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A Little Birdie Told Me

Last weekend I bought a painting from artist Julie Kramer (detail at left, see the full image here) at the 2007 Melrose Art Festival. It's a really beautiful portrait of a woman with an interesting expression on her face and a little bird on her shoulder. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Looking at it makes me think of stories.

I couldn't really afford the painting, even though it is small, even though it is unframed, even though I paid a very modest and fair price, but I decided that, to make up for the splurge, I wouldn't spend any money for the rest of the month. I would try not to spend a penny, not even on groceries.

Naturally I ran out of toilet paper the next day. And milk doesn't last a month, so I'll have to buy milk. But other than milk and toilet paper, I'm on a spending diet. We'll see how that goes once my on-hand chocolate supply is depleted.

Speaking of diets, I was looking for some information online about this year's show, but instead found some pictures from last year's show. I am in one of them, and I actually didn't recognize myself. Who the hell is that fat girl in that picture? Oh, shit. It's me.

But next week at Weight Watchers I expect to hit a big goal--I'll have lost one pound for every year I've been alive. And I'm less than 10 pounds away from my ultimate goal weight -- a number I last saw, oh, about 10 years ago.

Sometimes it's worthwhile to sacrifice short-term for something you really want.

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