jots

- You start to regret, ever so slightly, becoming an artist when, on a trip ferrying your paints and other materials to a new studio, you spill almost half a gallon of turquoise paint in the trunk of your car. This wouldn't happen if you were just about anything else.

- Sometimes I think there's nothing to recommend Florida except the weather. Of course, today, it was 90-some degrees until an electrical storm (which, in this part of Florida, seems to happen every day after lunch) dropped an inch or two of rain and cut out power all over town. Which was really exciting because the stoplights were out. This is bad enough, but Florida drivers don't exactly have a reputation for sanity and competence.
At an intersection in front of me two white trucks were stopped in the left lane. I eased myself into the right lane and tiptoed up to the line looking to see if anyone was crossing the opposite direction. The truck on my left, hauling a no-doubt soaked mattress, was so far up I couldn't see. he gestured to me- it looked like a "go" signal. But then he proceeded to attempt a right turn from the left lane. It was madness, but only to be expected.

- I think I have seen geckos crawling around my apartment complex. They are small and cute, as I expected, but also very quick, and move with an anxious gait. Their bodies cling flat to the wall. Cartoonish but also quite odd and unexpected.

-If I never find myself attempting to remove the stain of turquoise paint from carpet again, it will be too soon. I managed to ruin two towels and reduce my hands to hamburger, and the trunk still looks like a Martian crime scene.