First I want to start off with some shameless advertising. Here's a link to mine and my daughter's artfire handcrafted gifts studio, Youphorium.

One of our products. A terra cotta pot, handpainted, lid included, for rainy day money, or whatever.

Tongue-in-cheek, just for fun, a good conversation starter.

Although I refer to myself as a craftsperson, a portrait artist, and a minister, I do those things for the love of it. I make very little money from the first 2, and none from the 3rd,.To pay the bills, I am head housekeeper at a hotel. I was coming home from work today (I've been working 6 days a week to keep my head above water) on the bus and had an aggravating encounter with a fellow passenger. He was aggravating, and then I got aggravated at myself for the way I handled it. First, let me say, I'm single and live alone. This sometimes has me more on the defensive than I need to be. And I was tired this afternoon, dead tired. For some reason, lots of unstable people seem to ride the bus on Saturday afternoons. There was an extremely intoxicated and/or crazy man talking mostly to himself, but also occasionally to others. He decided to poke me in the arm to engage me in conversation. OK, now, in my own defense, my dad was a certified lunatic, so I'm really gun shy around mentally unstable people. AND, in his ramblings, I had heard him say he wants to live in the same apartment complex where I live. I tried so hard to ignore him, even when he insinuated I'm prejudiced, but when he poked me, and asked if I heard him, I said "yes" and looked him in the eye. I was worried that if he saw me get off the bus, he might follow me to ask me questions about the apartment complex. Everyone on the bus was avoiding the man. Black, white, men, women. I was the only person who decide to say anything to him. When I looked in his eyes all I could feel was empathy. He was just a lonely soul looking for a connection. I felt ashamed of myself. What kind of minister must I be if I couldn't muster up more than one single word for someone obviously hurting so badly. And then I forgave myself.
I've learned a lot about myself and people in general since moving to a major metropolitan area. Most of what I see reinforces my belief in the basic goodness of the human species. All of it is interesting.