It's all new to me

This afternoon, my D. and I went to a local paint-your-own ceramics studio. I had tried this crafty pastime when I was a kid, thanks to my mom's interest in it, but I hadn't pursued it, and I haven't tried it since. At this franchise place, you don't have to clean the greenware, which was tedious, and the bisque is fired once, ready for painting. You draw the design on with pencil, or trace with graphite paper, and then you paint, paint, paint. I tried an octopus on a salad plate. Then they dip-glaze for you, which was another tedious task back in the old days when I first tried ceramics because you had to paint on the glaze. My D. did a cereal bowl. We get to go back on Saturday and pick up our creations. We could stay in the place and draw and paint all afternoon, no rushing; it was pleasant and creative, and it was fun to concentrate on something that wasn't related to work. The studio is called Crock-A-Doodle.

This outing is another adventure in my year of trying new things, which started in January with my first karaoke outing. Now I am a complete karaoke addict, and will probably go tonight, if I can drag my D. with me: they have it at a pizza restaurant right around the corner, how convenient is that!? I've included a pic of me at a karaoke night out, singing Pink's "So What" song. I can't sing well, but I really get into the songs! I'm enjoying 'raoke so much that I even bought karaoke games for our home Xbox 360 system. That's great fun too.


I also have been attending English Country Dancing with a few friends, which is the type featured in those movie adaptations of all those Jane Austen novels. It's really fun, and two hours per session for only $6 each time we go. I go with a fellow Austen aficionado and a couple others whom we've managed to hook. The music is so sweet and the people are so nice, and the dance figures are great fun.


For the first time, I went to see a famous sci fi writer at a bookstore. I heard Robert Sawyer talk about the future, and that was amazing. I went to a food & drink fest in Hamilton with a fellow foodie, and after I thought, why have I never gone to one of those before? It was really fun and TASTY!


I made a new friend too, tried some new cooking recipes, went to a cooking party at the neighbour's house, mixed a couple new cocktail recipes, tried chocolate beer (delicious!), attended a webinar, went to a PhD defense, hosted a potluck lunch at work, started a facebook group page for the journal, learned some new Google online apps ... this list is getting long! Yay! New things!


It all started with a friend encouraging me to try karaoke, and thanks to her I have rediscovered what it means to enjoy living, to have a passion for something outside myself, to share enthusiasm about life's little joys with other people.


About a year before that first karaoke outing, I actually asked a friend of mine in all seriousness if it were possible for a human to die of boredom. Thank goodness my joie de vivre resurfaced in time to avoid death by disuse.