I bought a chair today. A nice big comfortable chair in which I can curl up to read or even sleep. I'd wanted a good chair in my room for a while (gotten tired of reading in bed) but never seen anything reasonably priced that i liked. This one was both-- lovely and reasonably priced-- and Mommy dear obliged by buying me it for my birthday!

So what if it is 4 feet in diameter and takes up half my room? It's my little safe haven inside the bigger safe haven called my room. It's funny; having this chair in my room makes me want to read more. Just like having a good fountain pen makes me want to write more. The chair demands that I sit there, curl up, stare out at the Gulmohar tree, and start reading. Do objects have the power to do that? To make me do what I already love but usually cannot find time for? Seems like it. Let's hope that effect lasts beyond the initial euphoria of the beautiful chair!

I spent this morning taking the online version of Instituto Cervantes' Spanish exam... glad to see I could still make sense out of most of it and get a good score. Planning on taking their advanced diploma exam later this year... if nothing else, it'll give me a good reason to study Spanish again. I miss Spanish!

I also miss pottery. Thought about enrolling for a pottery class over the weekends, so visited a nearby ceramics studio today. Just being in that room, looking at the tools and the glaze and the moving wheels made me long to play with clay again. Put myself down on the waiting list for their 6 month course... hoping some students drop that class so I can start soon! I hadn't realized how much i missed things like pottery, but all of last week was so stressful and I kept thinking back to those hours spent in the ceramics lab at SUA... how those hours rejuvenated rather than tired me out after long, stressful days! I know I could be biting off more than I can chew by taking on so many things, but I am going to do them . I need my writing spaces and my art spaces and my Spanish spaces in order to feel whole. And I cannot do anything well unless I feel whole.

This coming week promises to be even more hectic than the previous one, but I believe it will also be full of learnings. So here's to an early night today and lots of growth in the days to come!