Life's a Stitch

What could that title possibly mean? There's a simple explanation:

On the set of the Christmas movie, in which C and I were acting as artists at a craft fair, C had an extensive conversation with the movie's Santa. C proudly showed him the picture of his post Camino beard.

With a beard like that, Santa encouraged him to develop his acting career. The possibilities include not only Santa, but roles as Vikings, bikers and the homeless. He also encouraged C to buy his own Santa suit and tuxedo (not sure for which part – imagining a biker dude en tux). When you can furnish a specialized costume, the movie actually rents the clothes you are wearing. A tux nets you an extra $35. It brought back memories of a movie of B's younger acting career where they rented a couple of my scarves for the production at $15 a piece.

Santa concluded his advice to C to pursue his  part time retirement career with the fact that plenty of Santas have died this year leaving room for more. That's reassuring.

On the morning of my rain-chequed birthday, C headed up to the local hospital thrift store to pick up a $30 tux he had seen. Thrift stores are a staple in the movie industry. He found the jacket, but the pants were missing. A hanger-by-hanger search revealed the missing trousers in the women's section. At the cash registered he discovered that all winter stock was marked down 50%. A short while later he appeared in his $15 costume (sans bow tie and appropriate footwear), to hand deliver my birthday gifts.

On the topic of Christmas, all the rain we experieced in the Coachella Valley over the holiday season meant lots of snow in the mountains. On our way home from the annual art show, I stopped to take a photo of the the snowy mountains with palm trees in the foreground, thinking that it would make an interesting painting. This is the finished watercolour: