part two

5. Making the gummi bears left over from seeing The Return of the King mate before eating them. Even if I'd already eaten all the clear ones, and had to fall back on red and orange.

6. Voicemail from a friend of a friend, a collage artist. She'd gotten some scraps of paper from our mutual friend, kozo paper I'd made about a million years ago, and was wondering if she could buy any more off me.

I'm totally tickled. If it's the paper I'm thinking of, I made it in a class thirteen years ago. Incidentally, the class where Princess and I became friends (according to his version of the story, anyway.) And replicating what was essentially an experiment is virtually impossible without the facilities to pound kozo, a smelly and insanely labor-intensive process that is yet more proof that once upon a time, the Japanese had way too much time on their hands.

Honestly, she sounded a little obsessed. I've seen a lot of paper, she said, and I've never seen any like the pieces you gave Lyn. Well no, of course not; I was totally screwing around when I made it. I wish I could find the woman who taught that class and say, see? It wasn't silly. Eventually someone found a use for it.

Now I just need to see if I can find what's left in the altar to wreckage that masquerades as my studio.

7. As the news spreads about my dad, I'm finding out that many of my friends and co-workers have gone through what I am, and god, are they being kind and warm and supportive. I'm really fortunate in them.