Of course it is tax time. I do enjoy forms, and taxes, I think because as an artist my head is wandering around the ether and my feet are usually forgotten in a crunched up pose, but my hands grab pens, paints, keyboard, pen and paper happily and I like to fill out a form or two. I dig it. Maybe because I'm an artist it validates me to have a Schedule C to frame my life and my supplies, plus a refund..always good.  And I feel happy that I understand depreciation. I feel really like a competent adult. Even if I don't know how to do the math per se, I know it's a Schedule 179 and I know there is a time frame for all things. I'm the family peeve calling around making sure everyone's got their money in ...which is funny, as I totally side with my mother-in-law who refused to pay quarterly because "they're just going to buy bombs with it.."

So speaking of depreciation, I had the nice sparkly thought that my marriage is actually appreciating, as my husband apparently knows me quite well and uses this information for good, for which I consider myself lucky.  Today I had a little meltdown (it was my day to run errands, get the car dinged hard by a *** boy in an SUV (I caught them, I was sitting checking my mail and WOW did I jump when that door hit mine) (new item on to-do list..I have to schedule some body work for the car)) so Steve told me to go get grounded with some coffee grounds (only he could understand that jacking my head further into the clouds is a grounding thing for me) and that (the car thing) started me thinking how an item begins to depreciate as soon as it "walks off the lot". I happend to be in the Best Buy parking lot by the Lands End with the Most Ill-Fitting and Not-Cheap clothings for womens that when you're heading for rock bottom, stop in there and try to dress yourself like an overgrown mushrooming 80's high school preppy complete with headband Outlet, and I'd just had what felt like a mild stroke wandering around the ill-lit Best Buy, trying to find a myriad of things from Cyberchase DVD's (none) to a simple 9Volt (my husband calls it a "transistor radio" battery) (NOT in the battery section, mind you, but nearer the Bubblicious at the checkout) to a laptop computer. I had been shadowing this nice couple who was shopping for a computer for their daughter entering med school. It was a nice thought. I almost offered to be their daughter for purposes of role-playing, but thought better of it.  I've been bold lately and it's been alternately horrid and funny. Demanding a painting audit for payment at Sprout - bad...deciding to use German phrases as IF they were yiddish to get along with my Jewish fundraiser cohorts-funny..ok maybe just to me, but I L-O-V-E-D the A-M/A-Z double-take. So anyway at Best Buy I just kind of loitered and watched. I need a camcorder too so I lost track of them for a while (why do they break? Why do I go back for more? But baby just started walking today!! Hurrah! And so need a camera...because should have made movie yesterday).. Anyway, these were well-meaning, intense and quite linear people who were not picking up what BestBuyBoy was laying down, and didn't differentiate between Mac and PC (I'm thinking they're not going to the HD TV section next).  But so I was thinking about depreciation and parents who buy their children laptops for school. I know they want to do the right thing, without considering the educational discount the student will be afforded on a pc AND the MS Office Software (esp by going direct for mac at an apple store or online), and they're unaware of the inevitable sheet of paper the student will be handed on the first day outlining the software requirements for the class. (I don't think I ever mentioned here that Steve and I met as computer lab consultants at Northwestern University ...we used to bring Henry there too..Swiss Family Robinson Computer Lab)  I know the temptation to do the right thing and have it all there for the student is overwhelming, but consider this. The laptop starts to depreciate the day it walks off the lot. It's April. School will start in August, maybe even September. The student most likely does not have a paper due before then, but will probably unpack that laptop and load all kinds of cr*p on there in the summer, or at least spill some cr*p on there before August.  One or more peripherals will get lost, possibly the USB cable that came neatly tied in a little twisty-tie, and suddenly there is a problemo. Then come to find out that model doesn't burn DVD's, and assignment #1 for the elective is to make a little movie or CD or something...then what? Then student is going to the computer lab anyway, and laptop is back in the dorm serving as a lunch tray or worse, a bun-warmer for chilly roomie or roomie tryst.  The laptop is depreciating at the speed of light at this point. Stop the insanity. Buy nice sheets before school, those ridiculous special XLong twin sheets, as those will be needed on the very first day. But the laptop? I'd wait and see the requirements the school provides at Orientation, what educational discounts exist, and what software is necessary to purchase. Ya can probably even check it out online beforehand. A better education for higher education is allowing your precollege kiddo to go to the library and work amongst other people and pay for printing, as the toner on that fancy new printer is bound to run out right around exam time, and that student is going to have to know his/her way around a printing card anyway. And those computer lab people can run the gamut.

