Today, (July 3rd) my brother Frank celebrates his 84th birthday. This is amazing with the myriad health problems he's had. Hip surgery twice, knee replacement, heart valve replacement, heart failure and those are just the things I remember. All in all he's in fair health. Still ambulates... sometimes with a cane, but does pretty well. He's on multiple meds and does get a bit confused at times from little strokes and the combo of meds. He's been very fortunate to have my sister-in-law who is a retired RN taking such good care of him. They have seven children and Frank spent 21 years in the Navy. He's been my hero since I was a little girl and for me he can do no wrong. I'll always love him and am so happy he's still here. Happy Birthday Frank!
Last night I ordered online some crop pants from Land's End. Shortly thereafter I kept thinking I already have those crops. Maybe I forgot to bring them downstairs with the other summer clothes.
Mammogram done in the AM. Home for lunch and then back out for my first Pottery class. I was alone as neighbor Jessica backed out. This was good for me.
I called Lindsay (the instructor) to see if my being alone would present a problem. She said no. I had one to one instruction for the first steps of pottery making.....'hand building'.
Much like I did in Kindergarten I rolled out the clay....marked it and started making a circle with it. Repeated this several times...one ring (coil) on top of the other. [In Kindergarten we rolled a ball of clay and stuck our thumb into it and called it an ashtray. Rich pleaded with me not to bring home a bunch of ceramic ashtrays]. OK, I've got this ...now what? Slabs.
By this time I wanted to stop and said I'd watch her. That looks like fun. Grab a chunk (slab) of clay and throw it hard onto the table to flatten it out and get rid of any air pockets. Then mold it around a shape.....hmmmm this is looking more interesting. This has to be good therapy for working out stresses. When 'working the clay' my mind is totally on the clay and the outside world does not exist.
We stopped at this point and I asked Lindsay if $20 for a 1½- to 2 hr class is correct? I'd noticed a fee schedule in the other room which read $50/hr for a one to one art class. Lindsay said she couldn't charge me that much because she's just starting to teach. She's not the owner of the studio.
It's amazing to me how things come about. I'd always wanted to try this. I'm probably the only person I know who didn't take a ceramics class at some point in their life. I didn't think I'd want to do ceramics, but working with the 'wheel' had special appeal for me. Apparently 'Ceramics' and 'Pottery' are used interchangeably, but Pottery is done on a wheel. Learning the basics of how clay feels, why water is used and how to get the air pockets out, is where I'll be for a few more lessons. I'm going to like these classes..can't wait to work with the wheel.
Somewhere I came across this link where you can create 'moments' in time. I'm trying it out. So, here's one presentation I did. I'm hoping to add music and backgrounds, but that will take some time to learn. Anyhow, you can see here what I've done and I believe you will see the link showing how you can create a moment of your own.
Watched the first episode of the new HBO program 'Hung'. Yes, that's what it means. Nothing titillates the senses anymore; it's all very clinical. This episode was setting up the storyline...I may watch it again to see if I believe it has merit. So far I don't see it going anywhere.
Did I break a sweat? Hell, yes. And that was after getting it out of the box and doing only a couple of the exercises...e.g. lunges and squats. I'll have to ease into these exercises. Heck, I gave my right age and weight....you'd think it would go easy on me. Here's a glimpse of what this is all about. 'Active' is very new...just released in May of this year.
In case you're wondering how I look ...here I am after getting my haircut today.
Those two young uns wore me out yesterday. They had me walking all over this place.
