes, made out of wonderful stuff (porcelain, crystal, teak, silk, soapstone, etc.). In typical presick Roberta fashion, I'm cleaning each elephant obsessively. Tush, trunk, don't forget behind the ears. I put them out on the ledge of the breakfront.

One is missing!

Which one? The JADE. That's which one. Nobody leave this room till I find the steekin' thing. I never woulda pegged you people for crooks.

I know I'm over the top. I know I'm obsessed. I know I'm in a drug-induced frenzy. Don't care. I'm viewing this as a return to menschdom. Living like a mensch.

(You will each be searched at the door.)

ok, me first...

i don't gotta bend over, do I???

you're making me want to clean my spare room now, B...

It's onyx, I swear. Don't look at me like that! (Besides, I don't know how it got in my pocket...)

No, RH, you don't gotta bend over. If that's where the elephant it, I'm not sure I want it back.

Tai, ooh. Lovely little onyx thing. Don't have onyx in my collection. Give back the jade, and I will not call the authorities.

(Just finished cleaning my father's elephants. They were never integrated into my herd.)

Must force myself to stop. Too much dust (wearing a mask).

I so relate to the elephant cleaning, or, in times of stress, not elephant cleaning.
You will find the missing one.

I don't care WHERE this cleaning frenzy comes from...it's WONDERFUL!!!


The sound of more storage space than I need is s symphony!!

And now you can SEE YOUR ELEPHANTS!!!


Yeehaw!

I do hope jadey appears.

That metal filing cabinet in the living space just sucks, eh?

I just a bought a screen to hide mine. I think I'll put the vacuum and stuff behind there too.

With all this art improv you're doing maybe you'll get inspired to paint that file cabinet and turn it into a magnificent avant garde piece of decor that anyone would love to have grace their living room.

Hey Boida

<holds hands up in air... "it wasnee me" >

ah, you sound good goil How ya doing now - did you stop the steroids???? Did ya find the Nellie yet?

Dancing art - you just gotta love that ... you're feeling the images... and imaging the feelings...

it's good a?

I can't draw or paint or ought like that - but I can feel a snapshot... I can feel this pic... no, I mean really FEEL it, or sense it, or something - it's soft, soft colours, it's like a velvet hat, or one of the candle lanterns that floats off... S-boy thinks it's got a sadness in it - I feel it's more dreamlike... hard to put it into words



when you do your art therapy - that's what you're doing - putting those feelings into strokes and colours ... it can be so liberating.

So glad you are in "clean" mode too - it sure does feel good when you brush away the cobwebs - figuratively ... and literally... it's cleansing.




A herd. We have an A2K herd - Barry The Mod and I talked about that when we watching a movie - have you ever seen Ice Age... Sid the Sloth says: "I don't know about you guys but we are the weirdest herd I've ever seen". Kinda sums up A2K - all different characters that seem to come together as a family - weird herd that we are

Anyhoooo - rambling now - just so glad to hear "you"





<we love (((Sheila)))! so pleased she is there for you>

Insert theme from Twilight Zone. Do-do-do-do, etc.

I decided to go through a box of pictures. A couple of prints. Some old photos.

One old photo. A stunning woman. Who is that. I stared. It was my father's mother.

Another old photo. A family portrait? Little girls (my grandmother had only sisters), a distinguished looking bearded man (my grandma's father was a rabbi) and the lady in the middle--ME!!!! Thud. My face (slightly different eyebrows). My hair (hers is slightly lighter). My expression. My nose. In a black dress and corset from the nineteenth century. ME!!!!! Second thud. I thought I took after my father's side of the family. I'm in the steenkin' picture!

Maybe my cousin Howie can shed some light on this. He's older than me. Maybe he knows something. I guess I'm the spitting image of my great grandmother. My face in the picture. !

Oooohhhh!!! Any way you can post it here???????

It's huge and ancient, in a frame. Not likely to be posted anywhere.

I'm guessing that the photo is from around 1880 or 1890. Maybe a lot earlier. My mother's mother is a girl in the picture. My mother was born in 1911. My cousin Robin's grandmother is a child. She's the only one I recognize for sure.

You GOTTA bring it to lunch!

Or dinner.

I got so nuts seeing my face in an ancient picture that I forgot to respond to what people said.

Butrfly, I have no artistic talent whatsoever. And I wouldn't paint over the cabinet I spent so much time cleaning.

Deb, the reason the cabinet was moved to the closet is that it was so unsightly. But now I'd rather have it at the fringe of the living room than taking up space and being nonfunctional in the closet. I'm already using that closet again. Haven't gone near it for years. A walk-in closet I can actually walk into.

The photo is a shock. Sure, I'll be glad to schlep a 120-year-old photograph to lunch. Why the hell not.

Izzie, I shouldn't be taking them, but I have a few steroids left, and I don't want to be wasteful.

It's clear from your photographs that you feel what you are shooting. I can't relate to them in that way. I see something beautiful and delicate. And I can't relate that way to the images I draw. It's the process of drawing that I'm connected to less than the result.

Take a good look at your photo, girl. What colors did I paint dancing? Pink, green, and magenta. Small world, huh?

Yes, we're a kind of herd. When I was looking for my elephant, I thought about the people on a2k--as if they were here, somehow. A definite weird herd that is very present.

I found the jade elephant. I apologize for falsely accusing you fine people of theft. I'm rotten to the core.

Of course you found it. On these matters, a high level of exasperation is required.

And achieved.