I Choose... Sleep!

There is coffee, but there is no Coffee Mate so I wait. The spouse has run to the store to get it for me. I am truly spoiled. No music. I woke at 3:00 and then again at 5:00 and then again at 5:30 and then I dozed on and off till 7:15 when I actually got up. It was light and I felt like I slept in. After the hour-long, full-blown, shaking, internally-screaming panic attack I had between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm yesterday, I figured I needed it. There was a trigger but no real cause for the attack, but it wiped me out completely. I will be glad to be done with this book.

Yesterday morning after posting I went to pack up my orders to ship them and found four pieces that I was not comfortable sending. I ended up grinding down the edges on three, fixing the surface of one of them and one other and refiring all four in two separate kilns (the big one to slump temp and the middle one to fuse temp). So nothing got shipped and two unplanned loads got fired before we left for Joe's. I painted and fired the platinum luster on two of the necklaces when we got home last evening and I do not know if I am satisfied with the way they turned out--I may have covered too much of the surface.

Coffee in the Austin skyline mug (at last!). I feel it course through my veins (I decided to attach an iv direct from the mug this morning to get quickest results). Today could be a very interesting day. After six weeks of no communication from the senior editor on the book there was a message on the machine yesterday asking me to call her. I have been working for the past six weeks, but I fear not so much on things that will interest her.

She would like lists of photos and illustrations and word counts and page counts for each section. I understand these needs, but I haven't been able to fulfill them before hammering out the exact details for all the projects--how do I know what techniques need to be covered in basics before knowing which ones are going to be covered in techniques. And how do I know they are going to be covered in techniques (or at all) without validating them? And truth be told, I am still not done with the hammering yet. Even now I might switch out the garden stake project for a mask. I am not happy with the stake hardware--visible, useless holes in the sides, and no way of attaching the glass other than siliconing it in. I just changed the lamp back into a bowl. I can't make the sides steep enough in the size the publisher dictated--under 14"--to do a lampshade. And the final size on the table is still TBD. I have to decide if I like the new stand I just got from Hoy's--16" and mission style, but it looked a bit flimsy when I opened the box.--or if I want to stay with the one-piece stand from the mosaic store which is only 12" and needs painting.

I would've liked till next week to finish making everything before talking about it and presenting the projects to the publisher, but you can't always get what you want. I am also still stinging a bit from having the barrette project cancelled by them back in June because "barrettes are dated". When I said I was willing to listen to suggestions I did not mean that I was willing to let them decide what I should make and in what colors. Recommendation, yes. But if you want to tell me what to do and how to do it, you can damn well do it yourself. And we're to the nut of the issue: it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

So today I ship the orders, take the car in for service, find out why a gallery I just loaded with consignment work is closing one of their locations and didn't tell me while I was there, tweak my documentation of the book and projects, and call the editor, all before 1:00 pm. After 1:00 I hope to fire a lot of glass but am resigned to a bunch more writing about writing.