MiT, 1st senior, day 17

Met with my 1st senior yesterday. She wasn't quite ready, and I'm not sure that she was really quite in the mood for her watercolors either. Took me about an hour to get her ready and out of her apartment, and she painted for half an hour before she petered out. And actually, I was pretty much done for too, having taken so long to just get her going.

And I still had plenty to do to get ready for my exhibit at 23 Sandy — finish packing, making the inventory sheet, preparing labels. And one thing leads to another, I had to get the class descriptions done so I could send out the exhibit and class announcements all in one. Finally got that done shortly after midnight last night.

Today was a whirlwind of activities too — hanging the show, and going out for a rare 1st Thursday outing. Both Rachel and Anne are having their openings today (and we all got our grants at the same time!), so I made the effort. Ran into lots of folks that I haven't seen in a long time. I guess that's what happens when you don't do 1st Thursdays, you just don't see people. (A plug for Anne's show — at Powells on Burnside, 3rd floor gallery; and Rachel's Cycle Seen, all over town.)

Not sure if it's just 1st Thursday, or if it's a combination of that and the Rose Festival, but there were sure a lot of drunks out in Portland tonight. I know this because there were a lot of men who smiled and said hi to me. Now that! is worth writing down.

And since this is Rose Festival time, there are plenty of sailors out and about. One man walking around said very loudly, "what are these soldiers doing here, I thought the war was in I-RAN."

So I have to report this: how often have you enjoyed one half of a cell phone conversation that you overhear?

Coming home tonight, I was sitting in front of some guy talking on the phone. Didn't sound like it was a romantic thing (yet), but he was talking to a woman. He was talking about his aspirations, why he chooses to do what he does, and how he would like to travel around the country with the job. He was trying to motivate her too, about work, and encouraging her to spend time with family, asking after her nieces and nephews. He just sounded like a really nice guy. And that put a smile on my face.