Catching up or the week so far--Part 2--The rest of the week

I was writing this post, and it turned into this really long thing about ceramics class, so I decided to make it into a two part thing so that if ceramics you find ceramics really boring you can skip most of it. If you like ceramics but find the rest of my life dull, you can skip this part and scroll down.

Anyway, on the ceramics front I have finished a vase and a terra cotta plate with some sea turtles on it, I am waiting for some tiles and a pylon shaped box to get glaze fired, I am now working a big seashell, and I am about to start a really big terra cotta tile with a dragon's head on it.

As for the rest of the week, it's hasn't been too bad. I went to church on Easter. I hadn't been in about a month, and I hadn't gone shopping for anything special to wear that day. But then it turned a bit cold, so people weren't necessarily wearing what they bought for the occasion anyway. So I ended up going to church wearing my nice bright colorful...scarf? It wasn't a Dr. Who scarf, but it was long enough to be one, about fifteen feet.

None of us were up to dealing with long lines at restaurants, so I went home to have lunch with my husband. So I changed clothes and we headed to Chipotle's, thinking that wouldn't be a place for Easter crowds. The people at Chipotle's thought that too, so they decided to close for the holiday. Okay. So we ended up at Pancho's instead. The people working there were having way too much fun. I hadn't been to that location for a while, so I don't know if they're normally like that or not.

Then we walked around the mall. The odd thing was that the anchor stores were open, but the stores in the "mall" part were closed. So we walked through Sears and Barnes and Noble, and then we went home.

I don't remember what happened Sunday afternoon, but I remember it ended up being a bit of a fight. He immediately wanted to make up. But I just can't deal with that sort of thing anymore. I shouldn't have let him come home. Anyway, most of the time now he is gone for four or five days a week, and now that I've gotten used to it, maybe it is better that way. I only see him two or three days a week, and we usually have some pleasant time together then, and I have peace and quite the rest of the time. But it seems like something will always ruin whatever pleasant time we have together, so I don't really look forward to that anymore either.

Before the fight, we had pretty much planned out how we would spend Monday. But when Monday came, I really didn't think I wanted to spend the day with him. I tried reorganizing the day in my head so that I spent most of the day without him, but that didn't seem to work. I just decided to go on with the original plans even if it wasn't going to be fun.

First, we went to a store that we used to buy a lot of junk at. We didn't really need anything, but we'd seen a sign about them getting new management, so we just stopped by to see if they were going to have the same sort of stuff and the same sale days and like that. Everything was going to be the same until further notice. He bought a shirt, and we left.

Next, we went to the college. He stayed in the car and listened to a bit of a book on tape while I went to the library and made some copies. Then I went to the ceramics lab to see if my plate was ready, which it was not. Although the plate had been loaded into the kiln, the kiln hadn't been fired yet because the professor decided he didn't want to come back during Easter to check on things. Fine. I wedged some clay that I had left on the table Saturday. Just didn't want to feel guilty about taking up that much table space.

After that we went to lunch, and then to a library in Fort Worth. Despite being mad at him the day before and not really wanting to spend the day with him, it was actually starting to be nice. He took me to a vegetable stand that I buy a lot of herb plants from. I bought too many of them for the one trip, but I doubt I'll be in that neighborhood again anytime soon. And I like to buy all the herbs there that I can, cause they charge about half what most other stores do.

So that was nice. He took me to a couple of places that I really wanted to go, and instead of trying to get me to hurry, he said he'd be in the car listening to his tape. So we went to a few more stores that he wanted to go to.

And then we went to another bookstore. Now, I like books, and I like going to bookstores, but not so much as I once did. I don't really need to keep filling the house with books. But if you take me to a bookstore, I'll probably find something that I want. So I think that it's better if I don't go to the bookstore until I am actually looking for something specific.

