Be grateful...

... for the opportunity to spend money on cool handmade stuff, especially when the proceeds go right back to something equally cool.

Yesterday, there was a pottery sale in front of the Bovee University Center. It was all stuff made by art students, members of the Clay Club. I don't ordinarily spend $42.00/day on pottery, but I was more than happy to yesterday.

I bought a vase that looks like an ancient Grecian version of a Dr. Seuss animal for my mother-in-law ($10.00), and four soup/cereal bowls with neat-o Fiestaware orange and green swirls on them ($8.00/each). The money for these products went to the student artist, and then to support the Clay Club, probably for materials, speakers, etc. Groovy.

I washed the bowls immediately upon returning home, because Po Bastard used them later on to serve a very manly three-meat soup to two friends. Po Bastard will get around to sharing the recipe later today... it received rave reviews (I mean, what soup wouldn't that had THREE meats, yes, THREE in it? Pepperoni, small cubes of ham, and thin slices of leftover Porterhouse steak?).

In another "be grateful" related point: I talked about this very thing with my study skills students today. "How can being grateful help you academically?" Their answer was something like: Well, if you do really poorly on a test, you could still at least be grateful for the opportunity to BE in college, because many people just have to work at McDonald's their entire lives. My response: Yes, it's important to focus on the big picture, to make sense of how everything matters in the long run-- though this can be really hard to do when nothing seems to be going well for you on any given day. Then I told them my fax machine story:

After I graduated college the first time, with my BA, I worked as a secretary for an agency that helped people on welfare find jobs. My boss there was a fierce Puerto Rican lady with a massive attitude. Her name was Ramona. One day, Ramona handed me a box and said, "Put this together." I said, "I can't do that-- it's a fax machine. I've never put together a fax machine before." Ramona said, "Sure you can," and left it on my desk. My choices were these: put together the fax machine or deal with Ramona's wrath. So, put it together I did-- and I programmed phone numbers into it and everything. It's something to be grateful for: powers people give us that we don't even know we have.

I love my job. Even on a stupid day, I can say I love my job. I am grateful! Are you?