Mr. Toad's Wild Ride*

It's not exactly like me to leave the blog world for a week or more. So, you know, it's been that kind of week.

Last week, when I last posted, I was still riding high on the fabulous profile from Apartment Therapy. and excited about the upcoming show at Reaves Gallery....I was also in my last week of my teaching residency, which was sad, but oh so fulfilling! And quicker than you can say "raindrops keep falling on my head", the ride took a quick turn into a flood!

Standing in our living room, I heard this drip, drip, drip and looked around to find water speedily falling down from our ceiling. Within minutes, I heard it raining, hard, and took another few steps to find it pouring water in our front hallway, pounding down on our piano. Different emergencies feel different. This one felt akin to the sinking of the Titanic for me. I didn't know which way to turn (now, it's funny to note, this is not the first "flood" that has happened in an apartment I've lived in, it's actually the fourth or fifth, but this one was definitely the worst). I rolled up my pants legs, did a few frantic runs between rooms to see the extent of the river running under furniture...and then I flew upstairs, skipping steps, to see what had happened. There were contractors working in the apartment upstairs and I came in, harried as all get out, and said, "Do you know what's going on?!" Well, by the look of the guys, covered in water, head to toe, I think they were quite aware of what had just gone down. What they didn't realize was that it was torrentially pouring down into our apartment below. So, I grabbed them by the arm and said, "Come on, we've got to save the piano!" They were extremely nice about it all, especially since none of us spoke the same language, and proceeded to do whatever it took to save my apartment first. In the end, we didn't loose anything. The piano is a little worse for wear, and every once in awhile, you get a strong whiff of wet wood, like an old boat, and yes, the floors, in many places, are warped beyond repair, which is desperately sad to us ...but, really, we're darn tootin' lucky. And, so, it was time again, for the ride to turn the other way...

We attended the Reaves Gallery show which was a blast and really successful. I always love having the chance to meet the people who buy my work and are so extremely effusive about it. Great ride, that show. It's still up thru the 28th. And it wasn't just successful for me, but for all the artists who are showing. It seems most of the artwork sold that night. If you have the chance to swing by, please introduce yourself to Sharon, the owner, who's wonderful! It was a great night, that we finished up by sharing some holiday cheer with family and friends. But, you must know by now, the ride takes another turn...

We arrived home to find that our apartment had been broken into. This, too, was not necessarily a new experience for either one of us. Over the years, we started to recall, we'd both been ripped off a number of times in various situations. But, it still stings. And feels incredibly violating. Not much you can do, of course. Call the police. Make a report. And move on.

Of course , the wild ride takes another crazy turn, as we wake up the next day to a fabulous bit of press for our little card company. RK and I had worked very hard over the last few months putting together a new website for the card line, 8mm Ideas, and got it up and running in time for a really fabulous write up on Daily Candy. We were both so thrilled at the profile. It captured the card line perfectly. It spoke volumes to these little pieces of work and I felt like they got it just right. Daily Candy was one of the first websites I knew about when I really started checking out the world wide web and it always held a high spot in the world of press for me. It was a true coup to finally appear on their site and with such a lovely review, I feel like last week's ride came to incredibly sweet conclusion.


*Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a "dark ride" at Disneyland.