I’ve been working on my last three paintings, a tiny little bit at a time. The paint just won’t dry! On any of them. I guess it’s okay because I do want to work on some other things, too.

Sunday, I went to a ceramics workshop. A clay studio opened up down the street from my house, so I had to sign up. I also bought some turquoise-pigmented clay to play with at home. I wonder how it will fire or how the glaze will take to it, for that matter. I suppose that’s something to do while I wait for my oil paint to dry.

Maybe it’s been too cold for the paint to dry. It’s taking a freakishly long time.

At the clay workshop, I made two small things. We only get two pounds of clay to work with. I used every last morsel. One was a flat piece. But it didn’t occur to me until yesterday that I’d forgotten to make some kind of loop on the back to hang a wire. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do with it after it gets fired and glazed. How the hell will it hang on a wall now? I’ll have to use my noggin to find a solution, though, my noggin has been so messed up these last few months.

I also have a plan to create some watercolors, or at least, make some interesting drawings that I will turn into watercolor paintings. If I like them, that is. But now I’m booked up with all kinds of appointments for the next couple of weeks, and beyond. Most of my appointments are physical therapy visits. Those are twice a week, and tomorrow I start the cognitive speech therapy at 8:00 am. I’ve never been to something like that. It’s supposed to help the crappy memory I’ve had lately, and the confusion, too.

I also booked several virtual studio visits. Most of those are with artists, but it will be good practice for me. I have another studio visit booked with a guy who runs an artist’s residency, but that’s in real life—something that’s not easy to do in the middle of Joshua Tree.

So, the day before and the day of the clay workshop, I spent several hours looking for my clay tools. I had a whole set. I know they’re in a small box that also includes all my etching tools. But they were nowhere to be found. I mean nowhere! Hannah joined in the fun, and we looked through every possible place they could be. We went through all the larger boxes in the garage, the drawers, the cabinets. We tore the place apart.

Finally, after colossal frustration, I gave up—even though they couldn’t have just vanished! I realized that the only way to satisfy my obsession with finding them was to buy all the tools again. A hundred dollars later, they’re now enroute to my house from Blick.

And I knew all this in the back of my mind as we kept looking. I said to myself, Damn it, self! Now I’m going to have to buy all new tools. Isn’t that just how these things go? When the new ones arrive, the old ones will inevitably show up. Then, one of the sets will have to go up on eBay.

Also, again, I’ve been looking for a new desk chair. A while back, I spent months researching the best, most comfortable chair on the market —even if money was no object—just so I could find THE one. I planned to save up for it if it was over $1000. I even ordered one, like six months ago, but it never came. The company kept telling me it was still on a boat coming from somewhere in Europe. I got tired of waiting and gave up on the search for a while.

Plus, it’s super hard to give up the chair I’ve been using for the last 15 years. There are just a few problems with it: it’s not quite tall enough (there’s no height adjustment), and it gets uncomfortable after several hours, which is pretty common on most days. I feel like I live in this chair.

But I’ll never make my money back on this chair. It’s a high-quality reproduction of the Arne Jacobsen Swann Chair from the late 1950s. It’s genuine leather and aesthetically gorgeous. Visually, I will not find a better chair. I also sit cross-legged. I always have. So, it’s pretty perfect. The seat is a bit hard, which is why I have a Purple Wondergel seat pad on it.

These days, you can find this chair for $ 600 to $1500+. The prices are all over the map. I don’t even know if the ones on the cheaper end are genuine leather, but I think so. If I put this chair on Craigslist, I don’t think someone would pay more than $500, if that. I think I paid $900 for mine at Restoration Hardware. But I obviously still love the chair, so I don’t know if I can sell it.

I’ve actually had my eye on a large, criss-cross chair on Amazon for about $150, which is pretty cheap. I’m wondering if I should just hit “Buy Now” and try it out. If I really, truly like it, then I can think about selling my Swann chair. …Oh, too late, I hit the “Buy Now” button! Ahhh! I’ll let you know if it’s any good.

Have you ever read so much bullshit about a chair on a blog before? I don’t think so.