A Day Off

I took a day off from the pottery studio today because I need a break.  After spending the past 6 weeks of not getting enough sleep, talking to other mothers of child sleep strategy, complaining to non mothers of difficult of raising a child (here just venting because I am a firm believer now that unless you have children of your own, you will never understand what is like of being a parent), and reading all kinds of sleep books.  I finally had enough of this.  I am putting the end to this training your child to sleep on his own in his bedroom situation.

Ev is sleeping in our bed now.

But this decision did not come easy because this is against the normal situation (according to the book) and as a new parent (I don't care if my child is already 2 and I am supposed to know better now and not a newbie anymore) none of these methods work for me.

Last Thursday,  at the studio, I asked my teacher, Doug,  how to make a Japanese tea cup.  He hesitated for a second and answered that it is asymmetrical style.  I was willing to try and started making a cylinder (the fundamental step of making a cup), then it came to a point that I have to twist the cylinder to make it not straight and I could not do it.  Doug said that he thought making something not perfect is not my style.  WHAT???  am I am really like that??

Then some of my classmates told me that I criticize my works too much (8 out of 10 times) if my works are not perfect or not what I wanted.  Humm...  that is interesting,  I threw away many many pieces exactly for that reason.  Am I really that anal (I checked wiki to find out the exact meaning of anal, which is for someone who pays attention to detail too much and drive other people crazy.  I am not detail oriented at all) or I just like to be in control?

Maybe I get disappointed at my child sometimes because he behalf the way I want  (ding ding ding.... my pottery??) , so  right there, I made 4 pieces of Japanese tea cups just like that, letting myself go.  Not an easy task.

That being said, I also took today off just to chill, no schedule, no target ( at the start of the day, I make a list of job task I need to do at the studio, always).  I saw a movie, 2 days in New York, a very sweet film; wondering around in the city and saw this lovely sculpture (see above) in Nolita; and had lunch at Hampton Chutney.  I love it.