mark busting out!

so M. is making a break for freedom - he went to angers today, rented a car, and is going to leave for italy in a few hours to meet up with his wife and daughter. he will be gone for a week. he offered to take me as well, and although i am tempted, i think i will stay put for the time being, BUT take him up on the offer of a ride to/from angers next week in order to get myself to wherever i can to meet up with K. we had a planning session tonight with maps and laptops and calendars and beer and tea, and totally felt like naughty children planning on cutting school. it was great. it has become obvious in the last few days that those of us who are not in the clique of longterm Studio E. groupies should not have been so tentative and respectful of each others' privacy for the last few weeks; i have not been knocking on M's door to go have a beer together on a regular basis because a) it's a little weird; he's a married guy and b) he is fairly introverted so i figured he wanted his privacy, but (duh) it turns out he has been going round the twist from loneliness and boredom. no more, man. i am starting a rival clique which anyone who feels like it can join, called operation sanity, and we are going to have a potluck dinner or pub evening every night of the week. that's my plan, stan.

anyway. activity du jour was an excursion to tours with M&P and the girls; it was fun except i got absolutely chewed to pieces by mosquitoes. currently in bed with an icepack on the back of my knees, which are huge and swollen pink and so itchy it is KILLING ME. i sat in the back of the car between the girls' car seats, and we had a grand old time, colouring in colouring books of princesses, telling riddles, playing handclapping games, etc. picnic on the river in tours, visit to the museum of craftsmen (where the various guildmembers submit their 'masterworks' to prove they are ready to become fully qualified carpenters/shoemakers/bakers/whatever. sort of a bizarre collection of objects: a violin constructed entirely of sugar, a shoe made for a (let's hope theoretical) person with four feet on the end of their leg, a birdcage carved out of a single piece of wood, etc.), a visit to the cathedral to look at what has been deemed the most beautiful stained glass in france (real purty), and then to the chateau azay rideau, a 16th century stately 'ome in the middle of a lake, paintings, four poster beds, peeling silk wallpaper, tapestries, the works, also tres jolie. then for supper (pizza, fries, hotdogs - very unfrench of them, both to be willing to eat pizza and also to be so subject to the kids' desires in general, but i had a sandwich and it was all good) and then home. oh crap i should get out of bed and put the rest of my sandwich in the fridge, speaking of.
anyway, so that's that. time for sleeping. will not scratch my mosquito bites, will NOT.