the first day of class

(let it be said that as i write this, ted and i are listening to his audio bible. it's distracting and may leak into my writing. our conversations go like this: did you hear that?! yes, but i wasn't listening. *rewind* you've gotta hear this. 'take not these men from my tent but allow me to bring out my two daughters who've not known a man and do to them as you think 'good'....)

i began my day at a ghastly 6.50 am. i learned quickly that this wasn't *quite* early enough as i was scrambling around to get all my shit together.

through all my scrambling, i made it off the train by 8.05 and to my building by 8.15, precisely as i'd planned.

sure, i arrived as a red-faced, sweating, panting thing, but who cares?

to the basement for my supplies, then UP to the third floor to bradley hall:

my instructor for this class is lisa bennett. i'm pretty sure there's not a lovelier lady out there anywhere. it quickly became clear that there's no one better to learn from.

she positively *sparkles*. her happiness and joy radiates from her. she's supportive and inspiring and vibrant and beautiful. and funny.

standing in that room, listening to her introduction and welcome, hearing the *clang clang* of the trolley on the street just outside, i almost wept with joy. i felt that i'd arrived. in this beautiful room. among these other grad students. in drawing class again. it was splendid.

chuck pyle came in and interrupted lisa's introduction with an introduction of his own. he's the head of under-graduate illustration and is kind of a big deal at the school.

("and let her be my master's son's wife, as the lord has spoken..." ted:what the FUCK. did you hear that?!)

when melissa and i went on a tour in may, we toured this building and were shown the bust that was sculpted of chuck that lives on the landing of the second floor. it's pretty great.

he was lisa's instructor and is very affectionate in his praise for her.

he told us that there isn't a more important class we will ever take at the school. we could go out and get a job after mastering these concepts.

he was funny and so gracious and humble and very welcoming to all of us. i again found myself getting choked up while he was speaking. because i feel like i've finally come here after a long struggle and it is where i should be. i nearly wept with joy. again.

we began to draw and it became clear how rusty and inadequate i was feeling.

gathered around the trash can sharpening our pencils, i asked the other students: how are you feeling? how's it going?

totally inadequate.

me too! hooray!

it was good for us to commiserate.

the class is 6 hours long, which is good as it's only one day a week.

it was tiring, but we listened to some spanish guitar, but for the bulk of the class, floating around the classroom was the strings, accordion and piano that is the soundtrack to 'amelie'.

yes. this will be great.

that was day one. i came home, ate an absolutely enormous piece of pizza and drank a beer and took a nap and learned a little of the bible.

ted and i are going to head downstairs to see the windows next door at ATA while we await our house guests of traveling hippie actors, friends of friends of friends...

news of that tomorrow...