Wendy Wallenberg invited Terry and myself to an orphans Christmas Eve party at Denise Sudler‘s house in the Mills 50 neighborhood. Candles inside paper bags illuminated her block and others. The curbside bags were spaced about 5 feet apart and had sand in them to keep them grounded. This was an effort of the entire neighborhood and several sentries strolled the streets to be sure no fires broke out. I believe the candles act as a runway for Santa’s sleigh. It must be a rough landing when the sleigh lands, sending sparks off the metal runners as they grind against the asphalt.
The Christmas tree was illuminated with simple white lights which offered a tasteful display. Terry and I had made a Christmas Tree appetizer made of cream cheese. The cream cheese was cut diagonally in half and then a slice was rotated so that the halves combined to create a tree shaped triangle. The top was covered in pesto and then sun dried tomatoes were sliced and rolled into balls to create the ornaments. A yellow pepper was sliced, and a cross section was used to create the star on top. It ended up looking very much like Denise’s tree an was a hit.
Wendy had been traveling in Kyrgyzstan and the young woman she traveled with, was at the party. I settled in on the couch and did a quick digital sketch. Carl Knickerbocker, let me know that he has an exhibit entitled Suburban Twilight at the Florida School of Art and Art History in Gainesville Florida. Carl’s art which he calls Suburban primitive, is colorful, bold and primal often poking fun at America consumerism. He also has created an amazing number of short films which incorporate his primitive art, puppets and music that he composed himself. I am a big fan of his work. The exhibit is up through February 12, 2016
A conversation with Wendy Wallenberg is like sparing. She has a sharp wit and is always poking fun. Within a minute of entering the party, she glanced down at my crotch and said, “What’s happening there darling?” I fumbled for my zipper, but it wasn’t down. I looked down and saw that there was a dark stain that made it look like I had wet myself on the drive over. I had carried the pesto Christmas Tree in my lap on the drive to the party. The oil from the pesto must have leaked out onto my lap. I untucked my Hawaiian shirt an kept it untucked for the duration of the party to hide the stain. Others might have noticed the stain and said nothing. But Wendy was right on top of it.
Dulcineah Tsambiras is a friend of Wendy’s and the two of them are hilarious together. Apparently Wendy has a habit of meeting men near dumpsters. She and Dulcineah met someone they now refer to as Dumpster Dan. They theorized the he might live near the dumpster, or he might have been going to a restaurant near the dumpster. They also had and enticing conversation about the Green Door in Las Vegas which is an unsavory place that I am not old enough to know about. The unthinkable happens behind the green door but I wasn’t able to get any firm information about what that might mean.
I had way too much wine to drink. Someone said, “We need to cut you off mister.” I responded, “But I’m just starting to make sense!” As it approached midnight, I looked at the Santa Tracker app on Terry’s iPhone. Most of the worlds presents had been delivered and he was delivering presents in Canada. He hadn’t even reached the United States yet. My thought was that he would likely travel East to West in Canada and then he would likely finally start delivering presents in the United states going from West to East. The tiny peninsula of Florida must be his last stop.
