Judith Carol Day, as well as being the founder and CEO of Laloba Ranch Art Center, an internationally acclaimed art school, is a self described Potter by day, writer by night. With a BA(English Lit) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison '69 and Thirty years of being an accomplished studio potter, she has also been an instructor of both ceramics and English/creative writing) on both secondary and College levels. Her art work can be found in public and private collections and also has earned many awards in various juried and national shows.

Her writings have been published in various periodicals. Around the workings of Laloba Ranch, she continues her own functional and sculptural clay work. She is currently working on a volume of short stories and a novel. She sees her two artistic callings as a challenge in time management but also mutually inspirational. "I see good writing as a very visual and sensory stimulating art form and conversely good visual art as stories from our hands.... telling our lives on the surfaces and just beneath."

In addition to writing and clay work, Ms. Day is also den mother to a 6 pack of Irish Wolfhounds with whom she shares a home. www.lalobaranch.com

Judith Carol Day
Excerpt From: The Last Resort
©Judy day, 2005

The March issue of Modern Woman magazine devoted a whole article on the three given, not to be broken, rules for single women over forty. 1. Stop obsessively plucking your eyebrows ...men only require that you have two .....2. Don't talk right before sex, and 3. never never tell anyone you are going on a diet: just do it.

Clarice Evans was now so very sorry that she had violated number 3. Of course she really didn't have to worry much about 1 or 2.

So, here she was. With every jarring bump on the narrow dirt road, hot clouds of dry brown dust infiltrated the ratchety van through the half opened window. Clarice could feel the sticky sweat between her voluminous thighs and in the folds of the overlapping rolls of stomach fat. She sighed exhaustedly. It had been a seemingly endless ride so far. While making an effort to straighten her back, Clarice brushed the long unkempt strands of hair clip escapees, away from her round face. Wishfully, she scanned the desert landscape hoping for a pit stop where she could dust herself with powder to prevent chaffing and the inevitable rash. She also wished for an ice cold pop, diet or otherwise, and some proper air conditioning. Clarice found herself regretting signing up for this, but she swore it was going to be her last and final attempt to remedy her weight problem. Clarice was fat. However, she preferred the word voluminous. She instructed herself not to think of volume as the main root, but rather luminous, full of light, and she had plenty of volume to light.

Clarice had learned to laugh at herself in an appealing self deprecating way, but she also knew the handicap under which she struggled every day of her life, and nothing could honestly stop her from wishing to be different than what she was. A good sense of humor had always hidden the sorrow that was almost as weighty as her flesh which she had all but accepted as her cross to bear. With her undaunted determination, She had become a successful woman in the garment industry, and she owned her own business, but it wasn't easy getting there with the thoughtless prejudices she encountered every day of her life. No one really understood fat; not her parents, not her brother, not her friends or business associates. Only her dog didn't care. And she recently had to put the 7 year old labrador on Fit and Trim.

Clarice had been married once... when she was 19 and before she hit her all time high of 250. At least she had dropped back down to 225, but only with great effort. How did fat happen? She didn't really know. She never ate nearly as much as any of her slim friends. She could live on watercress for days, do South Beach, Mediterranean to no avail, and Atkin Shakes lined her pantry. She seldom ate desserts, and when she did, she would eat it, love it, but could never truly enjoy it guilt free. There was even a time she had stopped eating out in restaurants, because even though she seldom overindulged, people looked at her always assuming gluttony, laziness, and even lack of intelligence as if fat blocked any discernible IQ points. People did treat her differently than they would a slim person until they suddenly realized that she truly was an intelligent sentient being.

Clarice looked over at her friend Susan who was busy munching one last Reese's peanut butter cup, Susan's idea of protein. Now Susan was another story. She knew Susan could be thin if she just taped her mouth for a week, and why she was spending this kind of money for a mere thirty pounds she had no idea. Susan only had to limit the junk food to one or two servings a day. However, Clarice appreciated the companionship and support in the endeavor none the less.

Clarice looked around the bus at the other morbidly obese women. She felt the empathy, but without knowing them, even she held the same predisposed judgmental opinions to which she was victim as well. She found herself assuming they were all housewives. Could any of them be business women like herself? Regardless, she was sure they had all tried dozens of options before this one which required a lot of time and a lot of money.

It had all started that day five weeks ago at Health and Rec when she discovered very early in the morning, the betrayal in the Body Trec elliptical trainer. Her first day there she was thrilled when the digital display on the LED panel gave her the proverbial pat on the back with the words" Great Workout" floating across the small screen. She had actually survived her first twenty minute foray into the public fitness arena, and the machine rewarded her. She was proud. This was good. The second day however, when she accidentally pushed the 2 and no zero, and the LED display still told her it was a great work out after only two minutes, she knew she could not rely on any computer to judge her success. Clarice knew the machine was really incapable of judging heart rate, sweat, blood, or tears. It was just a machine for god's sake. What was she thinking???? Even though it was such a silly little thing, it put her right back into feeling very vulnerable.

