sanity vs art

zombie numero un (still wet, hence the halo)
zombie numero deux with fun trompe l'oeil post-its (michelle's cheat sheets for me)
truly horrible drawing of S-J
hola hola
so the End of the Two Week Pose today, a historic occasion; i think everyone was feeling a bit relieved, to be honest, as we are all sick of staring at our own dreadful paintings. cameron came over for dinner tonight and we ended up admitting that we had both been near tears during the afternoon session out of sheer frustration at the whole process. ennyway. rumour has it that great breakthroughs are often achieved during the last 2-3 weeks, so let's cross our fingers and hope that is the case. i ended up painting trompe-l'oeil post its on one of mine (see above); HeAD Honcho #1 has a very cute habit of being ultrarespectful of our work, and doing little demo sketches for us out of a desire to not paint directly on our paintings, and the studio ends up littered with her little scraps of paper with body parts on them. (although at this point my attitude is, hey, paint away, knock yourself out, if you can do anything at all to improve it i will be eternally grateful. i can't name my first born after you, as G already claimed that right for fixing the etchasketch, but perhaps a much loved family pet? perhaps i could name the etchasketch Head Honcho #1 - that would kill two birds with one stone).
lunch time i went down to the river with T & L and had a mini picnic; we ran into M, who has not only gone vegan but has also taken up regular lunchtime exercise. our lad's going to be quite svelte by the time he heads back to InZid (admittedly he was generously proportioned to begin with). the first part of the conversation with T & L covered the which-movie-star-do-you-think-is-cute, which i can do, whatever, although i really need to learn the name of the scottish actor in sliding doors who plays gwyneth paltrow's love interest, because i quite fancy him and have no idea who he is and i always regret not knowing his name when the which-movie-star-do-you-think-is-cute conversation comes up. (he also played simon callow's boyfriend in four weddings and a funeral, and read the w.h.auden poem at the funeral.) T & L, for the record, are fans of the matt damon/brad pitt/george clooney contingent. anyway. from there the conversation went seriously downhill to discussing astrological signs and how signs absolutely correspond with personality types. WHY DO OTHERWISE RATIONAL PEOPLE GIVE ANY CREDENCE TO ASTROLOGY??? WTF???T asked me my sign; i told her i was a virgo, which elicited a whole string of adjectives from L & T both, along the lines of "omg you are SUCH a virgo; you are x and y and z and blah and blah" which makes you think, well, if i am SUCH a virgo, why did you have to ask me? but i was well-behaved and didn't say anything. but still. don't get it.
in the afternoon i was in such a foul temper i did something i have never ever done before, which was to leave class early (only half an hour, but still). i went for a big long run to see the cows, and then came back and invited C over for supper, which was an absolutely brilliant move, because she is so nice and chatty and a good talker and a good listener and we had a good three hour yacker with wine and artichokes with butter and garlic and salad and chevre chaud on little bread toasties and mushroom and ham omelettes and by the time she went home i think we were both feeling somewhat restored to sanity. there is a possibility of a ride into vihiers tomorrow, which we might might might take in order to get the train to angers and have an overnight expedition into angers (either that or i will go with M and her family to saumur or somewhere on saturday). oh mon dieu a proper coffee shop i might explode from the excitement of it.
okay network once again trying to die so will post now before i lose everything (at least the network is considerate enough to occasionally give some warning - the little connectivity signal starts to flicker pathetically, so you have a little bit of time).
love to all. go obama!