Life with the Stooges

A funny thing happened yesterday as we were leaving for church. We were walking out the door when I thought of one more little thing to entertain GBN1 in church. I wanted to grab a few colored pencils - they are perfect for GBN1 – she can color without making a mess and pencils do not taste as good as crayolas. There is a filing cabinet near the front door which contains much of my art supplies. Because I am not a neat freak, the top of the cabinet has lots of containers of paint brushes, pencils, pastels, colored pencils and various other piles of stuff. As I reached up and grabbed the can of colored pencils (keep in mind that I am a short person) I heard something fall between the cabinet and the wall. For just a split second I thought, “Great, I knocked something off – I’ll get it later.” Then I heard a “Pssssst” that did not bode well. My next thought was that it was probably my aerosol can of fixative – toxic, but clear and fairly harmless. Then, like one of the Three Stooges, I pulled the cabinet and looked behind it. I was instantly covered in black spray paint. Like an oil gusher, a can of black spray paint was spewing its guts. Of course, I screamed and Toby came running to see what the commotion was. I grabbed him in time to keep him from looking directly into the line of fire and ruining his Sunday clothes as I had just ruined my pretty yellow sweater (although it would have been funny if he had done the same thing that I had just done – two stooges are funnier than one). As the gusher began to subside, we were able to cover the can somewhat, but black paint was everywhere. It seems that when the can fell, it struck the corner of some framing glass that was stored between the cabinet and the wall. The glass broke and the can was punctured. Black paint covered the floor, wall, filing cabinet, and some of my art supplies. Fortunately, we were able to get the paint off of my ceramic tile – the grout was a bit more difficult. The wall and front door will have to be repainted. My clothes were ruined and my new tennis shoes were speckled. The clean up process was not fun. It took some effort to scrub the paint off our bodies. Toby’s hands were black from gathering up the can and other stuff covered in paint. Turpentine is a great exfoliate – takes the paint and skin right off. It took a while for me to calm down from the excitement. Since there was no real harm done, I had to laugh at how silly I must have looked when the paint hit me – like a stooge. Of course, we were late for church and had to sit on the front row.