My Whovian Adventure Part 6

Yes, this post is coming very shortly after my post on the Fourth Doctor. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the Fifth Doctor was only there for 3 years, in contrast to the Fourth Doctor's 7 years. The second reason is that the Fifth Doctor's episodes were really interesting!! Throughout this whole process I have been watching the episodes while doing something else; painting trim, sewing, cleaning, writing blog posts, Pinterest...because they weren't all interesting enough for me to just sit down and watch (to be fair, I do this with pretty much every show I watch. I'm a multitasker, what can I say?), but during the Fifth Doctor's run, for the first time, I found myself stopping what I was doing so I could really focus on what was happening.

So, I really liked the Fifth Doctor, almost as much as the Second, who remains my favourite to date. Peter Davison's Doctor is much more easy going, friendly and all in all just a more caring person than any Doctors before him. I feel a certain kinship with him, for many reasons. He was the Doctor in 1983, the year I was born. He was 29 when he took over the role, I was 29 when I started watching Doctor Who. AND, possibly the most exciting reason, he is the Doctor who I will be meeting in November when I go to Hal-con (basically Comi-con in Halifax. For those of you who are still lost, Comi-con and Hal-con etc are big conventions where geeks like myself can get together and celebrate all the TV, book, movie and comic characters we love so much). He's basically the reason I'm going.



Back to the task at hand. When the Fourth Doctor gets into a fight with the Master (his arch nemesis) on a tower, the Master pushes the Doctor off and he is forced to regenerate to survive. Strangely, a weird white figure had been following him around for the whole story arc, which turned out to be the Fifth Doctor, preparing to take over at regeneration. Kind of unusual. The Fifth Doctor is the only Doctor I've encountered so far who NEVER changes his clothes. Sometimes he adds a hat, and in one story arc he trades his sweater and coat for a strange embroidered vest, but that's about it. He's a cricket player and therefore wears a cricket outfit around all the time. And yes, that is a celery stalk in his lapel.

The Fifth Doctor has far fewer companions than the Fourth, but sadly, I didn't really like any of them. The only one I really disliked was Adric, but the rest were just kind of meh. No companion I have met so far can hold a candle to my Jamie. Three companions carry over from the Fourth Doctor. Two of them get better, one of them gets worse. Guess which one gets worse...

...Adric. He was only mildly annoying when he was with the Fourth Doctor, but by the time he takes up with the Fifth Doctor he's a horrible, whiny little shit. He's sexist, has an inflated ego and refuses to listen to anyone, preferring to do what he wants. He always thinks he's right, right up until the moment he blows himself up. Not going to lie, I did a bit of a happy dance. That sound horrible. But you watch a couple of episodes with him in them and see if you don't feel the same. I dare you.




Nyssa starts to develop a personality during the Fifth Doctor years, and also stops wearing strangely designed clothing. Her exit story is a bit of a refreshing change from the horribly ill-conceived love stories that seem to come about for most of the female companions. She stays behind to help rebuild a planet who needs her scientific knowledge. Honourable little thing that she is.

Tegan also becomes more tolerable during her time with the Fifth Doctor. She eventually gets back to Earth and decides to stay, but she gets fired and joins up with the Doctor again. She then finally stops wearing her flight attendant's uniform and starts wearing some quintessential 80's garb. She gets a haircut too, which I really like. After a particularly bloody fight with the Daleks she chooses to stay on Earth once again, which is also a much more believable reason to leave than a lame love story.

Turlough joins the companions under false pretenses. After crashing the Brigadier's car (yes, the Brigadier is back), and complaining that he doesn't want to live on Earth anymore (in his final story he mentions that he is from the planet Trion, and we eventually learn he was sent to Earth as a punishment, but when he makes his initial statement we don't know he's an alien) he is hired by the Black Guardian (a villain from the Fourth Doctor's era) to kill the Doctor, but in the end he isn't able to do it and then proceeds to skulk around being grumpy and dissing Earth for the next season and a half. I tried to find a better picture of him, but seriously, this is what he looks like most of the time. He leaves in the second to last episode of the Fifth Doctor's run and returns to his own planet, just as he becomes less of a grump.

Chameleon. Weirdest. Companion. Ever. He was a shape shifting robot who started out as a tool of the Master, but joined the Doctor as a companion at the end of 'The King's Demon' story arc, and then isn't mentioned again until 6 stories later, at which point he is written out. Very disappointing because he had the potential to be really cool. A full size, working robot. Come on!! 

