Carnivale

So hello all!  

It is time to update all of you on what has been going on in the past few days.  And what has been going on has been pretty crazy, actually.  

First off, we went to Venice.  But we didn't just go to Venice.  We were there during Carnivale!  If you have been to OU for halloween, imagine it in your head for a second.  Now, take away all the drunk belligerent idiots.  Add some adults in full costume, masks, and water to the mix, then imagine the whole thing on crack.  That is Carnivale.  Time passed strangely there, sometimes fast, sometimes slow....sometimes it felt as if there was no time at all.  There were so many amazing costumes, masks, colors, faces.  I felt like I was in the middle of a Toulouse-Latrec painting, the film Amadeus, and every single one of my childhood fantasies (and nightmares) at once.  

Venice is a beautiful city.  The light there is otherwordly.  I know now why Turner was so in love with Venice.  

Katy and I spent the weekend with my friend Biz, and her roommate Liz.  The four of us had a lovely time together.  Biz is in my digital multimedia class.  She is so smart and cool, I really enjoy hanging out with her.  She is also an incredibly talented ceramicist.  I've seen some of her forms-some of them are quite large.  They're beautiful.  I want her and Andy to sit down and chat, they would really get along.  Actually, I would love to organize a show of the two of their works.  Their forms would play well off of one another.

Anyway....by the end of saturday night we were wandering around Venice, lost in quite, deserted residential areas.  Some places were eerie, the dark water and the damaged brick seemed like they might swallow me whole.  I started to freak out, so walked into a bar and asked how to get back to Piazzale Roma.  The most wonderful and strange thing happened...a woman at the bar was walking back to Piazzale Roma and we got to follow her all the way there.  She was beautiful and smelled nice.  It was such an odd experience, to be following this venetian woman through the small winding streets, next to water, constantly. It was so nice to see the water, to be near it, to hear it.  The canals didn't smell all that great, but it was so lovely to see water.  I forget that how much I love the ocean.

The second awesome thing that has been going on is that Melissa came and visited!  Oh my goodness seeing her was just what I needed.  Melissa has this way of calming my insanity and also giving me clear and concise answers to problems.  But more so than that, it was just fun to hang out with her.  It was really really hard to say goodbye to her.  

You know, I love it here, I love living in a city, but there are things about Ohio that I miss.  There are things about Powell that I miss, and there are things about Ada that I miss.  I miss being able to go to a grocery store at 9 in the evening.  I miss coming back from a run on the Green Monster.  I miss a dollar fifty actually being a dollar fifty.  But more than anything else, I miss everyone back home.  

Em