Chaos Attraction

Intellectual Stimulation

2004-01-07, 10:46 p.m.

On Tuesday night I went to another beading class, this one was for making amulet bags. I figured it would be helpful for figuring out how to make Jess's necklace. Well, not so much- this used a tubular stitch (I believe they call it comanche) and the teacher said she didn't know much about peyote (which I can do just flat like a tapestry). Oh well. I'd always wanted to know how to make one of those bags regardless. They take a lot longer than I'd figured- suffice it to say within three hours of class I'd gotten about four rows done, and three people in class just plain gave up all together. The teacher told us it'd take 18 hours or so to do. Dayum!

Even more of a "Dayum!" was when someone asked her how much she sold her bags for, and she said $48-98. (Admittedly, the $98 one had a woven spiral rope chain too and must have taken forever and a day to do.) She said the labor cost was so much money she couldn't even pay herself minimum wage, and the $48 ones had her losing a lot of money. But they sold better than the $58 ones she normally does, of course. Makes me think that selling amulet bags may not be the best idea. Then again, I should finish one first before determining that, eh?

It cracked me up that the teacher recognized me. More specifically, "Didn't you take a class here before? Weren't you making that pink and purple thing?" Not only did she recognize me, she recognized my project. I was impressed.

Another thing that amazed me was when the teacher and I were discussing Craft Center classes, and she said she taught one. I said I'd like to take a class, but since they put the students-only-signups-on-the-first-day policy into effect people at the CC told me I wouldn't be likely to get in (classes are small). She said, "Oh, the beading classes never fill up, you could get in no problem." So now I'm considering it. Unfortunately for university affiliates, the beading classes cost over $70, so... I have to think about it for another week.

I have already signed up for some classes, of a sort. I signed up for some Virtual University classes in CSS, publishing, and personal finance. 5-week courses with no textbooks and online, starting at the end of January. Which should be interesting. Plus the courses were dirt cheap. Hopefully this will be more fun and less messy to do than the courses Barnes and Noble offers, which I've tried before. I found those pretty unuseable other than for purposes of getting written notes. The discussion boards were incredibly unreadable, so I gave up. It does weird me out that they actually offer a final exam and things like that at this place, though.

Hill got here last night at 2 a.m. precisely last night, so naturally I'm feeling zonked by now. We went out to lunch and had a great time, plus I found out interesting things about her job. There was kind of a funny moment, when earlier that day she'd said to me that she was glad it wasn't supposed to rain while she was here. Since we haven't gone more than 48 hours in a row without rain for months now, and we were on oh, hour 47 at the time we were on AIM... Naturally, rain started pouring the second I left class! She will be returning Sunday night so we can go out drinking at Chevy's once more.

On a less thrilled note, picking up Jackie's package was a bust. Turns out the post office closes at 5:30, and there's no way either Heather or I could get to the far side of town by then. However, they are open on Saturday from 10-2. I will have to call them tomorrow and beg them to hold it for me, and if they will, I have to stay home this weekend in order to get it. ARGH. Damn packages.


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