Sandra

Monday, December 5 (After Chapter 30 of Triptych)

[Knocking]

aroslav: Come in.

[Knocking]

aroslav: Come in!

[Knocking]

aroslav: God damn it. [opens door] Come in.

SANDRA: Oh! Hi! I wasn't sure you were there. I couldn't hear anything.

aroslav: That could be because you never stopped knocking.

SANDRA: How else would I ... Oh.

aroslav: How can I help you?

SANDRA: Um ... Tony said to stop by. I know I'm not around much, but I thought I'd see if I could contribute.

aroslav: And you are?

SANDRA: I'm Sandra. Sandra Helen Wells. You don't know me?

aroslav: Wow! You're so little! I didn't recognize you.

SANDRA: You mean I'm not fat.

aroslav: Not that. I never thought of you as fat. You're just shorter than I thought.

SANDRA: Five feet even. Sixty inches. 152.4 centimeters.

aroslav: You do know how tall you are.

SANDRA: 127 pounds. Fifty-seven kilos. Nine stone and one pound.

aroslav: You're very body-conscious, aren't you, Sandra?

SANDRA: Is that another way of saying zaftig?

aroslav: No. It's another way of saying you're quite beautiful.

SANDRA: In my own way.

aroslav: In any way. You are really quite small, you know?

SANDRA: Have we finished analyzing my body now? Can we do the interview?

aroslav: Interviews are questions that you answer.

SANDRA: So ask.

aroslav: How old are you and when's your birthday?

SANDRA: A lady gets no respect. I'm nineteen years old. My birthday is May 18. I'm a Taurus. I have green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Do I really need to give my bra size?

aroslav: No. Let the readers imagine that. They wouldn't believe me anyway. Where are you from, Sandra?

SANDRA: Yakima. Born and raised there.

aroslav: Where is Yakima?

SANDRA: About seventy-five miles east and a little north of Mount St. Helens.

aroslav: That's an unusual landmark to reference.

SANDRA: It's my namesake. On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Mom said that I sort of erupted when I was born. That's how I got my middle name.

aroslav: What an interesting way to describe a birth.

SANDRA: Yeah. Well, I didn't wait for them to get to the hospital. Mom was home alone when she went into labor. She called dad at work to come and take her to the hospital. Dad got home in time to catch me as I popped out. So, I guess it was a bit of a volcanic event.

aroslav: It apparently didn't discourage them from having any more.

SANDRA: Well it did for a couple of years, I guess. I know what you're thinking. I was the first of six, but there's almost four years between me and my little brother. The rest were all born in the next four years. Oh, there's one set of twins.

aroslav: So what is the split, names, brothers, sisters, ages.

SANDRA: Kyle just turned sixteen and has his license finally. That means I won't have to go back and be chauffeur this coming summer. Susan is fifteen. Traci and Kevin are the twins and are thirteen. Liz is twelve. Counting me, that makes four girls and two boys. We were pretty lucky when we chose our parents.

aroslav: How's that?

SANDRA: The kids' best friends live next door to us. They were born at about the same times as my sibs. But their parents had a thing for alliteration. They all have names that start with L. Lorna, Lena, Lana, Leslie, and Lou. The four older are girls and a lot of people just assumed that poor Lou was a girl too. But he and Liz are great friends. Might know that the only pair among them are the one in our family whose name starts with L. Sort of.

aroslav: What kind of work does your dad do way out in Yakima?

SANDRA: He's an oenologist. A vintner. A winemaker. We produce some of the finest wines in the State of Washington. Not that I'm an authority on wine, mind you. Though, I guess I've had more of it than most kids my age.

aroslav: Well, tell me about school and what your goals are.

SANDRA: I'm a sophomore at PCAD studying illustration and graphic arts. I love figure drawing, but I'm especially good at technical drawing.

aroslav: What do you draw?

SANDRA: I picked up a part-time job working for an intellectual properties attorney doing drawings for patent applications. It's pretty cool, but I can't talk about anything I draw because of non-disclosure agreements. Let's just say I've been doing a lot of work for a couple of high tech firms lately.

aroslav: Sounds exciting. That also sounds like a real coup for you to pull off as a sophomore.

SANDRA: It's Tony's fault. Most things are, I've found. Anything good or bad happens, blame it on Tony. Like my boyfriend. But anyway, one of the lawyers scouts the college each year for potential interns, which is a Latin word that means cheap labor. She saw the Rhapsody Suite at the gala and then followed my name out to see some of my drawings. They contacted me this fall to see if I'd be interested in trying my hand at patent illustration.

aroslav: Sounds like fun.

SANDRA: No it doesn't. Don't lie to me.

aroslav: Okay. It sounds like you like it.

SANDRA: Yeah. I like all things art. I love Tony's and Kate's paintings, Melody's fabrics, and even Amy's advertising stuff. But there's something about looking at a new invention, or even just listening to it being described, and figuring out how to illustrate it. You know inventions today aren't always physical things, but nearly every patent application still requires a drawing. So, I might have to figure out the flow of a new business process, or how an automated updater for computer software looks. That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Doc Henredden's class next year. From what Tony and Kate tell me, he has a way of getting you to draw things that don't fit in our physical reality.