Thursday, September 17, 2009

A visit to Artsyville

When I was in high school I loved my chemistry teacher. His name was JP. We knew his last name was Pfitzner but it was never clear what his first name was. He was probably in his seventies. Maybe he was in his fifties and I just thought he was in his seventies because I was sixteen and totally out of touch with reality. He was kind of a little guy and had a thick German accent and anyone who had him over the forty some odd years that he taught at Foothill High School can tell you that a MOLE is the molecular weight expressed in grams. And that MOLARITY is moles over liters and that stoichiometry is both impossible to do and impossible to spell. He used to start class by saying YOU MAY REMEMBER...and the class would chime in, THOUGH I DOUBT IT. We loved him. And he loved someone he called FP. That was his wife. No one knew her name except that it was FP though we certainly enjoyed guessing. And then finally one day and told us what the letters stood for.

Favorite Person.

BFF was before his time I guess. And while I admire JP's devotion to FP, one FP does not work for me at all. One husband works great but I need a whole army of FPs. Because the alternative is being surrounded by a mess of annoying, uninspiring people. No thanks. So whenever a new FP comes into my life I have to just thank my lucky stars. And this new FP is the Mayor of Artsyville. Her name is Aimee and she is a gifted artist and writer and we've been bonding over what we go through balancing creativity and parenting and sometimes merging the two. She has two little ones also. And her work, no matter what your day has been like, gets you out of yourself for a moment and gives you a lift. This one especially resonated this morning:


And I'm an especially lucky girl because I recently received a bundle of happy from Artsyville. I took some pictures but since Aimee's are so much better than mine I'll just post hers. I mean just image my delight when my set of groovy doodle goods arrived...

8 comments:

  1. thanks for the mention! i have to say i was really intrigued to find out the common ground between me and an ancient german-speaking chemistry teacher, especially since i don't speak german and i nearly failed chemistry. but you sewed it up beautifully at the end, as you always do.

    p.s. i'd love to call myself a mayor, but i'm really more of a garbage collector. i just wander through town and sift through the fallout.

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  2. Oh I love her too. And I am glad to have found your blog and your work. You're funny! Have a great weekend :)

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  3. Awww, LOVE the story of the FP. I adore Aimee and Artsyville. I need to get me some real estate there! Fantastic package of happiness you received. Yay!

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  4. I think her name was Fran Pfitzner. I know that her actual initials were FP, and he preferred to think of her as Favorite Person. I love JP memories! Thanks for the trip down the lane.

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  5. the mystery is solved! But FP will always be favorite person to me. thanks for writing barbra!

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  6. Wasn't FP written in on the huge periodic table of elements in his room? I have a memory of that, but it was so long ago...And I'm with you on being surrounded by all sorts of FP(eople). They make life more interesting!

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  7. YES! He even put FP on the periodic table! She was obviously an essential element to him! So much JP folklore...

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  8. aimee is truly wonderful. last june i drove 8 hours to lawrence kansas to meet her in person. and she didn't think i was a nut. and we hit it off immediately and made stuff and talked and drank wine and ate cheese. and i will drive to lawrence next june. and maybe even the june after that.

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