This week’s takeover is by LITL-fave Kate Quarfordt. Kate is all the things: an artist and educator and singer and theater director and school founder and so many things, not the least of which is my best friend and godmother to my child, so you know, kind of a big deal. I love her. You all love her. This essay is a banger. Enjoy!

This week I’m thinking about eating sparks.

A couple of weekends ago I made a box. It’s a simple little box, six inches square and two-and-a-half inches high with a flat cover that sits satisfyingly on top, completely unremarkable except for the fact that I welded it out of a piece of sheet metal that used to be the rear quarter of a 1966 Mustang. Which could also be considered unremarkable–people weld things out of scrap metal all the time–except that it was my first time ever welding anything at all, and also my first time spending a day in the garage with my dad.