WATERBABY'S CIRCUS

Yes, it has been awhile. Nearly three months in Brazil, where it isn't always samba and sunshine. Winter storms, mindboggling bureaucracy, and a public transportation system that doesn't always go where you want to go; everything seems to take at least twice as long as it should. It all balances out though. There's lots of great stuff too. Like the art supply store and gallery that's not far from me here, Arte Cedraz . I've met some wonderful artists that I paint with every Friday. I decided to leave my watercolors back in the States this time, since it appears no one in this area works in this medium and quality paints and paper are hard to find. So it's been acrylics for awhile. The painting above was a small warm-up piece I did there. This represents a fairly typical rural scene, more commonly seen in the interior states like Minas Gerais.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah . . . . That's just me heaving a great big sigh of relief. Even though I know that that year-end blitz of too-much-to-do, too-little-time is coming, and try to downsize and minimize the stress factors, I still get caught up in it. Cards never got sent, packages didn't get mailed til after Christmas (it's in the mail, no really, you know how the Post Office is), and now I want to finish decorating, while everyone around me has all their assorted holiday crappage thrown out/packed away/put out on the curb. I guess I just move to a different (slower) beat. On a lighter note, after two months of eating like a sumo wrestler caught in a burning marijuana-field downdraft, I've lost three pounds since Sunday, after starting to eat more sensibly. No ice cream, no cookies. No white flour stuff, pasta, pizza. Just wanna lose another seven pounds. Time to get in shape for the annual migration to Brazil. Gotta dust off the old bikini. Figuratively speaking, of course...

Acrylic, 4x10" This is a small piece I did over the summer. The Bay Trail runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay, and this part of it lies between Berkeley and Richmond. The marshy area has been pretty much restored and is home to all kinds of birds and other things that like Bay wetlands. I miss the warm weather, I want to go outside and paint.

The annual jaunt to Mexico is going smoothly, Hurricane Rick made his threat and passed on, fizzling out into a "tropical depression". Glad I didn't do something sensible like cancel. Sometimes my gut instincts are right though mostly they just get me into trouble. There were clouds and light sprinkles when we touched down late Monday afternoon. The wind picked up in the night, and waves were crashing. Sandbags were waiting just in case, and in the morning, there wasn't a surfer or jetskier to be seen. Not even a cruise ship. I stayed inside, tracking the storm, catching up on some reading. More showers off and on, by Wednesday, it appeared that Cabo was out of Rick's path and bits of sky were appearing. But the storm had left Cabo with colors I hadn't seen here before: the clouds were purpley, and the water ranged from ultramarine blue to turquoise to almost a citrine green. And Cabo's famous rocks, instead of being rock-colored, had a blanket of gr...

Some of you may know I have a daughter in her senior year at UC Berkeley. She and her two kids have been living at UC Village, a housing complex for student families. So she's been in a position to know firsthand how difficult it can be to have to juggle not only your classes and studying and working but also the needs of a family. And she knows what disasters can happen when things like paperwork and computer records get fouled up and a student loan payment or grant doesn't arrive when expected. Then if student fees, including rent, aren't current, you can't sign up for the classes you need to be a full time student to qualify you for your next loan disbursement, and - then what? So many problems to get through, so much frustration and stress, but especially so if children are in the picture. Sometimes all you needed was to make it through another week, but how? Until just recently there was no safety net for these little emergencies that happened too frequently. Many ...