On Pond Scum and Failed Pottery

I must say, I am only a week into Project Let's See if Vanessa Can Handle Class and Homework After over a Year and A Half of Trying to Be an Adult, but I am already overjoyed to be back in school. If last Thursday is any indicator of what my days will be like for the next 5 months, I will be the happiest little clam around.

My Thursday went like this...

I spent 3 hours in the morning learning how to use a Potter's Wheel. After two horrendously failed attempts(both including the rapid propulsion of clay into my hair, pores, and clothing - a fashion statement of which I can proudly say is nothing new to me) I managed to produce something that could be categorized, even if in the most primitive archaeological way, as a bowl. At the end of class, our teacher proceeded to cut all of our masterpieces in half to show us how even or centered our work was. Mine, with no amount of irony lost on me, had a fat bottom. I was beyond ecstatic it even had a bottom at all.

The rest of my day resulted in looking at tiny Pond organisms wiggling about under a microscope. I am talking TINY. We each had one drop of Pond water on our slide, and within it there were SO many strange little one celled organisms. I was in awe.

Because I am the product of a less than wealthy high school, and somehow managed to bypass a single science class while attaining my Bachelor of SCIENCE degree at Northwestern(ok, that's a mild lie, I did take ComputerScience/3d Animation), this was the first time I had ever looked into a microscope. Everyone around me kind of chuckled at me as I was oohing and awwwing in amazement over the Pond Scum under my scope, so blasé as they took a couple glances and sat back in their chairs for the next big thing. I squeeled when I finally focused in on what looked like little halved avocadoes doing the jig under my lens. I can't even imagine how weird it will be once we get bigger animals under there for dissection. We will be moving our way up the little animal totem pole(worms, pigeons, jellyfish, rats, sheep hearts etc..) during the Semester. The squeamish part of me(that can't stand watching gore films and turns away

during surgery scenes in Nip/Tuck) is a bit nervous, The sick part of me(that loves reading about how bodies decay and has an unhealthy interest in serial killer biographies) is more than a bit excited.

To cap it off, I took the rural route home from Moorpark to Oxnard, driving on the two lane highway through the cozy farmy hills that go through rural Moorpark and Somis(a place that earned my love by having more than one Alpaca farm, a plethora of citrus and Avocado groves, oodles of Horse Ranches, and a "Nut Hut"). The landscape right on the other side of the mountain/hills is so vastly different, with it's Ticky Tacky Track housing and Chain store vibe, that it is hard to believe I am so close to home. It feels so far away.

Driving with the top down, it was more than a bit chilly, but I saw at least five cowboys on horses, and the air smelled so strongly of Cilantro and Rain that I didn't care how cold it was. I am so happy I decided to do this.

No picture really does it any justice on Google images- so I will have to take my own pictures soon. This picture was not taken by me, but it is of a barn I passed by.