The final companion to join the Fifth Doctor was Peri. She was an American student who Turlough saved from drowning. So she wanders around in a bikini a lot. And I seriously question the choice to make her from the US. Her American accent was pretty pathetic, and she talks more like a five year old than a college student, but I had no major complaints about her.






Here are the top five things I noticed about the Fifth Doctor;

1. ADRIC!!!!;  Unless you watch him, you will never understand why I hate him so much. He's just such a pompous ass. At one point after his death, Tegan and Nyssa are reminiscing and the Doctor says "He wouldn't want us to mourn unnecessarily". I disagree. Adric was a dick and would probably have just loved the fact that they were sad about losing him. Boo Adric! And those stupid clothes!




2. Helmets; It was the era of weird helmets. The first picture is of the helmets worn in the 'Terminus' story arc. They are weirdly shaped (hard to tell in this picture) and I can't imagine they're too practical. They did have some very impressive 80's hair underneath. The second picture is of the helmet of a Dalek trooper. To me it looks like half a Dalek with a dildo stuck to the front of it. Strange designs...

 











3. The Garm; Not the best visual effect. He's kind of a bumbling creature who's mouth doesn't move when it should.







4. The Guardian's hats; Yes. They are wearing birds on their heads. Enough said.








5. The Celery; It seems that many of the Doctors are best known for their accessories, and the Fifth Doctor is no exception. His is perhaps the most unusual accessory, however. The Fifth Doctor wears a stalk of celery on his lapel, and we don't find out why until the final story arc of his tenure. Apparently, the celery will turn purple when it comes into contact with certain gases that the Doctor is allergic to. If it turns purple, he eats it, and says if nothing else it will be good for his teeth. I will be wearing a stalk of celery when I meet the Doctor :-)







And so that was the Fifth Doctor. I liked and was interested in most of the episodes, but my particular favourites were 'The Black Orchid' (even Adric was tolerable in this story), 'Mawdryn Undead' (some useful information about regenerations and the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) and 'The Five Doctors' (which didn't make a whole lot of sense, but all the Doctors and several companions were back, which always makes me happy). I'm a little nervous to start the Sixth Doctor, because my go-to girl Tansy Rayner Roberts of A Modern Woman's Guide to Classic Who implies that this was the beginning of the end of the classic Who, due to poor writing etc, but I'll give it a whirl.

Life is Clay, You Are the Potter

I have to say that this list item, #15, Make a Piece of Pottery, was one of my favourite things I did this year. I felt such a sense of accomplishment when I was finished and I will definitely be returning to the class, probably once the Summer (and the rest of my list items) is complete.

I kind of stumbled onto this pottery class by accident. When I made the list I didn't know where to find such a class, but in talking it over at work I discovered that one of the girls I work with was taking a class with her grandfather through the local university (one of their non-credit personal interest courses), so when the next course came along I signed up quickly. It ended up being quite a big class, with 9 people. Word of mouth had spread through my workplace, and 6 of the 9 of us work together. The other 3 fit in really well with us though, and it was a great group to work with, very supportive and encouraging. Our instructor has been a professional potter for years and has studied pottery all over the world. This girl knows her shit. Her quirky style fit in well with our crazy little group and her 'cool rules' (mostly, no negative talk about anyone's work, including your own) helped us all feel comfortable and welcome in her space. We each received 22 lbs of clay and were allowed to do pretty much whatever we wanted, within reason, and the instructor guided us during our turns on the wheel.

It did not look like this. She sat across from us. It was far less romantic.











We learned several basic techniques; throwing, slab work and pinching. Some of us also worked on some sculpting. I had a disastrous experience with this. But more on that later.

First, we learned about pinching, and made 'pinch pots'. It's exactly what it sounds like. You make a ball, push your thumb into the middle and pinch until it resembles a vessel of some sort. None of these pictures are of me, by the way. I planned on taking pictures, but you get kind of involved in what you're doing. That, and the fact that you're usually covered in so much clay that holding a camera would be dangerous. For the camera.





We then got a demonstration of, and took turns on the wheel. Making things on the wheel is called 'throwing'. Not sure why. Even my instructor wasn't 100% sure about the origin of this term. You do throw the clay onto the wheel when you begin, but that's about it. Anyway, throwing is very messy work. Lots of water is needed and you come out covered in clay sludge, but seeing those pieces take shape in front of you is unlike anything you'll ever experience. The placement of your hands is very important, as are the techniques for creating your piece (ie. coning up, coning down..and some others I forget the terms for...). It's very easy to mess things up at this point, which is why the instructor helps you so much.

