onwards, ever, etc.

So I am back now, from the quakey tower of academia and the scary recesses of the hospital. Thankfully, I had the best and kindest carers in both places (the ER nurses: amazing. I couldn't even feel the IV being put in, and one of them, after I said I didn't think he should ask patients to drink iodine--for CT scans of soft tissue--without having drunk it himself, did drink it, completely impressing me) and I am feeling much better. In a way this has been a nice, if forced, break for me. The end of the semester is so harried and hurried, and it's a mixed blessing to be sure but it was good for me to have to slow down.

Thank you all for your get-well wishes and your sweet words. Details: a "lacerated liver," bruises on right leg, cuts on right hand and chin, bruised diaphragm (solar plexus). Not fun, but it could have been worse and I'm glad it wasn't. This is my right hand. I had never realized how integral to movement, lifting, holding a pen, etc., the pinky really is.

Now--better things.

When I needed a money pouch fast for a show where I had a booth in April, I whipped one up out of some swanky fabric samples a friend gave me. It worked so well, I added a strap the next day. Mine is made of wool and ultrasuede; the ones beneath it are wool/cotton (green/dark grey) and wool/ultrasuede (corn-yellow/off-white). The fabrics are so pliable and strong and of such high quality, I can't stop touching my purse. It's almost embarrassing. Almost. But it's so cute--who could blame me? These are part of my summer06 collection.

After hanging out with Megan, I decided that, yes, a buttonmaker was something I wanted to spend my money one. I've been busy putting it to use, and I have several "theme" sets of buttons I'm working on. Shhh! Think turn-of-the-century collegiates, your high-school schedule, ways to carry a poem with you every day. More news as these evolve.

And last but not least, part of what I worked on for the last five weeks in the printshop were these fabrics, which I printed myself. The text one has words from Gertrude Stein's book Tender Buttons on it in red and yellow; the other has coral (two sizes) in four colors of red. I'm planning on skirts out of each.

In other news: a new baby, a change in the wind, a robin singing in the morning.

Still not sure what my summer holds: with one of my major forms of transport (bike) ruled out for the next 6 weeks, things are changing a bit. But I'm still planning to sew, write, send out, travel, make, print, draw, read (oh! reading for pleasure! I've just read two novels this week and it feels so good), see friends, dance, do research, and be happy all through it.

How about you?

It's good to be back.