Another Lame Weekly (Ish) Update PLUS All Things Buffy

This working two jobs thing is really kicking my butt!!

I have worked every day since April 1st either at Cedar Creek or teaching and I am just a wee bit exhausted. I am supposed to be putting some time in at the gallery again today but I have to be honest - a la Randy Jackson - and tell you I'm just not feeling it right now, dawg. This weekend is the second open house at the Gallery and I will be assisting Lisa Oakley again with the glass blowing (if you're in the area swing by and say hi).

I yearn for the day when I have a proper job, one that has a set schedule that you can arrange a life around. There are quite a few teaching job fairs coming up soon, fingers crossed that I am successful and snag a place for next year!! Otherwise I will go crazy!! And keep typing overwrought sentences that end in exclamation marks!! Even worse I might have to get a job in a bank or something instead!!

But anyway I digress in a whiny fashion.

Last weekend at Cedar Creek was a success, even though the weather got confused and thought it was in England instead of North Carolina. Rainy and cold, foggy and damp. It was just like being in Manchester, which is not really a good thing weather-wise. The Girls came with me to work on Saturday and stayed all day "helping". I'm pretty sure they got on my colleague's nerves, but they were too kind to say anything about it.

Well, Jeff Bottoms did actually make The Princess cry but thems the breaks, I warned her not to mess with him, heh. Jeff, along with his partner John Martin, grows and sells all the wonderful plants available at the gallery. He reminds me very much of my late friend Jeremy in his disdain for all things children (that's Jeff on the left in the blue shirt, happy in this pic because he is with other adults Tim Turner and John Martin and NOT my children).

Luckily for The Girls, however, the always lovely and extremely child-tolerant Ronan Peterson was demonstrating pottery and so they spent most of their time cadging clay from him and making their own masterpieces. He carefully collected all their efforts and promised to glaze and fire them. I'm pretty sure they don't understand (yet) what a privilege that is. Ronan is one of the most talented young up-and-coming potters around today. I absolutely adore his work and have much of it at home. He is truly a nice guy and, according to The Teenager, he is "cute". What a gem!

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In other non-Cedar Creek related news, I wanted to tell you about two other websites that have caught my attention and that you need to check out pronto!

The first is Buffy Holt's website. Buffy is a waaay more than a blogger, although technically her site is a blog. She is a very, very talented writer who posts snippets of her fiction (along with more chatty bloggery-type posts) to string you along until she actually writes a real book like she should.

I wish I could say I saw her first, but in fact she found me and sent me an extremely nice email a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to tell you about her since then! She and I share an almost scary amount in common in the way our lives have unfolded (both Americans who married Brits, lived in Manchester in the UK and have moved back to North Carolina), except she is truly entertaining, very funny, and talented to the nth degree. Oh, and her Limey husband didn't run off with a local cocktail waitress!

So when I haven't been reading Buffy's website I have been watching old episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on a new site I've discovered called Hulu. I will come clean here and now and tell you I am a hugely devoted fanatical fan who religiously watched the entire 7 seasons of Buffy. It remains one of the smartest and most well-written television in recent memory, as Zoe Williams argues so well here for you non-believers out there (ahem, Brad Tucker I'm talking to you!) Joss Whedon can do no wrong in my book, the man is simply a genius.

Along with Buffy, Hulu has a nice little collection of old and new shows you can watch on your computer, free of charge. I have also enjoyed their Simpsons catalog, as well. If you're like me and you get home from work either physically or mentally exhausted or both, whiling away an hour watching one of your fave telly episodes is a lovely way to unwind.

Hopefully after this weekend I will have a bit more reserves to draw on and normal semi-slack blogging will resume. I know you can't wait, heh.