The Wayfaring Wordhack

 Hello, Internet friends.

Long time no interaction.  So long, I don't even know how to start a post.  Just writing about inanities feels like a waste of time, but laying out all the heavier stuff feels very unfair.  I know this is my blog and I can write what I want, but just unloading All The Stuff and then possibly (probably) disappearing for another few months seems a bit pointless and unfair.  All that means I have written and consecutively erased five openings to this entry.

Anyhow, let's just do the abbreviated version:

- The hyaluronic acid injection has finally made a difference in my day-to-day pain level in the arthritic knee.  While it is not perfect, I am much better. However, I still wake in the night from the pain and am feeling the effects of several months of broken sleep.  This, coupled with my allergies (also mostly better this year because of meds), has meant that I am often tired physically, but also mentally and emotionally.

- The fatigue is also likely in part due to walking alongside a friend whose daughter is dying of a brain tumor.  I don't pretend to be some super friend who is really there with her all the time and is carrying any kind of load other than being another mother with a child of the same age.  

- Our contract in Lebanon is about to enter its last year.  That, too, starts to take a toll because we are now entering "what's next?" waters and all the weighty decisions and discussions that always accompany this phase.  I am not complaining about this because it is the life we have chosen. This is just me recognizing patterns and accepting that this is the way it goes.  In some ways, I have already "started checking out," as one friend puts it.

- Ever since discovering pottery upon our return to Lebanon in February, I have thrown myself wholeheartedly into it.  I have loved all of it until getting things back from the glaze firings.  What should be a lovely, crowning, fulfilling moment has so far been one of serious disappointment.  All my hopes of beautiful pieces have not been realized as my ignorance about glazes and what they do has meant all my efforts have churned out tripe.   Our teacher is not big on the artsy side or experimenting, so her glazing instructions were very rudimentary.   I should have started with training wheels (i.e. one glaze at a time, simply applied) instead of trying for special effects.  But I had bigger ambitions (Drat you, Pinterest!)!  *sigh* So disappointing. And expensive.  Pottery is definitely a more expensive and time-consuming hobby than oil painting.

- Oil painting. Haven't done much of it of late.  I might try to paint tomorrow.  J has been gone to France since the 10th and will be back on Saturday, so it might not be the best time to pull out paints.  I should clean instead. 😜