What Are You Making?

Makers

In a world of Makers, I have been in the administrative office holding a stapler.

Artist and educator Corita Kent had a set of rules she often shared with her students. One of them read, "There is no win and no fail. There is only make."

What are you making today? | James Clear

We had a party to decorate cookies during the holidays. My husband baked up a few batches of Christmas cookies, and some friends came over to decorate them. You don't know what you are missing if you have never made burning cigarettes out of frosting and pretzel sticksthree ," ," . I enjoyed working as a group on something. Most of my projects are solo events that only serve my or my husband's fancy.

I am not a great baker. I had a couple too many baking fails already this year. I tried to make almond flour muffins, but they were too dry to hold together. We ate them anyway. They disappeared like they were granola. Another project was to bake ginger snaps. They turned out spicey, soft, and chewy. However, I made them for my husband, who was working on a shoot. I was home alone, and dreadful things happened. Next time, no home-alone baking. I need a witness to support me.

I put together a new medicine cabinet that I did not research very well this week. It looked like it would come ready to hang, but no. It was a kit with directions from hell—the kind of directions that only show pictures. They skimped on the pictures. It took two days to get the doors and hinges to line up. Our apartment is short on amenities like bathroom storage. I ordered a four-for12ot-long medicine cabinet that would hold all kinds of personal items that we had to store in a hall closet.

Also, we picked up new door handles for the bathrooms and bedrooms. They were a mismatched bunch from before we moved it. The old knobs would not come off without a fight. They are supposed to come apart with the push of a button, but I had to bend the metal back so I could get at the screws. It is a small change that makes a profound difference in the look of our space. I may have to start wearing a tie to dinner. To finish off the look, I updated our front door lock and knobs to the same brushed metal look of the interior doorknobs.

Vindication

I keep remodeling kit leftovers from projects in our other units. Today, I reused one of the knobs that crank a window open in a quick and easy fix, and I feel vindicated for having let the toolbox of spare parts sit around for so long. Although I could have found it easily online, we have lived in this apartment for over ten years, and things tend to accumulate. I am more of a packrat than my husband. I keep going through drawers to make a purge, but the collections do not seem to get reduced. I think a purge needs to be ruthless. I need to toss stuff out like I am moving into a dorm room to make the impact I want to accomplish.

New Port of Call

This last year, I was getting my IV hydration for Crohn's by way of a PICC line that hung out of my arm. Without the drip, my heart rate falls too low, and I get dizzy. The PICC allowed me to plug in my fluids without a needle, but it left me with an arm I could not get wet or use to lift anything. So, I have a new port installed under my chest's skin. It's a silicon hollow ball about as big as my thumb. The pluses are that my arms are free, my IV drip loads faster, and it's easier to cover up when I shower. I had previously held my PICC line arm over my head to shower. In addition, there is a bonus. After my last hydration of the week, I "unplug" the needle and line part of the port assembly.

The downside is it hurts to get installed. They cut open my chest to slip the ball part in and ran a connection up over my collarbone to connect to a big vein. Still better than having to get a needle jab. I was excited to go a few days line-free and unplugged my needle on Friday, which was a little too early. I had to wait for my nurse to plug me back in on Tuesday. That turned out to be too long of a wait. This week, I will do my last drip on Saturday morning.

Cheers, everyone, until next week.