A Life Lived At Warp Speed

Waiting for Jessie to come downstairs so I can take her to school this morning--I have to take the cats to the vet just down the street from her school so I figured I would spare her one way of one day of riding the bus. The cats are already in their transport carrier waiting to go and not happy about any of it. Kaiju is probably going to snub me for the next few days until he gets over his huff. Boy, that cat can sulk!

It's a grey, misty day here in Austin. The roofers have not finished the roof yet, and even though they assured me it was sealed against the rain, I spent a bit of time yesterday putting bowls and towels around the house to catch the drips and cataloguing the water ingress points. *Sigh*.

I am back from a week and a half of travel for family, for ikebana, and for bees. It was all exciting and exhilerating, and my brain is full, but now it's time to get back to the projects I left in progress here at Stone's Throw. But for the moment, I'm going to sit curled up on the sectional with a cup of jasmine rose green tea, listening to my Daily Mix #2 from Spotify (Foreigner, old Doobie Brothers and Boston--to name a few), and writing a regrouping post. It is worthwhile to note that my favorite addition to the house so far is the on-demand water heater on the kitchen sink: Perfect temperature water for tea (adjustable based on tea variety) instantly. It's more than a feeling. ;-)

A week and a half ago I headed to Atlanta for the annual Ichiyo Ikebana of Atlanta Retreat. While I was there I finished up the work for the Junior Associate Master certification. I should get my certificate from the Iemoto in Tokyo in the new year. It was an intense full day and two half days. At the end of it I had done six arrangements and regained both my confidence and my groove.

Now to start teaching in Austin! (Corrected my first post which listed teaching in Atlanta instead of Austin--thanks Bill for the catch!) Jessie is my first student--she has expressed the desire to be the youngest ikebana master on record. This is probably not a good time of the year to begin offering classes with Thanksgiving and Christmas staring many people in the face, but I don't want to wait till next year. Better to start now and give people the idea of gifting lesson packages for Christmas.

First step: a website. Actually my first step was to make sure I have the equipment and the confidence to be able to teach classes: check and check. So this week I begin the website! I own the domains austinichiyo.com, ichiyoaustin.com, and hillcountryikebana.com and the studio name will be some riff on them. Last night I practiced and made an arrangement for Jessie's birthday. The theme of the birthday celebration was Dr. Strange and the colors were red and yellow and I had picked up lilies, tulips and greenery from HEB (local grocery chain) on Friday, but didn't get the arrangement done before going out of town Saturday through yesterday.

Back from the vet, and now I think it's time for a nap...