Weekly Dose of Mark
Saturday, August 23rd 2025
My mother, Marie, turned 90 last Saturday. The family gathered at Cliff and Lori's house. Krista and I stopped at Costco on our way up Interstate Five. Because northbound traffic through Seattle was closed, we took a different route. It increased our driving time, but we factored that in and arrived on schedule. Cliff was operating the grill. He'd BBQed three racks of pork ribs, some spicy brats, and a White King Salmon. Before we sat down to enjoy our meals, I walked with Mom in the yard and looked down into the sound at all of the sailboats enjoying the perfect day.
Mom looked at her arm. "Look at that arm. Where did all those spots come from?" She grinned at me, "I swear it was only yesterday that this was a little girl's arm, minus the spots." She looked back at me, "Now look at it." I did. It didn't seem that spotty to me. Sure, it was a bit on the thin side, but Mom always kept her figure. Sure, it was a little wrinkled. But I had a hard time seeing that. I didn't so much see an aged arm as I saw what that arm had done over the decades, holding us, tickling, poking, carrying countless bags, baskets, and suitcases. I remember her grip in the pew at church, in bed when I wasn't well, and serving delicious meals. But I didn't know how to express all of those thoughts. All I could come up with was, "Is that a bite?"
Shortly after Krista and I arrived, I called Kat in Oslo using WhatsApp to get the video going. Kat's mom, my sister Brenda, was in Oslo visiting. I knew that the sooner I got them on the phone, the better it would be because of the time difference. I handed the phone to Evi, brother Randy's energetic wife, who in turn took them on a tour of everyone at the party, including my pleased mother.
Mom sat at the head of the table after we were stuffed on ribs and potato salad, and we did the ritual of singing her Happy Birthday. She opened cards and gifts. She received several boxes of tea and chocolates, two of her favorite things. I think she has enough to hold her over until Christmas.
Scott announced that he and Debbie would be hosting Christmas this year. Nobody was going to host Thanksgiving as everyone already had commitments elsewhere. After many years of celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, Krista and I started having romantic Thanksgivings with just the two of us. We often toy with the idea of dining out at a special Thanksgiving restaurant event. I wonder what the two of us will do this year.
Freelance Fandango started with me and Chris Moreno. I thought it might be just the two of us when Kat and Allen walked in. This was going to be Allen's last Fandango of the summer, as he's going back to his teaching schedule. We had staggering arrivals of Penny, Paulette, Greg, Stan, Haley, and Nori. So, there was a time when the room could focus on show-and-tells and individual stories before the crowd broke into groups of multiple conversations.
Stan showed several caricature drawings he was working on, albeit slowly, as he's been in bed recovering for the last couple of weeks. Kat gave us the skinny on submitting artwork for the Puyallup Fair and where she found the price points for getting work to sell, even before the show opened. Penny reminded everyone about the deadline for getting work submitted for jury selection for the Hospital exhibit. Penny also queried the group about doing a pop-up show in the Red Elms meeting room on December 13th. There was a lot of hesitation because December is the month when planning for every weekend matters, and family and friends throw curveballs at you. I decided I didn't want to commit. Chris is working on a mock-up of a Dracula poster using Adobe Illustrator, a program he's still learning. I showed my own poster comp for "The Faculty."
This Saturday, I walked to the corner of 84th and Yakima Ave, where the Fern Hill Library is located. My new friend Jesse Peterson was orchestrating a paint party for the mural he was commissioned to create on the wrap-around retaining wall that held the library parking lot up from the sidewalk. His kickoff party was scheduled for last week, but it was cancelled due to rain. Jesse had a great turnout today. I'm glad I was about to participate. I want to be able to look at the wall every time I drive by and think I had a tiny hand in it. I also got to meet Andria Haug, who is on the South End Community Council. I didn't know she was on the Council when she was talking to Jesse, and I overheard her talking about a video she took of Pacific Avenue. I just wanted to see the video and hear her thoughts about the neighborhood
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When I created "Tacoma Paisley" for Tacoma's utility box project, I told them I had two color themes, a 'warm' and a 'cool.' I told them they could use both. The contract with the city said they had the option to use the art in 2-4 locations. The 'warm' one was installed a bit over a year ago. I got a call some months ago asking if I could send the 'cool' version it so that it could be installed. I sent the file, and I was told the location it would be installed, but they couldn't give me an installation date. Summer was the closest they could offer. I was happy to see it installed last week. It looks great
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Here are some of my dreams from last week:
Aug. 16. #idreamt two parallel worlds that didn't know they were incomplete, being merged back together in a tidying-up effort by the gods. Families found lost loved ones returned.
Aug. 17. #idreamt of a man and woman met at a party. They started to flirt by speaking in different languages. They took their conversations more private after a lengthy discussion in Latin.
Aug. 18. #idreamt I was living in Japan when a disaster occurred. I was assisting coworkers with hanging tall blackout curtains in the lobby of a theater. I generously estimated that I only understood one word in five.
Aug. 19. #IDreamt I ran into a couple of old clients at a roadside rest stop. They were kind enough to let me sleep in their RV for the night, if I didn't mind the chickens.
Aug. 20. #idreamt I was giving a tutorial on how to draw windows on a chalkboard to three other designers. One of the designers was bedridden. The chalkboard was green. My lines were perfectly straight.
Aug 21. #IDreamt I was visiting a friend's house in Japan. He'd inherited it from a relative. He pulled an item from a shelf and asked me what it was. I told him it was an egg cup. He was incredulous.
Aug 22. #IDreamt I was Chinese and went to a school reunion to find that only six of us were there. At first, we thought it was poor attendance. But realized most of our class were either dead or in jail because they'd become mobsters.
I also watched some movies:
54. Aug 19. Apt Pupil (1998) Rating: 6
The Stephen King story was more gruesome with a stronger ending. So, I suggest you watch this movie before reading the story. If I hadn't read the story, I would find the film engrossing enough, but I wouldn't say it's cult-worthy like so many other King movies. It was easy enough to capture the '80s look at the time this movie was filmed. I watched this movie on Tubi.
55. Aug 20. Scarlet Street (1945) Rating: 7
I'm giving this Noir an extra point for the paintings. Robinson was an art lover and considered an expert. The dozen or so paintings and the drawing on the wall were done by a caricaturist and painter named John Decker. When I saw this movie as a kid, I loved the paintings, so I'm giving the movie an extra point for them. This film is one of the few movies that bent the Hayes Code just a little. I watched it on Tubi.
56. Aug 21. The Beekeeper (2024) Rating: 6
This revenge thriller repeatedly emphasizes the need for everyone to explain 'who' a beekeeper is. Perhaps the exposition is needed with an American audience that just wants to see hand-to-hand combat, knife fights, shootouts, explosions, torture, mayhem, and murder. In this case, you have an all-you-can-eat buffet. I watched this on Amazon Prime while on my treadmill and was so caught up I walked over our miles before I knew it. The film suffers from Evil Beard syndrome.
More next week,
Mark