So were are in the bookstore. And I check up on him a couple of times, and he comes to find me a couple of times. I'm carrying around three books that I probably don't need. One of them was a plant book, and one was a cookbook of mostly Asian noodle dishes, and I don't even remember what the other one was. But they were on sale, and I'd probably never find the Asian noodle thing again, so I'm carrying them around and my husband is probably going to buy them for me when he buys whatever he's carrying around the store. I'm just finding things to look at while I'm waiting for him, but there always seems to be one more thing that one of us has to look for. And then it seems like it has been a while since I've seen him, and I really should not pick up anymore books. I think that I'm going to go find him and suggest that maybe it is time to leave. Only I can't find him.

I can't find him because he isn't in the store. He bought his books and went to the car to read them, without even telling me. He knows how much I hate this behavior. If he wants to wait in the car, fine, but he has to tell me that first. And it was especially bad since I was only in the store waiting for him anyway.

So I put the books back on the shelf and went to the car and got in. I just about lost it. How dare you treat me like this? How dare you treat me like this anyway, but after seventeen years of you seeing how much it upsets me, and on top of what you've put me through this last year, how dare you? I would have thought that since you can't take back the really horrible things that you've done to me that you would try so much harder to not do all the little things that I hate. But no, you're always going to do all the little bad things that you've always done, and now I have the really big terrible things to worry about too.

I really didn't say much to him about it. He's not listening. He thinks that he can do what he wants as long as he apologizes for it after. He doesn't think that he has to do anything about his bad behavior. There is no point in talking to him about it. He just doesn't get it.

So my nice day ended up being ruined after all.

Okay, enough about that. I don't really want to get into that anyway.

Tuesday morning I had to leave early for school, and I'm sure he was out of the house about an hour later. I've already blogged about Tuesday's class, so I won't repeat myself. Let's just say that except for getting to help a friend with his mold and getting to take home my completely finished terra cotta sea turtle plate, it was not a good day. And if I did anything after school that day, I can't remember it.

Wednesday was a much better day. I finally got around to doing something that I've been putting off since spring break. I glazed four tiles. I tested the backyard clay by pressing some into the sea turtle tile mold and rolling out a slab that I pressed stamps into. I started working on the big seashell. I went to both the morning class and the evening class. Between classes I went to the library, and then I went to the mall, ate lunch at Arby's, bought seeds and vegetable seedlings at a nursery, and bought a potted flower plant at a different nursery. I think that day was supposed to be Buy flowers for no reason day, or something like that. My flower looks like a wildflower I used to pick when I was a kid, and it is supposed to self sow lots of seeds. Probably not the sort of flower Tara had in mind, but I was happy I found it.

Thursday I went to class and mostly worked on the big seashell. It was Spring Fling Day, which means that you get to go outside and buy a hotdog and soda and everything for a dollar while there is really loud live music. The lady didn't have change yet, so she trusted me to come back and pay later, which I did. Then I went to art club meeting, which was rather pointless. I know that I can't do any art club stuff, and I'm probably not going to be a student next year. I have nothing to contribute at this point. Right now I don't even expect to be part of the student art sale. At least in the past I had suggestions for other people, but yesterday there weren't enough people there to make suggestions to. I just went to make Susan happy, which it did, so that was good.

Thursday was also the day for the opening of a student art show. The reception was a 4:30. I totally forgot about it. But after I was reminded of it, I did want to go. But it wasn't worth the effort of going home and then coming back. And I'd already done all my errands in the area on Wednesday. But I decided I could find something to do.

I went back to one of the nurseries and got into a bit of an argument. I didn't really need anymore plants, but they were supposed to be on clearance. You really should not buy plants that have grown too big for their little containers, but if the price is right I'll try it anyway. So on Wednesday I'd bought about ten plants that had been marked down to twenty-nine cents. So I went to pick up a few more, and to ask if the tomato and pepper plants were part of the clearance too. So they tried to tell me that not only were the tomato and pepper plants not part of the clearance, but the plants I picked up were not part of the clearance, and that I even had the wrong kind of plants. Only the little cabbage and lettuce plants were twenty-nine cents. Someone must of have moved the sign.