Whew. OK. ON the plus side on this depreciation topic, I actually bought myself a computer today. !? It's still in the box. I just finished my paper for class, but see, I'm IN class, and I have all these needs to type things and without deelay (don't, please, note the post time here. Remember all those gentle encouraging coffee ideas? hm, yes. Ask me anything about the brand positioning of donorschoose.org though, I'm all over it). After that kid totally freaked me out (was I SHOT? Was there an accident?) and I talked to my understanding husband, I drove to Bayshore, went to the Apple store, and bought a MacBook with my educational discount and even got a little keyboard skin to protect at least some part of the thing that is going to eat grape juice pdq I can feel it.  I have half a mind to wrap it in plastic wrap but have geeked out on reading online and realize it could verrrrry well overheat if I do that. Anyway, so now I have my MomBook as I call it "White, for Easy Cleaning"...I swear I should work there. I would say things that were raucous but right on to people like me who case the place, know that's what they want, but can't get over the whole "Have a Copy of MS Office for PC at Home" thing. Well. Mr. Corey showed me a nice free online interface called Neo Office or something like that (I've forgotten the whole transaction because it makes me lightheaded to think about it) AND I got a free printer (now we just have a ridiculous number of printers) and so there you go. I can't wait to be able to make imovies. I have been supposed to have been making little documentaries of my arts grant for YEARS and I kept whining "When do I get my imoney to make imovies guys?" so now, thanks to doing our taxes, we had a little for me to do that.  I now have no excuse. As time is a-wastin, the thing's depreciating downstairs I can hear it. I have to teach some Green next week, so I'm going to head to the Green show at the Woodsomething gallery on Locust this week. I can't wait. Seeing Green I think it is. I'm excited to make fifty recycled paper Earth clocks tick tock folks...but that's next week.  Also pending is my grande free Calatrava painting for the Bal du Lac. Nothing like bringing coal to newcastle is there?

IN OTHER NEWS - I have started a LIST of Riverbrook Stories, see to the right here. If you send me a story to my email, ( I will post it anonymously unless you ask me to use your name).  I think there are a lot of stories that would lend themselves to a kind of tribute book for them. I would be honored if you would share even a simple memory or idea about the place that is soon to be no more. Something about what Riverbrook (formerly Pig 'n Whistle) is to you, or why you like it, or what funny things happened to you there, please share. This is the time. The time is now. It's being RAZED.

My mind is a whirlwind like the winds that have been bruising the faces of our village's youngest members lately. Nothing I can do protects Helen's face from it. We walk to school, the three of us - me, Henry, Helen, the orange-clad ones, yelling over the wind to each other, me begging Henry to stay out of the street, don't pick that up, don't lick the pole (!?) and stop at the alley..him asking me about watching Cyberchase later, about why we can't just walk to Varnes and Ogre (Barnes and Noble)...Helen just growling in the stroller.

So there is a vortex of thoughts, brought about by nature and the culmination of fifty projects that have to smooth out like an addled gallbladder in a suspension of time and space.  I used to be better at that when I wasn't playing with my kids, and trying to get places on time, but now I get down and play with them and make lunch within a reasonable time frame all to their delight and the back of my mind saying ... Your Art is Waiting for its Whimsical Creator, Madame.

