Puzzled in the Conch Republic

For anyone who requires further proof that I am, indeed, a geek:

Our first night in Key West, a.ka. the Conch Republic, Karl drags out this jigsaw puzzle. But it is not just any jigsaw puzzle; no, this one is a mosaic jigsaw puzzle. A 1,000-piece mosaic jigsaw puzzle of, fittingly enough, Vincent Van Gogh. One of my favorite artists, and certainly not a man without his own eccentricities.

(In case you are unfamiliar with a mosaic puzzle: It consists of about a zillion tiny pictures which, when arranged just so, color-wise and texture-wise and what-not, make up The Big Picture. My sister had warned me against them.)

So here we are, hundreds and hundreds of miles from the frigid, snowy Midwest, hanging out in a cool condo with a perfect view of the ocean — fucking paradise, really — and what are we doing?

Working on this puzzle.



Happily, we finished it early Thursday morning. Or maybe it was Friday. And thank GOD (and the people who put the puzzle together before us) there were not any pieces missing. For if there had been, I am quite convinced I would have sliced off an ear or two ... and Karl quite likely would have taken his own life.

: )