Leaving and Arriving

Yesterday morning Jen and I woke at Michal’s, located in idyllic, pastoral Idaho, Pennsylvania. There’s nothing to the town – it’s just one road through rolling farmland with a few houses. It is magnificent. I understand why she lives all the way out there in remote arcadia – beautiful green serenity.

Chocolate violin cake!

After coffee and the most amazing blueberry pastry (Michal, by the by, is a kitchen goddess. TRUTH!) we motored into the “big” town of Indiana in order to hit the Newman used book sale. It was, as forewarned, mammoth, with yard sale type prices. Yes, I bought way too many tomes to tote home – of course I did. Hi, my name is Donna and I'm a book addict. Helen will pick them up from Michal the next time she’s down visiting Daddy.

We then hit Caffe Amadeus for coffee and, yep, more pastries for our brunch with Pop. Diet? Yeah, I’m back on that Hell beast now, thanks.

Here’s the other thing we did on our Pennsylvania sojourn – we went to the University’s museum to see a retrospective of Jim Innes’ work. Jim was a beloved teacher and good friend. We’d fallen out of touch when I was in my tumultuous twenties. I’d always meant to get back in touch with him but he’s gone, like The Amazing Bob, on to Elysium. (Carole King’s tune is, naturally, playing my head now)

The show was amazing. A few pieces were transcendent AND the prices were strangely good – affordable for yurs truly even! I waffled, telling the gallery minder that I was interested but couldn’t commit to buying at the moment. I wanted purchasing info just in case I was able to harvest some extra bucks.

By the next day, Saturday, I was in a panic. I just GOTTA have at least one of the brill beauts that’d sparked me up.

There’s this one – nude riding a red bird with blueish angel-like wings. It’s fairy tale-like. Makes me smile. I want to live with it.

And this one: Free At Last, Psyche Undergoes Metamorphesis. DAMN, this one’s a dazzling mystery, a window into Jim’s head. There’s a story here and I wish to baby Bast I knew it.

Neither painting is small (red bird is probably in the neighborhood of 24"x36" and Metamorphesis is around 36"x50") and my wee cottage most def is. I WILL however find space.

I sent the gallery people an email saying that I def want to buy the red bird painting (I forget its title). Also, if Metamorphesis hasn’t sold by the time the show ends, I would like to know. Who knows, this autumn’s cabbage crop might be good. I also asked them to verify prices since they seemed too good to be true. Typo? Did someone forget a zero or two? HOPE NOT!

Haven’t heard back yet but it IS the weekend. Still, I hope both are still available.

Jen and I touched down in Boston at 7:30PM and were home to cats, Oni and our own respective beds by 8:30. It was a good and, as uszh, all too fast trip. GodDAMN I wish Daddy lived closer.