5 July 2009
open road
Leaving Penland happened in the same blur as arriving. Friday just slipped through my fingers, from the rush of the morning clean-up (which Betsy handled beautifully) through the chaos of Show-And-Tell, to the gradual disappearance of my friends, new and old. I had to run away down to Ila’s house for a bit to ease my own withdrawal. We talked, drank coffee, made lots of dumb jokes. I lay on the floor in the sun with Pearline. (She’s a sweet dawg.) Back up the hill, I had dinner and a long chat over Pernod with Cassandra. I was all packed and ready to go. That crazy moon lit up the whole night, just so I could see what I’d be missing.
It took a bit on Saturday morning to get going, as I was in no rush. I had breakfast with Robin, feeling like we could still use a few more days to talk and hang out, then sat with Mark up at the studio and dreamed up more crazy ideas for future classes. Yeah, I was dawdling. It wouldn’t even be a bad day – only a 5-hour or so drive to Nashville, with a planned stop in Knoxville for lunch or coffee or whatever. I remember stopping there once on a lark, just following signs to the Old Downtown when I needed a break on a trip several years ago. I ended up in the perfect coffee shop, drinking strong espresso and perusing all the zines the kids had for sale. After hours and hours on the Interstate Nowhere Ribbon, I was overjoyed to find Culture in the Wasteland…
I’m happy there’s more road-tripping ahead – a few days in Nashville, then up to see my family in Illinois. I need the long drives now to process everything that’s happened in the last few weeks, and longer. Penland has given me solid doses of inspiration and magic and pride, and I’m determined to hold onto it all the way back to my studio in a coupla weeks. Inevitably, I leave thinking about words like Simplicity and Facture and Praxis. Words that just mean Work, really. I am saying them over and over. It’s the song of the Crafts School, and I love how it sounds.
The day’s drive may have been relatively short, but I was so exhausted by the time I got to Nashville that I could barely focus my eyes. There had been plans to have dinner and our own fireworks with all my friends here in Nashville, but it started to rain hard. The perfect excuse to stay in, watching a movie and eating home-cooked food. I was in bed by 11…
