Wheel Throwing Pottery Course

Back in April I had the crazy idea to enroll in a wheel throwing pottery class for the summer. I knew that during the summer I would spend a significant amount of time writing, due to a major deadline I had at the end of June and a few manuscript revisions that I had to work on. I also knew that I did not have any work travel schedule for the summer. I felt like I needed an activity that would help me clear my mind and detach from my writing. I had never done any kind of pottery course before but I thought it was activity that looked relaxing and I dare say “easy”.

The course included 6 weeks of classes. We would meet once a week on Wednesdays for a 4-hour class session. The course also included two weeks of studio time after the 6 week class period. I would also have access to the studio whenever it was open, for me to practice on my own.

I arrived on the first day of class a bit nervous. I did not know any of my classmates and had never met my instructor. I quickly realized that my classmates had a mix of abilities and skills related to pottery. Some of my classmates were re-taking the course and some were completely new to wheel throwing, just like me. My instructor, Ellie Kotsianas-Christner, is definitely what I would consider a master at wheel throwing pottery. She can create a bowl, a cup, a plate, and many other objects in minutes. I was amazed by her skills! She runs her own pottery business, Bug Pottery, in addition to teaching pottery classes.

It was also on the first day of class that I realized that I needed to lower my expectations of what I would be able to create and that wheel throwing pottery is not easy at all. There are special techniques that have to use to move the clay to form specific shapes. You need to mold the clay, the clay should not mold your movements. Learning how to do exactly that can be very challenging. For example, one of the first steps in the process of wheel throwing pottery is centering the clay. If you do not center the clay correctly, your clay will be imbalance (affecting all other steps). Let me tell you something, centering the clay was just so incredibly hard for me! Thank you Ellie for all of your patience teaching me how to center the clay!

It took time and many hours of practice in the studio to get minimal wheel throwing skills and create the perfectly imperfect pieces I created. But, I am still grateful for my pottery journey. It allowed me to:

Do something that disconnected me for chunks of time to focus my energy on a new activity
Fail often. I lost count of how many times I had to restart a piece because I made a wrong movement or added too much water to the clay.
Embrace patience. Pottery is not something that can be rush. Every steps requires time and rushing through the process likely results in making the wrong movement and having to start your pottery piece all over
Engage respectfully in a community studio in which all of us use the equipment provided but followed rules that helped keep the studio clean and organized for others to use
Spark my creativity by thinking of different ways I could mold the clay to create objects based on my skills and abilities.
Show my son that it is okay to try something new that you have never done. After taking him to the studio and showing him what I had created he is now eager to try pottery, as well.

I also think that one of the really cool things about pottery is seen a piece of clay transform into something new. Wheel throwing is the first step but you also have to: (a) wait for your clay piece to reach the “leather clay” stage, (b) trim your piece and get rid of excess clay, (c) play with color and glaze your piece, and (d) then you get to see the final product. Again, lots of patience and embracing the unknown, areas which are often hard for me to fully accept. But, when you have no choice you sometimes just have to go with the flow. Here are some of the pieces I created this past summer in my first wheel throwing pottery class:

Knoxville Halloween 5K

After running the Knoxville Marathon 4-Person Relay, back in April, I signed up for a summer 2024 run club. To be honest, I was not as consistent with my running schedule over the summer. Between work travel and family visits, it was hard to stick to a schedule. Also, the weekend we were scheduled to run the “run club” race I was at a conference in London.

So, I felt like I needed to find a race to help me continue training through the Fall. The Knoxville Halloween 5K seemed like a fun race and it also worked with my schedule. As usual, on race day I felt nervous. But, I showed up and ran. It must have been the excitement because I maintained the best pace I have so far and shaved 2-minutes from my usual 5K completion time. Also, it was definitely a lot of fun! 👻

I am now searching for my next race! Until then, I just continue training! Run Eni Run 🏃🏽‍♀️

Living & Loving

To the three people who read this blog: How you doing?

