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This is the second Maria at Matt’s that I have portraitized, thus the “II.” This Maria is not only an energetic and enthusiastic Manager, but a hardcore runner as well. (Stay tuned for another runner, the trophy-winning Lucinda, later in this series.) Maria will run twelve miles in the morning, then come and do a ten-hour shift, performing multiple roles from bussing tables to adroitly dealing with “I want to talk to the manager” issues. She has done it all, including three Boston Marathons and numberless other footraces, and she has well earned my respect and loyalty.

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Today I get to recycle a pun I made way back when, in a blog post far, far away, wherein I had Humphrey Bogart morphing into Mark Hamill and saying “Here’s Luke-ing at you, Kid.” Here’s why: my co-worker Veronica expressed her gratitude for my gift of her portrait by giving me an oil-pastel set she’d bought, intending to use, but not much came of it. My gratitude for the gift of the set, which is EXACTLY what I need at this stage of my transitioning-to-color career, was expressed by the offer to do in oil pastel either a landscape or a still life or a portrait of anyone on Earth. She chose the portrait, and she sent me a photo of Luke, her super-smart pooch. So this morning I warmed up for the pastel portrait by doing this card:

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Veronica has not been at our restaurant long, but she has made a big impression on me. She works hard, being chock-full of hop-to-it. She is dependable and uncomplaining. And she started something with me, performed when one or the other of us is leaving for the day, that is most endearing: she shakes my hand vigorously and says some encouraging thing, like “It’s been a pleasure working with you” or “Have fun and see you on Friday.”

When I asked her for a brief summation of her philosophy of life, and gave her the examples of Erika (“Live each day as if it were your last”), Michael (“Living the Dream”) and Martin (“Boredom Kills”), she asked for some time to think about it. Later she handed me a slip of paper with her answer. She wanted to be represented by “Dieu n’est pas l’auteur de la mort.” This roughly translates to “God is not the author of Death.” She said she saw it in Paris while visiting the Parisian cloisters.

I told her I wanted this one to be the best of the series to date, and I think it is. She deserves better, though! 🙂

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u little shih tzu

Today I had the marvelous good luck to meet a delightful dog. Some might think her homely, what with the underbite and the radiating hair, which makes her nose look like one of her chakras (and with dogs, who knows?), but I and my daughter, who is dogsitting as well as housesitting today, think her nothing less than Adorable.

And she is quite verbal (growl-al?). She and I had a conversation which lasted a good three minutes, the gist of which was I should open my box of Wheat Thins Tomato & Basil for her delectation, if I please. (I had to disappoint her.)

My drawing does not do her justice, but what would?

Words:

Unarguable CLASS
Lavishish muss-STASH
Introduce me to your SUSHI
Then I’ll have a BASH
Them what has it HAS it
Let my PIZZAZZ
Entertain YOU

Here is something that is and is not a work in progress. It is not good as is, but there is a revolutionary artwork implied in it; the trouble is that its proper expression would require about a month’s work. So here is yet another one waiting for me to retire . . .

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Words:

Born & bred in angry squalor/raised expecting even smaller /eking pennies on the dollar/acrimony–CHAOS too/turns into hullabaloo/hashtag [#] Welcometothezoo/if the outcome makes us scream/need a strong liaise ur-beam/get our selves a better dream

What could be revolutionary, and is implied, is the degree to which the.text may enhance the message. Note how one line “jumps ship” and usurps the end of the previous line. And with time and effort the words at the last of the poem may themselves give Breathing Room relief.

Will there ever be a 2.0? Time–and space–will tell.

And Fortune . . .