JAM--Just Another Monday

Just Random Things:

A few weeks ago, one of the employees who works at the co-op where Dave and I buy our groceries but to whom we have never spoken, said to us, "You two are really clean today." To which we replied, "----?" (But in the employees defense, we do often go in after we've been to the studio and are covered from head to toe in clay, so much so that most people mistake it for paint and assume we've been painting all day. That day, we hadn't been to the studio and were consequently pretty clean.)

I skipped the gym tonight and went to the studio and threw mug bodies instead. I like throwing mugs. Recently that's all I've done, so much so that Saturday before last when I had to do a bowl demo for a class I was teaching, I struggled a bit. I'm so over bowls.

Sunday morning found us at the urgent care center so Dave could have some lumpy thing in his mouth checked out. Turns out it's a mucocele and may have to be surgically removed. Oddly, even though I don't have a regular doctor, I have a regular dental surgeon and Dave is going to him. (He's married to our regular dentist.)

Speaking of the dentist, the last time I went to see her (to have my night guard adjusted) she asked me about the orange stains on my hands: "Is that from self tanner?" It's not self tanner of course, but the red iron oxide in the clay I use. It stains everything: My hands, my clothes, my tools, everything. Oddly, however, it's not the first time I've been orange without the benefit of self tanner. Years ago, when I was living on vegetables I turned orange. I didn't really notice it until one of the cashiers at the co-op said, "Were you using dye or something?" I asked her what she meant and she said, "Your hands are so orange!" And it's true, all the carotenoids in the tomatoes and peppers and cabbage and so on had turned me orange. I can look back at pictures of myself and see that, yep, I was kind of coral colored.

I ordered some stuff from LUSH, one of my favorite companies ever. In my order were three perfumes: The Smell of Weather Turning (Oakwood, hay, beeswax, nettle, English peppermint, mint and Roman chamomile), Breath of God (neroli, lemon, melon, jasmine, rose, vetivert, sandalwood, cedarwood, amber and musk), Icon (myrrh, orange blossom, bergamot, mandarin and sandalwood). They're pretty awesome perfumes. The real secret? I don't wear perfume. I love having it, love smelling it, but I never wear it.

(Dave just caught a little crab spider in the kitchen. We don't kill spiders--we love them!--so this little spider was relocated to a flowering plant we bought on Saturday.)

I've been watching a British television series from the late '70s called Bless Me, Father about an Irish Catholic priest and his young curate in England in 1950. I found it on Netflix; it was recommended to me because I watch so much Brit garbage TV (As Time Goes By, Coupling, Upstairs, Downstairs, Are You Being Served?, Doc Martin, Sherlock, Downton Abbey etc., etc.). I read a couple of reviews and the one that got me to watch it said that the reviewer's grandmother had loved it. It's quite funny, actually.

Let's see, what else?

Here's a few writing prompts and my responses:

Nobody knows that I... 

Nobody knows that I....I don't know how to answer this. Most of my life is out there in one way or another, to someone or other. Most people don't know that I smoke. Most people don't know that I hate licorice. Most people don't know that my favorite color is green. Most people don't know stuff like that about me.

Have you ever made somebody cry? What happened?

Ah, yes. Back in my restaurant days, I made more than one fellow employee cry. It was shitty of me, but those were shitty times and the job was somewhat ridiculously stressful and I used to take it out on my fellow employees when they couldn't keep up and, yes, I made them so miserable that they cried. Isn't that awful?


Is creating "beautiful art" more important than the process of creating?

There has to be a balance, no? And there has to be some judgment. And there has to be some independence in the process of creation. And beauty is a yoke, no?  Beauty is just another thing, but there is not the absolute necessity of balancing creation with destruction when one shoots for beauty in art, so you have to set beauty equal to zero, I think, when you create.

Does that answer the question?


Words that inspire me...

Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. --Pablo Picasso


Do you and your mother share an interest in any special activity?

My mother and I are both creative and crafty. We share an interest in needlework, but in different areas.


What was the last movie you saw?

Let's see. I went with Judi to see The Woman in Black and it was a bit too scary for me. That was the last movie I saw in the theater.