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Button Sunday

These buttons are very much like a larger collection of buttons from 1960-1970 that I saw today at the Menil Collection’s exhibit Lessons From Below: Otabenga Jones & Associates. The exhibit presents “African-Americans creating their own sense of identity, drawing on historical civil-rights and black-power images of the 1960s, socially conscious hip-hop of the 1980s, and contemporary black culture.

“For this project, the group searched through the Menil’s ‘treasure rooms’ and other storage and archival areas to create a hybrid exhibition-classroom-performance piece. The material on view include[s] masks, headdresses, and figures from the Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya and other African nations; sketches from Ellsworth Kelly’s massive ‘Tablet’; slave-trade documents; a bronze bust of Paul Robeson; a Joseph Cornell box; a Surrealist landscape by Yves Tanguy; Andy Warhol’s silkscreened portrait of Chairman Mao; lapel buttons commemorating political and sports figures; photographs, including selections from Emil Cadoo’s ‘Harlem’ series and Henri Cartier-Bresson’s portrait of Malcom X; memorial memorabilia honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Walter de Maria’s stainless steel ‘High Energy Bar’; and maps of Africa” among other items.

I’ve mentioned before that the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel are two of my favorite places in Houston.

I was at the Rothko Chapel today while they were preparing for this event. It was quite stirring to hear their voices practice their chanting while I was visiting my beloved paintings. No photography is allowed inside either the chapel or the museum, but I’ve included photos of the area behind a cut.

click here for photos

Because Mark needs a Saturday smile

I was so annoyed with myself for not getting the one where she’s wearing the black gown. I got this one, though. I can’t remember if I bought her myself or if someone bought her for me. She’s from Mattel, 1997.

There was simply no one like the original and never will be.

Who’s she talking about?

On writing

Writers don’t have lifestyles. They sit in little rooms and write.
Norman Mailer

The last of Mark G. Harris’s Twelve Questions for Writers is here. As one of the writers you chose, I have to thank you again, Mark, for giving me much to think about.

Or steal.

The Compound Dogs offer a Public Service Message

The Compound Dogs are here to wish you a very happy and safe Halloween and to remind you of a few things they learned from the Humane Society about the holiday.

with photos, of course!

AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIGHHHHHHHH

Life needs to SIMMER DOWN around here. Today I had so many errands to run and I just turned off the phones and the computer and did them. On the way, I treated myself to the one indulgence that always, always lifts my spirits.

Guinness ignores my newly pedicured toes.

When I finally got back home to stay, I saw a box on the porch and…well, I BLAME ALL OF YOU. I haven’t bought one of these things in years. YEARS! Probably twelve years! But when doing posts about them to get accurate information, I happened to see this on eBay and I bid on it. Okay, I didn’t. I paid the BUY IT NOW price because it was cheaper than its original retail price. And today, it came.

any purchase can be rationalized by the words ‘on sale’

All my efforts notwithstanding…

I haven’t been able to lure Mark G. Harris online to smile at me even with summery photos and two-headed Lisa or my special agents.

I’m giving it one final shot.

Tonight, when I took some of Tom’s homemade chicken and dumplings to the hospital, Tim and I improvised a setup so that I could wash his hair. Because he has clean hair for the first time in a week (and I have blue fingernails from his hair dye–which turned the water in the basin a lovely color, by the way), he allowed me to take photos while he was talking on the phone to Jim. Or maybe he was too distracted to strike the camera from my hand and hiss at me.

I chose these particular shots so that Mark will know that the post office was wrong, and the boxes arrived. Thank you, Mark. Have I remembered to tell you lately that I adore you, not only for your generosity, but for all the ways you cheer up Tim? You’re the best.

Button Sunday Plus

I called Tim earlier to see what’s going on. They took him for more x-rays at two a.m., but he hasn’t seen a doctor today to know what that means. It would be great if the chest tube could come out today, because if all goes well after that happens, maybe he could come home as early as tomorrow. I’m not getting my hopes up again though.

more miscellaneous stuff here

Pretty Sweet

I just stood up from my computer and turned around to see this behind me.