The last six months (since my last blog post) I have been:

taking care of myself
eating healthier
running
teaching
writing
doing research
outdoors
enjoying time with my family
meeting people in Knoxville
driving to soccer practice and games
reading with my son, practicing for the spelling test, and doing math
cooking and baking

To be honest, more than anything I have been sharing my energy in very intentional ways.

Over the last few months I have been really focused on my physical & mental well-being. Seen family members struggle with health issues has really made think about how I need to take care of my own health.

I have also spend part of the last few months reflecting political conflicts, religion, and humanity.

I have been working on being disciplined and committed in my professional and personal life to my goals.

Y’all I have been living & loving! 🧡

Run Club

I have a little note in my phone in which I have personal goals. One of my goals was to get into a regular workout routine. Another goal in my list was to meet more people in Knoxville. I really want to connect more to my local community. This may sound crazy but even thought I lived in Tampa for 9 years, I really did not feel connected to my local community until the last two years.

In early May, I came across a post on social media about a run club in Knoxville. I had recently started going to the gym (Working Out) but was really excited about meeting people in Knoxville and running together. So I reached out to the contact person for the Run Club and after giving it some thought decided to sign up.

We had a Run Club get together the first day to go over the training plan(s) and the goal at the end was to run in a race with 5K and 10K options. That first meeting felt like the first day of class. Some of the runners already knew each other and some were completely new to group like me. After the initial meeting, I felt pretty good. Our run coach was super encouraging about each of us doing our running journey and that made me feel good. I am definitely not a fast runner and I did not want to be in an environment in which I felt like I had to compete with others.

So this is the way it worked out:

We chose the plan that we wanted to do during the 8 weeks of run club. The plan included a run schedule during the week for each of the 8 weeks. For example: Week 1 would include 3 runs during the week with a specific numbers of miles or length of time. In some cases, for me (in the most basic plan), it included intervals of walking and running.
Our run club has an online community and we have fun activities to help us share our progress. Eventually, the use of the online social community turn into us just simply sharing out selfies or fun stories just cus! The online community is also were our coach would communicate with us. I did have to rejoin a social media platform that I had left last year in order to be part of Run Club. I was not thrilled about it, but turns out that I am literally just using that platform for that specific purpose so it not that bad.
On Saturdays, we got together for a group run. We were all running at a different pace so we were not really on a pack but we would all be on the same trail. We would stretch together before our runs and stretch together at the very end once we were all back to home base. Some Saturdays we also did breakfast afterwards!
At the end of the 8 weeks, we were scheduled to run a race together. Unfortunately, I could not make the race because I arrive back from a trip super late the night before the race. It just was not meant to be. I did do the 5K on my own a few days later and felt super proud to do it despite missing the “official” race.

What I have learned in this process is that I am so happy I had an “running action plan” to take on this goal. I have taken on running in the past and I experienced a great deal of pain due to chin splints (pushing myself way too hard). Doing running intervals really help me pace myself and avoid pain. Of course, I was going from zero running to running intervals to running distances so there was still some aches and pains, but more due to the use of muscles that had not been used in a while.

Also, I learner that there are lots of hills in my neighborhood! So I started doing some running in my neighborhood and some running at the gym on the treadmill. Last, but not least, music matters. I need a good playlist!

Porch Swing

I love the way paint can transform a piece of furniture or other objects. But I have to be honest, this was my partner’s idea. I wanted to get the porch swing but initially just wanted to leave it in its original wood tone. But, searching in Google for colorful swings, we settle in an idea that we agreed on. After we moved into the house, he assembled the porch swing and I made the trip to Home Depot for the paint. Over the last four weeks, we slowly painted three layers of primer all around and at least two layers of each color section. This has been a fun family activity. Today we finally have a final product. Here are some photos I took documenting the porch swing journey.

Working Out

It has been a few weeks since I finally restarted a workout routine. I found a place nearby that has what I need and provides access at times that work for me. It has felt so good. Last summer and at the beginning of the fall term I tried to start a morning workout routine and that just went to shit 💩 really quickly. Then, I just gave up. But by March this year I felt like I had to figured it out. So, I did. Anywho, I am trying a new schedule, a new location, and hopefully a new routine 😊

Winter Outdoor Adventures

This past Monday, March 20, was the official beginning of the Spring. This post has been in my draft folder for a few weeks. Yikes! This means I have survived my first Winter in Tennessee. So I am here to share some of the sunny day outings from the last two and half months of Winter.

