Can a sweltering summer in a pandemic hotspot still hold a lot of magic? Yes, it can. And on that note, let’s take a moment to be grateful this is 2020, not 1918 when women had to wear corsets in addition to masks! Talk about not being able to breathe… And, since we’re talking about what women used to wear in bygone eras, let me remind you of something magical coming up, something that can still be fun despite the pandemic: I’m a contestant in this year’s Galveston Island Beach Review – a hundred-year-old vintage swimsuit pageant in which I will participate via video wearing my 1900 bathing dress, complete with pantaloons, but mercifully sans corset (because beachwear even back then was more forgiving). The contest has moved online and you can watch it live on August 1st from 2-4pm at Beachreview.com
You can also support me in a major way by buying into today’s Crazy Good Deal! You can now purchase art credits with the Sandovici Gallery, which are half off. And I promise to double your art credits if I win any of six prizes offered by the Historical Foundation! So if I win, you win!
I already raised some money this way and two of my favorite collectors are hopefully going to see their credits double! I’m practically on top of the world to have such support and also feeling empowered because I realize I’ve learned from my mentors how to raise money for projects I wish to invest in. In this case, the money I raise will go towards making a professional video to submit to the contest with the help of Buburuza Productions. They also helped me with my vintage photoshoot and the cover of Storms of Malhado among other things.
But I was telling you about magic and how it can sometimes happen at the most unlikely times in the most unlikely places. I was walking the dog this evening. Even after dark, it felt like being in a sauna. The dog got fixated on eating some kind of dry worms on the sidewalk. (This is not the magical part). I got so frustrated with her stubborn ways, I decided to pick her up and carry her for a while. So here I was carrying 20 pounds of dog on a hot summer night, and the dog’s belly against my arm felt like an oven. Still, insects were buzzing in the trees and the heat even felt so surreal it was kind of fun. I advanced past the dried worms and put the dog down. And that’s when we saw an animal come out of the bushes and bounce across the street. It stopped and looked at us. The dog hyperventilated with excitement. It was too far to see the animal well. I would have thought it was a possum, but it was too round, too bouncy, and there was a little glimmer on its back as if it were shiny and hard, not covered in fur. I stood in awe next to my hyperventilating dog realizing I had just had yet another rare sighting of my favorite Texas critter, the armadillo! I think they’re magical, and lucky, and the serendipity of spotting one in my very urban neighborhood seems like a sign from nature or the dearly departed that maybe everything will be all right after all.