We also learned about slab work. The slab machine in this picture is a little different from

the one we actually used, but it'll give you the basic idea. It's a lot like a giant pasta machine. You put your clay down on a piece of canvas and punch the crap out of it to flatten it. Then you fold down the other side of the canvas and push it through the machine. It works best with 2 people; one to guide the clay into the machine and one to crank the handle. You have to do it in one quick motion or you'll end up with grooves in your clay where you stopped. You can adjust the thickness and at this point it's also fun to experiment with textures by putting things in your clay when you roll it out.



Now, the sculptures. I got the great idea to attempt to make Dalek salt and pepper shakers, which would require me to do some pinching and some sculpting. I spent almost an entire class trying to get this right, and wasted more clay than I wanted to part with, and eventually, sensing my frustration level, my instructor told me to put it down and walk away. Which I did. It was the only class in which I felt discouraged. Maybe I'll try again next time I take the class.

Once your pieces have dried, or after they've been fired the first time, you can paint them. One of the hardest parts about this is that the colours change when they're fired and glazed. Also, I'm not very artistic, so most of my pieces ended up pretty simple. But I love them anyway <3








Next step is to glaze the pieces. This happens after the first firing (baked in the kiln), and

before the final firing. The instructor typically does all the glazing, but given the size of our class and the number of pieces we'd each made, she got us to do our own pieces. I was really nervous that I would ruin these beautiful pieces that I'd worked so hard on and had fallen in love with, but, with the instructor's coaching, I glazed most of my pieces myself and didn't find it as hard as I'd thought I would. There were 2 kinds of glaze, clear and celadon, which is a really pretty blue-green. When you put them on they cover all the beautiful painting you just did, and the clear looks muddy brown and the celadon is a light greenish colour. Neither glaze looks very forgiving when you're using it, and it takes a lot of stirring to keep the consistency right. You can pour it over your item or dip it in, either using your hand or a set of wicked looking tongs, reminiscent of something they'd use during a mummification process to remove people's brains through their nose. But bigger. It's very easy to put too much glaze on the pieces, making them look gloppy when they're finished. You also can't get any paint or glaze on the bottom of your pieces, because it will fuse to the shelves during firing. Not good. Added pressure. 


The final step is the last firing. Firing is done in a kiln, which reaches some ungodly high temperatures and takes something like 14 hours to complete. I'd hate to see the power bills. A few of us stayed late one night and watched the instructor load and start up the kiln. I had my doubts about everything fitting in, but the instructor is a professional for a reason and she got it all in.







Now I'll show you all my pieces!

This was the first piece I completed, my pinch pot, and is also the piece I like the least. I messed up with the painting. Also, I missed a class and while I was gone the instructor did a firing and this piece went in before I'd had a chance to finish painting it. Hence the boring white outside. I was planning on painting it to resemble the plant from Mario that comes up out of the pipes. Fail. Now it holds jewellery on my nightstand. Kinda scary looking though...

My mug was the first piece I threw, and the only piece I put a handle on. Handle placement is tougher than you think. Clay also shrinks drastically when it's fired, so this mug turned out a lot smaller than I'd originally planned. And as you can see, my handle is a little lumpy. It's cute though.

I made these for my friend. Not exactly sure what they are, but I thought maybe she could hang them in her garden. I used cookie cutters to make them, just like playdoh!

This is the first of 2 bowls I made by forming them over a bowl I'd bought at the Dollar Store. This one was a bit tricky to get off, so my instructor suggested I cover the bowl in plastic the next time to make it easier to remove. This is a piece I glazed myself, and this is what the celadon glaze looks like when it's fired. I'm going to give it to my Nan, who fed me before every pottery class. She earned it.

This is the bowl I made on the plastic covered bowl. It's hard to see, but it ended up looking like lettuce, and instead of smoothing it out I turned it into a salad bowl. This is an example of how different the colours look after they're fired. It was supposed to be a lighter green, but I still love my lettuce bowl.

My mom collects wind chimes of different materials, so I made this for her. I got tired of throwing out so many scraps of clay so I cut them into little pieces and celadon glazed them. I secretly think it was this project that inspired my instructor to get us to glaze our own pieces...

