sovay: (Rotwang)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2015-03-19 05:35 pm

Nothing short of a miracle

Yesterday I couldn't sleep for pain: I finally got out of bed around eight in the morning, when the sky had gone right back to winter with the flooding light of a much later season. Spring is technically the end of this week and it had better mean it, is all I'm saying. [livejournal.com profile] schreibergasse dropped by around noon with hugs and hot cross buns. My father picked me up in the afternoon and took me to the Harvard Art Museums and Burdick's, both of which were profoundly appreciated. I wished I had brought a camera; some of the views from the third floor of the museum were the exact kind of clear-lit brick-and-concrete angles I love. I acquired a collection of Ben Shahn's photography—which I hadn't even known existed; I grew up with one of his posters in my grandparents' house, but I'd thought he was a painter and printmaker only—from the basement of the Harvard Book Store. We made carrot-ginger soup for dinner and [livejournal.com profile] derspatchel and I watched the first half-hour of a movie I had waited actual years to see. I hope to finish the rest tonight.

In the night, I dreamed that I was late for a therapist's appointment; I had thought it was in Lexington when it was in Somerville and I was trying to walk back before I missed the whole session, after dark, with no money for bus fare.

Today the mail brought me a package from [personal profile] yhlee, containing a potpourri of CDs and a first edition of A.E. Housman's More Poems (1936). (This is for all ill-treated fellows / Unborn and unbegot, / For them to read when they're in trouble / And I am not.) I met Matthew for an hour and a half at Diesel, which has new chalkboards and a new menu. Some small cat was very ill in the night and I'm hoping they don't feel like an encore, especially since Autolycus has staked out my computer bag as his newest sleeping spot. We're making grits and cheese for dinner, because right now I can't chew anything denser than noodles or soup. I am still here.
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (kitty paw (evil_little_dog))

[personal profile] yhlee 2015-03-20 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry about the pain but glad that other happy things happened. I regret sorely that I hardly took advantage of Boston's museums while I was there (too stressed when I was a teacher, and also Joe has no interest in museums). May the movie be good!
kore: (Default)

[personal profile] kore 2015-03-20 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
PAIN, ARGH

But which movie is it??
kate_nepveu: sleeping cat carved in brown wood (Default)

[personal profile] kate_nepveu 2015-03-20 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
I am sorry that so many things are terrible, but glad you are still here. Thanks for the update.
umadoshi: (Yotsuba&! teddy bear (ohsnap_icons))

[personal profile] umadoshi 2015-03-20 12:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope the pain is better today, and that you were able to get some sleep last night. :(
genarti: Knees-down view of woman on tiptoe next to bookshelves (Default)

[personal profile] genarti 2015-03-20 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I was going to say "we may have just missed each other at Diesel" until I reread and realized that you wrote this post last nigh, instead of this morning. I was there for a while last night with [personal profile] skygiants before we went to the PMRP. (Delightful, and gleefully hammy.)

I love winter, and all the same I cannot wait for spring. Enough of the ice, enough.
gwynnega: (Default)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2015-03-19 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
There are many excellent things in this post. I'm sorry you can eat only soft things, but grits and cheese sounds delicious. I hope spring shows up on schedule in your part of the country!

[identity profile] handful-ofdust.livejournal.com 2015-03-20 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Still here. Two very beautiful words.

[identity profile] cucumberseed.livejournal.com 2015-03-20 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
This.

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-03-20 03:30 pm (UTC)(link)
so agree

[identity profile] cucumberseed.livejournal.com 2015-03-20 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Many anxiety dreams this week here, too. *hugs*

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-03-20 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Some music coming your way.

You've reminded me that i need to make carrot ginger soup.

Glad you're still here.

[identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com 2015-03-20 03:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I looked up Ben Shahn and the art style in his prints looked familiar. I think I have narrowed down my association to these and probably other art from my childhood in that style.

*gives you a broom for chasing away your anxiety dreams*

[identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com 2015-03-23 12:55 pm (UTC)(link)
He occupies some of the same space as Chagall in my head and I'm not sure if this is artistically supported.

It would be hard for me to say personally, because Chagall is embedded in my consciousness in ways that probably defy conventional logic. We had two works hanging in my house, and a giant coffee table book, plus, my paternal grandmother did needlepoints of at least 10 of the 12 Chagall windows that are in Hadassah hospital, one of which I inherited (the tribe of Benjamin). While she was embarked on this project, two of the kits became unavailable. At some point I'm going to poll my relatives and find out which of the needlepoint windows they have, and see if I can figure out which two are missing. I've discovered that these days you can have just about any work of art printed as a needlepoint canvas, and the idea of finishing the set appeals to me as an odd sort of memorial for my grandmother.

It would seem my parents have fairly obscure taste in Chagall paintings. I can't find either of them online. One is a very orange portrait of a woman and her child travelling through a forest on a donkey, and the other has a descending bird figure hurtling towards a donkey. Apparently my parents like Chagall's donkeys, which are indeed diverse.