Nothing Quite Turned Out Right

Nothing quite turned out right yesterday. Water aerobics got cancelled but at least I did not get a wet bathing suit. The other time it got cancelled someone passive aggressive was working at the desk and did not tell us and when no one showed up to teach the class I had to go up to the desk and say that the instructor was not there and the passive aggressive person said: “Look there is the sign that says it was cancelled.” The sign was hidden. I was not happy with her. But this time they said: Stop! No water aerobics and I said: Thank you so much for telling me! “ I had a yummy breakfast at Omar’s instead.
Then I was crossing the street and this truck almost ran me down. I said: “Great, thanks for almost running over me.” The guy’s window was open and he yelled “F*** you lady, watch where you are going!” What an idiot he is. I was watching where I was going, if I wasn’t he would have run over me, killed me and it might have ruined his day and maybe a part of his life. A part of his life because he was the kind of stupid person who would have just sped off and then then he would get caught and maybe spend four hours in jail. Such would be the justice in this country. And let the record reflect that I just said: Great! Thanks for almost running over me.” Now obviously I was being sarcastic but I did not swear at him. i am sure he is not reading my blog. The idiot probably cannot read.
I was really, shall we say forward. I was dining at my favorite Rex Whistler and there was a really important meeting going on with really important wine people. They were tasting California wines getting ready for the tasting for the Hockney exhibit at the Tate Britain. I could hear them talking. So I bravely went over to the table and told them I should be tasting with them because I was from California and I had drunk a lot of California wines in my time. There were only men at this table, no women. I looked at the labels and told them I had not heard of those wineries. They laughed and took it quite well and later I talked with the most important guy there. He was sort of nice. I talked with him while he smoked. Its awful how many people smoke in this city. I lived in Marin County for about forty years. No one, probably about two people in the whole county smoke. Smoking really is an awful habit, It kills you. It should be banned but government makes too much money from it and has for centuries. That sounds like a rant from a little old lady but it is true. Nicotine is terribly addictive. I listened to a pod cast, an author was saying that nicotine has an addictive scale of about 32, whereas heroin has about 4. Obviously those numbers are not totally accurate as it is just my memory but they are ball park figures showing how strongly addictive nicotine is. Thank goodness I never smoked. I have enough bad habits as it is.
So back to the Hockney exhibit. It is apparently a huge event. More people are scheduled to go to it than any other event in the history of the Tate. I do not think I am going even though I quite love Hockney. Why? you ask. That is because there was an enormous Hockney exhibit at the DeYoung in San Francisco about three years ago. I went about four times and I attended a special really intellectual workshop over one weekend. And Hockney was there and I went and asked him a question. I am usually not that forward but I had an important question to ask him. He is an amazing artist. He is always pushing the boundaries of the creative process and doing incredibly innovative things. I said to him that I thought what enabled him to do that was his curiosity. “How do you account for your curiosity?” I asked. His answer was disappointing. He said:”Its the cigarettes!” Honest to goodness, that is the truth of what I said and what he said.
His disappointing answer is not the reason why I am not going to his exhibit at the Tate. Sometimes I get really into something and really do it thoroughly and throw myself into it. But when it is done, then I do not go back. That is what happened with Georgia O’Keefe. Years ago I really got into her art. I went to Santa Fe, read books about her life and did it all. I was deeply into photography and I did close up pictures of flowers based on her art. I remember one of a petunia for example. I even had a photography exhibit and my friend Colette remembered and reminded me that she helped hang the pictures. There was a recent exhibit of Georgia O’Keefe at the Tate Modern. Did I attend the exhibit? No. Why? Because I was done.
Kathleen and I had a conversation about blogging yesterday. She works at Dolphin Square. She wrote a blog in the past and she is really smart. She says that the problem with blogging is that it is hard to get it off the ground, difficult to put energy into it. Therefore people get bored and even if they start reading it, they get tired and stop following because posts are irregular. She also said (quite profoundly) that people present an idealized version of themselves on social media. They try to be perfect and that can be stultifying. Stultifying is my word, it is the perfect word. I thoroughly agree with her. I look at the posts of FaceBook acquaintances for example. I occasionally post on FaceBook. I did yesterday but I said that I wasn’t posting anymore, that I had gone onto bigger and better things and now I had a blog. I gave them the link which you know, otherwise you would not be reading this. (haha). So I guess that I will just keep really getting into this, do it daily perhaps but one day I will be done and I will stop. That is my goal i guess. I guess I might stop when I get to Regina because I will be finishing my Uncle Dave biography there. I will see and so will you if you keep following me.