Yesterday I went to the nearest IKEA, two and a half hours away. The goal was a drying rack and some bookcases. I returned with the bookcases, a pair of chairs, some drawers, a new bedspread -- and no drying rack. K-Mart it is.

My first workshop was Wednesday -- fifteen of us (which seems large) in a circle, folded into the school desks that have attached writing surfaces, aligned for the right- or left-handed. Yes, back in school, but workshops are different. Whatever the environment, I am f...