So around 3:00 today all Important Files were off my desk so I could get to work in ernest, making business cards to leave out at this reception tonight. Yes the chair I have been painting lo these many days is done. I brought it up to the gallery in Thornes during lunch and there were two other chairs there and well, I think mine outshone them both. I'm just saying. I made the text of the business cards in Quark, 8 to a page with a half-inch margin around each, and then I did a different doodle on each of the 8. Then I went to Paradise Copies, where Lord Russ helped me print my stuff onto ivory cardstock. He was wearing his "Ning" t-shirt, which has a photo of young Henning and "ning" written all over it. And of course he didn't charge me a thing. Northampton will be a less groovy place after Russ leaves.
Anyway, P is coming to this reception thing, though he is very busy and tells me about that a lot. I shouldn't complain, really. He threw a birthday party for me last night and it was very sweet. It was a semi-surprise in that I knew when it was and that other people were coming, but no other details. At the last minute he told me, "You have to go out and get ice and Cokes, I forgot them!" and I knew it was a ruse but I played along. A came with me and as we were walking thru the Big E she kept on stopping to remark on things to drag out the time. "Oh look at these Thomas's Waffles, they're all spongey and weird! Hey, have you ever had these frozen sausage things? They're really good." When we came back the living room was decked in balloons and streamers, and T had set up paper plates of party favors for everyone: Playdough, plastic cowboys and indians, and Blow-loons. Actually I think these were B'loonies, but Blow-loons is the best name for a product ever. Dennis and Lauren and Max and Anya and Penny all showed up. It was sort of a quiet time but fun anyway. We grilled. There were scallops and shrimp and pasta salad. I got great gifts from everyone. Among other things, P gave me a book about Step-parenting. (apparently when P told A he had bought it for me, she made a kind of sad/cute "aww" noise. I'm not sure what exactly that means, since such a gift can be taken in several different ways. Like giving a fat person a dieting book: What, you think I'm fat? In his defense, though, I had told him my therapist recommended I get a book on parenting teens... but I don't think A knows that) I stayed up late last night reading it, forcing myself not to fall asleep, sure that on the next page I'd find exactly the answers and advice I was looking for. Instead there was a lot of validation of my feelings of competition and frustration, which was nice and makes me fel less crazy. But mainly the book tells couples to See a Counselor. Anyway, I got into bed after 1:00 and couldn't sleep until Philip got up around 6 a.m. I got up at 8:00 and was extra late for work. Oh well.
I took photos at the party and of the painted chair but I can't upload the photos until P teaches me how to do it and he's withholding that info from me in a frustrating way.