bodner045

I going to teach until August 20th with limited access to internet. I really want to go. I will be back and continue with good stories about you and creativity. I am about to embark on a new adventure. I have been invited to teach for a month in a camp in the Poconos. It will be fun, exciting and intense as I work quickly to teach 7th grade and above to throw on the potter's wheel and take home a lovely pot in about 3 tries. I hope I can teach them to have great confidence in their creativity and to enjoy the process as well. So, as much as I want to write every day I am there, I don't think I will be posting anything except for on my phone and that is difficult. I am sure to have wonderful experiences to write about, not mentioning names or where I really am for privacy sake as I agreed by contract. But, I will relay eventually the joy of learning and other enlightening and positive experiences. I will keep a journal and write more later, asap. This will give me time to ...

America and meat! It is a man's world cooking Barbeque overnight. Vera, Jim and their newest Grand baby brave the heat at Tulsa's Art of Barbeque. No one on Friday night left hungry. Every kind of barbeque was devoured. The smokin' machines were spotless and beautiful pieces of equipment. Grandpa Jim feeds his little Grand baby who dances while she eats. A fun cause, Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council and great barbeque. My dear sweet student and her husband invited me and John to join them Friday night to a great taste treat the night before the big competition. So, it sounded like a great idea to me to jump off the Weight Watchers band wagon. Two competitors joined forces and food and we were invited to eat and sample with them. It was delicious and I did not need to eat for 2 days after that. After going through the food line I looked down at my bulging plate, realizing I just took a small bite of each meat and wow. The plate had as much meat on it as I eat in a f...

The Art Garden in the making. It still needs work but I am slowly getting there. We will have various art gatherings here, in this wild woman flower garden. It is amazing what good food and a decent bottle of wine and great company will add. I have to learn to grow flowers and dig holes for fence posts. Just don't rush me and I will get there. Fall will be great and cool. My new front door. Well, we are missing windows but it has character. I will paint the door soon but Venture won't let me paint the building, even stripes. Just glad to be here. I look down this dusty alley every day and try to remember Taos looked like this in the 70's. Just think Taos and non-corporate super-store and it will be fun. Watching Nora Ephron's "You've Got Mail." I just heard the line,"Change is when something awful happens and nobody can do anything about it to help you." A small bookstore owner is closing her shop because of the big guys. I jumped o...

Sometimes I just wish we could trade all the time for things we need and everyone would play fair and we would all get what we want in a fun way. My friends all know I still suffer from that 60's thing and have a hard time asking a good price for my pots, taking it too personally. If someone likes it I would love to just be able to give it to them. I gotta get over it someday. Maybe it also because I like my job, artist-potter and maybe I am a hopeless romantic. A friend wrote me the other day and told me a former classmate said how interesting my life is and she likes reading my posts. I consider that a real compliment. Hmm. I told my husband and he said, "See there!" Of course I try and keep life hopping. I would not have it any other way. My kids know almost they worst thing they can say to me to irritate me is, "I'm bored!" It is all I can do to not say back, "Well then it is your own damn fault. Grab a piece of paper and write or draw....

How great to see both ends of a rainbow from their deck of the B&B Vistavalverde is high above the peninsula just outside San Ramon near San Jose Tom has a great gift for music, both playing and singing and if you are lucky he will sing for you too. That is just one of his many talents and what kind and gentle spirit as well. Susan in the Farmer's Market in San Ramon choosing flowers for the B&B. She is so intelligent and talented. She can do anything! And she is a fantastic cook as well! Perfect for the B & B! Yes I heard this on the radio the other day, the happiest place on earth is Costa Rica. And I would have to say my visit there verifies that. A friend sent out this reminder of the story that hit the news recently but I already knew it. "The happiest place on earth is ... Costa Rica is the happiest place on earth, and one of the most environmentally friendly, according to a new survey by a British non-govern...

Life is always changing and if you don't like it, well. Too bad, you better just change your attitude. I thought it felt different to visiting my daughter in her first apartment. Somehow, when we visited her dorm room last year, it felt more normal. That is just a room. This is a declared home for her. It is good. Just different. And oh what a great little nest maker she is. She and her sweet boyfriend painted as they moved in and chose contemporary colors and made the time to do it immediately, unlike me and her Dad who are still trying to choose a color for our bedroom after about 15 years. No use rushing it. She is living in an old apartment close to the journalism building and has a job a the Alumni Magazine that fits her well. She is finding her way and I am very proud of her. And, I just realized she will only be a teenager for one more year. Seems impossible and possible. Change. I like it. It is exciting whether it is your kids, moving, and doing or traveling o...

I sit in the dentist's chair wondering why me? What have I done? I flossed, I brushed, I get my check ups when they tell me. And here I am. Sitting. Waiting. Forced to listen to bad Christian music. begging for forgiveness. And still, They crown me again. Decay under an old crown, Gotta be yanked off and drilled under. They stare in there white suits down into the black hole of my mouth. I feel stirring, grinding, mashing and maybe a small matchbox bulldozer driving around. I see birds out side feeding at a bird feeder, wondering if they will hit the window when he starts drilling again. And then they put a hummingbird feeder in my mouth and suck the extra saliva out so it does not fall on my new white blouse. Drooling sucking spitting little silver pieces of shrapnel out of my mouth into the humming bird nozzle. I grip the hand rest and they talk chit chat about what is for lunch and I sit with my mouth spread eagle and they dig some more. I want to run out the door with my littl...