Something we were withholding made us weak until we found it was ourselves. (Robert Frost)Here I am reporting to you from on top of Onondaga Hill- actually a place I never considered seeing since escaping Syracuse decades ago. I'm at QBL taking Dorothy Caldwell's class on 'The Expressive Stitch'. So we started little pieces yesterday, our first day, and what is the only freakin' thing I can come up with that means anything to me?
boxes. Piles and piles of boxes. So I spent the afternoon with my nose to the embroidery and finished my assignment. We sat outside stitching until about 8:30 but it got to be too dark to be working on black cloth. Lovely evening and it was nice to sit in the setting sunshine. Food has been so-so, a little gloppy but there is a good salad bar and apparently an ice cream place down the hill. The facilities are great- bright classrooms, AC everywhere- not that it's needed with this cool spell, and single rooms in new buildings. Newer dorms are sure different than the cheezy dorms I have endured! Lucky kids to have facilities like this.
I've met some nice people so far, and of course it's great being with Sylvia. It is fun to watch so many of her old students find her and practically drop to their knees! I can't think of an easier travel companion. So, that's about it for now. My scratched eye is much better but unfortunately the other eye has gotten injured- am sure it isn't as serious as Eye #1, but it sure hurts. Fortunately I can now squirt the antibiotic in both eyes at once rendering me stereotopic underwater vision until the grease wears away. Not optimum for what I am here for! Ain't it the way...
Oh, I met a gal who was born in the same hospital as I was, though at a point I would have been available to babysit for her. GO, Milliard Fillmore! AND I met a gal who has the same checkerboard glasses I do, but hers are black and white and came from Madison Avenue. And we are both sworn to secrecy about how much we spent.
Pictures next post, I promise. OR I CAN COME BACK AND EDIT! Like now!
UPDATE*****UPDATE*****UPDATE*****UPDATE*****UPDATE*****UPDATE*****UPDATE
Couldn't resist. Rayna has the original of this poignant sign- please note this is a college. We feel that maybe spell check should be ignored by the sign-guy in the cafeteria and he should take a short lesson in contractions.
Here are our first little embroideries, based on kanthas, a traditional form of work in India. See my boxes? Not quiet the assignment but I had to add the vibrant (?) brown box or I would have gone quite crazy of boredom.
To relieve my boredom today, we donned BLINDFOLDS and stitched like Stevie Wonder basing our lines on a few french knots for orienting ourselves. We were given five words to illustrate in stitching. Apparently a newspaper photographer came by on journalists tour of the school, dying to get the picture of a bunch of ladies stitching away with blindfolds tied around our heads.
This was not us, we didn't look nearly as cute.
* maybe it's 'western' sky, I simply cannot remember the old 'cuse song we had to sing at football games! I'm a bad bad Orangeman, sorry. But, for your archival pleasure, there it was on Google. Stand please, look serious and place hand over heart and pretend to know these lyrics:
Where the vale of Onondaga
Meets the eastern sky
Proudly stands our Alma Mater
On her hilltop high.
Flag we love! Orange! Float for aye-
Old Syracuse, o'er thee,
Loyal be thy sons and daughters
To thy memory.
(Afraid I flunked big time on those last two lines.)
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