I Got Class

MJ in all of her hyperactive wisdom convinced me to take a glass art class. Now I know that those of you who’ve been following my life for a while might feel a bit panicked at the idea of someone with a penchant for slicing open her left hand with everything from scissors to a manual can-opener taking a class where they allow her to cut glass into shards and use a grinder, but I made it through the first class with just a small glass splinter.

The class itself is all the way in Lisbon Falls so now I’ve been that far North and of course despite the really easy route, I did get a little lost as at one point I started to doubt the directions and backtracked a bit. The summer class is really small which is good because that way I’ll get lots of teacher attention. One of the ladies in the class has apparently been coming for 8 years and is making a lamp a friend of hers designed. When you think about the cost of studio time ($15/3.5 hours) versus the cost of the class($75 for 8 sessions of 3.5 hours), it’s really a good deal and if I like it, I may go for another class because it’s cheaper than studio time.

My first piece is a suncatcher with an apple and yellow pear on it. The teacher picked out the initial pattern but amazingly it matches my apple kitchen and yellow curtains quite well. I did all the cutting and grinding on the pieces last week and tonight or tomorrow I need to wrap the edges in the copper foil so I can do the soudering on Wednesday.

I also need to go in an hour early to look through patterns and try to decide on something for my next project. Unfortunately, now that I’ve had a taste of it, I keep thinking of all sorts of things I’d like to do. On one hand I don’t want to do anything hokey but I also don’t know that I have the creative mind for something abstract like I’d like to do. Then again, I’d like to make a Winnie the Poo for the son of my longest known friend and I’d like to make a present for Red for everything she did to help me and I’d like to make something nice for my mom for Christmas. Still, one of the problems I had with my cross-stiching was that I almost always made things for other people and not myself so I think my first project on my own should be something for me.

***Art class isn’t my only new adventure. Saturday I went to Boston by myself to meet some WW people I met online.Rather than drive, I took Concord Trails (or whatever it’s called). It was really a pretty sweet deal — $27 same day round trip from Portland to Boston and back — snacks on the way down and movies each way. Really when you think about it, there’s no way I could have gone to Boston and back for $27 worth of gas, not including the three tolls each way that I would have had to pay.

I didn’t watch Peter Pan on the way down, though I do want to see the movie. The picture was flickering in the beginning and I already had a little headache so I knew I’d be sick if I watched it, so I read Blood and Gold by Anne Rice instead. I did watch Calendar Girls on the way back and though I had some trouble hearing it with my poor hearing, I liked the movie and recommended it to my mother.

Once in Boston I needed to get from the bus station to the Linwood Grill. I had a map from Yahoo!Maps from a subway station (Fenway) to the restaurant so the first order of business was finding the subway. I determined I needed the green line but the red line was the one at the bus station. I purchased what turned out to be an out-of-date map for almost $4 at the bus station and proceeded to walk down Beach St. right through China Town which was cool and I’d like to go back and eat there as all of the food smelled good. I found the green line on the other side of China Town (though it’s worth mentioning that on my map, most of the streets in China Town have oriental names, but in reality they were like Harrison St. and Taylor St.). I made an observation at the entrance of green line that appeared to hold true for the rest of my trip: at every subway station was a donut shop, hot dog shop, and an ice cream place.

So, I got on the green line going outbound and though the map seller at the bus station apparently gave me Canadian money as change the subway wouldn’t take it. (Canadian money is a real problem for me up here as the vending machine will spit it out as change but won’t take it or the Indiana quarters.) I had to stand on the subway and I was wearing my winter coat since my winter coat is for New Orleans and is just right for the 50’s and 60’s that Portland was in, but Boston was hot when I got there and I didn’t want to carry my coat so I was wearing it. (There’s a run on sentence for you.) Some old creepy guy must have asked me 4 or 5 times if I was hot and how was the weather where I came from.

I got off at the Fenway subway station and started trying to find my way. There are streets in Boston that were not on my Yahoo!Maps map nor in my new Boston map. I was standing on a street corner that wasn’t on either map trying to make sense of the maps when MizHolly from my WW online group noticed me and knew exactly who I was because I’d sworn to them all that I am famous for getting lost. So she rescued me and she, her husband, and I walked to the restaurant.

The evening itself was delightfully fun and I was quite proud of myself for going. I had almost backed out that day because I wasn’t feeling well and I had a great deal of anxiety not just about travelling to an unfamiliar place alone but about meeting these strangers…and strange we all were but wonderfully so.

I was exciting to meet new people and have adult conversations and eat out. I know it’s silly but I was surpised at how much fun I had. In the past I’ve always been so withdrawn around new people that I do participate and have a dreadful time. Maybe this moving to where no one knows me is changing me — maybe I’m becoming a little less withdrawn out of necessity.

One of the WWer’s and her husband gave another WWer and myself a ride back to the bus station. It turns out that Mags lives in Portland so we rode back on the bus and I gave her a ride home in my Jeep with many appologies about the boxes bound for Goodwill in the back.

It was a great adventure and I ate way too much, but I’d definitely do it again.

***Just a few more random thoughts since I really don’t have people to share with…I’ve been reading through Anne Rice’s books since Christmas. I’d been reading the Mayfair Witch books until I came to one that was a cross-over to the vampire books. Now I’d stopped reading the Vampire Chronicles shortly after Tale of the Body Thief because I really didn’t care for that particular book. However, in the first few pages of this new Mayfair-Vampire Chronicle, I realized that I was going to have to go back and read these novels I’d not picked up because there were references that I didn’t understand. So, I’ve been reading them in order, I think. A couple weeks ago I finished The Vampire Armand, which is the story of my favorite character, and then started reading Blood and Gold, which is the tale of Marius, who is Armand’s sire.

I am finally at the part of the book in Marius’ life which merges with Armand’s and I am realizing that despite their seemingly photographic memory, the two stories, told from two points of view have definite differences. It’s not just the points of view that are different but some of the details — things that happened in Armand’s story, happened in a different order in some places. I find this odd and I don’t know if Rice did this on purpose or accident.

***I keep finding little dead black worms in my carpet downstairs. I don’t know what to make of them. I finally called the apartment’s office and asked for them to send the pest control people. The office chick hadn’t heard of this problem before either and no one I’ve talked to has but I keep finding them nonetheless. I know I didn’t bring them with me because I’ve never had worms in my house before. It can’t be the cats somehow because these worms are never upstairs where the literbox is. ***I learned a valuable, expensive lesson yesterday. I decided to wash my bed linens, including my comforter. I don’t know if my mom washed it before she packed it, but it seemed like it could use a wash. So I read the instructions and put it in the washer and went to go through some paperwork. Suddenly my washer was making a ruckus and the next thing I knew I was pulling my comforter out of the washer with a big hole in it.Now I paid $145 for the comforter which I bought from Bed, Bath, & Beyond on sale and with a 15% off coupon. It was a $250 comforter so that was a deal. I love the set. I planned my whole room around the comforter. So I spent an hour or so on eBay looking for it because Bed, Bath, and Beyond no longer carries it. I ended up paying another $120 for a new one…I’ve now paid more than the original cost.

From now on I will have my comforter cleaned professionally. Bah.

Ironically this came after the realization that I need to cut back a bit on my spending. *sigh*

***For some reason I can listen to Air America (but why would I?) but not National Public Radio in my office. The “other” country radio station seems to be transmitted over the lower part of the FM channels in there. Very annoying because I would like to be informed while I wait for 30-45 seconds every minute for the interface console to refresh — this is a preformance issue with the console of the interface engine that takes forever to refesh and locks up your computer while it does so.

tags: Anne Rice, discombobulated

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