This was the last item I threw. I didn't know what to make, but then I decided to make a bowl that was more streamlined than my rather organic looking lettuce bowl and it's tidier brother. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and it's great for when you just want a bit of cereal to snack on. I'm recently very into bright yellow so I painted it that colour. 

I love this little guy. Another scrap, which I put through the slab machine with a large patterned lace on it, and painted the pattern that remained. I use it to hold my tea infuser after it comes out of the pot. It's just the right size. I was devastated for a couple of days because I thought I'd lost it, but I found it hiding in the dishwasher. It's so damn small!

This is a little snack plate I made in the same method as the tea infuser holder, and I painted it to match. They also match my kitchen. I love this piece as well. It's great for cheese and crackers or cookies.

And this. This three piece set is my pride and joy. The pieces I am most proud of. My cream and sugar set. Kind of a happy accident that they ended up together like this. I had planned to make them from the beginning of the class, but wasn't sure how to execute them, especially after my instructor told me that lids weren't a beginner skill. I decided to model the sugar bowl after those frogs you used to see in kitchens to hold pot scrubbers, where it was open at the mouth. So I made a hollow ball on the wheel (with a great deal of help from my instructor), and when it had dried a bit I cut a hole in it. It was love at first sight. The tray was just something I made to practice my slab skills, without a real purpose for it in mind. It was another piece that got fired before I could clean it up, which was probably for the best because I most likely would have painted it instead of just celadon glazing it. When we were taking some pieces home I just happened to sit the sugar bowl on it and one of the other girls and I realized how good it looked there. I made the creamer several weeks later, without the other pieces to reference, but it worked out perfectly. The spout even works without spilling! I opted out of a handle because I liked the simple look of it, and, frankly, I didn't trust myself to make a sturdy enough handle. I glazed the creamer myself and love it in an almost obscene way. The set sits out on a shelf for everyone to see, because I love it so much.

This 8 week course was so refreshing and relaxing. It made me happy and made me feel creative. The feel of the clay in my hands and seeing my pieces go from lumps of clay to beautiful, functional items was incredible. And looking back at it now, and at the last 10 months of the Project, I kind of feel like I'M a lump of clay. When I started the Project I had lost my shape and was kind of drab and dreary. But with each list item and experience that has come along, I've started to reshape myself into something new, something I'm proud to show off. I'm brightly coloured and happy again, and I know that where I'm headed is where I want to be.


 

My Whovian Adventure Part 5

I am so behind on my posts. I'm sorry. And I just looked at the list and realized how much I still have left to do in the next 2 months. Less than 2 months actually. Oh, crap. The date thing scares me the most. I may have to just suck it up and go out with one of the guys who have visited my online dating profile. Oy.

On a happier note, I've FINALLY finished the Fourth Doctor. I feel kind of bad about rushing through these, but to be honest, at this point I don't have much of an option. Especially since there is so much buzz about what happened on the season finale of the current season. DON'T TELL ME!!! I will get there eventually!

 So, the Fourth Doctor. Seven years. A lot of episodes. 178 to be exact. A couple of good companions, some kind of blah ones and an awesome robot dog. 

The Third Doctor gets radiation poisoning and goes back to UNIT where another Time Lord helps him regenerate. He set off around the universe with Sarah Jane Smith, who had been a companion of the Third Doctor and a UNIT doctor. 





The Fourth Doctor is played by Tom Baker, and is widely regarded as one of the most popular Doctors. He is what most people think of when they think of Doctor Who (before 2005, that is). He's the version they parodied on 'The Simpsons' and definitely has one of the most famous accessories. The scarf. Oh, the scarf.








He has quite a few companions during his run, but considering it was seven years long, I guess that's not surprising. Here they are!

 Sarah Jane Smith began with the Third Doctor and continued on with the Fourth after his regeneration. I began to like Sarah Jane more and more as the seasons went on, and just as I was REALLY starting to like her, she left. Stayed on Earth. Like, literally the SAME episode I said 'I really like Sarah Jane'. She picked up her plant and left the TARDIS.

Then there was Harry Sullivan. He was a doctor (a medical doctor) with UNIT and only stayed with the Doctor for one season, leaving before Sarah Jane did. I liked him, and I was disappointed that he didn't stay longer. He also had SWEET 70's sideburns.

K9 was a robot dog who joined the Doctor in a story line that had the Doctor travel inside his own head to repair damage. Technically speaking, the Doctor stole K9 from his inventor, but who's keeping track? K9 has lasers and can talk and is incredibly smart, which make him pretty much the ultimate companion. Although he can't do stairs. But he's pretty easy to carry. There are actually 2 K9s, one who stays with Leela and one who stays with Romana II after getting damaged.

