Ahhh...the refreshment of a weekend! It's already 8:15 on Monday and the peace hasn't worn off yet....

So, what's new, you ask? Not much. As usual. (I'm not one of those people who spends their weekends having crazy adventures and living with reckless abandon. When I go for the gusto these days, it's more likely to be around eating bread-and-butter at 9:30 at night than around whitewater rafting in some untamed river. Occasionally it occurs to me that I'm wasting...well, not my youth. That disappeared some time ago. But my middle age, anyhow. I should run amok occasionally.) (Sounds tiring.)

The weekend was lovely. I managed to avoid last week's near-brush with heat exhaustion by not being outside too much, and the temperature was a good ten degrees cooler anyhow.

Saturday...I went mad in the grocery store to the tune of $21. Then I went mad in Guiry's and spent an additional $21 on drawing supplies. (I still haven't filled the list, but I'm not sure what to buy for some of it and I forgot to call the instructor on Friday. Making a rough estimate, I realize that this class, which seemed inexpensive when I signed up for it, is going to cost me approximately $75 additional in supplies. Depending upon how much "ink" runs to. This is not a hobby for the poor...not in the "take a class and learn about it" way, anyhow. On a solo basis, anyone can buy a pencil and find a bit of paper to play with.)

Sunday, I went mad at the drugstore and spent $12 on this and that (bandaids, etc.), not including the $40 I spent on prescription refills.

I'll bet you're worn out, just reading about the mad whirl of excitement, aren't you?

In my spare time (as you can see, I had a lot of it) this weekend, I did practice drawing, yes. (Thought you were going to get away with hearing about it, didn't you?) I did my landscape and my still life and my monogram and the design of my name.

I have not drawn shoes. I'm torn between just drawing a pair of my sensible shoes (my closet doesn't run to exotic footwear) and just saying I didn't do it. (What's she going to do? Kick me out of class?) I guess I could draw a pair of my sensible shoes. It won't make a fascinating drawing, but it will show willing.

The still life was tricky, as such things are wont to be. In theory, I understand that she wanted draping and background and all of those other things a still life is supposed to offer. In reality, once I'd gotten the bottles (that was the assignment...draw a bunch of glass bottles) more-or-less recognizable, I'd gone off the entire subject.

Besides, I entirely suck at drapery. I found a flyer at Guiry's offering some classes for the amateur artist, one of which was drawing from clothed models. I'd have taken it if it wasn't being offered during the day. So, anyhow, I have one evening, should I elect to finish that drawing. I have to either think of a background or just pretend I misunderstood the assignment. (When you're The Goat, you can get away with that kind of stupidity.)

Don't think I don't know that I'm boring you all stupid with the subject of drawing. I'm like that when I have a new obsession. It's the only thing I'm capable of focusing on. Just be grateful I'm not droning on and on about the differences in different kinds of charcoal, something I spent a fair amount of time exploring over the weekend.

(Also, you should be grateful that I didn't spend the same amount of time bitching because my personal e-mail program just disgorged 50 e-mails I got this weekend but hadn't been allowed to see yet, and that my work e-mail program abruptly dumped 486 copies of e-mails I received last month into my inbox. And I had to check most of them to make sure they were, in fact, duplicates. So, you know, this entry could have been even more boring, improbable as that seems.)

But! What's that you say? I have two free evenings before my next class?

Not so. Tonight, you understand, I Have Plans. As it happens, our neighborhood is being graced (that's what I'm told) with a Whole Foods. Tonight is a Sneak A Peek Party to benefit the DCPA. We get to look around the store and there will be a munchie bar where we can sample the kinds of goodies the store offers.

When we walked by yesterday, there were people standing around outside, and a guard on the door! Casual conversation as we strolled by showed that these were not the only people lining up impatiently outside the front door, demanding that they open the tills and get to selling. The consensus seems to be that it's time and past time the store opened. The mob is getting restless.

As a person who has never actually shopped at a Whole Foods (or, indeed, been inside one), I'm a bit puzzled by this fierce anticipation. I mean...it's a grocery store. There are at least six within a five-mile radius of that mall.

Anyhow. That's why we decided to go to tonight's party. To see what all the fuss and excitement is about. And the DCPA is a good cause.

I just realized that I've rambled on for over a page and conveyed nothing more than the astonishing information that I sketched some bottles, I did not sketch some shoes, and I’m going to the grocery store. Seriously. I do need just a bit more mad excitement in my life, don't I?

I'm going to go get some coffee. While I'm gone, I'll endeavor to have some kind of Krazee Adventure I can regale you with....

Didn't happen. I walked over with the Tweenybopper. (Why did I choose now, when I'm leaving this company to decide to bond with that child?) We got coffee. We walked back. No BEHM.