Oh boy.

Good grief.

I'm not sure where I left off.  I started a blog at work the other day but would you believe I was too busy to finish it?  This week I got to feel out the Ceramics class and how it compares to the mini term's craziness.  I got an A in Children's Literature, by the way.  (Yay!)

Thursday was a seriously frustrating day.  I abandoned my Riley project and started a new self portrait.  That one wasn't making me happy either and I saw some of my classmates making bowls.  "Why am I making a self-portrait?" I asked myself.  I wrapped Riley, Jasmine, another Riley and a lumpy suggestion of me in plastic and stowed them on my shelf.  I started making a bowl and even took pictures to show you guys my progress.  I thought I'd make the bowl curve back in and like a true ding dong thought I would even make a lid!  As I added coils I was dismayed to find that the bowl was only getting wider- I couldn't get it to come back in.  I looked up again and realized that the classmates making bowls weren't making bowls at all, but parts of sculptures.  One girl was making the head of a stag.  The other had this beautiful crazy cross between wasps nests and houses carved from rock.  It was beautiful, weird, smooth and I wanted to live there.  I also wanted to crawl under the table.  I smushed my bowl, threw it in the slip bucket, cleaned up, and left to go do something I know how to do.  I read and ate lunch.

So far I've talked to Mom, Tracy, Rachel, Dad, Chris, and my counselor.  I needed some pep talks.  Today I'll hit the library to find how-to books and project ideas for kids.  I'm looking for technique and inspiration.  Thursday was my day of disappointment and giving up.  Monday I'll go back in armed with determination and a list of ideas.  My counselor suggested buying some Play-Doh to practice with at home.  I might do that.  That reminds me of being at Marshall's and finding Play-Doh perfume.  I can understand that some people might like the smell, but would you really want to smell like Play-Doh?

I am dealing with another Financial Aid nightmare, but this time I'm sharing it with tons of other students.  Every time I've gone up there I've been told something different.  At first I joked that they must  have the money in a high interest savings account and they're trying to hold onto it as long as possible.  Now I'm starting to believe it.  They always promised that we wouldn't see money until June- past when mini term fees were due.  They were adamant that we find our own way to pay for that.  Apparently they didn't mean the beginning of June either.  I can't say how many times I've been told it would be disbursed in a couple days, a couple days...  I went back yesterday and was told the loans wouldn't be in for a couple weeks and the Pell Grant not until July.  I was so frustrated that I forgot to ask WHEN in July.

The good news is that I'm not broke yet.  Chris was supposed to work last night but was asked to do the sound for the entire weekend of Carson Valley Days.  I'm gone all week, he's gone all weekend.  :(  But he's got funds coming in so we can pay bills.  Whew...  There will be a bigger mess coming.  The GI Bill hasn't paid for summer tuition yet and the VA won't certify anyone for the second term that starts in early July until they figure out how to process the changes that take effect in August.  That means fall can't be certified yet either so I don't know if my monthly payments will come to a screeching halt in August or when they will resume.  We're hoping to use some of the loans to move into a house.  We need a place with a washer and dryer- laundry is costing at least $100 a month and if I have a yard I can use a clothesline.  I need a yard to let the girls out and I would love more places to walk.  I'm pretty restricted with traffic and lack of sidewalks.  We also want to get away from the dealer that has moved in next door.  Keep those gigs coming, Chris!

Pik-toors

Mom and Marty went to Prague recently and saw an Alphonse Mucha exhibit.  They got me a puzzle.  Here's the start to this 1500 piece giant.

Here's my progress as of today.

I can't figure out how to turn this, but the right side is the bottom.

It's a good thing this puzzle isn't any bigger, huh?

It's so nice to have a puzzle and a giant non-school related book going at the same time.  I started both because I'm only taking ceramics this term.  I'll have about a month of no homework, then I'll have an English class, a short break, and then my 5 class fall semester.

We finally started playing with clay today.  The teacher lectured for two days and half of today.  Then he assigned our first project: a self portrait.  Riiiiiiiiiggghht.  Nice of you to start us off on something easy.  How about a pot?  A bowl?  Jesus.

Thankfully he said we don't have to make a literal self portrait so I immediately tried to figure out how to incorporate the only idea I've had so far- seeing what Riley would look like as an exaggerated form- with a sheep body, goat legs and beard, bat ears and whatever else I can think of.  Yes, this is a stretch but my artistic argument is that I didn't want the self portrait to be literal so I tried to make everything else literal.  So I'm imagining a short brick wall almost closed around my little Riley girl.  Yeah, I don't know.  Why couldn't we just make a pot?

Yeah, I don't know how this is going to work either, but so far I've learned that Ceramics seems to be mostly a celebration of weirdness so as long as I make it weird it should work.