# Operating manual: Robin
Recorded: Thursday, October 8, 2026 (voice memo, ramble.txt)

## What I am working toward
- Portfolio for the Lantern Hollow Spring Juried Show: twelve pieces, photographed, plus a one page statement about my work.
- Seven pieces I would stand behind.
- Four more are bisque fired, on my shelf at the community studio, waiting for glaze and a second firing.
- The twelfth I haven't even thrown yet. A lidded jar, the same blue as the jar Priya bought. I'll throw it Tuesday, October 13.
- The photos I haven't touched. The statement is one sentence and it's a bad sentence.
- Hours a week I can give this until the deadline: six. Two hours Tuesday night at the studio, four hours on kiln Saturdays.
- Plan for the photos: no photographer. The studio lends out its light tent on Sundays for free. I'll shoot all twelve on my phone in the tent the Sunday after the last firing.

## What I keep avoiding and what it costs
- I keep saying yes. Everybody else's weekend becomes my weekend.
- Helped people move three times this year: Dana in March, Priya in June, Teo in August.
- "It's just one Saturday." It is never one Saturday: the Saturday, then I'm useless Sunday, and the studio hours I planned evaporate.
- Open kiln days are mostly Saturdays, so a yes to a move is basically a no to a firing. I know that. I say yes anyway.
- I told Dana about the show on Saturday, October 10. She said she'd hold the gray card while I shoot. So yes, it mattered.
- What I say to the next Saturday ask: "I can't that Saturday. I'm firing work for a show." Then stop talking. No other day offered.

## My limits
- Can't fire at home, no kiln. Depend on the studio's open kiln days, mostly Saturdays.
- Open kiln Saturdays left before the show: October 17, October 31, and November 7. November 7 is the last one that can make it, because glaze pieces need the full day to cool.
- Can't lift heavy things, stairs and couches especially, without being slow for two days after.
- Can spend maybe forty dollars a month on clay and glaze, and that's it.
- Can't pay someone to fire for me or hire a photographer.
- Have a day job and I'm tired when I get home. Weeknights are not where the big work happens.
- What I can do on weeknights: at home, the statement and the photos, not clay.

## How to talk to me
- Short. Blunt. Don't cushion it.
- If I'm dodging, tell me I'm dodging.
- No pep talk. Say the true thing in two sentences, then let me go do it.
- Long lists make me close the window.

## Standing corrections
- October 19, 2026: Portfolios are now due Friday, November 13.