doll revolution

Twice a year, I get to buy a doll. Savage Mill hosts a doll-and-teddy-bear show in March and September. So on Sunday, while everyone else is recovering from their St Patrick's Day hangovers, I'll be mulling over my doll choices. Last year, I got a cat doll dressed in a pale blue frock and hat with feathery boa.

Doll collectors can be a little...um...strange (read: picky). Unless it's something unusual and/or fabulous like the above-mentioned cat doll or my two slightly eerie-looking clown dolls, I usually go for dark-haired lady dolls in fancy dresses. I've no idea why - I assume it's the uber-girly coming out in me.

I have a respectable collection, and no, it doesn't take up the entire house. My dolls are all on top of my entertainment center, with the exception of the clown dolls, which are on my fireplace mantle.

I've been to the doll factory in Williamsburg, though I don't know if they'll let me come back. The last time I was there, the sales lady was rather miffed at me because the doll I eventually chose to buy was "one of last year's models." It's not like you can tell.

Perhaps in my retirement years I'll run a doll hospital (a repair shop for dolls). How fun would that be?

choose-your-own-chick-lit-adventure

I really like the concept of this book. It's the story of a woman presented with a choice of relationships. Instead of following just one of those choices, the book follows what would happen with each choice, side by side. Kind of a parallel universes sort of thing.

The point of the book isn't really which choice she makes, but more the results and consequences of each choice. All relationships have results, consequences, ups and downs, strong and weak features. I guess there is no ideal perfect one - it's a matter of making the best of whichever choice you go with and accepting its effects.

It's a hefty book - 500 pages. Just my kind of tome to read. If I can get through the last three Harry Potters and The Historian and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and The Witching Hour, this one should be no problem. It comes out in May, I think.

paint and chicken and red shoes

Life update:

My usual watercolor teacher seems to have disappeared. She didn't have any classes this past spring or fall, which is unlike her. Where are all of us regular students supposed to go? Where did she go? I hope she's okay.

So I broke down and signed up for a Saturday watercolor class that starts at the end of April and runs for a couple of months, and I feel odd because I'm really looking forward to it. I guess painting teachers are like hairstylists - once you find one you click with, you feel guilty going to anyone else.

I broke down again and used part of my tax refund to buy a new set of brushes - a whole set: rounds, flats, washes, fans, details; quite the splurge. Now THAT I don't feel guilty about one bit.

I may have found a cello teacher, so squeaky, horrible-sounding practice may be commencing soon. Part of my bonus is paying for that.

Still waiting to hear if I got into the library science master's program. Not hearing anything makes me nervous. (Did I mention that Neil Gaiman recently wrote that he loves librarians unconditionally? - only Gwen could fully appreciate this) If I don't get into that one, I've got a creative writing master's program to apply for as a back-up; although I wasn't planning to do that one until after the library science one. The only reason I have this self-doubt is because one of my friends didn't get into the Hopkins biomed engineering program, and we all thought it was an absolute sure thing that she'd get in, so it's shaken up all of us prospective grad students. (They have an interesting-looking medical and biological illustration grad program.)

I've decided that if TAI SOPHIA ever opens up their acupuncture and/or botanical medicine programs to part-time students, I'd do those too (how many master's degrees are too many?). I'd even tack on the Chinese medicine certificate program along with it. Such a neat place - if they ever needed a librarian or a writer, I'd be theirs in a heartbeat.

Jane and I talked the VP into letting us host a green tea party at work next Friday, since it's the day before St Patrick's Day, another VP has given me a somewhat vague but possibly interesting alternative medicine research project, Gwen has come back and broken our incompetent editor curse, I've written way too many more sell sheets than is good for me, and gourmet-cook-disguised-as-science-guy Bob wants me to co-present with him on oncology and acupuncture.

I found a DVD version of Thoroughly Modern Millie on sale, and now I've got the theme song stuck in my head. (An aside: funny how fashions change - there were the super-high-waisted empire dresses, and then the super-low-waisted flapper dresses, and BOTH could be worn with long beads. How 'bout that?)

I found shoes to go with my red, empire-waisted, spaghetti-strapped maid-of-honor dress, got addresses for the bridal shower invitations, and got Bob (yes, same Bob) to agree to cater for the shower.

AND I found a spicy peanut topping for roast chicken that I've not tried yet, and wouldn't you know it? I had a spare chicken in the fridge, which is now happily sizzling in the oven, and it already smells good. I'm getting really good at roast vegetables too. I'm not sure I can hold out until 6:15 when it'll all be done.