If you've never sat for a portrait - and I'm not talking about in front of a camera lens, let me tell you - the experience will be quite unlike anything you might have expected. Today, in the afternoon, I went to Ray's studio and he drew me. Ray is my mom's "special friend" and he is also the most talented artist I've had the good fortune to meet, ever. He's been pushing for me to sit for him for a while now, and knowing I'd be out in the Petes for a couple days, I agreed to do so today.

He drew me twice, in charcoal - a tricky medium that doesn't give you lots of room to mess up - from two different angles with different light sources. Actually, both times the light came from the window, but I sat in different places in relation to it, and the lighting changed as the afternoon wore on. The trick is to move as little as possible, and to try desperately hard not to react, as in to the radio, or to the artist, or to anything. It's hard. Bloody hard. Several times, I fought the battle to control my face and lost. Ray is patient, however, and for that I am grateful. I also nearly dosed off twice, because it's really difficult to stare at the same bit of wall for an hour with pleasing music playing in the background.

I took breaks, of course, as did Ray, because it is very tiring for the model to sit completely still for a long duration, and for the artist to maintain complete concentration. The first piece was very rough, as Ray called it, very quick and comprised of hard lines and bold shadow. The second is much softer, with more muted contrasts, though with a more direct angle. The first shows me looking sad. I never realised that my relaxed face is so melancholic, perhaps because I'm so animated, usually, but it really is, and my eyes, which have been described as sorrowfully dark and mournful, slant slightly downward on the outer ends, making their expression sort of sad. The second piece allowed me to view Ray working thanks to a mirror hanging behind him, so I look a little more engaged as I watched him work. It was neat. Tomorrow I'm sitting again and he's going to try painting me in pastel.

It was Ray's birthday yesterday, too, so tonight, Mom took him (and me) for dinner at the Twilight Diner, a lovely fusion restaurant in town. Ray was displeased at being the object of a magician's attention, who was basically busking legitimately in the restaurant, and it very nearly ruined our meal. He wasn't so good, either, the magician, though he was pleasant enough. He missed the cues that said, 'go away' and 'don't talk to Ray'. Happily for him, though, he found that the table behind us was full of people perfectly happy to be entertained by his mediocre talent. Anyway, after, we all came back here to Mom's and had cake, of a most scrumptious sort (maple walnut), and gave Ray his presents. We got him a couple of cds, incense, and a fantastic winter jacket/shirt that he absolutely loved.

He's still here, so maybe I should stop being rude and go back down and be social.

Hee, I just read Tanya's log and this jumped out at me: "I love them when they are working nicely for me and I'm having fun with all my bells and whistles." So, that's how she spends her free time...

She is SO going to slap me for this.

Okay, I had a LOT of fun last night. The art was secondary, really, to a bunch of people of mixed ages ranging from early 20s through 70s who just liked to talk about a lot of things. Anne was in wonderfully bright spirits, beaming smiles and offering tasties and wine with gleeful abandon. Two of the men that were at the Holy Blossom Temle thing that I attended back in December were there, and Anne's father and maternal grandmother, among many others. About halfway through the evening, Annabelle, Katie, and Susan showed up - Annabelle with her cute new boyfriend and Katie with a fellow I knew in New College, Eric, and I rather hope he isn't going out with her. Annabelle has been systematically cutting Anne out of her life despite 20 years of friendship, or something, because Anne no longer fits into Annabelle's lifestyle. It's funny that this happened after Anne's accident. I was disgusted by Annabelle's overt disrespect, to the point of isolating herself in the corner with her boyfriend and making obnoxious yawning gestures and giggling. This is the same Annabelle who hosted a sit down dinner party with me six years ago. Apparently, adult parties aren't good enough for her anymore. Susan would probably have stayed longer had Annabelle and Katie not pushed to leave. :(

I actually had arrived at Anne's place about 40 minutes early in order to help her and Celeste, her sister, with the setting up. Anne's in a wheelchair because of a horrible spinal injury she received in France, and another pair of hands that are able to reach tall places is always useful. I brewed my delicious fancy cider, mulling it with cinnamon sticks and apple slices, half an orange, and a cup of cranberries. People certainly seemed to like it. There were chocolate filled crepes and coconut-crusted cake, lox, cream cheese and bagles, pasta salad and homemade lemonade, white wine and champagne. Conversation was fast and furious and the heat in Anne's appartment had to be turned right off in order to keep it a bearable temperature. I enjoyed it greatly, and really liked Celeste. A strange, and somewhat surprising perk, was Mike Wood, an old friend from Northern. He's still the same old Mike, except he's older and able to talk about more than just video games and geek things. He was -interesting- and by the end of the evening, I found myself giving him my phone number and email. Weird. I felt a little weird not helping Anne with the post-party clean-up, but since I'd arrived early and helped set up, including mopping the floor, I didn't think I could hang on much longer. I'd also played the role of semi-hostess, retrieving drinks and finding plates and glasses for people all evening long.