Lindsey and Rhonda, do you know why Sugar’s not on the home office couch with Margot, Guinness, and Rex? Because she’s curled up on MY side of the bed next to Tom. She always waits for an invitation, but once offered, she sleeps on the bed all night. In fact, sometimes it’s Tom, me, and four dogs on a queen-size bed.

Fortunately, Margot stays curled in a little ball under the covers at my feet, Sugar stays curled up in a little ball behind Tom’s knees, Guinness stretches out in different places and can always be found by her light snore, and Rex only visits before sleeping on either of two couches, in either of two chairs, or in either his or Sugar’s crate in the dining room (their crates are there while Tim’s in the hospital). Sometimes when I’m cooking, I glance into the dining room to see Margot in Rex’s crate and Guinness in Sugar’s crate. Rex and Sugar are both more than happy to share.

They’re an official pack now. I just wish their pack leader could come home.

Leader of the pack with Rex a year ago, around the time of Rhonda and Lindsey’s wedding.
Happy anniversary to you two across the world in Thailand! I’m loving the photos.

Various

Lynne, look! From Thailand:

There are also photos of BARBIES. Oh, yeah, and Bangkok. To see Lindsey’s photos so far, the set is right here.

Tim: Still in hospital.
Rexford: Pining for Tim.
Sugar: Angelic.
Margot: Equally angelic.
Guinness: Hungry.
Tom: Taking That Old Woman to get her flu shot.
Me: Cooking homemade beef stew and cornbread, homemade beef and veggie soup, and homemade chicken noodle soup BECAUSE I WANT TIM TO COME HOME.

The post I meant to do on Monday

Some of you knew, and some of you may have guessed, that I spent the past twelve weeks working a contract/temp job back in the corporate world. I don’t mind dabbling now and then in that realm as long as I know it’s not permanent. Especially if I’m editing and proofreading, I love the work–and the money’s good, too. Of course, I had plans for that money, and fate dealt The Compound a few crises with different plans, but what the hell. At least the crises didn’t send me into debt, and I was able to pay off some other stuff, so it’s all good. I’m pretty sure I’ll eventually get the camera I want, and in the meantime, the camera I have does the job.

This last gig wasn’t editing and proofing, however. I was filling in for someone who was out on twelve weeks of maternity leave (Hi, Lori! Hi, baby Avery!) doing work in a field in which I have little knowledge. With good training, I was able to grasp it well enough to do the job, and I had a patient boss–as shown by the way she put up with me when I threatened to call the union on her for any possible reason I could think of. (“What do you mean we’re out of sheet protectors? You’re not providing the materials I need to do my job. Union!” “That open drawer is a tripping hazard. Work conditions are unsafe. Union!” “Scan this? OMG, this place is a sweatshop! Union!”) I tried to get my two coworkers to go along with me, but they seemed to LIKE their boss and their jobs. They also seemed to think that they don’t actually belong to a union nor is any union associated with their jobs or their company. Whatever. I’ve never been one to let reality get in the way.

Even though, beginning this week, I’m not there anymore, I plan to remain an outside agitator. I left them this picture to remind them not to give in to The Man:

Seriously, I had a productive, positive twelve weeks working with three terrific people and getting to know several other people in the company (who’ll be getting a full set of our/my novels to pass around and hopefully enjoy). I was able to get a little more accomplished on the next Coventry novel on the weekends, and fortunately, I also have a wonderful editor who understood (twice, now) that I needed more time to write the book I want to write. As soon as Tim gets back home (man, I hope that’s today), I plan to hunker down here at The Compound and revise and finish the novel. I’m close!

Thank you, Lynne, Debbie, and Clara, for making work fun, for being patient with me, and for letting me be a little goofy. Lynne–you always find ways to come through for me when I need it, just as you do for all your friends. Debbie, it was great to get to know you. And Clara, you’ve long been one of the people who encouraged my writing, and it was good to have the chance to know you better. If I ever wanted to be in the corporate world permanently, I’d definitely want it to be with y’all.

Lynne, Debbie, and Clara on my last day of work. I figure they’re thinking,
LORI never makes us pose for photos in the pumpkin patch. UNION!