Phase 1

Officially back in the library every day, though we’ll remain closed for checkouts for a week or two. My main job is to film storytime and how-to videos, which is fun except that my hands have been shredded into bloody ribbons by the kitten. I‘ll need to muppet-flap fast enough to keep them blurry, wear sock puppets for everything, or tell stories dressed in a cotillion gown and elbow-length gloves.

Pleeease may I gnaw your remaining fingers off

During these mostly-homebound weeks, there was one thing I said I would do and had been putting off; paint a landscape. I haven’t painted a street scene since my workshop two years ago, and I have an attitude about the color green, so it seemed like a good time to stretch myself. But I did not. Now my time is up. When I received the news, I got off the phone with my boss, marched straight outside, and painted a potted taro in my yard until the rain mercifully chased me inside. It is not a landscape, but it was painted outdoors, SO THERE.

The chickens dug through all my barricades and murdered the apocalypse garden I had been trying to grow. In an actual apocalypse, they’d better watch their drumsticks. Luckily, three of the banana trees are growing bunches, and the lychee tree is fruiting. We’ll live.

And so I have traded in my hippie clown pants for jeans and cardigan. I’m glad to get my hands on some fresh books and warm up my quacking voice again. A change of scenery is nice, because the neighbors have purchased a trampoline and let their preschool boys jump on it naked while riding BMX bikes with their dog. The sight of flying dog paws and bike wheels and unprotected wieners in that netted battle arena is more than my “this is about to end in an ER visit” alarms can comfortably handle.

I’ll post links to the videos on the library website once the editing committee finishes with them. There will be clapping, mooing, and a stuffed cat pillow being jostled like a baby. Quality content, folks.