Oh, what a silly cartoon I’ve made. Lately I almost always draw these on Sunday, and more often than not my cartooning time comes after a breakfast at the B Line (they have wonderful pies. Not that I eat pie for breakfast. Too much). We meet Ryan & Kim there, and I’ve come to rely on those breakfasts to supply me with cartoon ideas, if I haven’t come up with anything on my own.
This week, we had any number of interesting conversations that could have led to insightful artistic concepts, but before Ry & Kim even sat down to eat, this guy drove by the restaurant on a bright yellow 4-wheeler with trash cans in the back. He really seemed to be on the way to something…something we could never guess, never know. And so I ignored all the interesting conversations in favor of the ridiculous rhyme, inspired by the man in yellow. What can I say? I was tired. This was all pre-coffee. And I think the man was wearing a jumpsuit?
Anyway. It’s fall! The temperatures are dropping, and though that means something different here in Arizona than it does everywhere else (i.e. it’s still hot enough to wear t-shirts and shorts every day, but I look forward to comfortably sporting socks and closed-toed shoes, soon!) it’s still a harbinger of the winter to come. Last year around this time I was at Ragdale, and I keep getting pang-ful flashbacks to walking around the prairie, sitting at the desk in Albert’s Room, eating dinner with my fellow residents (and giving Linda a hug, after sneaking a few jelly beans). I got a lot done there (really – I worked from about 9 – 6 every day, excepting aforementioned prairie walks), but what I remember is this great sense of openness and possibility. Like the moment I stepped onto the grounds, I shook something off. It’s a hard feeling to let go of.
But why not look to what’s ahead? Halloween is coming, and that means choosing a costume, and sad reminiscing about your childhood years, when your unshakeable belief in the magic of holidays meant that those dates literally shone off the calendar. Last year I bought a red crayon outfit, which I will be happy to wear every Halloween from now until the implosion of the sun. But I also have friends who are interested in team costumes, and there is something to be said for communal, as opposed to private, fun. (My favorite-ever costume was Dead Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks – I remember telling my aerobics instructor what I had planned, and I guess she’d never seen Twin Peaks, because my goodness did her face fall. Well. She is about the pert-est individual in the world, so perhaps it’s just not her taste.)(Also that year, my friend Angie dressed up as the evil Twin Peaks spirit Bob, and as we were walking to the store we came upon a man who really did physically resemble Bob, and scared ourselves so silly that we broke into a run to escape the probably hapless and well-intentioned stranger. Sorry, guy. We couldn’t take the chance that you really were an evil spirit, there to take vengeance on our mirthful portrayals of your vessel and victim.)
