My mother is coming home today. As I write this, she is en route to LaGuardia with an extra suitcase packed with the stuff she's bought (books, mainly). She's been to museums and last night to Lincoln Centre, she's eaten many tasty things, and walked and walked and walked. She'll be home tonight around 5:30pm, no doubt exhausted from the trip, and I'm looking forward to it. I've missed her. I did get over the initial loneliness and have filled my time quite fruitfully, what with school, Rick, and more school stuff. Even Chester, who pined for my mother after she left, got over it. In fact, last night, he even slept with me. Of his own volition ! Needless to say, I was bloody hot. My bed is for one person, so being filled with that plus three cats all tightly pressed against me... You can imagine how uncomfortable I was, although certainly not lonely.

Installation week is going far better than we thought it would, although there have been some really extraordinary fuck-ups with the dry-mount press. Somehow the temperature knob got knocked out of whack and everything has been cooking/melting/bubbling. The temperature was reset accordingly, but still, one expensive professionally printed photograph continues to give trouble. It's very frustrating. Sabina Bartlebee (my sexy new printer) has already paid for herself with the number of prints she's done for the exhibit, and thanks to the latest problem, I'll have to call her into action again, later. I was supposed to be doing it now, but I left the disc with the images on it back at school. Yes, I'm a forgetful dork.

Yesterday, I was challenged to creating a stuffed mount for a Native ribbon shirt. We have these silhouette manequins onto which we can place clothing, but because they're essentially flat, they have to be padded. So, I turned my very unattractive Coca Cola shirt (that had been accidentally dyed pink by some red underwear - it's always the red underwear) into a body for "Sven". I had to build in shoulders, chest and a back in order to support the shirt. Some of you know that I am a poor excuse for a seamstress, but I took to the task with alacrity, tested my skills, and rose to the challenge. Pretty, it isn't, but when the ribbon shirt is mounted, it actually looks like there are shoulder muscles and pectoral muscles, which is what I was hoping for. Now, if only Sven could have some pants, it would be perfect.

I've been taking photos through out the installation process and I've become something of an irritant. Today, Sally said, "You're like one of those nosey gossip column reporters from the 40s." It's true, only, I wouldn't have been a gossip columnist, I'd have been one of the real press corps, in a fedora, with a "press" tag in its ribbon. So there.

Anyway, I must go back to school with my red selaphane and black electrical tape. Also, I must remember to get Mom's pliers back from Meghan.