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.