DAY FIVE – Thursday

A very productive day – learned one more new technique, and then we just stacked and fired for the rest of the day. I was disappointed with a few things, where the glass didn’t react the way I would have liked, but overall, a good day.

This was a day where folks were comfortable enough with what we were doing that we shared stories as we worked. One woman told us that she had an instructor last year, who told his silver-working class about the one class he would never forget. He had only three students in class during that particular week, and all were senior citizens – one who was on oxygen, one who was on a morphine drip, and one who had just completed chemotherapy. And they all bickered and argued for the entire week. By the time our classmate finished telling her story, all work had come to a complete halt because we were laughing so hard. She’s a good storyteller, as are all Southern women who have been “raised right.”

Tonight after dinner was the “tailgating” party in the dining room. This is where people who are here for the week, mostly instructors, bring out their wares to sell. It’s held in the dining room, so there are 16 tables full of lampwork beads, stones, glass beads, wire, stone beads, chain maille, precious gems, wooden beads, pearls, and beads. Oh, yeah – they also had some beads. I made just three purchases, but only because I’m not sure where I would put everything I really wanted. The shelves in my workroom are full, so it was a matter of budget and space. Jim is saying a quiet “Amen.”

Following the tailgate party, which ended promptly at 8:00 (everything around here begins and ends promptly), some of the ladies in my class asked me to join them for a game of Cranium. Here’s where my day took an hilarious turn. If you’ve ever played Cranium, you know there are four categories, and to move around the board, you must answer several different types of questions within each category. There are word questions (spell this backwards, fill in the blanks in this word, define this word); “data” questions (trivia); artistic questions (sculpt this with clay; draw this with your eyes closed and make your team guess what it is); and the dreaded “performing” category (hum this; act out that; pretend to be this person). One of my classmates had heard me mention choir practice, so all the humming questions went to me. And there were a lot. Over the course of the game I had to hum: “Wild Thing” – “My Best Friend’s Girl” by the Cars – and “Respect” by Aretha Franklin. Go ahead and laugh – I’ll wait for a moment while you try to hum any one of those songs.

OK, how did YOU do??? My teammates guessed only one out of three. In my defense, let me say that it’s hard to hum while you’re laughing hysterically.

The questions where one must pretend to be another person also seemed to fall to me. My first one was to act out Dr. McCoy from “Star Trek” – I could say anything he would say, but I was not allowed to say any specific names or places. I got blank stares (keep in mind that two of my three teammates were over 60, and one turns 80 next week), until I said, “The phasers seem to have made him think illogically – I can’t heal him!” For some reason, that clicked with the one person on the team who is around my age. Fortunately, she also guessed the last question, which was the game-winner for us. I had to pretend to be Julia Child. My first thought was (everyone say it with me), “Saaaave the livah!” (a la Dan Akroyd) – deer in the headlights, I’m telling you. Then I said, “And if you drop the chicken, just pick it up and throw it in the roasting pan. You’re the only one in the kitchen, and no one will know,” said in my best Julia Child voice. Again, my buddy got it, and we won the game. Cranium is hard work, and I’m not playing again without alcohol.

Tomorrow is our last day of class, and lots of folks are leaving in the afternoon. A couple of my friends from last year have decided we all need to go back to the restaurant we terrorized … um, I mean, entertained … while we were here last year. Friday night dinners here at jewelry camp are notoriously bad, and I’m not risking it. The restaurant it shall be. Then, on Saturday morning, these country roads can take me home.

OK, that? I can hum ….