It will have to wait. Though I did get interviewed for MKE this week (thank you Steph!) about gallery night artwork at Sprout in a story that will be called "Under $100"...I used my line about being the "Lillian Vernon of the art world" again but I think the message of a Steinman-Heyden on every wall will be better-understood for the socially networked set. We'll see! I'll be arting it up this month with a new painting of the art museum FOR the Art Museum's "Bal du Lac" ball chaired by Shorewood's own power couple the Frasers. I am inspired by our Art Museum and am actually having my students in Chicago (I still teach with this great org called CAPE ... I know, I know, gotta bring it over the border) doing a recreation of the Tony Oursler at the MAM only with the kids' faces projected on a beanbag stuck under a big paper mache globe talking about the pressure to go green....Anyway, another art auction of hundreds where no, I won't be attending, I'll just be another artist donating another painting for someone to buy under value to support the nonprofit while I take little or no deduction because artists can only deduct the supplies...so...that's ok. I'm oddly inspired by freebies - I feel like it's much more invigorating to create something to give to the greater good - there is no Medici family breathing down my neck saying "Make the David look more like Aunt Ruth!"

I want to blog about some things, like the Riverbrook going away. I'm working on it. I want to blog about ADD and moms who actually take Adovan and drugs to make them more productive. I want to blog about navigating the mom waters, and what it's like to become a parent really. Really what happens is that your little puppet show of mommy, poppy, and baby, turns into a sea of puppets that are parents of other kids and really as a mom that means other moms. Other moms at the grocery store, other moms as soon as you go outside. Other moms calling. It's good, it's great actually, it's real, and it's a total shock if you're not used to this world. Basically, the change in seasons to an outdoors-is-preferable one means contact, so I think we all need to bone up on how to handle the adjustment. Moms are your friends, but you must know how to navigate the waters. You may not have been surrounded by women before deciding to raise your children in Shorewood. Well, you're here now, or at least you've got a birds-eye-view of one now (me) and here it is.  If you want to talk to men, which you maybe used to do at work regularly or even see yourself more as "one of the guys"..you'll have to engage the TruGreen ChemLawn solicitor longer or perhaps go to a myriad of district-education meetings or other such things to find that.  Otherwise, the game is on, and it's mom time.

First, decide on what things you do, who you are, what you wear, and get things lined up inside your house.  I'm not talking jackets and shoes. I'm talking a brush, a toothbrush, and makeup choices for mom. What is your lipcolor? Pick one. What is your summer choice for rec classes for the kid(s)? Decide. Swim classes or Not? Pick. If you want to up the ante, here are some faincy words to bandy about like the latest cool sunglasses for Spring/Summer: the Fox Point Pool, the WAC/ new location, Hanna Andersson store in Schaumburg, and... maybe let me just make up flying lessons in Sheboygan or perhaps hot air balloon class in the Dells.  Prep like it's the first day of school for you and you'll be fine. Then when you run into someone whose name you can't remember because it falls into the Kathy/Lisa/Jenny category, who has their kids (smugly, it seems) riding the car cart at Pick'n'Save while your kid(s) whine loudly about not getting the car cart,  who (with suprisingly strong upper-body strength) grabs you by the shoulders and looks you in the eyes (remember, most moms around here are medicated, if it's any consolation) and demands to know your CHOICES, you won't think "Free Cookie, Free Cookie, Free Cookie at bakery...right...over...there..." and instead you will utter "T-Ball, Third Session, K-4" or "Alligator, Tuesday nights, He's Taking Him." You'll have it straight. You'll know Tiny Tykes is now Bright Beginnings, and no, you're not signing up, not until session II anyway,....and you'll say YES, Playdate Tuesday from 10-11:15 would be GREAT. Your house is of course clean so you will say "Our House, absolutely. Coffee?" At least from May 12 - June 14 (*not real dates - I don't have my sh*t together for real yet). 

Where was I. I'm in the middle of writing a paper about www.donorschoose.org and need feedback on a survey I have - any teachers reading this want to survey a site intended to bring happy free supplies and joy to teachers just send me an email and I'll get you the link and support you in your endeavor.

I was raised by teachers - now my mom's a minister. Double whammy. I've no choice but to devote myself to the funding of public good.