I could understand if someone accidentally moved a sign. I could understand if a customer had moved some plants. I could understand if someone made a mistake yesterday and sold me plants for less than they were supposed to be. I could understand if someone claimed that the sale was for 2 inch pots and I had 4 inch pots. But I can not understand why someone would just out right lie to me about something, when it says right on the sign the sale includes cucumbers, eggplants, squash, melons, etc.... Someone moved a sign and changed everything on the sign to match where it had been moved to, but that's not where the sign is supposed to be? I don't think so. I pointed out that they had made a mistake, twice. Instead of quietly giving me a discount, saying thank you, and removing the sign, they again insisted that the mistake was mine. Fine. Keep your dying plants. It isn't worth my time to point out your mistakes to your boss, even when I'm only here to kill time anyway.

So that was fun. I went to some more stores. I bought my husband some discounted Easter candy. I shouldn't have opened any of it. Now I'm eating too much of it myself. Then I went to Home Depot. I found some discounted lumber that would have been useful, but then I realized it wouldn't fit in my car. It's just as well, since I'm about out of money anyway. And they had these really huge orange lilies, but again, I was about out of money. Maybe they'll still be there in a few weeks.

So then it was back to school for the reception. Brie and the more common cheeses, and some other cheese that was good but I could not identify. Pineapple and strawberries and melon balls and grapes. Some sort of spicy seafood salad in tiny sandwiches. And more common sandwich stuff like ham and cheese. And cookies. The cookies with the pecans were especially good.

One of the nice things about being an art student is that once in a while there is free food.

Another nice thing is that sometimes there is a show or a competition, and this time two friends of mine where in both of those. I knew that Susan got a painting into the show, but no award for it, and unfortunately the dolphins she had done in ceramics had not been selected for the show. Another friend, the one who was trying to mold something Tuesday, got a ceramic copy of a lamp into the show and won a twenty-five dollars gift certificate from Trinity Ceramics. We had to twist his arm a bit to get him to the reception. He had the idea that it was some fancy thing and he didn't want to go. Fancy? Most of us were still wearing our lab clothes. Free food, and you get an award. How bad can it be?

So when I was looking at the stuff in the show, I saw Susan's dolphins. And I saw a lot more stuff from ceramic class than I remembered being selected. Turns out that there was another competition going on at about the same time, and Susan won a four hundred dollar scholarship. That should pay for almost half of what she plans to do during the fall semester. And who cares what that other art judge thinks anyway.

My friend was a bit shy about going to get his award from Trinity Ceramics. You mean I'm supposed to go over there now? Like, didn't everyone else go over there when their names were called. Yes, you go over there now. Poor guy.

So then he comes back with his award, and he asks if I want his prize money. He doesn't know where Trinity Ceramics is, and he doesn't want the twenty-five dollars enough to go look for it. And he's not going to be doing anymore ceramics for a few years anyway, so he wants to give the certificate to either me or the professor.

Hey, the professor has a job and tons of ceramic stuff already. Do I want twenty-five dollars to spend at Trinity? Of course I want twenty-five dollars to spend at Trinity. As soon as I test fire something with the clay from my backyard, I'm going to Trinity anyway to buy a couple of screens so I can make more clay.

But then he sees that his name is already written on the certificate, and he's afraid that they won't let me spend it. That's okay. I'll go over there in a couple of weeks anyway, and I'll ask.

And it was nice of him to think of me anyway.

This morning I finished a gardening project that I've been working on for two years. I planted a bunch of asparagus, and now that all the asparagus plants have emerged, I've covered the area with sand and put a bunch of shells around the plants. It probably needs a couple more bags of sand, but I think it is good enough for now. Fifty pound bags of sand are heavy. I did a couple earlier and a couple last night and the last one just before I started writing this post.

Now I need it to rain. Really rain. Get everything wet rain. Not just look grey and sprinkle stuff here and there. Actual soak the ground rain. Which it is supposed to do today, so I've put off water stuff for a while, but now I've probably waited too long and lost a tomato plant. But that's okay.

But please rain already.

Tomorrow, I am probably going to go do something silly. Wish me luck. If I go I'll tell you about it maybe next Tuesday. Just wish me luck anyway.