A Shmorgasboard of Wordiness

Also known as: read Jacki’s babble. 

Cause this blog has no purpose.

I haven’t been blogging much and, welp, that’s because this year has been a doozy. 

Between feeling somewhat isolated after our big move and Logan needing a brand new heart at 23 and then (recently) getting the call that there might be a heart and then the heart being a no go…

This past year has been a roller coaster, y’all. And not a fun one. More like a rickety neck-break-y one like Z-Force at Six Flags Over Georgia in the 90s. I remember a kid dying on that ride and the Bangles playing a concert in Atlanta a few weeks after and dedicating the song “Crash and Burn” to them and then got banned from the city of Atlanta for life. Because of their distasteful act of course. 

I wonder if that ban still stands? And who even issued that in the first place?

Who knows. What I do know is that I became wholly consumed with Australian Survivor and it was all because of this one player. Well, it wasn’t at first. At first, I fell in love with the Aussie version of this classic reality show because they treated their contestants like humans. When someone fell ill or got hurt, they got 24 hours to recover and return to the game if they were healthy enough. They got rice and beans and almonds! 

The challenges were also 100% incredible. The head to head team challenges were unflinchingly combative. These contestants go HARD. 

One in particular. If you have seen my Facebook at all in the past couple months, you’ll know that I am talking about King George. 

Seriously, I think he’s the best player to ever play any version of the game. Save for one glaring omission to his “resume” (I hate that new school Survivor term), but he’s got time still. 

When I was watching my first George season, I remember telling Mickey the next day, every next day, “This guy is just amazing. Every tribal council, I think there is no way he can pull this off and he’s definitely getting voting out and every single time he pulls it off. AND HE’S HONEST AND UP FRONT THE WHOLE TIME.”

I was obsessed. So, if you would like to take a journey through the wonderful world of George, please call up ya girl (me) and we will do a watch together. 

Speaking of watching, I had a watch party for my birthday and it was so much fun I’m doing it again! We’re watching “Earth Girls Are Easy” on Friday, September 8 at 8pm over on Twitch. Click here to join. 

Ok, so what else is going on in my life?

We went to Pittsburgh, where Mickey showed me all the places he grew up and it really illustrated what it was like to be in a suburb of a suburb of a big city. I loved it, it was very industrial and I am coming to terms with industrial stuff being one of my lifelong special interests. 

While there, we visited The Mattress Factory, where I got to experience two Yayoi Kusama pieces and three James Turrell light experiments. This was my first time seeing anything by James Turrell in person and I am not embarrassed to say that I cried a little bit. I love light so much and the way he sees with it really speaks to me. 

One of the Turrell pieces was a 15-minute experiment that only 2 people at a time could experience. When it was Mickey and I’s turn we were ushered up a ramp and into the darkest room I have ever been in. There were only two pin pricks of lights and the art of it all came into play as your brain adjusts and tries to fill in the blanks with such a limited amount of lights. It was pretty incredible, but I’d be interested to hear what a non-aphantasia or -hyperphantasia person experiences. 

Hmm, what else?

Oh! I’ve been slowly teaching myself stained glass and really enjoying it. I like how many steps there are. So far I’ve skipped the cutting step, because it still feels really scary for me, cause I have been known to be pretty clumsy. However, I’ve been practicing the foiling, soldering and cleaning steps so that when I’m ready to do my own patterns, I’ll just have to figure out the cutting. 

And yes, I have started working on my own patterns already. I’m definitely gonna make my boob series into stained glass!!!!

Here is my favorite thing I’ve worked on so far. It still needs to be patina-ed (that’s where I make the silver parts black or copper) and polished, but other than that I am very pleased.

Even though those sunflowers in the background are gorgeous, I cannot claim them. They belong to my cool neighbor with a wild garden who gave me two ferns. 

I am, however, somehow able to grow things up here. What am I growing? Welp, right now I got some potatoes and onions brewing and a couple of tomato plants and even a single squash blossom. 

Speaking of blossoms, flowers are really where it’s at for me - I’ve grown the biggest dahlias I’ve ever seen in my life and completely fallen in love with my gladiolus. They started as spikes but grew into the most gorgeous things I have ever seen. 

Oh, also! I started a ceramics class! There is a place I’ve been eye-stalking (aka being mad at it whenever we drive by because it is not open) close enough to the Professor Haus that I can ride my tricycle to it!

One day it was open and we went in and it was a wonderland - floor to ceiling ceramics molds and works in various states of completion all over the place. I asked if she taught classes and she said, “Yes, $35 for 10 weeks.”

Mickey and I repeated her words back to her with a question mark at the end. 

She nodded. 

Sign me up, I thought. 

And said aloud. So now I am working on this snowman. 

My teacher was kind of taken aback that I wanted to paint my snowman black and yellow instead of holiday colors, but I think snowmen are year-round and I love Third Man Records, so here we are. 

Coming up next, I’ll be cleaning up an elf shoe and pouring a platter or plate or cup or something else useful that I can paint some ghosties on. 

The only other thing I can think to tell you is that the food I am currently fixating on is tomato sandwiches. This is mostly thanks to the cool sunflower neighbor who brought be some fresh juicy tomatoes from her garden one day. 

I’ve barely wanted to eat anything else sense. 

And yes, I saved the seeds. Just like the shoe guy taught me.