So, I am currently eating gelato at the Italian Market in my neighborhood, but I was delayed briefly by a yard sale two blocks from my house, at the church-run This & That Thrift Store. The lady tells me that everything is ten cents. I says, “Ten cents?” She says, “Ten cents.” They were closing up shop in fifteen minutes, so I got the last pickins, but I walked off with two great shirts and three books, one of which is an illustrated manual on how to exercise while working in an office. A lovely day here, it is. Warm sunshine and the never-ending Nashville breeze. Even more lovely (and luxurious) was my brunch: french toast, mimosas, coffee, mango, and fried plantains, outside on the porch of my co-worker Brad’s house. This was much needed because before this we ran the 5-mile Richland Creek Run, starting in the brisk air of 8am. You know, I did not do terribly either–not great, but for my first race pretty good. The results show my decent finish, considering I have never done a race before, and I don’t train, just ride my bike for transportation. Five miles in 42:15 minutes, 70th place among the men, 4th place in my age group (20-24 yrs, which there were only four of us anyway). The whole reason I did this was because Brad is a runner, and he designed the poster at Hatch for this event, so we received four free registrations. Yadda yadda yadda.

I don’t have any new images from work, so I am just talking. I am working on another wedding poster, for a couple in Seattle. This time, however, I got my first minor rejection. They didn’t like the proof of my design. They wanted a movie poster look, but they thought mine had a boxing poster look. I don’t agree, but the customer knows best. But then again, we do know what we are doing at the shop. We will do all we can to get the client what s/he wants, but s/he is going to have to relinquish that tight control they are compelled to have and trust us that we will deliver a beautiful poster. I will make minor changes here, call her on Monday, and convince her that she loves the poster. Other than that, I am doing the award certificates for the Nashville Film Festival, which offers its perks as well: the shop gets 40 free passes. Each certificate is hand-colored and purty.

It’s too bad I am going to miss summer here. Although it sounds unbearably hot and humid, I want to experience it for myself. I would want to live more central to town, so I could walk and ride more easily. And I would go to Las Paletas all the time (home-made Mexican popsicle shop). I would be shirtless like my buddy Carlos. My friend Caitlin told me the first summer she was here, she did not think Carlos even owned a shirt. Wasn’t till November when she found out, yes, Carlos does own a shirt.

I want to plug my fellow artists/co-workers, all of whom show together as the group Popsicle Sticks and Rhinestones. They are great printmakers outside of work, too. Julie Sola makes great colorful linoleum cuts and such. Her shop (fatcrowpress.etsy.com). Brad Vetter, and his girlfriend Adrienne, sell drawings and prints and posters at their online shop (theclearancesale.etsy.com). Then there is miss Nieves Uhl who sells her work and vintage stuff at snowowl.etsy.com and NervousMule.etsy.com. I don’t know if the others have websites or anything like that. Alright, just getting the word out there.

Steve-O says, “leave matters to me.”