While I was at the art supply store, which was a horrible situation because I had an undefined job in the office with a boss who out sick a lot so the manager made me do things I wasn't trained for and I just winged it most of the time, I was too stressed out to really create. I did repeat a few of the mask images in the metallic paint I was using; you may recognize Cookie, from my very first posting which sold at the Richmond exhibit and I hadn't really wanted to sell it. Those were a rough couple of months, they let me go at Christmas, but I still had my weekends at the Tribeca gallery. The week before, somewhere between my house and the office, I lost my beloved jade necklace which I'd worn almost daily for 25 years. I'd gotten it in Mexico on vacation with a man I adored who'd died, and I grieved over that necklace as if it had been alive as well. After a few days of retracing my steps and hoping who ever had found it loved it as much as I had, I bought a tiny gold Ganesh pendant and knew my life was about to change. Then they fired me.