In the spirit of gardening, and of course a little bit of money saving, I decided to plant few vegetables this year. I had planted onions, carrots, radishes, lettuce, corn, watermelon, and pumpkin. I had a decent little crop of carrots out of it all. It filled up the veggie drawer for a week or two. the rest all died off, or just didn't get harvested. My ten rows of corn ended up withering and got taken with mold, and the pumpkin i picked was 3 in. across. it got attacked with thumb tacks by a little girl. I did get a couple of melons though, about 6 inches big. Haha, the girls like them, which is good, because I cant really eat them without an itchy mouth. It was a fun garden, although most of what I grew wasn't fruitful, But I did learn a couple of things. Corn takes more water than I want to give it, don't let melons hang on a metal fence, and pick the lettuce before it goes to seed, oh, and the radishes too. Pumpkins were a little fussy, and just when I thought they were gonna do great, the heat killed them. My backyard experiment did yield a couple of cucumbers, but they got taken shortly b the heat too. I haven't gotten into a good watering habit yet I guess, and even my little potted trees have struggled under my regime. Lessons learned; weeding is a yearlong process, water in the evenings or the mornings, and don't fertilize a newly repotted tree that was root pruned.

After hours of laboring all night and through the morning to complete the ever important assignment due at the beginning of the week, I found myself stuck in a funny place where none of the work I did paid off, or even mattered. A severe case of hopelessness washed over me and I was left to ponder my oversight of the simplest of things. The assignment would not get turned in, the due date missed and the class left unattended. If I had known that Monday would have been so harsh to me, would I have put out that incredible effort to complete a mediocre project? I doubt I would have, and so it would have been put off again I am sure, and completed with less care for a similar grade.

That is a little pessimistic of me to say that, but I also have a good idea of my own trends to procrastinate a project until I have no time to finish it with any comfort. I did finish the project, though my biggest obsticle was not time, but supplies. The worst part of the project was not its difficulty, but my own tendency to perfect the silliest part of the object, and overlook the final product.

I spent somewhere around 7 hours saturday night hand stitching a shoe made entirely out of masking tape. The thread I used was merely thin strips of masking tape that had been twisted up. I spent all my effort into making the awesome stitching, and when it came time to work on the bottom of the shoe, I had to make due with a quickly applied layer of tread that looked as ridiculous as it would perform. I was out of tape. Well, I finished it at least. It would get turned in on time and I would receive a fair grade.

Well, monday morning rolls around. Waking late and having a sick little girl that needed to see a doctor. Was it serious illness? Probably not, and there likely wasn't much the doctor would be able to do either except throw some antibiotics at it. Well, when scheduling the appointment, I also realized that school would be missed. The doctors note will help that, but when I wasn't able to reach any of my sitters for the day, I realized that all school would be missed for the day. Mondays due date is rendered meaningless because the dad in this house is all alone. The worst part is that I had all kinds of opportunity to work out sitting arrangements over the weekend, or at least double check that they were still intact. I didn't talk to anyone about daycare because I assumed it was taken care of. But it had never in fact been verified that monday was in the clear. Likely, a simple reminder was all that was needed saturday evening or sunday afternoon. By monday, its a little too late, and so am I.

Better luck next time. Now I have officially set myself up for trouble this semester. I might have to drop a class because I have missed more classes than I have been to, and those have been late. All because I cant figure out what to do with those kids during school. I have received a lot of help already, and I am grateful for that, exceedingly, but sometimes the help falters too. I don't have an argument there, since I am penniless and essentially begging. However I do have to wander if I am taking on too much. 9 hours didn't seem like a whole lot to take when I had a job, but now that I don't have anything to do all day, it seems like an incredible amount. Funny how backwards things like that make such a profound difference. Then again, it would probably make a lot of difference if I would just lose my pride for a little bit and ask for help.

the long emotional day

Monday. back to school for the first grader, fold the mountain of clothes, try to find a babysitter sitter so I can go to school, .... in the end I think it all worked out, but it was stressful and I missed my first two classes for the day, but I did make it to the last two. A HUGE thanks to the Watsons who have helped me enormously lately. I'm a little dissapointed in how long I put off asking for help, but I guess I have a hard time admitting to myself when I need help, or asking for it. When I finally did ask, I managed to get myself all choked up about it. School went ok, I was a little late to my drawing studio class, but it went well, and I think I will really enjoy that class. Design II studio promises to be full of fun this semester as I prepare to make masking tape shoes for the first project. To cap off the evening, I had a chance to take my girls over to see their mother. The girls enjoyed seeing her and their grandparents too, but the sadness of recent troubles and difficulties overshadowed the evening. So a day filled with emotion has passed, and hopefully things will settle in to a more manageable pattern for everyone soon.

check out the gallery update

I made a few improvements to my gallery site, so go take a look at paulsculptor.vndv.com

there are a couple of new surprises. Thats about all I have worked on the last week, besides the daily routine of keeping the girls from destroying the rest of the house. Now I get to begin looking toward next week in class, and what to do with the kids while I'm there. I took a look at my first design assignment and I'm really excited about it. It will involve a lot of tape! I am definitely going to enjoy this semester.

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a long time ago

Well, I honestly dont know how to organize my thought enough to pick a starting point, so i'll start somewhere in the middle. At 30 years old, I am a divorced single dad with 2 awesome little girls. I have returned to school, and intend to pursue a BFA majoring in sculpture. While i have only completed 9 credit hours so far, and still have a ways before I can even begin working in my major, I am excited about being back in school and have no urge to rush myself along in order to 'complete' my education. I most enjoy being around peers who enjoy artistic expression as much as i do myself. From the cartoons of my childhood to the classic renditions of human history, whether it be the wildest imaginings of fiction or reflections upon the everyday life of our existence. While my artistic projects have always been abundant, my activity has certainly slowed over the years. Want to see the dragon sculpture that has so far taken me 5 years and is yet unfinished? Take a look- paulsculptor.vndv.com