Under the Influence

It could have been the paint fumes…

Or the pepperoni pizza…

Or all those Krispy Kreme donuts… and sugar and caffeine from five cans of Coke…

But after spending all day eating donuts and pizza, drinking coke and watching Mike do his magic with his words and his angled brush, I feel as if I absorbed all his skill and all his funnyiness, and all his calm poise in storytelling and painting by sheer osmosis…

I feel strangely empowered.

I feel good.

No.  I feel great.

I feel I can do it!

Whatever it is… on the way home that day when I drive by Lowe’s, I swerve into the parking lot, cutting off the slow poke in the far right lane who – a grandmother with perfectly coiffed, just-out-of-hair-salon silver tresses -   in turn flips me off. This throws me off balance a bit and I want to retaliate in the like manner, but I am still under the influence of whatever, so I shrug it off and I march into the paint department like I own it.  I grab a brand new, high quality angled brush, the kind Mike used. And then, on clearance table my eye catches a sight of a beautifully understated sage can of Venetian Plaster.

Venetian Plaster!

This takes my breath away!

In that moment all my reason, and all my logic, and my ever-present Inner Critic silenced by the clearance price in addition to the aforementioned pizza, donuts, and the strange effect spending a day with Mike had on me, and... I buy it!

I march out of Lowe's, a proud owner of one high quality angled brush that cost me an arm and a leg and one gallon can of a beautifully understated sage Venetian Plaster so cheap it's practically stolen. 

My intentions are clear. 

The automatic doors slide closed behind me but I am too enthralled to realize that I am on my own.