My Watercolors 101 class begins tonight at 7:00. I've been spending the last few days buying things like masonite and salt and little expensive tubes of paint. I love going to art supply stores. They make me feel, well, artsy. I can only imagine that art class will stir up the same feeling.

Now that I have my supplies, the only thing left to do is choose something to wear to class... Something that says "Hey! I might be very good at this watercolors thing!" without being overly "Please bow down to the Queen of Watercolors." In other words, no denim shirt that already has paint splotched on it. Also, none of those off-white carpenter coverall things.

I wish I looked like Amelie. I think I would do very well at a watercolors class if I wore vintage-looking flowered skirts and boots. I know it's too late to grow out my hair. Is it too late to work on my French accent?

There are certain things I want to accomplish in the class.

When my Watercolors 101 class is complete, I hope the following statements are true:

Because of Watercolors 101...

...my painting skills have improved.

...I can appreciate Georgia O'Keefe even more.

...I have been nominated for a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award.

...I am much prettier.

...I can suddenly fit into that tiny, tiny dress.

I spent the day yesterday in Historic St. Charles with my mom and Jeff's mom. We walked down Main Street with the intention of hitting only the stores that interested us. In other words, we chose not to waste our time strolling around in places that specialize in Americana Quilted Vests or Beanie Babies.

My favorite store in St. Charles is the Olde Town Spice Shoppe. They have hundreds of crazy, stupid (in a good way) kinds of teas! I was in tea heaven! Amaretto tea! Cherry Vanilla tea! Chocolate Raspberry tea! Blueberry tea with real blueberries (I bought some of it for Jeff—he thinks blueberries are the king of the bush-borne fruit world!)! Lapsang Souchong tea (what the hell would THAT taste like?!)! Snowmonkey Plum tea (are you getting the idea?!)! Lemon Pepper Mustard Seed tea (I just made that one up!)! It was Tea-riffic! Get it?! Tea-riffic, I said!!!

Sadly enough, I got entirely too amped out in the tea store. I can't have expensive tea. I'm afraid I'll get all hooked on it (like crack) and soon find myself living on the streets of St. Charles with a baby on my hip (because all effective streetwomen have a baby on their hip), wearing an Americana quilted vest and begging the St. Charles townies for some change so I can get my Lapsang Souchong fix.

"Shoeshine for a Souchong!" I'll cry.

"Hey Mister! Lapdance for a Lapsang?!"

We all know that no one wants a lapdance from a short-haired girl wearing an Americana quilted vest…

When we lived in Nashville, Jeff became active in the Tennessee Green Party. He attended meetings. He built and posted signs. He handed out "Nader 2000" bumper stickers. He met Jonathan Farley.

Jonathan Farley is an amazing guy. He is a Green Party candidate running for Congress in Nashville. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in Mathematics. He received his doctorate in Mathematics from Oxford. He received a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award to the UK, and is currently on sabbatical in London. Wait. Did I mention he's only 32 years old? The guy is incredible.

Jonathan Farley was in town on Saturday (between speaking engagements in Madison and Nashville). Jeff entertained him during the day, and I hooked up with them for dinner.

Jonathan Farley met John Nash last week at an unadvertised mathematics seminar at Vanderbilt.

Next week he is going to record some of his essays onto CD, as CDs are easier to make than books.

He is spending his sabbatical solving theorems and writing articles.

I'm sure he will someday bring peace to the Middle East.

The one thing Jonathan Farley and I have in common is that neither of us is athletic. Like me, he will never sign up for a co-ed sand volleyball team. Unlike me, he can probably predict the winner of every sand volleyball game simply by using his theory of ordered sets (and spikes, perhaps), and by studying the lattice theory of the net.

I surrendered my Calvino "Cosmicomics" to him and sent him on his genius way.

(He has no idea that I'm keeping the coffee cup from which he drank in a sealed container under the bed. Perhaps I can somehow incorporate his DNA into the child Jeff and I will bring into the world...)