2019 top ten (plus) list

started at ten, ended later than that. no particular order.

1) sitting outside the castle wall in rovinj, croatia, on the adriatic sea, drinking an aperol spritz. deliciously warm afternoon sun, smell of the sea, listening to water lap against the coral/concrete wall. marxe and satch on either side of me, giggling about something.

2) playing hockey. i love hockey moms over the summer. i really really like the laurel women’s league. but with my Osprey D traveling team, i’m learning so much, skating better, gelling with my line. it’s MY team, and i’m proud of us. i love love love my Osprey team.

3) changing the whole look of the front rooms. smiling now at the bright melon walls, windows filled with plants, home-made furniture, beautiful art. and my semi-spacious, shiny, matching-tile kitchen. exactly how i want it all (except maybe in 2020 i’ll find the right piece of wood for a dining room table).

so this all started in san antonio (with mo for her spring break). our airbnb was really close to the san angel folk art gallery, which i visited in 2012 when giving a seminar. like then, sally ozuna’s work was on view, for sale. still was in love with her pieces. so, yeah, credit card, ka-ching, bye bye money. got it home only to realize … nowhere to display it.

moved the shelving units with stereo equipment and records/cds/tapes into the basement, replacing the air hockey table (freecycled), gave away liters of booze (sitting atop the shelving for years) as well as the large cabinet holding dishes and the corner cabinet by the door and the tv shelf unit, painted the walls, stripped and recovered and repaired the wooden floors, bought a giant beanbag, moved the couch, and cut/sanded/assembled/painted a bunch of wood. the ozuna structure looks perfect there. warm and homey.

4) completing "asylum please" and “untitled (slovenia).” submitted ‘asylum’ to a strathmore wood thing, without luck. wanted to sell the slovenian folk art homage, but some of the non-smearing acrylic ink smeared. expanded in different ways with each piece. for ‘asylum,’ my first time including plaster and modeling hands with clay, then casting them with polyvitro. it’s not conventional art, i know that. but i like it. and i really like how the slovenia piece turned out. makes me happy.

5) taking marxe and then mo to college and visiting them six weeks later. both such beautiful and rural campuses, wonderful atmosphere. watched part of the world series with marxe and satch in a red hook mexican restaurant (lost that one). heard about someone imitating marxe to get $$ from ron and marilyn while in asheville with mo. and the tea house mo takes me to — you sit on the floor pillows and the stress dribbles out.

6) speaking of the nats: winning the world series and the subsequent parade. yeah, marred permanently by their ridiculous display at the white house a couple days later but the silly thrilling disbelief of game seven lifted me and the whole city. also including the mystics championship here, cause of the excitement experienced with an entire, special community that doesn’t give a shit who celebrates with them.

7) swimming across long pond, wellfleet, cape cod. wasn’t planning on the cape at all this year, but then julie said let’s split a place, and hell, why not. different experience: just me and satch instead of everyone; going to the pond more than the ocean; julie’s mom; beautifully landscaped, nicely decorated but upstairs-kinda-smelly old house; much shorter drive from PVD than chevy chase; whales swimming across the atlantic.

8) this by 75 Dollar Bill

9) happy hours/dinners/lunches/dancing with francisco, carey, rodica, pavla, arlene, valerie, jackie, erin. and also the ezgsa hooky-playing drinking lunches and outings.

10) almodovar’s "pain and glory.” made almost no one’s best-of list this year, but i don’t care. one of his most (if not the most) touching and complete films.

11) ArtWatch events: Kindness Rocks (at the Museum of African American History and Culture) and then, the next month, the Miss Amer(I)Can Pageant. although kindness rocks was a sorta repeat, we expanded it, asking LGBTQ people of color to create rocks for themselves and others. i made mo cringe at one point, but the night was wonderful and heartwarming. then in november, so much fun dressing up and taking part in Miss Amer(I)Can, our anti beauty pageant.

12) april. favorite just because it wasn’t march, the flu retreated, and it began warming again.

13) bryan ferry at the anthem in august. played his own stuff and loads of roxy music. love his voice. loved this show. he’s still got it, in his seventies now. dang. 

14) family reunion in escondido. i treasure each time my whole family gathers. dad’s challenges (and defiance and sense of humor) and mom’s unwavering care are finite. well, it all is. but this one is in my face. so is all the love.