Some Friends Help

And some friends help hide the body parts.

Marc is one of those guys.

He may be the most squeamish chickenshit in the room, but when I was tied to every fuckin' hose in the ICU, he was there. When my body was blown up to twice its normal size and wires and IVs were coming out of every orifice... he was there.

Every bone in his body said flee! but he came anyway.

When I started coming out of the coma, I was hooked to a trach-tube. That meant my mouth was open and suffering from chronic cotton-mouth. Due to the tracheostomy and the other abdominal surgeries, the nurses wouldn't let me drink until I had passed the swallow test. The "bedside" version of this test requires the patient to swallow applesauce doped with mega-blue dye. Then they ask you to cough. If the blue dye ends up anywhere other than DOWN your throat, then no solid foods, ice, water, etc.

I began my swallow testing while Marc and Carol came to visit. I wasn't uncomfortable, but I really wanted something to drink. I was stoned out of my mind on Fentanyl and other narcotics of the day. Meanwhile Marc kept making jokes about ArtTrail and offering to go "help" with customers.

I wanted to laugh so hard, but the drugs kept me nearly paralyzed. Even now, remembering that moment, I can hear the laughing in my mind, knowing full well I couldn't tell Marc how funny he was. Thank God for good friends. Each and every time Marc and Carol showed up, everything in my world improved.

Yesterday Marc surprised me by just showing up to check up on me. After talking indoors for a while about all my current maladies and general feelings of malaise, we went outside into some seriously shocking sunshine. I had to catch a few images of Marc kickin' back with the alliums.

Quick images from NCECA

For those of you who might never have heard of NCECA (National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts), it is hard to imagine the overwhelming nature of a national clay gathering. It was a ZOO! 5000 potters, teachers, professors, engineers, geeks and mudslingers of every shape and size converged on Philly from Wednesday through Saturday of last week.




We traveled to Philadelphia with our apprentice Hannah and Mary Ellen Salmon. Thursday we were joined by Douglas who rounded our group out in the best way. Whether as a gang of five or as pairs or off on our own, NCECA was a blast!



We saw more pots than imaginable. We ate fantastic food. We saw and heard great presentations, workshops and demonstrations. For Nancy and I, the most important aspect of NCECA will always remain the reconnection with our friends. I wish I could say that I brought my dSLR on this trip, but it stayed home in the interest of saving weight. As it was, hauling our minimal gear from pillar to post was plenty hard enough. I think we walked 4-5 miles each day (at least, that's what our feet were yelling at us at the end of the day!).







What else can I say?

Having Friends Over

Dana and Justin are some of the most awesome friends we know. They are wicked fun, patient, kind, literate, and know how to have a good time. They cook up a storm.

We met Dana and Justin about 2 years ago as they began planning for their wedding and asked if we could put together a wedding registry for them. Turned out to be our most enjoyable registry ever! Tons of great pots and all the people who called to purchase pottery from their wish list were fantastic folks.

So little by little, we have come to know and love Justin and Dana. They're really fun to cook with, talk about books and movies, take pictures... you name it.

Sad thing is: they're moving to California.

NO FAIR.

Before they leave though, they decided they really wanted a chance to try to make pots on the wheel.