Next up was Leela. She was a warrior type who stayed with the Doctor after her people fed her father to a pit full of worms. She was quite a fighter and was always heading into the heart of danger. And she dressed like that all the time. And when it was time for her to leave, they wrote her out in yet another STUPID love story. As in, when the Doctor went to leave and called her to come with him she said no, I'm staying, I love this random guy I had no interaction with in any of the scenes in this story. So annoying.

After Leela left, the Doctor was joined by a Time Lady, Romana. She's known as Romana I because she regenerated in the next season. Romana I was overly concerned with her appearance and, considering she was from Gallifrey, she seemed to care very little about science. I read somewhere that the actress left because didn't like the way her character was written. Can't say I disagree.

Romana I regenerated into Romana II. It was a weird regeneration. She walked into a closet and came out wearing different people, finally settling on a copy of the princess on the planet they had just left. It was weird. Anyway, this Romana was much better than the first, but she also had a pointless exit scene. K9 was damaged and there was a mirror that healed him. Romana II and K9 stayed behind the mirror without a whole lot of discussion. 

Adric. ADRIC!!! He wasn't too bad during the Fourth Doctor's run, just a little bit of a know-it-all. But wait til I get to my post on the Fifth Doctor, because I hated him then. AAARRRGGGG!!! Anyway, he joined the Doctor after most of his friends were killed and stayed on when the Fifth Doctor took over.

Nyssa joined The Doctor and Adric after her father was killed. That happens a lot. She's kind of boring. Not much else to say about her. She transitions from the Fourth to the Fifth Doctor along with Adric and...

 ...Tegan. Also pretty boring. She was a flight attendant who wandered into the TARDIS thinking it was an actual police box, needing help when her aunt's car broke down. She's kind of whiny, always wanting to get back to Earth and wearing stupid clothes. 









I've come to the realization that one of the most important things in how much I like a Doctor is his companions. I like the Fourth Doctor at first, when he was with Sarah Jane. Then not so much until K9 and Romana II came along. And then when he was with the last three I was practically bored out of my mind.I think I've also discovered the secret to being a good Doctor; don't overstay your welcome. Tom Baker was a GREAT Doctor, but 7 years is just too long. I started really looking forward to a new Doctor somewhere during his 4th year...and had to wait 3 more. Now, I'm already almost finished with the Fifth Doctor, with only 3 more story lines before he regenerates, and I'm really kind of sad about it, much like I was when the Second Doctor regenerated. But more on that later. 

Here are the top 5 things that jumped out at me about the Fourth Doctor.

Robot from 'Robots of Death"

1. Creatures; So, I basically mention this with every Doctor, but this time, it's for a different reason. The advent of the Fourth Doctor seemed to usher in a time of MUCH better visual effects. Mouths started moving in masks, strings were no longer visible in flying creatures and they became less campy and more creepy. Here are a few examples.

Mandrel

 

Jagaroth

Sontaran

 

Zygon

2. Swampies; Ok, so you know I like to point out how silly some of these things look. The first Swampie I saw reminded me of the Jolly Green Giant. Not sure where they come up with their designs sometimes...








3. Romana II's wardrobe; They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that's true then Romana II must admire the Doctor an awful lot. In one episode she dresses in an exact replica of the Doctor's outfit, except hers was pink and white while his was comprised of more masculine colours. It was a bit weird...







4. Davros; This guy is weird. He's the creator of the Daleks and is half man, half Dalek, all creepy. He's a recurring character on the show as well, so I have more of him to look forward to.










5. THE SCARF; Ok, so, seriously. This thing was like a character in itself. I don't know how many times they had to reshoot scenes because Tom Baker had tripped over the scarf, but in the actual episodes he is flawless. Never once stumbles or gets caught in anything. Apparently, when they were coming up with the Fourth Doctor's wardrobe, an old lady was given a huge pile of yarn with which to knit a scarf. They didn't tell her how long to make it, so she just used it all. And the result is what you see here. Toward the end of the Fourth Doctor's run they changed his wardrobe to an all maroon version of what he'd been wearing before, so this scarf doesn't survive the whole run. I liked it much better than what he wore in his final few season.