Tomorrow, I'm going to set a court date for my parking ticket, which is irritating. I'd intended to do it today, before going to paint my appartment, but frankly, I needed a chance to sleep in. I'm going to take shmutzi-clothes to wear while I'm painting, and I'll just leave them there for next time. I'm going for sushi with Rick after he's finished work and then he's coming back here tonight. I miss him. I have the distinct need to hug him. Right now. Anyway, that's for later. I'm going to the Petes as of tomorrow following Heretic, and then I'm staying at Mom's until Sunday morning. I have to do some more editing for Eric - he's got me doing his articles now. The money will be nice, though, so I won't complain and I've put it off long enough. Whoo, look, I'm procrastinating, painting doesn't sound as much fun now as it did earlier.

Bah, today is a day for opening three days worth of mail, which has accumulated in great heaps. My fingers bear the scars of a hard morning of battle with paper, though I've managed to avoid bleeding on the renewal forms. I actually like opening the mail. It means that I can surf while I do it. For instance, I have now caught up on Tanya's weblog, which is being hosted on Trurl. She's a fancy fun girl.

Other than peering into Tanya's life, I spent a good deal of time looking at employment opportunities at various companies and coursed through massive lists of jobs I would never want on job search pages. It's starting to bother me that I am not doing anything creative with the skills I've learned and the talants I've got. Masque-making last night with Nicole and Mark was a positive step and things are going very well, but it makes me itch to do fun creative things with my life, rather than as after-school projects.

Speaking of creativity, tonight I'm going to Anne LeDuigou's appartment for an art open-house party. I will be making my fancy cider, which means that I have to drop by a grocery store to buy some cinnamon sticks and a couple of apples for dicing up into the pot. Some old friends from highschool will be there, plus many people I don't know, so it should be interesting. Anne gets to talk about art, which is something she excells at, and I'll get to listen and play point-counter-point with her, which is something I am very good at. Discussing art with Anne is compelling, entertaining, and incredibly intelligent.

Another Monday... another day at the ROM. It isn't all bad, though, since the Evil One is away on vacation. For the whole week ! That's right, I can check my email, go to the bathroom, stretch, or whatever, and it's okay because he's not breathing down my neck waiting for me to fuck up.

Much D&D fun was had on Saturday night, with most of the gang being present, even Bill and Richie. Bill's looking good, and from the right angle, you don't notice his strangely swollen neck. He's a strong lad, and we're all praying he comes through a-okay. *sends love* Anyway, Velkyn, my darling drow assassin got high on dream mist and overdosed. It's rather up in the air now whether she'll survive withdrawl, or not. Heh. She has to live, somehow, because I've played her at two other stages in her life, both sometime in the future from when this campaign is set.

Sunday I had to work at Heretic, as usual, and then I was supposed to go over to Nicole's for more masque making fun. She had double-booked and I didn't feel terribly creative, though, so we rescheduled until tonight. Instead, Nick dropped by the store after he'd finished moving his stuff into our place. We ate dinner at Java - I had THE best grilled cheese sandwich EVER - and then drove up to our appartment. I didn't do a lot of helping, prefering to take pictures of his moving in, and then to make mini-movies of bed-building. When the bed was finished, we both lay on it and then had a bought of wrestling, which looks far more questionable on video than it was. It's cool. I've never had a brother, and Nick sort of fills the void.

This is an exciting month. My friend up at the cottage, Kristina, is due to have her baby (oh my God), and for the first time ever, I would like to actually be there to lend help and support. I won't be, but I'll send happy thoughts for her behalf. It's my mother's birthday on the Ides of March. Naturally I will be there to celebrate that with her, which means I'll have to miss Megan's birthday party on the same day. Then, the following Monday will be the TWO YEAR anniversary of Rick and me ! How exciting is THAT?! Pretty damn exciting, if you ask me. So much fun to be had, that even having to move again won't dampen my spirits.