Learning.

I've been in Spruce Pine, North Carolina just over a month, and everything is going well.

I am suspicious of how well things are going. But that's just my distrustful nature.

I haven't been blogging because I have no idea where to begin. There are things I want to share from the month before I left Los Angeles. Heck, I never really reported on Unique LA or Austin Renegade, huh?

Or my super-cool former students and the conclusion to my time at CSUN.

Or my spontaneous adventure to Visalia and Sequoia with a van full of teenagers.

Right now I am at the sweet little Spruce Pine Library. the calico library-cat, Valentine, is curled up on my red backpack, purring quite loudly. Yeah, yeah: cute. But my heart belongs to my roommate, (the one who is not human) Henry, who doesn't pay rent, sleeps all day, stays up late, and doesn't clean up his messes.


Actually, Henry is one of the most mellow, easy-going cats I have ever known.

I have spent the past month unpacking, organizing, arranging, rearranging, cleaning, moving, and looking. I'm bored with it and wish it could be an automatic adjustment into feeling "at home."




I have also been digging in the yard which has been wonderful, satisfying work. I arrived a bit late in summer to get a garden going, but about a week ago I did start some pumpkins. They were growing quite happily until yesterday I discovered that some spiteful cutworms had put an end to them. Boo. So that's enough about gardening for the moment...

My "studio" is still the area of the house where I haven't unpacked everything, and I don't know where things belong....so I haven't been working. But soon. Oh, and I have a little table-top etching press staying with me now, as the fourth roommate. She's still settling in too. I'd post a picture, but my camera seems to be broken.

This past weekend was Penland's Annual Benefit Auction, the tenth that I have been involved in. And that deserves its own post.