"to our readers"

so it's official, my dear readers, i am a weekly columnist, complete with a sig, contact information and all.

if you're in the area where the newspaper is available in print form, pick up a copy - i'm absolutely thrilled with how my story looks on the page. refer on the front page and my story is on the bottom of page 1d, with a great color photo and a jump to the third page, where my story and photos of the art hop comprise the entire page.

as can be expected, a completely sappy post is about to commence. be warned.

it's been a pretty hectic couple of days, to say the least. between working the temporary "day job" and getting up to burlington to cover the art hop, i feel as if i've been living a nomadic life, spending more time in my car than anything else. fortunately, my love for driving remains as strong as ever ... the landscapes, sunsets and night skies i've glimpsed through my windshield have been gorgeous, while the people i've passed by have provided infinite opportunities to come up with amusing stories about their lives and loves.

i had no idea of what to expect with the art hop, save that i knew it had the potential to be a lot of fun. the two-day event was just that.

wandering the streets of the south end, i strolled in and out of shops, abandoned buildings and restaurants, chatting with artists and watching the other visitors take in the creativity surrounding them. from abstracts to watercolors to sound installations and back again.

i added a couple of rows to the community friendship bracelet while discussing childhood memories of bracelet making with the woman running that particular event and i learned about abstract art from an uncannily knowledgable four-year-old.

i met winnie holzman's mother, sue miller, and was able to tell her about how her daughter shaped my adolescent life with "my so-called life" and was delightedly shocked to learn that winnie is creating the musical adaptation of "wicked" (a book i fell in love with in college) for broadway. i also fell in love with sue's work (she paints watercolors and adds bits of narrative prose to many of her pieces) and bought a small print for my apartment-to-come. it is a watercolor composed primarily of blues, with small touches of rose, evoking thoughts of water. the narrative:

soft, soft and steady
those night curtains fall
my theater, my play

some vibrant color sings
so briefly in sky & water
gone so soon,
so softly gone.

when i came across it, i told sue about my love of twilight and lake champlain - about how while in school, i would try to get down to the waterfront right at the final moments of sunset, when the sky was shifting into dark blues and the lake seemed to glow with light in the depths of the water. she seemed to know exactly what i was talking about and we wound up chatting for almost 45 minutes. when i was leaving, she signed my print and asked me to please keep in touch, as the fact that i connected with that particular print, one that many simply pass by, indicated that there was something special about me. whether that is true or not may be up to debate, but there is certainly something special about her, that i can say with assurance.

i ran into some people from my former office, which was random but a lot of fun - i strolled with matt over to a coast guard event that was taking place, hoping to be able to meet up with the senator briefly to say hello, but he had already left. i saw some others from the burlington office, however, which was a lot of fun.

walking around burlington both days, but particularly friday night, i felt as if a great homecoming was taking place. the warmth of the night, the people of so many shapes, forms and backgrounds passing by, smiling as they met my eyes - little kids running around the statues at city hall, twenty-somethings walking down the familiar stairs into what ales you and sitting by the windows at jp's ... it all felt completely right and i was exactly where i was supposed to be - on assignment and heading to muddy waters for an iced coffee. ah, bliss. i had a grin on my face the entire time.

the grin turned into flat out laughter as i passed by the flynn. two guys, probably around twenty years old, were sitting on the stoop by the flynnspace, one of them standing as i walked by.

"excuse me," he said, taking a step in my direction. "where are you heading?"

i decided to amuse myself and stopped. "around. why, what's up?"

"you're going around?" he repeated. "can i come?"

i waited a beat before replying. "is that it?"

he blinked. "huh?"

"is that it? that's your line?"

"yeah - did it work?"

it was all i could do to not burst out into laughter right there. "surprisingly, no, it didn't." i resumed walking as his friend teased him, saying "dude, that's not how you pick up a chick!"

i met up with my brother, who had come back to vermont from boston for a doctor's appointment, laughing over french fries with him and one of his burlington friends before heading back into the night and onto the open road.

i finished my story on deadline with no problems and had the newsroom to myself when i first arrived yesterday afternoon. i sat in a corner at becky's desk and looked out over the room - the proofs scattered about, copies of various issues tacked to the walls. a police scanner crackling quietly across the room and the clicking of my keyboard provided the soundtrack to my writing, which came to me more easily than i'd anticipated. sitting there, working on my assignment, playing back interviews and transcribing quotes, i felt such a surge of happiness.

after finishing the story (and trying to figure out why there is a huge photograph of two dead birds on the alley side of red square), i headed back to southern vermont and casa elizabeth. i gave in to the temptations provided by the local video store's semi-annual movie sale, spending far too much on dvd goodness, but rationalizing it by realizing i would have wound up buying the same movies for more elsewhere anyway. i selected the vhs of "the dangerous lives of altar boys" and dvds of "chicago," "adaptation," and "about a boy." dvds for $8.99 each and the vhs for $6.99? these were wise investments, not foolish purchases. and beth's selection of "the hours" means we now own several movie one or both of us have never seen. bonus!

now i sit here, having returned from a trip to fair haven to help out with a bus at the store (two people called in sick today - sisters, no less. coicidence? riiiiiiiight), preparing to officially start off my day, which includes - surprise, surprise - a trip to burlington, this time with my mother, so we can enjoy the city (she can enjoy it for the first time in some time, i can enjoy it for the first time in some time without a deadline) and kill time before we pick up my father at the airport and i am amused by the look on his face when he hears some of the amusing work-related horror stories he's missed out on during his ten-day absence.

and i can make myself feel better about the fact that the ratio of concert-love voicemails to concert-attendance is way out of whack (gold stars for michelle leaving me guster loving friday night and paul for leaving me up-close-and-personal dmb loving last night) by buying tickets for guster's upcoming flynn show, while keeping my eyes peeled for the latest info about when the union college mraz show will open up ticket sales to the general public (are there any union college readers who have stumbled across this? if so, care to hook a girl up with two tickets - you'll be my best friend ...). that and doing some research on the fundraising concert i think i'm attending for "a&tc" this week.

revel.
revelrevel.