Monday, February 6
Feb. 6th, 2023 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
This beautiful weather!
Noticeably longer days now. As I drove in to town for pottery today, it was still light out. A nice change. Much less depressing.
Pottery was nice, but pretty emotional.
The woman I often work a little later with was there, and some other people.
The person who I was pretty close friends with a few years ago, that I walked dogs with her and then we were at the same barn with was there. A few years ago she moved to the small town right near us, and I thought it would be nice to live that close to her. I invited her to our "new" house when it got moved here, and to come see the ponies, and she never quite accepted those offers. I never got an invitation to see her new house only three miles away from us, even when I hinted that I would love to see it.
So, there was a point where I wondered what would happen if I stopped doing all the work of connecting with her. Well, she never bothered to call. Not ever. So, I figured that maybe that told me enough. I left it at that.
Well, now she is working on the same night as I do. It's not awkward to talk with her, but isn't it funny that whenever I see her at pottery it's like there is no elephant in the room for her?
Anyhow, the lady I usually work with was there, and we got talking about her Mom. Her Mom is not doing well at all, and it is starting to look like she might need to be in a care home. It's terrible how everyone has to go through this awful pain and guilt over the need to do this for a parent, even when it is so obviously necessary and inevitable. She cried a bit, and if it had just been us I might have cleaned off my hands and hugged her and let her cry, but there were some other people around, and I figured she might not really want that.
We ALL ended up talking about our own experiences with family and care homes, and I tried to be positive since I think it was the best choice for our Mom.
I think the toughest part of this is for people to accept that it really does mean that our loved ones are in the last stage of their life. There is no way around it, when someone needs personal care, they usually don't improve from there.
So, that was a really emotional session.
I got two bowls back, and the glaze pitted on them. They were otherwise very nice, so I have to see if there's anything that can be done to fix them.
The owl came back, and cracked a bit but that's fine since it doesn't have to be food safe.
I did throw a bowl, and trimmed a vessel.
I will say that it was nice that this sort of friend and another lady are now in our class, since they might be there a little later, and will be there more when I and this other woman usually work. A little more social.
Then I got some groceries. I was feeling a little bit existentialist when I was shopping, and probably threw in a few things based on "If we all have to die miserable deaths, then by God I will eat something delicious first".
Days like this, I look around at the other people in the store and think "we're all just doing our best until we die horribly" and feel great kinship for them. I see the awkward guy who looks a little lost and try to communicate that we all feel lost at times, and it's okay. I see the guy at the checkout with his wife buying a mountain of food, and a board game for young children and notice how polite he is to the checkout clerk.
Today I learned that earthquakes in the countries of Greece and Turkey have improved the relations. The relationship between those countries had been strained over a dispute over sovereignty over a group of islands, disputes over territorial boundaries at sea, etc. Lots of issues.
The two countries offered aid to each other after a series of earthquakes in 1999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek%E2%80%93Turkish_earthquake_diplomacy
This beautiful weather!
Noticeably longer days now. As I drove in to town for pottery today, it was still light out. A nice change. Much less depressing.
Pottery was nice, but pretty emotional.
The woman I often work a little later with was there, and some other people.
The person who I was pretty close friends with a few years ago, that I walked dogs with her and then we were at the same barn with was there. A few years ago she moved to the small town right near us, and I thought it would be nice to live that close to her. I invited her to our "new" house when it got moved here, and to come see the ponies, and she never quite accepted those offers. I never got an invitation to see her new house only three miles away from us, even when I hinted that I would love to see it.
So, there was a point where I wondered what would happen if I stopped doing all the work of connecting with her. Well, she never bothered to call. Not ever. So, I figured that maybe that told me enough. I left it at that.
Well, now she is working on the same night as I do. It's not awkward to talk with her, but isn't it funny that whenever I see her at pottery it's like there is no elephant in the room for her?
Anyhow, the lady I usually work with was there, and we got talking about her Mom. Her Mom is not doing well at all, and it is starting to look like she might need to be in a care home. It's terrible how everyone has to go through this awful pain and guilt over the need to do this for a parent, even when it is so obviously necessary and inevitable. She cried a bit, and if it had just been us I might have cleaned off my hands and hugged her and let her cry, but there were some other people around, and I figured she might not really want that.
We ALL ended up talking about our own experiences with family and care homes, and I tried to be positive since I think it was the best choice for our Mom.
I think the toughest part of this is for people to accept that it really does mean that our loved ones are in the last stage of their life. There is no way around it, when someone needs personal care, they usually don't improve from there.
So, that was a really emotional session.
I got two bowls back, and the glaze pitted on them. They were otherwise very nice, so I have to see if there's anything that can be done to fix them.
The owl came back, and cracked a bit but that's fine since it doesn't have to be food safe.
I did throw a bowl, and trimmed a vessel.
I will say that it was nice that this sort of friend and another lady are now in our class, since they might be there a little later, and will be there more when I and this other woman usually work. A little more social.
Then I got some groceries. I was feeling a little bit existentialist when I was shopping, and probably threw in a few things based on "If we all have to die miserable deaths, then by God I will eat something delicious first".
Days like this, I look around at the other people in the store and think "we're all just doing our best until we die horribly" and feel great kinship for them. I see the awkward guy who looks a little lost and try to communicate that we all feel lost at times, and it's okay. I see the guy at the checkout with his wife buying a mountain of food, and a board game for young children and notice how polite he is to the checkout clerk.
Today I learned that earthquakes in the countries of Greece and Turkey have improved the relations. The relationship between those countries had been strained over a dispute over sovereignty over a group of islands, disputes over territorial boundaries at sea, etc. Lots of issues.
The two countries offered aid to each other after a series of earthquakes in 1999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek%E2%80%93Turkish_earthquake_diplomacy
