The Weekend, Fall

1. Saturday

On Saturday, we got up early and went to have breakfast at the waffle place. Then we went by Goodwill and dropped off our bins, filled with things we caught in the decluttering net. It was nice to get rid of it, and the only thing I clawed back was a small handbag I bought and have never used, but which still has the tags on it. I pulled it out of the bag it was in and sent everything else on its way.

After Goodwill, we went by Target to pick up some things we needed both at home and at the studio. Then we went to the studio to work for awhile. (Dave trimmed some work and put handles on his new mugs. I worked up a new small calavera bust to try out a new hairstyle on.)  We worked until lunchtime and then went to Panera. Lunch was a Cobb salad for me, a Mediterranean veggie sandwich for Dave, and a shared order of mac and cheese. (The actually have really good mac and cheese at Panera.)

I had not gotten any sleep the night before, so after lunch I was feeling a bit disconnected and out of sorts, so we came home and I got into my pajamas and went back to bed. Dave stayed up, of course, and practiced his clarinet for a few hours.

2. Sunday

On Sunday, we planned to fire the kiln. We got up early and stopped by Blake's for breakfast burritos and tea.

We got up to the studio just as Paul was heading out to take Crunch for a walk, so we took the leash from Paul and instead we took Crunch for a walk. (Crunch is very happy when it's cool out, so he likes to wander around and pee on everything in the universe.) We came back to the studio and loaded and started the kiln. I worked on my sculpture for awhile while Dave threw a new kind of clay on the wheel.

I had planned to see a movie with my mother, so she came by to pick me up at 12:45 or so and we went to see Lucy. Luckily, it was at the cheapie theater, so we only paid $2 each for our tickets. (It was worth about that much. I'm definitely glad we didn't pay full price.) After the movie, my mom and I went by Panera to pick up lunch for the two of us and Dave and then we went back to the studio. Paul and Judi and Crunch came out to keep us company while we ate.

My mother had an ad with a coupon for a sale at Michael's. She wanted to buy yarn and I wanted to buy brushes, so off we went to Michael's. I bought a bag full of brushes for about $30 and my mother bought a ton of yarn, about a dozen skeins, and we headed back to the studio. It was rush hour, but traffic was ridiculous. I pulled out my phone to check the traffic report and it turned out that there were two crazy events (someone threatening to jump off a freeway overpass, someone holed up in a hotel with a gun that required a SWAT team response) going on that were screwing up the part of the city we were in. It took us ages to get back to the studio by some crazy circuitous route.

The kiln was just finishing up and Dave and I finished up, too. (We usually spend part of our Sunday studio hours doing a small clean-up, cleaning the toilet and taking out the trash, sweeping if we haven't already, and so on.)

We had to stop by the co-op on the way home as we needed to buy toilet paper and things for Dave's work lunch. (I'm making a veggie and tofu stir-fry tonight with vegetables from our CSA box.)

I was exhausted again and went to bed very early without a proper dinner. (I had a small bowl of potato chips and a big glass of water.) Dave had cereal, did the dishes and laundry and probably a million other things.

3. Today

Today is a beautiful fall day. It's supposed to get up to 76 degrees today--then the forecast says to expect snow on Saturday. I'm sitting here with Gray Kitty. Saba's gone outside to enjoy sitting on the patio.  Breakfast was a salad and more potato chips. (I swear, I should not have those things in the house. I can't stop eating them.) Lunch was hummus and veggies (celery, carrots, cucumber, and tomato) and a bag of microwave popcorn. I think I could use a big cup of coffee right now, though.

4. Lynda Barry

I love Lynda Barry. Dave ordered her new book for me, Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor and I've been slowly making my way through it. I came to the end today and burst into tears! (It's not that kind of book though, actually.) I just felt some strange sadness that was probably a kind of compressed and unexpressed pellet of sadness that I used to feel at the end of every semester of college, that feeling of enormous pressure letting up so suddenly that you get the emotional bends. Lynda Barry's book just brought all that back.

5. Online shop

Since leaving the studio, I have no place to sell my work, so I'm considering opening an online studio. (Have I mentioned this before?) I'm having trouble really digging in my heels and actually doing it though. Got to stop procrastinating and get on it.