It was that day when Clarice was so unusually sensitive about "fat", that Susan, her best friend, appeared at her office for a late lunch, but instead of their usual jaunt to Lundgren's Cafe, Susan dragged her to the Grand Hotel to join a seminar for the rotund. It was not Clarice's idea of a good time let alone lunch for that matter.

The ball room was full of fat except for the slender attractive people up on the stage. There were photographs flashing on several screens strategically placed for audience viewing of the very same attractive people...befores and afters...focusing on identifying characteristics to indicate the photographs had not been doctored. Testimonial after testimonial later and with the moderator screaming into the microphone, "What have you got to lose? For me it was 150 pounds!" Clarice too began to feel the possibilities.

She saw photos of the glamourous desert resort that had two competition size swimming pools; the sun sparkling water reflecting caribbean aqua . She saw the spas, women having facials, the lovely empty dining room, masseuses standing by, the tennis pros with tight little butts, hiking trails throughout the cactus covered landscape, and most of all, formerly fat women languishing over a balcony drinking champagne with a handsome admirer....a luxury vacation that promised the guarantee that if you didn't lose at least fifty pounds the first month there was a full refund waiting for you.....no ifs ands or but. They were guaranteeing success. Clarice and Susan had both decide on a leave of absence of two months. Clarice's goal was 75 pounds, and she hoped this would get her on her way. Although it would take every penny she had saved, she was prepared to stay longer if it seemed to be working. Clarice wanted her chance at a normal life.

Clarice had looked the resort up on the internet, called the better business bureau, talked to recent so called "grads," and was satisfied that she had done enough homework. Besides, she could always leave if she didn't like it. Although not an old business, ten years had proven they were legit and perhaps on to something that might help. It was the ultimate resort, and for Clarice and others like her, the very last resort. After all, what DID they have to lose. They were supposed to fly into Las Vegas. Clarice had mistakenly assumed it to be Las Vegas Nevada, but quickly learned it was Las Vegas, New Mexico. Even though she had imagined the resort to be in nowhere land, she had expected a better transport for the three and a half hour drive through the desert to Narrow Valley Ranch.

And now here she was, unbearably hot, sweat in every crevice and every fold of her body. And why hadn't they at least stopped for lunch. At least she had brought some snacks... carrots, nuts, a quart bottle of Evian and some tamari pumpkin seeds..... good snacks so she wouldn't eat junk if there wasn't much choice. Outside of allowing her flesh to engorge and roll like cassons. Clarice always made good choices. However sometimes she felt she was so full of seeds that she could literally sprout just by walking in the rain.

After almost 3 hours of wretched bouncing travel, red rock formations suddenly sprung forth on the horizon. Clarice noticed the road narrowing to barely a path through the barren land. Her eyes followed its trail right into the sand stone cliffs where it seemed to disappear through a crack in the wall.

Clarice took a deep resigned sigh, looked around at the other three "Chunkies, " and closed her eyes for a few minutes hoping that when she opened them, they would all be magically much further along toward their destination. The jarring ride along the desert landscape made it impossible to relax and impossible to make the time go any faster. Bump by bump, eventually they were into the narrows; huge sandstone cliffs almost scraping the sides of the vehicle. Looking up, Clarice could see the blue sky, but no sun light filtered through into the van. With a slow swipe of the hand, Clarice tried to erase the sweat and dusty grit layering her forehead, and then opened up her huge bag for a handy wipe to soothe her flushed round face.

Suddenly, The van was out of the narrows and bumping along a wider canyon where giant Saguaros and cholla cactus dotted the open space on the left side of their emergence into the hot desert sun, but to Clarice's dismay, the van was still bumping along a ridge line on the right with a steep drop into a deep dry arroyo. One would think that the road could have be placed a bit more to the left. As Clarice studied the road and the drop, she suddenly realized that in all actuality, the road probably had been more centrally placed BEFORE the edge of the ridge had eroded and tossed boulders down into the basin.

Clarice looked over at her friend. Susan had gotten up from her window seat across the aisle in the row in front and headed toward Clarice with an offering of a Reese's peanut butter cup still in the wrapper.

"Susan, put that away, right now. I have already started my campaign. Like Last week! How could you? Put that away right now or better yet....out the window!"

Susan gave Clarice an "O come on. We should eat them before they melt," and then slipped the Reese's into the pocket of her oversized pink capri pants.

"OK, OK, I'll save them for much later when we can indulge just a wee bit."

"You are a monstrous influence. God give me strength," Clarice replied shaking her head with a mock disgust, but she really appreciated her friend's willingness to share sin.

" This was your idea, you do remember don't you?" Susan rolled her eyes while Clarice continued. "This can't be taking much longer, do you think? I mean hasn't it been going on four hours? " she posed as Susan continued standing over her.

With an another bump throwing Susan a bit off balance, Clarice pulled her sharply into the seat next to her. "We've got to be close, " Susan answered as she got re balanced in the seat. Little did they know that "close" was not good enough. "Close" was soon to become a world away.

They all heard the blow out before they felt it. Clarice saw bits of shredded rubber flying back and over the ridge. She and Susan braced themselves and held on to their seats, their arms locked together in sudden fear of the unknown. The van swerved wildly out of control and then began to fly. All around Clarice went black.

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