Too Many Projects!

The overwhelm week. Next week will probably be worse, and you will know because I will be very quiet. I have far too many life tabs open. (This is something I learned about cellphones...you have to close the tabs when you check the weather.) Since cellphones are apparently what passes for life these days, it's all one.

Props are coming along but they need to get out of the livingroom so I can bring in the sewing machine. I really have big house envy today. If I only had another room...maybe I should fill up my car with things I don't want and park it somewhere with the doors open. I did start to scavenge parts of old props instead of keeping them enshrined for no reason. It is still fun to have something creative to do every minute.

The t-shirts....ergh. I'm really not motivated to make shirts anymore. I'll do what I have to do but will probably drop them from my retail now that I will probably have to bring 160 pounds of dead weight when I use my pop-up. Yes, the fire marshal is wanting to enforce a new-ish technical tent advisory for weights. It is sensible, of course, as those things do catch wind if you are not a consummate craft professional like most of us are. Most of us tie the booths down to the stuff or to each other or in some way  make sure they are stable, and I would say out of 250 vendors at the Market each week, probably 240 of them take care of this just fine. Lots of people already bring weights, but I don't know anyone who could bring 80 pounds per leg like the advisory advises.

Fortunately our managers are working on it, have been for months, and will find some ways we can work within it to make sure everyone is safe and no one gets speared by airborne aluminum. I hope we can get some reasonable accommodations for our old bodies and our tiny lifestyles. You may know that I bring my stuff to Market on a large bike cart, capacity 500 pounds. I have no problem (well, few problems...) loading it with a quarter-ton of goods and fixtures but no way can I add 320 or even 80 pounds. I will have to eliminate stock, or only come on days when I don't need a cover so don't need to weight it. I do know that I will find a way. I have to. Still, it's hard to deal with this type of stuff. Obviously the people who thought it was a good idea to legislate this had not considered the reality of what we do and how we have to do it.

So while I cannot ignore this messy realityJell-O Art!
, it is getting in the way of my priority, which is
I started making it again, without much of an idea in mind, but again, I have to get these props out of the way if I'm going to start building sculptures. I need a good tacky food idea, too, something that uses a lot of orange-flavored Jell-O. Maybe a nice carrot and celery salad made into bite-sized chunks. I might even eat a piece or two of that if the vegetables outweighed the Jell-O. Except for the image of the stuff hardening in my guts...okay, back to sculpture ideas.

I will probably reference my personal odyssey and the idea of being community partners with Maude's. It's timely and meaningful though lacks humor...except for the personal odyssey part. I have had a pretty humorous life when I think about it. Dreams aren't helping. Last night I was making things appear that I knew could not, like the cat who is buried in the yard, Jake. I do miss him. He was nice and whole and pettable in the dream, but I made him appear from a fuzzy blur. That was some neat personal power...so maybe it is a clue to what to make. An orange cat...if I go ahead and make it now it could grow some nice fur in three weeks. I might if I didn't have intense familiarity with the smell of rotten gelatin. One of those you don't forget.

Okay, I'll just finish with the news that the show is really coming together and will be quite amusing and somewhat professionally staged. We will have mics so I didn't have to pitch my audience-participation idea which was not going to fly with this group of divas. They actually told me that my presentation as Athena, or actually the Queen of Jell-O Art playing Athena, was too humble and should be more ostentatious. (Of course they didn't use that word.) I said that it wouldn't be necessary, as everyone in the room would absolutely know that I am the Queen of Jell-O Art, and I have no doubt about that.

Partly because I will be wearing my crown and maybe my old costume for part of the non-performance hours of the show, but mostly because it will be entirely obvious, and since I have played her in the last three shows, she is legendary. I'm pretty sure mostly the same people come every year, because we are the Jell-O Art community, the partners. We'll see. I still stand by the idea that if you want to heckle, you should. All ten or so of you who read my last post still have my permission. If you want to sing along, do so. I am all about letting you in. It's a lot more fun that way.

But the show is still a secret. I'm not sending out any scripts to you all. It will be more fun that way. Trust me, I'm royalty.