stress test

The day before yesterday was a test. It was a wet rainy day and I set out to go to the local packing store to purchase an inordinate amount of packing peanuts, boxes and bubble wrap. After making my purchases and nearly fainting from the cost of everything I embarked on the next task, which was to get all of the stuff I bought into my Jetta. With deft skill and acumen (after many attempts) I managed to squeeze it all in without an inch to spare, not to mention windows to see out of. I jumped into the car, soggy and wet, proud but a little overwhelmed from the experience, only to realize that if I were to drive my car like this I just might cause an accident. My better half took over; I quickly reassessed the situation and decided to trade my twenty-four inch wide bubble wrap in for a smaller more manageable 12” wide bubble wrap. Back in the car, with windows to see out of I drove off, in the rain, towards my studio. Then came the schleping of it all into my studio, which requires loading everything into a freight elevator and hauling it down a long hallway. Once inside my dry studio I set out to start packing up all of my orders. I was happily wrapping things in bubble wrap, fortifying it with corrugated cardboard (a new trick that I learned from the lovely Whitney and Sara). All of a sudden I hear a crash, not a good sound in a ceramic studio. I turn around and a piece of cardboard that I had propped against the wall had fallen over taking one of my vases with it. This was not good. My vases have been in short supply and I can’t afford losses like these. I lifted the cardboard to evaluate the damage underneath and yup, the vase was broken. Resigned to the catastrophe, I picked up the shards one by one and then accidentally I grazed my finger over a piece of the broken vase and sliced it open. Sliced sounds so dramatic, doesn’t it? It was not a bad cut but the kind that bleeds profusely. So profusely that I got blood all over the bubble wrap. Yuk, what a mess! Once the wound was washed and covered with a band-aid (and my mess cleaned up), I continued on with my packing only to run out of tape mid way . I knew then it was time to go home. So I did.