Progress Report

Here is my progress regarding my In-Depth skill, from this past fortnight: I solely continued weaving the cedar basket that I had started (a few weeks back) with my mentor.

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If I am really going to be honest, I will have to say that I was not super productive this past two weeks. However, I am planning to finish this cedar-guy tomorrow or over the weekend, and then, I will be able to start…drumroll please…a wastebasket! I know! Sounds very exciting, right?! Ha-ha…well, I could not find any better synonyms on the Thesaurus for that one, so, I guess I will get to explaining: I actually have a list of all the baskets I dream of making (as you may recall if you have read my earlier posts), and believe it or not, “Wastebasket” is one of them. I just think it would be cool if I could have, handwoven (by me), wastebaskets all over the house instead of the boring black plastic ones we have now.

Cannot wait until I have my own to compare this to!

Anyway, that will have to do for this fortnight’s progress report.

Mentor

I had an online meeting with my mentor a few days ago. We were supposed to have it last week, but…I missed it! Yep, I was at (unexpected/not previously planned) work babysitting, and unfortunately, time flew by a bit too fast. Plus, my phone was not giving me any notifications at that time for some annoying reason—so I did not see the messages my mentor was sending me—and so, just like that, it wasn’t until 4:22pm did I go, “Wait!!! What time is it?!” after which I whipped up my phone and the dreadful realization that I was 22 minutes late for my In-Depth Meeting dawned on me.

My mentor, judging from how much I have been acquainted with her, is a kind and forgiving person, which also means that I am very lucky. I felt so bad afterwards for being late/wasting my mentor’s time. However, she was very flexible for me and we were able to reschedule the meeting to this Monday.

What is the takeaway? Well, I have decided to set an alarm on my phone that goes off on Tuesdays, so I will not miss another meeting like this again. I will now set an alarm in a similar way for any event that is of high importance to me that I may ‘forget’ about, in the future. I do have Calendar notifications, but as that was obviously glitching on me that day, I do not think I am ever going to trust it wholly anymore.

During the meeting this Monday, my mentor and I had a pleasurable hour discussing cedar basket-weaving as well as some other matters, and she shared with me two videos of different methods of doing the brim!

Obstacles/Frustrations

I think one of my ‘frustrations’ this fortnight is: the weaving of the cedar basket! It is very different from the method of weaving with cane (which I have to say I enjoy more…shh!). And yet, it is basically just going over-under-over-under as you would with some paper strips in Kindergarten, except in 3D. That simple. But it is hard! The cedar is thin and quite flimsy when it is wet (as one must soak the cedar and work with it while it is wet). The beginning part was especially difficult for me, because, well, it is the beginning and it is always a little rough getting started, with nothing to build on yet.

To quote my mentor when I described these frustrations to her…

“It takes a lot of patience (which you’ve probably already noticed). Almost like a test.”

My Mentor

Alas, I agree. It is a test, in the sense that when you are finally finished, you get a beautiful piece of art/work/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. But if you do not try to be patient or enjoy the process, well…maybe not that beautiful.

Another obstacle/frustration was obviously the missing of the meeting. I did not know what to do afterwards and how to make it up to my mentor. I have resolved to continue to respect her and I will try my best to pay it back.

How to Have a Beautiful Mind: Parallel Thinking – The Six Hats!

Here is a short section of conversation between my mentor and I:

“Did you have to wait a long time last week? Or, how long did you wait?”

“Um…well, I think I stayed at my office for…uh, I was here, probably, till, like, about 4:25.”

“Oh, yeah?…Oh, I messaged you at 4:22, I remember…”

“Oh, I might–I might have left a little bit sooner than that. Because when you called me, I was driving. I didn’t see it until I got home, but I had, uh, I already had to drop off food. A part of my job is to drop off food on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I have to drop off food to different families, that are in need, that may have lost their jobs or whatever due to COVID.”

“Mmhm!”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. Well, sorry to make you wait, um, last week.”

“Yeah, it’s okay, um, just like I was saying to you before: it’s just because we, you know, when we meet, then we’re missing—like today, I had to make up the appointment, and so then when we end here today I have to rush home to bring my daughter to soccer, so—”

“Oh, you do!”

“—Like, I do a lot (of things) everyday, so that’s why it’s hard for us to make up appointments.”

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah, but, but yeah. So it all worked out I think.“

“Yeah? Okay, I’m glad! I’m sorry, I won’t do that again. I learned my lesson, I should: set an alarm…”

“Yeah, hmha.”

“…Because my phone doesn’t always give me notifications, which is not very fun. Um, so, Tuesdays, like the days we have scheduled, work for you? Like you don’t have to rush anywhere?”

“No, the days that we have scheduled are fine, because I have um, like I said, the Tuesdays, like every other Tuesday I have to deliver food, so I made it the opposite of the time that we meet, so…”

“Why did you have to deliver last Tuesday?”

I hope this is not too long (because in real time it’s only about one minute!), but to identify the different hats in this conversation, they are: The White Hat, the Red Hat, the Black Hat, and the Yellow Hat!

White hat: there was the laying out of facts when were talking about the time, me messaging at 4:22, her leaving the office at 4:25, as well as the fact that she delivers food every other Tuesday and has to rush home to bring her daughter to soccer afterwards.

Red hat: on my side, when I was having this conversation, I was actually feeling quite a few emotions, because I wanted to apologize. That is why I said, “I’m sorry, I won’t do that again and I’m sorry to make you wait.”

Black hat: there was certainly some critical thinking/judging of information going on here, for example when I asked at the end, “Why did you have to deliver last Tuesday?” I asked this because what she said about delivering when we were not scheduled to meet did not make sense with the fact that she delivered last week when we were scheduled. I was ‘pointing out incorrect information/faults in logic.’ (I got an explanation in the end. :))

Yellow hat: I was also trying to ‘look for how something should work’ when I asked my mentor “So, Tuesdays, the days we have scheduled, work for you? You don’t have to rush anywhere?” All that I had heard up to that point made me think we were all set, and I just wanted to confirm.

 Thanks for reading!