That's Showbiz!

I put a clothesline on Mertz Manor coming out of the servant’s quarters.

Me: In sweat pants all day long on Saturday. Worse: I could happily spend every day of the rest of my life as I did yesterday. I even went out for a walk in them. How did I come to this?

Sheba and I took a new trail on our walk yesterday and it was so beautiful in places I almost cried to have such a beautiful resource a block from my home. I kept thinking of summer picnics in places I saw where the moss created a soft blanket in a clearing — and all with a distant view of the ocean. (Next time I’ll take my camera.)

At one point, Ravens circled us, the sound of their wings spooking both of us. Poor Sheba was really frightened. It’s an ominous sound; it sounds like some giant flying dragons are swooping overhead.

While I made a whack of windows for Mertz Manor I watched Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs. I didn’t know much about him and I felt ambivalent about the show. I’ve heard him sing; I was not impressed. But this show was fantastic. He’s a terrific entertainer and a total charmer. I really enjoyed the show.

He told a very funny story about Liza Minelli. She went to Glasgow to do a show about Kay Thompson, an actor and friend of her mother, Judy Garland. She had dinner with Alan before her concert and then Alan went to the concert.

During her show she told a story about getting started in show business.

She asked her mother not to come to her first concert because she was nervous but her mother wanted to go and asked Kay to join her. Kay told Liza and so Liza was super nervous.

During the show Judy often cried she was so moved when Liza sang and, not having a handkerchief, she used her powder puff to dry her tears.

At the end of the concert, Kay and Judy went backstage and Liza, of course, asked how they liked the show and Judy said she was so moved that she cried and saved her tears in the powder puff and she gave the powder puff to Liza.

Liza told the crowd in Glasgow, “I have that powder puff to this day.” And Alan Cummings said everyone in Scotland was crying — even people not at the concert. He is a very funny storyteller.

After the Glasgow concert Alan went backstage and he asked Liza if it was true; did she really still have the powder puff.

Liza said: “Oh God no. None of that’s true. There was no powder puff.”

And Alan Cumming yelled out over their applause and laughter: “That’s showbiz!”

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When I vacuumed yesterday morning I found bits of Mertz Manor everywhere and I took each one as a compliment. They are talismans of successful design.

I finally got my Mertz manor mojo back last night. I’ll continue to work on it today because it looks like its going to be a very wet day.

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I opened a HUGE bill yesterday after my post about financial anxiety! It was my VISA bill so I experienced more horror this afternoon. Oh well. I love the studio so much I don’t care. Besides, on the plus side I’ve earned myself a huge gift card from Home Hardware. I’ll be able to use it to get two bicycles for guests to use when they visit.

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I love my studio. Every reader of this blog knows that. It’s one of three outbuildings I have.

Yesterday on my walk I noticed how many other houses here also have an outbuilding — sometimes more than one. At many places the second building is a second, smaller home; at others I can tell that an outbuilding is a studio or a workshop.

It got me wondering. What’s with all the outbuildings?

I mean the 500 square feet I have in my studio would be far less expensive to create and maintain were it a part of my home and I think the same is true for all the outbuildings here. So what’s with all the outbuildings?

Is it because we can? I wonder if it’s linked to our childhoods when boys had forts and girls had dollhouses.

I don’t know about other children but “escape places” were seminal places for me. In them, I imagined life free of my parents. Forts fired my imagination.

What kind of person moves to an island? I wonder if the outbuildings are talismans of an escapist mentality. It certainly applies to me even though I’m just a buyer and didn’t creat the outbuildings.

It would be more practical if my studio were attached to my home. However it’s romantic to have a freestanding creative space. And it’s a nice way to have guests but a little distance at the same time.