mellow saturday

everybody did exactly the same things today, but almost entirely in isolation of each other: sleep in, laundry, go for a run/walk, go to the shopi, do a little bit of painting/drawing, have a nap. it's like we were little (very slow-moving) race cars all on the same circuit, but far enough spaced out that we all had the impression of a solitary day. i can't remember the last time i spent an entire day on my own; it was immensely peaceful, and a little bit of a shock to be in the same room with ten or so others for a potluck dinner tonight.

the range of foods brought to the potluck was delightfully indicative of personality and culture: the french family (M&P and their two little girls, the younger of whom is officially the cutest child in the universe), arrived with two silver platters of beautifully arranged hors d'oeuvres, bacon wrapped around prunes and miniskewers of jambon sec, some special grape that is grown locally, and melon; the model, 23, from toronto, with a taste for gold hightop sneakers, neat scotch, and techno music and who i _think_ may actually spell her name krystle, brought a big bowl of popcorn; L worried all day over a pot of chinese vegetable soup so viciously peppery it cleaned out the sinuses of the neighbours three doors down and was nearly inedible; M (fortysomething, english), brought a big plate of plain chicken meat, that he had had to persuade the local butcher to cook for him, because he doesn't have an oven in his flat. and so on. only because if i omit it, i will later get a parental email to find out: i brought a cheese/pear/ham salad w/ vinaigrette, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of cabernet selected on the basis of price (3.5 euros! wine is the only thing that is cheap here) and the pretty label.

i was extra slothful today because i was so sore from the yoga torture hour yesterday - it hurts to laugh even, as whatever i have instead of abdominal muscles complains loudly every time i move, so the low-speed run/laundry/nap/book day was great. i painted a bit in the afternoon: i didn't quite finish ann, but she is done (appropriately enough) from the neck up, and i think i can finish the rest of her within the next 1-2 days. i am thinking of trying to do one master copy per week - that might be overly ambitious, especially as i look at some of the drapey renaissance angels and the ingres - but it would be nice to have some friends to hang alongside ann when i get home. she is clearly not the original - i don't think i have a brilliant forgery career ahead of me - but i am fairly pleased with her nonetheless. it would be amazing to be so good that you could actually forge something convincingly, like those guys at the turn of the century who stole the mona lisa from the louvre and then made a fortune selling copies of her on the black market, knowing they were safe, because of course if you are buying what you think is the real mona lisa on the black market, you would never be able to tell anyone that you had it but would just have to go down to your locked high security basement vault every now and then to gloat over owning (what you thought was) the world's most famous painting. i can't remember how those two were caught eventually. a paradox: if you had the ability to paint like leonardo, wouldn't it bore the pants off you to spend your life just copying? thank you to la mama who resolved the linguistic question yesterday: hui is from the latin, hodie, today. hodie/hoy/aujourd'hui i am smarter than i was hier. to bed - week two of class starts tomorrow, and i think we are going to start drawring...