I'm pretty happy with this painting (to the right). it's the one that's on the back of the first of the four new burlap pieces I've cut down to size (40x30"). I'm feeling as if, after years of trying to find the line between drawing and painting; the line that captures the freshnesss and breathiness... aliveness, immediacy of drawing, with the color and vitality and weightiness___ that's not quite the right word... substantiality, maybe___ of painting, I've found a method that works... it's very exciting. This breakthrough makes me consider skipping guatemala and heading straight to cinci and doing a new group of paintings right off after the january show, but I doubt that I will... the next group can wait and waiting will allow for development of ideas and plans.

yesterday, I painted and finished cleaning up the burlap sketchbook scans. I haven't added them to the website yet, I'll begin working on that today. denise, called and we talked for quite awhile, it was really good to touch base with her, I miss her, she understands me, we understand each other, I guess, it's good to have someone I've known as well and as long as her around, her absence definitely affects my life here. probably not as much as susan's absence, but maybe___ I don't know, they're not really comparable... I miss them both. in different ways I really count on the connections, the love, I have with them. having them gone leaves a gap.

went to the coffeeshop at 5, sat out front with tim and mike. ali drove by on her way home, I knew she had probably called and so I told her through the car window I'd be home in 15 minutes and call her then. so, I did and left a message because, as it turned out, she was over at her neighbor's__ whose name I still don't know. anyway, when she called back, she said her neighbor wasn't going to go to rialto for awhile, and so I asked her to come over and hang out with me and give out candy to trick-or-treaters. so she did and it was fun and we took photos of ourselves in our pirate costumes___ she looked really great.

we walked over to rialto, almost immediately ran into aliza and what looked like a date, but not somebody I've heard about, we talked for a minute, but there's still a bit of tension from the other night, which was uncomfortable, but I guess we've been through this sort of thing enough times to assume it'll blow over, we just need to find a chance to talk. anyway, I introduced ali to her and rachel and brian. later we ran into jason, and yuniko and kit and kate and probably other people, that I'm not thinking of right now. we waited in line to go into a haunted porch, it was pretty lame, but kinda funny and I give the people an A for trying.

after doing a complete circuit of the street, ali and I walked home and she came in for a beer. we had a nice talk and I was really enjoying getting to know her better. chris showed up in a really great costume that a friend of his had made. he drank a beer and took photos and hung out. ali decided to go home, and did. grace, dan and bryce arrived about five minutes later and I called ali to come back over and meet them, which I'm really glad she did, because we'd just been talking about them earlier and I wanted to show them off, I'm proud of them. then she left again, then chris left and then bryce's joe called for directions to pick him up. so he came and got bryce, and then dan and grace and I went over to the coffeeshop because hilary was coming from emily's party to pick them up.

after that I walked home and found a message from michelle, I called her back, but no answer. as I was doing that, dov and his friend steve, stopped by wearing cowboy hats. they came in, I was out of beer, but they sat around and talked anyway. after awhile, they left and I closed the place up. I had stopped at the library earlier and gotten movies and begun watching a tom hanks thing called the terminal while I ate around four (I don't know whether that was lunch or dinner). so I turned that on and watched it. michelle called at some point and I paused it to talk with her, we had a good talk.

went to sleep after the movie, woke up, around 8, went to the coffeeshop, skimmed the paper, nothing too interesting__ the new justice nominee looks awfully conservative and anti-abortion, october was deadliest month since january for US soldiers in iraq... same old stuff.

tried to email ali a few photos, but I must've gotten the address wrong. I really enjoyed hanging out with her last night.