"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not." ~ Yoda

OK, this may be the worst music video ever... but for some reason I LOVE this song!  It came on my ITunes shuffle today while I was working and I realized I hadn't listened to it in probably 5 years! That made me have two thoughts... WHY?!?! It is so good:

Sadly this version is missing this part:

"Take for example when you go to the movies these days, you know.

They try to sell you this jumbo drink, 8 extra ounces of watered

Down cherry coke for an extra 25 cents. I don't want it.

I don't want that much organziation in my life.

I don't want other people thinking for me.

I want my junior mints. where did the junior mints go in the

Movies. I don't want a 12 lb. nestles crunch for 25 dollars. 

i want junior mints."

The second thought it gave me was... wow I am old.  I can go for 5 years and not hear a song?!?! Then... I found two potentially gray hairs on my head! There was some debate at school if they were gray or just super blond.  So, I am either getting old for real or my Swedish blond roots are coming out strong! Haha.  Weird...

Well, the sad news is that Sam did not arrive today :(  His flight was cancelled from Charlotte to Chicago, so he missed the international flight.  He will be arriving tomorrow a little before 6 my time! Currently, he is wandering around downtown Chicago looking for deep dish pizza... I am slightly jealous... I had a frozen dinner and then two large salads with Rosanne.  Yes, I ate two dinners... I am an eating machine.  We are talking about Sam now... remember?  SO.... HE WILL BE HERE TOMORROW!!!! HOOOOORRRAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!  I might not post as often while he is here, but you can't blame me can you?

So, today at school.... We went to work at the factory.  Most of the school is away on Holiday and the other class that is still here is had a day of no blowing, they were doing some sort of inspirational thing, taking pictures and etc.  It was Rosanne, Maja, Nick, Nils and I working.  I ended up working in a group with Maja and Rosanne.  It turns out I have lost all patience with Maja, when she is difficult for me to understand I easily get frustrated, or when she repeatedly speaks to me in some language other than English and isn't not because she is stressed working... just talking I get annoyed.  I have no patience.  This is a problem... She is not that difficult, she is not that annoying, but I can't handle it any more.  I can't handle when she gets mad while she is working and turns into a bad partner, I just get annoyed by her existence at times.  Not good.  I will have to try to work on that.  Maybe some time off with Sam will help that!  Today we worked on making vases some more, it was not a good day.  I was exhausted (got woken up by 2nd Halloween party upstairs) and couldn't concentrate very well.

In the afternoon I went to the cold shop because I was going to have to work with just Maja in the factory if I stayed.  But I lucked out and got to go to a slide show of work done by this lady who is working on her teaching certificate here at Orrefors.  She helps with the classes some and observes us and is really nice.  She is really good at making little animals!  She went to Orrefors about 18 years ago when she was 24 and now has a hot shop with her husband (who went here as well) and they support themselves with their glass.  It is so nice to see someone who was where I am now making it.  Succeeding at what they want to do and supporting them self and their family with their craft.  I have been lucky with so many examples of artists succeeding growing up Seagrove with my parents and their friends, but here is someone who was nearly my age starting glass and still doing it and doing it really well!  She makes these cool shapes that she sandblasts the hell out of with this lace or crochet pattern on top of them until there are holes where the lace isn't.  Pretty cool stuff!  Her husband does technical pieces with a lot of Italian influence and really awesome chandeliers!  Sadly I can't find her website, I didn't catch the name of her hot shop... Her husband is coming soon to blow some at the school.  Maybe he can make a cool chandelier while he is here!

Then I worked on finishing the tops of my bowls with curly feet.  I will be able to use these bowls for some flower cutting and deep cutting.  It will be more fun to work on bowls I have actually made not just school practice bowls!   I also worked on finishing some of the drop vases too!  Some of them are big enough to be a cool water or wine decanter or something.  Here is what I made the other day:

 Some of these guys are HUGE! I had to stand on a chair to take this picture!

 This is the one with the handle on the far left of the above picture!

 This is the the only colored on in the middle sort of.

I love these colors and they way they kind of swirl.  They are kind of Bad Circus colors to me.  There is some black and then it is just chaos of other colors.  It is really thin but super cool!  Maybe I can finish it and convince Sam to carry it back to the US with him... maybe.

It is so much fun to make BIG things! I don't know why but I totally fall into the mentality of wanting to make everything bigger and bigger and it will be better and better! I was still a little mentally out of it in the afternoon and during even class in the cold shop and managed to break 3 different things.  It wasn't pretty but I was happy it was only 3.  After that I only did very simple tasks for a while.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better on the concentration/hand & eye coordination front!

Now, I have to go to bed so I can be in the hot shop all day tomorrow and then be bright and fresh for when Sam finally arrives!  Since I am sure he will be so bright and fresh... haha oh well! Can't wait!!