I know, I know I’ve said it before and I’ll be saying it again I’m sure…I have such high class problems in life today at least compared to what my life looked like ten, twenty, and most assuredly thirty years ago. Oy vey.  But I’ve done a lot of work on myself from analyzing everything including my big toe to surrendering it all to a higher power (which I choose to call God).  Really, I have a life that is second to none.

Please take all that into account when I tell you that even with all the good things in my life, I still have to be diligent of taking care of myself.  Especially when the biggest problem I have at the end of today is a very sore throat from tons of nasal drip caused by the molds, which are in full bloom all over Austin and the dilemma of how to make 1/8 size origami people. Yes, you read the dimensions correctly; in my introduction to architecture class (making spaces) our teacher has tasked us to make three origami people that are 1/8 size so that we can learn to work with our hands and our tools (tweezers) to create elements that we will use in our building projects.

I’m pretty certain that I don’t have very good fine motor dexterity. Just watch me text on my phone if I ever allow myself to be caught. You’ll always see me using my pointer fingers instead of my thumbs.  I totally cannot feel the keys with my thumbs.  These origami people might be simple enough to make with say half a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper but imagine taking a little bitty square of that which is about the size of a contact lens and then folding that sucker many times and then doing it two more times with paper exactly the same dimensions so that eventually you make three pieces of a person and two of those pieces have two free parts that can be used to make legs/feet or hands. The third piece has to be folded one more time to make small enough to be a head.  It hurts my thumbs just to write about this, let me tell you.

I am learning a lot from this class though, believe it or not.  And it’s more than just about how we humans make buildings.  I’m learning that I focus on aspects of the instruction that seem like they’re really important to the instructor but when it comes down to the actual project, not so much.   I spent a good three hours on Sunday trying to come up with the right dimensions of the text (1/2 inch) for the captions to my photos and then gluing them on to foam core cut to size.  The professor was more interested in what we got from the photos than anything else, which I felt very confident about what I had done.  I’m learning that it is important to wait and see what the prof really wants and where he focuses and then to give it my best shot. That is learning that I know is certainly applicable out in the “real world” and it is a great reminder for me that perhaps there is still a thing or two I can learn about how I learn and how I listen.  That, by the way, is nowhere in the class syllabus, but is just one of the benefits of having been out working in the world for a number of years and returning to school.  Sometimes what you are learning fills in some gaps in your knowledge base that you didn’t even know you had.

Today my life is good. Yes, I’ve got a sore throat but I also have some great sugar-free lozenges.  I’ve got to make origami people, but I also have at least one or two friends who love arts and crafts who would love to help me make these people.  My husband is safe in our bed playing with his IPad, one of my dogs, Paul, is asleep by my chair and the other one, Reality, is keeping David company.  I have a lot to be grateful for. It’s about where do I want to focus my attention.

Hopefully, I won’t be dreaming about Origami people chasing me tonight!!