First Friday

First Friday in Eagle was fun. I spent an hour at the gallery and met two photographers and then Mary Kay showed up with her mom, Shirley. There was some deal where we could enter a raffle for some concert tickets if we went around and got stamps from 5 First Friday participants, so Mary Kay and her mom and I went around and got our stamps. Everyone had live music and fire pits and free food and it was a pretty big crowd. Most places we just went in and got our stamp, but we walked around the other gallery in Eagle, which appeared to be much higher end than the one I'm in. Mary Kay was getting cranky with hunger, so we finally stopped at one place so she could eat. We sat outside around a word burning fire pit on a really warm evening for November in Idaho and I met a lonely Democrat here from Lancaster via Pepperdine University. He said during election season he gets tons of calls, because there is only a small pool of people the Democrats can call. I did not get a chance to ask him why he moved to Idaho.

One of the photographers I met also went to the artist's business workshop. She moved here from Montana, I think, but lived for several years in Santa Barbara. She's been here for 15 years and owns a 110 year old farmhouse. She has a separate inside studio and a big lot with large old trees for outdoor photography. The other photographer is from San Francisco has only been in Boise for a year. He photographs kids and families with his wife, but still goes back to San Francisco to photograph weddings if the pay is good enough. He said times are tough and he told me some of the creative ways he is trying to bring up business, like donating a photo shoot for the silent auction that was held that night at the gallery.

I did some research before I chose Boise, including looking up towns with art communities. Nowhere did anyone mention Boise and now that I am here, not only do I find that Boise supports the arts and that there are many avenues to see and display art, but half of the people I meet are artists and some of them are even supporting themselves.

I showed Mary Kay and her mom my work in the gallery, but it quickly got too crowded to try to sell my work to anyone or even talk, so I think I will go again in December. Downtown Eagle is small and quaint and I would love to see it dressed up for Christmas. Mary Kay was not impressed with the gallery owner, either, and could not get past her blue underwear that showed through her cream colored dress. I said, I think she is wearing a matching blue bra and Mary Kay said, does that make it OK? I love Mary Kay and really liked her mom, who is pretty spry for being in her 80s and she still skis.

Dad was trying to tell me a story about Hazel, but could not remember her name, and got stuck on Walnut. Apparently Dad tries to remember Hazel's name by remembering that it is a nut, but starts with Walnut and can't get past Walnut. Let's see, Walnut, Peanut, no her name's not Pea, Almond, Cashew... I don't know about you, but I think it would take me a long time to get to Hazelnut, but then if you were to do a word association, what would you match with Hazel? Anyway, when I was at the framer she asked what to name the framing order and I said Hazel and I told her Dad's nut story. There is another woman waiting at the framer and when I'm done she tells a story about how her and her husband remember their niece's, or maybe it's a nephew's, name. They remember it's a Christmas tree and then have the same problem. They have to go through all the trees before they get to the right one. Pine, Spruce, Douglas, no, it's Noble! I can see why you would need some help remembering a kid's name is Noble.

I spent the first half of the day on Friday applying for jobs again. I applied for some part time jobs at St. Luke's Hospital and used the girl I met at the workshop's name as a referral. The City of Boise had several openings, part time at the library, a full time City Clerk, and a part time media/graphics assistant. At this point, any of these is fine with me.

After a busy week, the house is a mess and I cooked and cleaned and did laundry all day. Lani sent award winning Garlic Dill pickles and I was tempted to go out and buy corned beef and rye bread, but I've been eating them with grilled cheese and they are still excellent. The temperature is supposed to drop 20 degrees and Boise is back to being really cold by Monday, so I am now making pot roast. Next week I am going to make another attempt at baking bread, so far mine is mediocre at best. I don't stick with it because I can't stand wasting all that flour, but this winter I just want to master one bread recipe.

I am very excited about my extra hour tonight, this morning it did not even start getting light until after 8. I hope Cruiser gets the time change and doesn't try to get me up earlier tomorrow.