Kayla is one of the best people I've ever met at finding free and fun activities close to home. This time, she rustled up an adult art class funded through the 21st Century Learning Center grant program. First installment --- pottery!

I realized two things as I tried to remember how to throw a pot. First --- it's been over twenty years since I last put fingers into clay anywhere other than the garden. Second, my teenage self had no idea how centering it is to center a pot. I spent two hours coning and centering my clay, rarely bothering to open a pot and never keeping a finished object. And I came home so serene and fulfilled that I enjoyed the best night's sleep I'd had in over a month.

Thanks so much for letting me come, Kayla and D.D.! Now to take that lump of homework clay and turn it into an actual object rather than a bowlful of slip.