Wicked & Divine

Unique ceramic works.

Last night was Art Erotica, AIDS Services of Austin's big fund-raiser for the Paul Kirby emergency fund. Such a good cause, but man such a good time! It was noticeably toned down this year -- kind of wondering why. Here's the scene as we entered: dark, throbbing beats, art along the perimeter. Lots of gorgeous young gay men serving drinks in just their bikini briefs. There's a stage for fun later, and an area set up for three artists to paint/draw with live models with a circle of chairs for spectators. Lots of super sexy party-goers, yes, ass-less chaps and Marilyn Monroe-esque drag queens. Free drinks too, but I noticed that I've never seen someone stumbly-drunk there, never seen out of control behavior. It's just that nice Austin, tolerant chill weirdness.

This is the one we bought.

So some of the highlights: really cool trapeze performers using hoops and lengths of silk, a mini-Mardi Gras parade at one point, a male and female balancing act using just their bodies (I'd like to be that strong), oh and watching artists create from a tableau of 3 models. That was way cool. Two women and a man, the women had these interesting trompe l'oeil paintings on their bodies (pic below). I simply couldn't believe how fast the artists could work - of course, maybe that was the idea. But the finished works looked pretty good. We did end up buying a painting - its got that mystical Southwestern dreamy thing going on that we like.

So that was fun and well worth a night that I could be studying. School is fine, I'm very busy mostly because I spend two full days a week with Dr. Smith and I have 4 therapy clients now. I'm interviewing at two places for a job, and they are both quite different. One I mentioned in my last post, a local psychiatrist but I'm also talking with a small private center. In the interests of privacy, I won't be specific about the place but it serves a niche market of a specific disorder. They are interested in creating a brand-new position, so it is pretty different from most NP jobs, but one that fits well with my previous experience and my interests. Of course, I'd see patients too -- that's essential to me. Can you tell which way I'm leaning now? Ha. There's many different ways to work as an NP - we can be salaried employees, hourly employees, independent contractors that pay a monthly fee for supervision and office support, or pay a cut of our billings. It's a lot to analyze.

My New Year's resolution was to start adding a little running to my activities and I've been succeeding with that, but I started having knee pain. I suspected that I needed a different kind of shoes, so I went to this local running store in Lakeway, Capital City Running (http://capitalcityrunning.com), and they have a treadmill and videocam to analyze your gait, and I was impressed. I needed stability shoes but also turns out my shoes were way too small. A full size too small, maybe that's a female thing, we don't want to have big feet. I bought the shoes and yes, big difference. I love the running, want the knees to stop hurting though. And of course, I did too much too fast. Duh.

I'd love to say more....especially about interesting things I've learned. But I have a big paper to work on and some group members are counting on me. And the gym is calling too.