Zippity doo-dah, zippy yay, my o my, what a wonderful non-Trump day.
Who else is still celebrating? Are we all still walking around in a happy daze, with a song in our heart and a spring in our step and a brain full of light and joy? OMG, how good does it feel to say to yourself, “Trump is done, over, out“? It’s an instant high every time I remind myself that America is, officially, and finally, Trump-free.
Now that things are approaching normal once again, and we don’t have to harden ourselves to do mental battle with the every-day CRAZY that we’ve been assaulted with for the past four years, we have to spend more time doing the things that bring beauty and pleasure to our lives.
As for me, it’s sunny and cold today here on the north shore of Long Island, so I’m going to go ice skating. Later, I plan to read some poetry (poetry!). I like making complicated paper snowflakes and I’ve “pinned” instructions from Pinterest that I’m eager to try out. I’m ready to learn how to make pizza dough from scratch. I might even start being nice to people, but don’t count on it.
Today, on the second day of the Joe Biden presidency, is a good day to paint a cat.
Meet Mehitabel, from Portland Oregon, courtesy of our Dear Reader Vicki:
I had the pleasure to meet Mehitabel a few years ago when I was doing a book tour for one of my books and Vicki graciously showed me the sights of The Rose City (the city is packed full of public parks beautifully landscaped with roses, my favorite flower).
As you can see, Mehitabel was not a cuddle bug. She kept her distance and did not like having her photo taken, but Vicki managed to get this picture that captures her personality. She’s looking a bit miffed, and I swear her lips are pursed and she’s about to go “Tsk tsk tsk” at this invasion of her privacy. My challenge will be to get that glance and that attitude in her portrait.
The other challenge is that the photo is a little blurry, and small, and I’ve already tried to paint her once before (it turned out bad, very bad), but I’m going to dive in and give it another shot.
To begin, I’m going to give Mehitabel a wash of white paint…”prepping” the canvas, kind of.
The most important detail of Mehitabel’s face is her mouth; that’s where her entire expression is contained. So I’m going to start there, hoping that I can get that right.
She’s a gray cat, which is fun for me because I really enjoy mixing my own gray colors:
Gray is a rich and expressive color — I love it.

Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea 1871 James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834-1903 Bequeathed by Miss Rachel and Miss Jean Alexander 1972 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T01571

James Mcneill Whistler, “Arrangement in Grey and Black”, 1871, in the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. This picture is, in the words of Wikipedia, “the most important work of American art outside the US.”
Even though she’s only a pencil outline, I can see Mehitabel glaring at me:
Let’s make her glare in full color:
She’s almost done. . .
I hope that all the energy I used to spend every day loathing Trump will be turned into something productive, like organizing my bookshelves, or clearing out the basement, or folding last week’s laundry, or learning Korean. (I just found out that there are 48 ways to conjugate a Korean verb, and so far, I only know 17 and to tell you the truth, I barely know all 17, so I have hours and hours of studying ahead…)
Of course there’s still the 2022 congressional elections to fret about, and there’s plenty of crazy and evil Republicans to keep track of, but let’s get to that next week.
For now, for this week, let’s all take a deep breath of pure, clean, non-Trump air, and congratulate ourselves for having made it to this moment, to the return of science and sanity and service to the White House.
I wonder if there are any memes for that. . .
This was dated January 19, 2021:
When Pence tried to brag about his “accomplishments” as Vice President:
Counting down the hours until Joe Biden was sworn in:
Moving day at Trump’s White House:
Speaking of the Trump legacy. . .
At the Washington Monument, the president-elect and the vice president-elect paid tribute to the400,000 Americans who have died from Covid:
And then, finally, The Day:
These are the New York Times on the past three Thursdays:
Have a great weekend, Dear Ones. It’s the first Trump-free Friday night in four years!!!