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04/29/2004: "Help, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up! (plus a brush cleaning tip)"

So, after being sick for almost a week, I started to feel better, get caught up at work, gear up for this weekend and about 100 different events I have to go to (including our university's graduation ceremony which faculty are REQUIRED to go to as part of our contracts) and then last night, after working late, I took another tumble down the stairs from my living room (which is on the second story) going down to my bedroom. My feet literally flew out from underneath me and I landed smack dab on my back, which some of you may remember I injured back around Christmas time, and now it's killing me in the same exact spot and I'm freaking out.

Right after I fell I couldn't move for a second and my first thought was that I was going to have to lay down there, immobile, until someone noticed I wasn't at work or that they would find me a week later partially eaten by my two cats (every single woman's worst fear).

I have never been one to fall down a lot but this is around the 4th or 5th time I've fallen down these stairs since I moved into my new house. The carpet is really slippery, I need to do something or else I'm liable to break my neck.

Now tonight I'm supposed to go to a faculty colloquium thing where someone presents a paper they're working on and we all make suggestion or give feedback on it. Normally the topic is something I can comment on to some degree or another but this one is titled "Wetland and salmon contributions to carbon and nitrogen export in coastal southeast Alaska". I am ashamed to admit that I can't understand the majority of it but I'm down for bringing a "veggie side dish" so I need to at least make an appearance. I've already taken a very large number of ibuprofen and it's not helping at all. I'm even considering taking some of the left over pain pills I got from my surgery even though I had an allergic reaction to them. Sure I was itchy all over but I wasn't in a lot of pain either.

Oh yes, and speaking of my two cats, one of them is more like a dog than a cat. He loves to play fetch; he rolls over on command, will sit up and beg, comes when I whistle, is extremely emotionally needed, and will eat anything that isn't in a locked metal cabinet. He has been able to find a sealed tube of Pringles in a closed kitchen cupboard, which he then chewed, threw and ate. He chewed through a cardboard box to get to a case of Atkins chocolate shakes in heavy plastic cartons which he also chewed through so that the chocolate went all over the place.

A couple nights ago I found his tail sticking out of the oven. I had put a frosted spice cake in there to cool and to keep it away from Osiris and he got in there somehow and when I pulled him out the entire center of the cake was gone and his face was covered with frosting. Yesterday, he got hold one of my prescription medications and chewed it up pretty good. The vet said he probably would be ok but I had to watch him for vomiting and lethargy etc. It was stressful. This is the same cat who jumped on my pallet last week and then ran around my house leaving hundreds of multicolored paw prints everywhere...oh well, never a dull moment I suppose.

On another note, I got another request for a commission yesterday which makes me feel excellent! (Thanks David!)...can't wait to get started on that...and, I've come up for a solution for not ruining so many paint of my paint brushes. Here is the situation. Normally I paint with liquin which speeds drying time which means I can't just leave my brushes sitting out overnight because if I accidentally do they're all as hard as rock the next day. On the other hand, I'm incredibly lazy and I hate to clean brushes so I own hundred of them so I can just squirt some dish soap on them and then leave them in a pile until every brush is dirty and I have to spend an entire day cleaning them.

So, my new solution is to do this. At the end of the day I squeeze out all the excess paint from the brushes using a paper towel. Then I squeeze a little walnut oil (or linseed) onto the bushes to keep them from drying out. The next day when I go to start painting, I use a paper towel to dry off the oil from the brush, which also helps clean in out enough to where I can just start using it again without really officially cleaning the brush out. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now and it's working gloriously.

Does anyone else want to share a studio tip?