OK, so about saving the Riverbrook restaurant from being RAZED.  So extreme, like a dog that bit someone having to be put down.  Ironically, it's to make way for a senior center. Can't think of a better thing to have on the grounds pf a senior center but an ice cream and reasonably-priced restaurant with coffee, soup or salad, a side of overcooked veggies and dessert included in the meal price. In addition, I think it's everyone's special hideout from prissiness.  I don't just like it for the massive chicken pot pie, or because I could, you know, could, just as easily have a martini with pancakes for dinner or a bloody mary and scoop of egg salad on a lettuce leaf with custard for dessert. I don't just like it because yeah, I did go there in high school though it was totally different and the area wasn't so weird, ...though come to think of it I did have a really bad date there once ("You shouldn't make such weird faces, it's not pretty") where he took me for a walk in Estabrook and we got chased by a crazy car and he ran off like a jackrabbit and luckily I made it out of the park but yiiiii. I have fond memories of being totally embarrassed by my dad who always used to say "Hey, let's go to the Pork 'n Toot!" (It was the Pig 'n Whistle for many years).   I like it because when I mention it to people, they say, WHAT, that place is going away? Where will I take my family for breakfast?  Where will I go to hide from other business people at lunch?  Not to mention it's the only remotely racially diverse place to go in the entire city. It is the only, as far as I know, racially and culturally diverse restaurant on the North Side of Milwaukee.  We go there because we miss living in a city with better race relations (try any). I wouldn't call it huggy by any means, but there is a comaradery there that you know if something happened there - baby lost a sock, or someone was hurt, that everyone in that place would help. Where on Sundays fun black families and fun white families go and exchange smiles as our kids grab the salt shakers and throw napkins on the floor.  The waitresses are scary and that's part of the fun - they remind us to be good to our teeth and each other. Where will I send my husband and kids when I have a big project due and I want to know they're in a booth somewhere being carbed out and my husband doesn't have to make fifty trips to get everything set up and is having his coffee refilled fifty times?? (I love city market and Einstein's, it's just a lot of work with kids along or not) I don't think anyone is going out on a limb to save the place...it'd be like saving that pair of jeans we don't really share with the community, or the pair of shoes we do the real work in that we hope no one notices, but that we rely on when push comes to shove. I'm going to miss that place, not because the management is nice or cares about us in particular, but because they allow my family a real experience, which is sad that that's how homogenous our experience is here (we moved from Albany Park in Chicago three years ago and it was very, very different there), but 'tis what it 'tis.  I will keep shopping at Lena's, but that has a spooky Aldi quality and strange smell, for the diversity of people and vegetables, but will deeply miss Riverbrook for what it added to our community, even if it wasn't so fancy and the owners didn't act like part of the "team."

Other businesses in Shorewood seem to do just fine, on the other hand, despite freaking me out for various reasons.  Take Flow (please!), the creeeeeeeepy store on my corner which sells jackets guns on them and apparently lets people try one shoe with and has terrifying clientele esp. on Thursdays and Fridays, ... the 'Tween Friends store with the peeliest foam mannequins I've ever seen and every time I walk by I want to tell them to either get rid of them or get nicer ones, that skin disorders don't need advertisement....and Luxe...how the HECK are you supposed to SAY that out loud? Luke's? Luhcks? I'm not fancy enough to know. I'll ask my friend Anne, (she's French and runs the gem, Alliance Francaise). She can say it I bet and make it really pretty. First it was a fancy stuff store, now it is a hair dresser. Strange. Any place that's got magazines that straight in the window scares me. And all the Ikea pillows..and the darkness in there. Eerie. Spa-like? hm.

Better get going. I have to attend a fundraising gala tomorrow and before that am going to inventory my art and hopefully create a great marketing plan for the American Disabilities Act Services at UWM.  Baby has an ear infection, forgot to dose her up before bed. Argh. Gave Henry a haircut today at the breakfast table. Gotta love Swiffer.  Got yoga in a couple hours. Be well.