Continuing to build the Ikea stuff and finished up a small 'Billy' bookcase yesterday- small being a relative term. This one is narrow, only a foot, and high, 78" and I simply cannot lift the damn box with the pieces in it. I had to just knock it to the floor (hip-check!) and open the box there and assemble it where it fell. Once it was together it was easy to walk it into place and stuff it full. Today I will tackle the second 'Alex' drawer system which should go quickly, then when I get back from Boston I think I will hire a handy-man guy to come deal with the larger bookcases just to get it done. Some days I just feel old and creaky, and today my muscles from crawling around on the floor yesterday and a screamin'! (Amazingly it's the ass muscles that hurt the most and I don't even have one~ go figure.)
I do want to plug Ikea for #1, fabulous service, and #2, great products. This stuff is amazingly perfect the way it's been prepared. The holes are all in exactly the right place and it all fits together perfectly, the screws and other hardware has been exactly counted, nothing suspicious left over. Not at all like the old assemble-yourself stuff. And #3, cheap cheap cheap in price. I wish I would have bought this stuff when I moved into the studio last year instead of just grabbing whatever I could for free and settling for make-do options as I went. But here it is now, so away I go.
The extra two days I got here because of my plane cancellation before going back to the snowdrifts have been productive. Now, I leave tonight and will be able to get to the No Holds Barred opening at the NEQM. Go look at this link because Carol Grotrian's amazing (!) shibori quilt is on the home page. That's this Saturday and it will be fun to attend with a good percentage of my crit group. Also I have a regular meeting with them while there, and have to take along *something* to show tham that I've been busy.
Robert Genn today was talking about Betty Freidan and how things have changed over the years for women. Back when she wrote the book that changed it all, women didn't have the options they do today, and they had to figure out how to spend their lives after child rearing.
*The capability and the desire to work alone. Genn postulates that many of them found latent creativity and went to art for their fulfillment. Because of the vast numbers, they have overtaken men in the field and seem to be perfectly suited to the artist's life because of their innate traits which he lists as:*A degree of independence from outside opinion.
*Steady, well-regulated, workmanlike habits.
*The understanding that passion comes from process.
*The curiosity to explore sets and series.
*An intuitive sense of quality and reasonable taste.
*A philosophical but nevertheless combative attitude to the miserably dying vestiges of the boy's club.
check, check, check, check, check, and check. And here I am!
Who knows what women can become when they are finally free to become themselves. Betty FriedanI know. They become Old Women, sometimes happy ones, and Betty knows this by now too.
2 comments :
I remember how heavy each box was when I bought three little wooden thread chests and realized that I would have to assemble them. Painstaking, but fun because it was so well prepared. Rewarding because the results are so fabulous..all those teeny little drawers to fill with crap!
Great minds - I quoted the same thing on my blog today. Way to go Robert for plugging doing the work! I especially enjoyed the last big about the boys' club because I fight that every stinkin' day. It's mostly so subtle but sometimes not so much. Just one of those battles you have to fight every time you encounter it. And sometimes you have to fight it in both genders. Amazing but true.
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