A new year

I turned 64 last Saturday, and celebrated with a couple hundred of my close, personal friends.

Yeah, I spent the day at Saturday Market.

Didn't really have a choice. As a reserved space member, I have to sell at least once a month for the season. I can take one month as "vacation," but am holding that in reserve for November. Meanwhile, Clay Fest is on the 14th, I need the 21st for glazing, as I load my Clayfolk firing the next day. And I really don't want to risk the weather down at the end of the month.

So I got up at 0:Dark30, left the house half an hour before sunrise, to set up my last outdoor Saturday Market of 2023. Dressed in layers, as the temperature was supposed to get into the 80's by day's end, even had to change into shorts. Picked up a bunch of produce at the Farmer's Market--salad fixings and sweet corn, two kinds of plums, three table grapes, four varieties of apple. Brought down two coolers to keep through the warm afternoon.

Had a few surprise visits: the daughter of church friends stopped in to say hello, while her daughter was at art lessons, and Conor, with whom I'd sung in choir through his eight years of high school and college, stopped in with wife Charlotte and daughter Fiona. They'd moved back to Eugene from Colorado a few months back, and this is the first time I'd seen them. They sang "Happy Birthday," practice for Charlotte's birthday on Monday.

Bumper sticker of the day: I've been seeing this vehicle for several weeks now; assume it belongs to a vendor, with a wicked sense of humor.

I expected to be working the booth alone, as Denise still had to frost the cake (it's her one baking experience per year), but she surprised me at noon and we got to spend the afternoon together, except for a brief foray to get my last birthday present. Sales were slowish at first, but picked up again in the afternoon, and we closed out the year with a respectable $600+ day. Afterwards, Denise took me out to dinner at Angkor, a Cambodian restaurant down at 18th and Chambers. She had a familiar Lemongrass Chicken; I tried something new, Lok Lak Beef, beef in sauce with sauteed onions, served with rice and a variety of pickled vegetables. It was delish; I may have to try to track down the recipe.

Sunday, we drove down to Cottage Grove, where my choir director had the lead in the Cottage Theatre production of The Producers. I'd only ever seen the original Zero Mostel/Gene Wilder film, not the musical, and it was a delight, surprisingly well-staged for a small-town community theatre. Al does a lot of music directing and playing in Eugene; it was nice to see him get a chance to take center stage, and he nailed it. The very best Max Bialystock; so much fun.

ETA: Forgot to put in the bumper sticker!

Fall Colors

From Farmer's Market last Saturday.

Back in the spotlight

I had no less than three journalism students contact me this fall. Two stopped in my Saturday Market booth on the 30th, both from the same Intro class. One did a brief interview on the spot, for a written piece; the other wants to do a photo essay, so will be joining me in the studio next week to shoot pics of me glazing. Then on Monday, I got an email from another one, this time a J-school grad student. Bart came down to the studio on Friday, interviewed me for a solid half hour, then shot video for another hour-and-a-half, while I threw 20 soup bowls. The interview was surprisingly in-depth--he'd obviously been spending time on my website, researching my background. Will be interesting to see what he comes up with.