Careful what you wish for...

I wanted more time for projects... I got it jsut not the way I would have liked to have gotten it... I was laid off on Friday. The company I worked for had lost a chunk of business by the client company taking it in house, this was one of our major clients, and so business had dwindled, and it finally came to lay offs. Saw it coming. I didn't know for sure I was going to be one of the ones let go, but wasn't surprised when I was either. Left on good terms, so all is not lost there.. My department got hit pretty hard, porportionally, but we hadn't had much to do for a while now. Probably for the best, I've needed a shove to get out of there. they certainly havne't been using me to their advantage.... So I'm hopeful there are better things ahead.

After packing my stuff up and getting home about lunchtime, I decided I was going to go to the pottery studio and throw some pots. Didn't make it. The highschool where we have performed our shows since losing our theater in the flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 99, is on the way to the arts center and I saw that the director was there. She is a good friend, and I stopped to talk to her, and ended up helping her with the set construction for a while. (Our Tech director quit at the end of the summer, and his position hasn't been filled yet, we have a temp guy helping out, but the director has taken on some of it as well) Anyway, we had a nice conversation as we worked on the bracing the walls of the set so they didn't wobble, and I told her I'd be happy to come and help during the day during the week if they needed it this coming week to get the set finished before Tech Sunday (where the lights, sound and props get added.) (that work will mostly be painting and trim work) By the time we were at a stopping point, she had to leave to get paint for today's tech call before the paint store closed, it was less than an hour before the Pottery studio closed, which wasn't enough time to do anything, so I went on home.

Since I mentioned the flood, I may as well tell you that we are getting a new arts facility that will house the theater, (with a smaller black box theater) an art museum (9 galleries I think it is) with classroom and studio space, and the children's museum which has science/nature type exhibits, which will house a planetarium, and they are all excited because it is truly state of the art. It will be the only one of it's kind in the southeast. They are renovating an old tobacco warehouse which is HUGE, and it is scheduled to FINALLY be done next year about this time. We are all really excited about it since it has been a long time coming. For all you knitters and sewers out there, in their arts programming they have a japanese embrodery class, a quilter's guild, and a juried show called handcrafted each year that has fiber arts as well as ceramics, and other sculptural works. (There are other juried shows as well as unjuried ones throught the year too) Maybe when they have more space there can be a knitters group as well. Our "temporary facility" isn't very big, but it is what we have at the moment.

Whew, well that is enough for now. I promise to get more photos up soon....