Have my fellow Americans done their taxes? You? Months ago?
I've put off doing mine till today, (day off work), the day before they're due.
They're easy--I file a free online form; but this year I've got some fiddly bits (amazingly, I still receive a few hundred in royalties from the children's publisher I wrote for years ago), and... I don't know, I just delay anything of this sort (financial, medical).
I'm not alone in that, I know.
I'll do them and be relieved.
I'm supposed to meet Ass'tMan and Emmler after work for an Art Play Date at a coffee shop.
I say "supposed to" because they both have kids and Emmler's life is a tilt-a-whirl, and if I had to bet, I'd bet one (or both) of them won't make it...
I hope they do though.
A few other coworkers make stuff too, but this is the first time any of us have met up to make art. I'm bringing paper, scissors, glue, and pictures to cut up.
For my birthday last month, Emmler had given me a collage of Naked Ladies in Puddings that she'd half-finished. I gave the ladies hats (more jiggly desserts) and added animals from a 1950s Little Golden Book, A Day at the Zoo.
I gave the collage back to Emmler for finishing touches a month ago...
I don't care if I never get it back, it was just so good collaborate--to have someone else's starter blocks to push off from.
Below: Part of the collage: Emmler started this off with lady & pie--I added fawn & flourishes (apple jello ring!):
"We Are Real"
Marz didn't intend her collage, below, to be collaborative. She gave it to me a couple years ago, when I was living with HouseMate.
But yesterday I was moved to add to her four characters:
Everybody needed a hat (or a pony) (or a new face--looking at you, Margaret Thatcher).
Also, a llama peaked in.
Penny Cooper;
Margaret Thatcher (I replaced her face with an animal by Marz);
and Marz.
I met Marz in person twelve years ago this spring, when bink & I met up with her in Pamplona, Spain, to walk the Camino de Santiago.
I always say she was like an exploding grapefruit or a tuba in the sun. That could be a good collage. But for now:
