Friday was a big opening night for many of the Chicago area galleries and one of my favs was showing the work of Audrey Niffenegger. She's this amazing, prolific artist whose work is kind of mystical and dark and comic. The perfect mix of attributes. She places herself into almost all her pieces, a little self-indulgent, but her work is an expression of her inner thoughts and experiences, so why not? You have to see it to really appreciate it. The show is very thought provoking. In fact, it provoked me into buying two of the pieces. Going into debt for art seems like a noble thing to do. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to doing anything noble at all. Luckily, this particular gallery and I have a long standing relationship, so they "work" with me on payment arrangements. One must have connections when investing in art. Ha! My old friend Trish, who used to do their accounting and was my neighbor, introduced me to them and ever since they've been very accommodating.
I also got my bound MFA thesis back. I had no idea what it was going to look like. I thought, well, binding, what? like spiral bound? staples? a binder clip?! It's nothing brilliant but the lady in the liberal studies office handed me this book, like a real book-book, and I looked at it like . . . what is this? You want me to hold this? And then I realized it was my thesis! They made it look pretty cool. It's hard bound in dark green and has the thesis title and my name along the spine. I had my friend Sherri, who I work with, glue a postcard of one of Audrey's pix to the cover. If you're ever over, I'd be happy to show it off. Into poetry?
Here was the bad, very distressing, and drove me to drink (not that I need an excuse) part of the weekend. I have to give a little back story as I go into this. See, for the past few weeks, I had developed this wierd rash on both my arms and I couldn't figure out what was causing it. I thought it might be poison ivy, detergent, an allergy, something I ate, etc. Well, Saturday morning as I awoke and opened my weary eyes, my head was flat on the mattress and I saw these little things scurrying to and fro in front of my eyes. Getting the chills? I sat up and grabbed my glasses to get a better picture. The upper, right corner of the bed was crawling with little bugs! I jumped out of bed and began pulling back the sheets, slowly, so nothing suddenly jumped out. I sickeningly discovered my bed was infested with bed bugs. Did you're mother or father ever say to you "Don't let the bed bugs bite" as you went off to bed? Well, they really do bite. They're icky blood sucking vamps that feast on you while you sleep and then sneak away in the day. I can't believe I didn't know they were there for almost three weeks. I had to throw everything out. The bed (mattress, box spring), all my sheets, two pillows, my deco frame, and a bunch of old bags that were under the bed. I spent all of Saturday cleaning that room from floor to ceiling. On the upside (there is one, right?), I got rid of a lot of stuff I didn't really need. One the downside, I have no bed. I'm couching it for now. My sofa is pretty comfortable and I'm not ready to bring another bed into the house right now. I have to be sure the vamps are all gone. Anyway, I just agreed to buy art! Art/bed/art/bed . . . art!
By the time Sunday rolled around, I really needed to have some fun. Luckily, I had prearranged plans for the roller derby with my friends Charlotte and Linda. We were joined by a few others and had a blast. We began our outing at Arturo's, one of three 24/7 Mexican restaurants along Western Ave right next door to eachother. Margaritas, a haunted juke box, and the girls said the bathroom may have had a visitation too. I guess the toilet flushes itself.
After getting our buzz on, we meandered over to the Congress for the School Daze Showdown. It was The Fury vs. the Double Crossers and Smells Like Fish (aka The Manic Attackers) vs. Hell's Belles. Roller Derby is everything you might expect if you haven't been before. I hadn't but it made me think of being at a boxing match. Really loud. Groups of unusual people. Team signs and banners. Girls with kick ass names like Jackie Trip'her, Sadie Masochist, Ida Ho, Coco Bang Bang (loved her), Lucy Furr, Quiet Storm (loved her), Ana Mission (rocks!), etc. Booze of course, but really over priced. It's a vicious sport with lots of cattiness and camp, but what a riot. I highly recommend it as a start to the dreary work week.
Then, to top off the evening, we went to Margie's Candies for home-made ice cream creations! Mmmmm! I had a turtle sundae (3 scoops, hot fudge, caramel, nuts, whip, wafer, and a cherry). My friends all had other similar creations. As it happened, Margie's was my dinner Sunday night. Well, it makes sense to have a sundae on Sunday. I think it's okay, even required, to sub ice-cream for a sensible meal (aka my diet plan) on ocassion. Don't you?
