Little Nerd

Little Nerd
first drawn in 2004

I've painted and drawn this little guy a number of times, as he has proven quite popular. I guess I know a lot of nerds. His part is severe, he thinks his digital watch is pretty cool, he buttons his shirt all the way up. Shy, but not antisocial, his quiet intellect and sensitivity will only be appreciated later, long after he's gotten too big to stuff in lockers.

packing it in

Mark has taken a great job opportunity in Washington, D.C. which means, for the second time in my life, I'm packing up and preparing to leave my hometown of Sarasota, Florida for an as yet unknown period. The first time was when I went to Japan just after college, and I knew I'd be gone for at least a year, longer if I stayed on in my ALT job (which I did for another year) or got hitched to a Japanese bloke (which, obviously, I did not, though not for want of trying).

Now, it's off to D.C. and whatever adventures ensue. I'm not sure what I'll be doing up there, though I have vague plans. I'll be acting as hostess for any visiting friends, for one thing. There is a camouflage makeup course up there that sounds intriguing. I'll also continue painting and, ideally, I would like to turn this into a more business type thing rather than just something I do here and there. No panic, though, I'll be able to get settled there first and tour myself around.

At the moment I'm focusing on just packing our stuff up, most of which is books. So many books, for a pair of bookworms!

dearly departed

Last week, dear Aja, mentioned in the previous entry, shuffled off to Buffalo. He was nearly 13 and had a pretty good life for a dog: all the laundry he could ever want to sit on, all the carrots he wanted to eat, a nice shell driveway to scratch his butt on, and the adoration of several otherwise reasonable adult humans. No other dog touched me the way Aja did, and he will be deeply missed. My mom and brother buried him under my apartment window (some of the last soft soil left on our oak tree-addled property), so I can say Good Morning and Good Night to him every day. Thank you for visiting, beloved Aja.