February in the In-Between
The theme for these blogs for the past few months has been me complaining about the weather, so I guess I’ll keep it going. Chris was home for almost the whole month, which would have been perfect in a normal winter. But this wasn’t a normal winter. We had more rain than snow, which meant we were stuck in this weird seasonal purgatory: not snowy enough to ski or snowshoe, too cold and wet to ride bikes, too cold to fish, but also not cold enough to ice fish. An elite level of seasonal confusion.
Still, the upside was actually having uninterrupted time together, which doesn’t happen often, and I’m really not mad about that.
All things considered, it was a full month. And since this week has also been a doozy, let’s keep this short and sweet, just like February.
Started the month with Ru needing another emergency tooth extraction. Downsides of having a little distemper survivor with the shittiest teeth on the planet. He’s fine now thankfully, but he sure is getting expensive as he gets older.
I finished three months of CBT therapy for insomnia. My sleep still isn’t perfect (I doubt it ever will be), but it’s wildly better than it was, and I’m deeply grateful for that.
Wrapped up an eight-week leave of absence from work, which gave me the clarity I needed to finally decide that it was time to separate from my company.
At the same time, a really incredible professional opportunity landed in my lap, and I said yes with only a little hesitation (which was quickly erased and forgotten in the fallout of me quitting). I’m back to doing work I actually love, and feeling a level of excited that I haven’t in a really long time.
Lots of hot springs visits.
Skijoring.
Had the best cocktail of my life. My dream cocktail. A bourbon, banana, and brown butter concoction that will live in my head rent free for forever.
Stanley Winterfest.
Finished my 6-week pottery course and continued making stuff at home. dropped off my first kiln load for bisque firing and now I’m working on glaze tests!
Sauna hangs.
Valentine’s Day dinner at Stanley Supper Club.
Replaced our absolute garbage microwave with a rad new one that’s also a convection oven. a top-tier Christmas gift from my in-laws.
Finally made it to Amano in Caldwell for Chris’s birthday dinner. 10/10, and definitely not our last visit.
Had a truly horrific upper respiratory infection for the second month in a row (rude).
And on the very last day of the month, we finally accepted that winter just… isn’t coming. So we took the bikes out for a chilly little 10-mile ride, which immediately reminded me how deeply stoked I am to have a full spring, summer, and fall with my new bike. Also that the Boise Greenbelt is literally one of the greatest things about this city.
February in Photos
(What Would Have Been) Stories
Shenanigans Central
In my 8-weeks off of work, I designated (almost) every Friday as Hot Springs Friday. For the most part, I’ve been going to The Springs while Chris was gone, which is only about an hour from home and an easy enough afternoon trip, but since he’s been home we decided to try one new one.
In an attempt to find some semblance of winter, we bopped up north for Valentine’s weekend to catch our favorite cold-weather rituals: WRESJA Skijoring and Stanley Winterfest. Thanks to the very un-wintery winter all over the state, they had to truck snow in for the skijoring competition, which made the whole thing feel a little… surreal. Slightly chaotic. Mildly silly.
We didn’t make it to Stanley in time for the actual Winterfest shenanigans, but we did make it to our favorite little bar for a few drinks followed by dinner at Stanley Supper Club — which was, as always, absolutely perfect.
Sometimes the plans change, the seasons don’t cooperate, and the snow doesn’t show up. What are you gonna do?
The best part of Rod & Gun Club is that dogs are not only allowed, but welcomed. At any given time there are at least 5 dogs running around the bar (sometimes behind it) partaking in shenanigans. Then there are the ones who prefer the company of humans, and natrually Chris is always the chosen favorite. Ollie was a big fan of his.
The last time we went to Winterfest, it was -19° and this time it was nearly 40° and I was wearing Birkenstocks… so, it looks like winter is never actually going to show up this year.
Reading time has been replaced with ceramics time lately and ultimately that has become my entire personality. I really enjoyed working at a community studio and being around other people, but I’m finding that I enjoy getting into it in my garage much more. Especially because I’m not having to haul shit back and forth constantly.
I am still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with all of this shit I’m making. Going into this, I didn’t really have any plans to eventually sell anything, but maybe I’ll just add things to my website for free + cost of shipping? I don't know, give me some ideas.
My first closed form! After trimming it ended up being a little lidded jar.
The current state of my pottery shelves - all fresh bisqueware waiting to be glazed after I fire my glaze test tiles!
Endless hours of glazing and recording test tiles for every possible combo of my glazes.
This week I’m sending off a few rolls of film for processing which means a Film dump coming soon, and also a deep dive of all the ceramic shit I’ve been making lately. And that’s all for this month because I can’t find the energy to go on. While I am very excited about my new job, it is also requiring more mental energy than I have used in at least 8 weeks.
Tell me about your February down there ⬇️ (Look! A comments box so I can maybe stop getting Instagram messages!)