Rest, Recharge, and Fun

The year of 2022 gave me wonderful professional opportunities. After 9 years at The University of Tampa I accepted a position at The University of Tennessee Knoxville. It was not an easy decision from me because living in Tampa allowed me to surround myself with a large Latinx community. I spoke Spanish regularly, had a favorite radio station, and could eat all the amazing Latin American food that I wanted. I also just had to take a 3 hour non-stop flight from Tampa to Panama City. But there were also many concerns I had. Some were related to my family members (i.e. school district, future employment opportunities of partner, etc.) and others were related to my own career goals and aspirations as well as my changing level of satisfaction with living in Florida. When the opportunity came to apply for positions, with the support of my family, I decided to move forward with it. I accept a position and that meant relocating across states. I had an idea of the level of work and commitment the relocation would take but it was so much more than that. I am so glad I had cleared my schedule last summer. Selling a house was emotionally exhausted. The move itself was not as draining but dealing with one of the craziest real state markets was too much mentally. What kept us moving forward with knowing that the move would give better educational opportunities for our son, a career change for my partner, and a position in which I could further my career goals, while living a city and region that we knew we would enjoy exploring.

Long intro that leads me to say that unlike most people, last summer was anything but relaxing. So with lots of work and school assignments during the Fall term we decided that it was time to reclaim so rest and relaxation during the Winter Break. Those plans took us two sunny destinations: Panama and Costa Rica. After leaving Panama in such a rush at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I wanted to go back to finish the trip that was cut short for us. We also wanted to enjoy beautiful Costa Rica. During his undergraduate years, my partner spend a Summer studying Spanish in Costa Rica and he is full of stories of his travels throughout the country. I had visited Costa Rica as a child with my parents but was limited to mostly visiting the capital city, San Jose (and surrounding areas: Cartage and Queretaro). So needless to say we were all very excited to explore Costa Rica as a family. Words can not really describe the beauty of these two countries. I would highly recommend them. I am so incredibly grateful and I know also privilege to have taken this time to rest, recharge, and give myself permission to have fun.

cabin balcony with a hammock overlooking the Costa Rican mountains and countryside

Valley of Fire State Park

I really do not think that this pictures will properly depict the true astonishing beauty of the Valley of Fire State Park, but I wanted to share them because it was a wonderful experience. I was actually going to hike in Mount Charleston but my ride was cancelled and instead I was given the option to visit this state park. I knew nothing about it and almost decided to decline completely. I am glad I decided to move forward with the visit to the Valley of Fire State Park and I actually want to go back.

Backcountry Camping

Recently, I went backcountry camping, which it is not to be confused with car camping (I just learned how there are two different names lol and now I guess I get to educate others). Camping culture is not something I grew up with at all. When I lived in Panama, people didn’t just go into the woods or the rainforest for no reason. However, now people in Panama are more into connecting with the tropical rainforest for weekend adventures such as hiking and camping. Personally, hiking and camping were experiences that I started to enjoy when I lived in Virginia. Some of my favorite hikes in Virginia were McAfees Knob, The Priest, and The Dragon’s Tooth trails. I also enjoyed camping and hiking at Crabtree Falls.

To be honest, the experience of backcountry camping is not something that I would attempt to do on my own. I like that I was going with mi familia because my partner has experience and knowledge on what is needed for the experience. He had also camped at this specific location a few weeks before friends. I definitely want do it again but there are a few things that I want to consider next time like bringing the camping hammock or being more creative with my food choices. I enjoyed been surrounded by nature and listening to water sounds. While I was out in the woods, I was thinking what it would be cool to see a bear but also it would be scary to see a bear. I was constantly trying to think of all safety procedures (how to scare a bear: yell like hell and act crazy — I can do that lol).

Here are a few photos from the backcountry camping outing, for some reason I was really into mushroom photography lol