This past week has been sort of blah. It started with me being oversensitive about not being taken seriously again. Why is that so often an issue with me? I realize I have a tendency to change my direction or get crazy ideas often, but sometimes it would be nice if people would not roll their eyes and make jokes about my latest pursuit. At least I’m good for a laugh, huh?

Monday was my last day of class. I’m unhappy about the way it ended. All of my stuff is crap. PURE CRAP. I have zero pieces I can use for my portfolio. Then again, I still don’t know whether I’m going to apply to the graduate program without knowing more about the whens and wheres of our eventual relocation, so a portfolio may not be necessary. Still, it would have been nice knowing my $1000 tuition went to something more important than entertaining me for seven weeks.

I’ve lost sight of what my purpose is more than once this week. The things I do and the things I want to do seem pointless. Without a little support or a little success, the “pursuit of happiness” seems futile.

I looked over my goals for 2007, and I’m pretty pleased with how well I’ve kept up with most things. The past few weeks have been scattered with things that have furthered these three ideals.

I purchased a cup this past weekend from a show of clay and glass artists. It probably makes more sense to make my own cups, but I want to collect cups from other potters, and this was my start. It’s a good cup, but flawed. Despite its flaws, I love it. Jacob and I fight over who gets to use the cup. Silly. But because we both prefer this cup to any other cup in our house, I have begun to wonder if I could sell my own pottery despite its flaws. Would someone else love it? I really doubt many people could “love” a cup the way I do. Regardless, I now want to fill my cupboards with handmade cups, and bowls, and plates, and everything else from all different artists.

I brought home a manual lawnmower last night. I’ve been wanting one for a while now, though I can’t really explain why. Rob was reluctant to try it out, but once he got started, he mowed the entire lawn with it easily. It’s so quiet and it doesn’t smell like gas. I like it.

I’ve taken up yet another new hobby. After re-evaluating my formal exercise program last spring, I dropped it with the intent of finding something else. It took a few months, but I found something I like. For now.

My Amazon wishlist has been growing like crazy. The list includes all kinds of books from pottery to keeping a family cow to homeschooling. Do you see a pattern? I can’t quite articulate how they are all related (beyond saying they are all MY interests.) Or maybe “nature, simplicity, and the pursuit of happiness” says it all.

A few weeks ago, my professor gave us her lecture on pitchers. I had asked Rob before the lecture if he had any interest in having a pitcher. He told me he didn’t, so I didn’t pay much attention to the lecture. Last week (weeks after the pitcher assignment), he suggested that his mom would probably really like a pitcher. I made my first attempt yesterday, and learned that I don’t really enjoy the pitcher form. Today, I felt that I could do much better than my first attempt, so I built two more pitchers at home. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring my tools home from the studio last night, so these pitchers still need a lot of refining. I feel they were much more successful than my attempt in the studio last night, but I’ll need to look at them again with fresh eyes to see if any more changes are necessary.

To date, I have:
2 deep bowls (both glazed)
2 flat oval bowls (1 glazed, 1 waiting to be glazed)
2 wavy bowls (1 waiting to be glazed, 1 waiting to be re-glazed)
1 spoon jar (waiting to be glazed)
3 baking dishes (2 waiting for bisque, 1 waiting for me to stop procrastinating and make handles)
4 teapots (2 bisqued, 2 waiting to be bisqued)
3 pitchers (in progress)
bunch o’ crappy mugs (in various stages of crappiness)

We’re home from Cedar Point. Jacob has officially earned the title of Rollercoaster King in our family. He rode just about everything. Brendan was reluctant to ride some of the more intense rides, but his first rollercoaster experience was unpleasant, so his reluctance was not unexpected. I think this was probably the last of rollercoasters for me. I was not feeling very well after the first few, and I actually blacked out while on my last one. I’m such a wimp. Today, I’m still recovering from being tossed around so much.

The weather was very comfortable, but the wind caused some of the taller rides to be shut down intermittently. We had plans to go to the outdoor waterpark on Friday, but because of the severe weather forecast, we chose to spend a few hours at the indoor waterpark instead.

Today is their real birthday. My parents should be here in the next hour for dinner and cake.