Sophia is all ready for Mardi Gras but compared to New Orleans, celebrating here at Sanctuary Center is probably pretty boring. But, here she is:
Thanks, Leslie, for your recent comment about my big Barbie doll. My mom, as she grew older, had a baby doll that looked real. So, what do I end up with? An art mannikin. Yeah, sometimes I am like Steve Martin in Lonely Guy, but Mollie and Sophia keep me company when I do get down and out.
My friend Ray Whiting lived in New Orleans until the hurricane drove him out and I used to love hearing his stories about the revelry. Now I am too old, or maybe just too smart, to even want to go into a crowd like that.
It was fun to visit Mardi Gras New Orleans site, however. There is a lot of information there.
When I dressed Sophia this weekend, I had just finished reading about Jean Paul Sartre, Rudolph Bultmann, Martin Heidegger and other existentialists for a class I'm taking. After that heavy duty thinking I kept asking myself, is my somewhat frivilous life authentic or unauthentic? I'm a wanna-be scholar in the midst of all my art and writing, though. And I do love people--and I love them in the moment. Maybe Sophia and I are actually existentialists.
My own Mardi Gras celebration will be at Christ Church's annual pancake dinner on Tuesday night in the church hall. I wish Sophia could go, too, but she's too bulky and heavy to drag the block down to the church.
I do remember a trip my friends Kathy, Donna and I took for rodeo weekend in Bishop, CA one time--and we went to the local community hall to a Cajun dance. I was too shy to dance, but Kathy was out there among them. Remember that, Kathy? This is what the music sounded like:
And here is Sophia's sweet face up close. I sure wish I had those lips.
