a week in review

Last week was an adventure Forrest was in Florida visiting for the week. We both love Florida but I am in Love with Florida and I have been overwhelmingly sad to think about leaving and especially to move back to the cold north! The past two years have been some of the best and the Sunshine must have something to do with it! (and that my fingers and toes no longer turn white and lose circulation because of the cold!) So we spent the week embracing what time we do have left here... so I picked up Forrest from the airport and we headed for the spring (this has become somewhat of a tradition). We had amazing time with some great friends thanks to Cheyenne and Nigel for a ride and Charlie and Varian for organizing the event. Monday we traveled south again to Blue Springs with Cari- a spur of the moment decision that made for a rather fantastic day swimming in the spring and a trip to the Deland Bakery one of my favorites. Tuesday we had a chance to check out Lake Alice and visit the The Swamp- Florida Stadium!



Wednesday after class we decided to escape Gainesville once again to relive our first date in St. Augustine. We borrowed a tent from Cari because I have already moved most of my belonging to Baton Rouge, Ohio, or Michigan. (I can't tell you where anything is right now... other then the cloths I have on of course) We managed to get a camp site at Anastasia State Park and WOW was it amazing we set up camp and headed strait to the beach where we did not even take time to lay down and went for a long walk. I have renamed Forrest the 'Shell Searcher'. Walking with Forrest was like walking with a 5 year old I have never seen so must joy and excitement when it comes to sea shells. We were walking and walking and finally we had to turn around neither of us wanted to but it was getting late. I can only speak for myself but my feet still hurt from this walk- we should have known better! Two people with bad joints walking in the sand not a good mix. We went downtown for are date at Harry's Restaurant. Forrest got the crab cakes they were so yummy! We sat on the porch and had a nice view of the water then we headed down to listen to the live music before calling it a night. The following morning was somewhat painful. I had not finished editing my thesis and the first draft was due so I spent way to many hours revising before we were able to have any more fun. We of course went back to the beach before leaving the park to see if there were and more sea shells! Forrest had also gotten up to watch the sun rise and check out the shells before anyone else arrived at the beach- I no doubt was sleeping through all of that! We had a chance to visit the old Spanish Fort Castillo De San Marcos there were even real cannons I tried to move one but with no luck. We then had the pleasure of having dinner with a few of my friends Mike, Stacey and there little guy Joshua. We drove down to Palm Coast and they had us in for dinner. It was so nice to catch up and for Forrest to meet some of my friends. Friday was a busy busy day in studio with glaze tests galore and Forrest was kind enough to provide a helping hand. My phone has been acting crazy and it finally stopped working all together. My friend Nigel was kind enough to offer me his old phone. We headed to the verison store to get that switched over. It took a little longer then expected but for now the phone works. The second round of MFA graduates had an opening that night so we headed out and then we went to Civilazation a nice restaurant in town for dinner with a group of friends. Before calling it a night we stopped at The Top to take a photobooth, it was classic. While in the car Monica noticed we had quite the collection of shells in the back seat. Monica knows her shells and did that ever get us all excited! He left early the following morning at 5 AM. All in all it was a wonderful week and now its back to reality. Hard work and an attempt at play. I spend the following two day in the glaze lab yet again working hard enough to fill an entire oval kiln something I have never done before! And Saturday night was the opening for Through our Eyes: An Interdisciplinary Exhibition of Women Artists organized by my good friend Marah Gaiti. I have a big show opening in less then two weeks all the work is in the kiln, I open it tomorrow! Its hard to believe but the end is in sight. Also, this Wednesday we are have a end of the year pot sale for those of us who are moving away, join us in the courtyard and buy some pots! -Jeni