And so, that was the Fourth Doctor. My favourite episodes were 'The Ark in Space', 'Pyramids of Mars' and 'The Robots of Death', all of which were from the first 3 seasons. While I really liked the character, I feel he hung on a bit too long and that his story lines took a serious drop in creativity as they progressed. I'll be finishing the Fifth Doctor soon, so expect a post on that any day now!

Ink

I finally did it. This was the item I figured I'd be most likely to back out of. And for a brief moment before the needle actually touched my skin, I almost did. But I went through with it. List item number 23, Get a Tattoo is officially complete.

This was a biggie. I'd thought about getting a tattoo for years, and almost did once. I have a friend who has tattoos all over her body and I always thought they looked beautiful. They all meant something to her, and that's what I wanted, so one time when she was going I almost went with her, but it didn't work out. For a long time I'd planned to get drama masks, but that desire kind of went away after I graduated and stopped acting, yet the idea of getting something permanently etched on my skin has stuck with me. I've never wanted to get a tattoo just for the sake of being different, and everything I've ever thought about getting tattooed on myself had some kind of meaning to me.

When I started the Project and was trying so desperately to rediscover who I was, one of the things that jumped out at me was to get a tattoo. My ex had never seemed real keen on me getting one, not that he would have tried to stop me, but it was one of the main reasons I didn't get one sooner. So this seemed like a perfect chance for me to do it, with a goal in mind and the motivation to stick to the plan. 

When I started looking for possible tattoos I went through many options, and some of them I may still get in the future, such as a puzzle piece in honour of the many, many wonderful kids I've cared about who have autism, and a celtic knot to celebrate my celtic heritage. Pretty quickly, though, I started looking very seriously at quotes. 

A line from one of my favourite movies, 'Moulin Rouge'. I ended up using it for wall art in my bedroom instead. I thought it might be kind of long for a tattoo.










I also thought about the first verse of this poem by Emily Dickinson, which I've always loved. Hope has gotten me through many rough times.

This is not my arm, it's just a picture of someone else with a tattoo from a Florence and the Machine song called 'Shake it Out', which I listened to almost non-stop for a few months in the fall. Good message and a great song.














These all seemed to be a bit long for a first tattoo, so I started thinking of the things that I'd said to myself to make it through the darkest times in my life. Big ones are 'everything happens for a reason' and 'it is what it is', but neither of them seemed right for a tattoo. One of the hardest things for me to do is to stop thinking about things and just let life unfold for itself. In other words, let it be. Then, one day I was sitting here watching TV, and someone was singing 'Let it Be' by the Beatles. As the song started and they sang the first line, 'When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be', I started to tear up. So I just sat and listened to the song, a song I'd heard hundreds of times, and really let it soak in. 'There will be an answer, let it be'. And that's when I knew. I knew that THAT was my quote. Let it be. Sometimes in my life I look for too much to happen too quickly, and I over-think things until I drive myself crazy, but over the last 10 months I've learned that all the worrying and thinking in the world won't make things happen before it's time for them to happen. I'm a much calmer person now and I'm more interested in enjoying what I have in life than in wishing away the days, waiting for things to happen. Love will come again when it's ready. If I'm responsible and patient my money situation will work out. I won't always have to live in my parents' basement, but for now it's what's best, so I'm going to let it be.

I'll tell you a bit about the actual getting of the tattoo. I went to work that day and as the time got closer I began to feel more and more nervous. My friend drove me over and as I sat there waiting to start I tried not to think about it. I'd heard that the back hurt a lot, but I figured since I'd had 2 different massage therapists tell me that I have a high pain tolerance, it shouldn't be too bad. He put the stencil on and it looked good to me, so away we went. As I lay there on the table while he got the needle ready I gritted my teeth and briefly thought about calling off the whole thing. But then he started. And it really wasn't that bad at all. I mean, it didn't feel awesome, but it didn't hurt all that badly either. And just when it started to hurt more and I thought I'd have to get him to stop, he'd lift the needle. It was all over and done with in about an hour. I was proud of myself and am now a little afraid that since it DIDN'T hurt all that bad I'll want to get more.

I was hoping my friend could get some pictures of my face during the process, but the tattoo artist was a lefty, so I was facing away from my friend. She did get this one after it was all over though. It's looking less red now, and instead it's kind if itchy and scabby.

And so, it's done. I now have a constant reminder of how far I've come and some great words to live by will never be far away. And just in case you feel like listening to one of the greatest songs ever written, here's a link.

Let it Be- The Beatles