The answers, my friend, are blowin' in the wind...

A short update because I have to share, and because they are, in fact, just THAT cute. ♥

-squees-

Merry Christmas, all! I hope your day is filled with joy and festiveness and whatnot.

Here's to giving, receiving, smiling, laughing, over-eating, coffee and wine, and most importantly: Jesus.

-hugs-

Just a quick word to say that I'm home now for the holidays. The drive went fairly well, though there was a bit more traffic than I was really expecting, but I got to stop and see Nelle on the way up which was fantastic, as always. Things at home have been good; who needs tv when I've got my parents? They're like a comedy team; it's pretty amazing. Mwaha!

Anyway, tomorrow's plans include, but are most likely not limited to: showering (!!!), drinking coffee, doing laundry, possibly baking cookies, going shopping with my mom, and hanging out with one of my friends (yes, dear Nelle, THAT one. Not sure what we're going to do to hang out, but whatever. He apparently gets off work at 7, and I'm game for just playing things by ear after that, you know?).

Alright, I siriusly need to get off of here and get some sleep, so I can get up at a reasonable time. But before I do, I thought I'd post some pics of the gifts I made for my family. I used some of the extra fabric from the curtains in our apartment and made pot-holders for my brother and sister and their spouses and my aunt and uncle. I also made these little stocking shaped things (which I filled with candy, btw) for my three nieces. My parents I haven't quite figure out yet, but I think I'm just going to go find some cook book I can give to the two of them. They're really into all of that nowadays.

un, deux, trois!!

I'm about to go make some coffee, but I just wanted to share the amazing news:

Everything for all of my classes has been completed and turned in. I'm now, officially, done for the semester!!  Weeeeee!!!!!!!!111

-dance around happily-

I am, as of this moment, completely done with Problem Solving. Thank godric. The final was totally and utterly ridiculous, but whatever. It's over!! Weeeeeeee!!! Eleventy!!!!!11

Now all I have to do is make it through my Com final tonight. Eeek. And I need to finish writing my assignment for Jim by tomorrow. Whatev, that one I'm not so worried about; it's just a matter of getting the words out in time. And I'm not really worried, per say, about my final tonight. I mean, I definitely don't have that good of a grade in the class, but I don't think (think) I have a low enough grade to fail the class just because I do horribly on the final exam, so I'm really just beyond the point of caring at all. I'm done with it all, you know? I've pretty much already checked out for the semester, in my mind anyway, you know? Yay for finals.

I think I might've broken my travel mug. Sad day, eh? Though, I'm still not quite sure if it's actually broken enough to be rendered completely unusable yet, but I guess we'll see. I got some hot water and tea from the PBC on my way over here, so I guess I'll find out pretty soon. It seems okay, but it took a really hard fall. I was down in the studio grabbing my things to head over to the lib, and in the midst of binding up my computer cord and putting some fabric away, I somehow bumped my mug and it fell off the taboret onto the hard concrete floor. Ouch. The last remains of my coffee spilled, too. Yuck.

I was outside for quite a bit after I left the studio and was bloody freezing. I seriously couldn't feel my feet anymore; I knew I should've worn my converse instead of my flip flops. Whatev. Anyway, so now I'm in the library and it's practically sweltering hot in here. The heat felt so nice at first when I walked in and found a place to sit, but ohemgee, I might have to shed yet another layer pretty soon. I also need to add that the time I spent in the studio was very productive, the place I'm sitting in the lib now has a desk that is unusually high, and I have yet to find an outlet anywhere around this desk, so as soon as my computer runs out of battery I'm going to have to move somewhere else.

Also, I seemed to have found the one location in the library where someone is using a drill nearby. -headdesk- We have people drilling but no outlets!!!

Also II, please note that I've temporarily changed my layout in some sort of attempt at Christmas spirit. I adore Christmas, and my mom always has things decorated really crazily, and normally I'd be heading home at the end of this week to all that Christmas cheer and atmosphere, but since I'm staying here for a week more or so, and it's not really worth the effort or money to me to actually decorate anything in Carma's and my apartment, I'm decorating my Lj instead. Doing so is free, fun, and made me rather merry. So, I hope you like it. Mwaha!

This week was so intense, in so many ways and on so many levels. But it is, as of right now, over. The weekend is here, finally. Tomorrow I can sleep in; I can wait and do homework on Sunday, if I so desire, and I don't have any exams until Wednesday. I have a final in studio practice on Tuesday, aka a critique in Jim's class, so that's probably what I'll work on this weekend and on Monday, but the only tests/exams I have are on Wednesday for Problem Solving and Com. We're not meeting for sculpture or senior exhibition, so I'm pretty much free from class stuff by Wednesday when I finish my Com final sometime after 5pm (since that's when it's scheduled to take place). Then it's a quick, couple day break to recover from the semester, then to the studio for some hopefully rather intensive work time before I head home for the holidays.

On another note, I have to add that tonight turned out to be extremely fun. Carma and I went to this Christmas party at a professor's house, and we ended up playing this game that I really remembered as being fairly awful, but I really was surprised by how fun it turned out to be. I'd go into more detail, but I'm seriously going to start falling asleep soon, so I'll leave it at that.

Peace out, dawgs.

For some reason I've been finding researching grad school programs more important than working on my sculpture that's due on Wednesday. Regardless of whatever reason that actually is, it's been rather fun looking at them all. And by fun I mean terrifying, discouraging, exciting, stressful and about a million other emotions. I'm not going for a while; I'm definitely taking some years off between graduation this May and even applying for grad school, but it's still pretty overwelming and intimidating.

My top three right now, and probably in this order (I think...) are Cranbrook Academy of Art, San Diego State University, and Yale University. For whatever that's worth at the moment. Somehow I feel like I should be a) working on the afore mentioned sculpture that's due in a couple of days b) figuring out what job I could/want to get after graduation c) working on things for my show that's in a few months d) pretty much all of the above because ALL of them need to be done sooner than what I've actually spent way too much time looking into the last few days.

As those of you who read this have most likely already guessed/figured out, I'm back from home. The drive on Sunday was surprisingly smooth, which was nice. A real post on the events of last week will hopefully come soon, but I just needed to share these two things from my time at home:

1. I now have Robin Hood: Men in Tights on DVD. AND it's in widescreen. COULD I be happier about this????

2. Quote:
    Me (to my niece, Leilani, who had just told me that her sister, Alana, bothers her because she thinks that mammals lay eggs): So, what do mammals do if they don't lay eggs?
    Leilani:  They get preganent. But, only the girls get preganent. The boys just get fat!



And now I shall leave you. I'm tired. I'm getting sick, and I still need to shower before I go to bed. So, peace out, dawgs!




*Please note that the word "pregnant" was spelled in the quote as it was pronounced by Leilani who just turned six this October.

Things of relative excitement that are worth noting:

1. I'm currently home now for Thanksgiving break. Technically we have Wednesday through Friday off for the holiday, but I only have one class on TR, and according the schedule for said class, today is an individual critique day. Meaning, basically, that everyone signed up for a certain day to meet with our prof and talk about their work, and you only go on the day you're scheduled. Mine was scheduled and consequently took place last Thursday, so I didn't have to go to class today. Awesome, yes? So, I drove home yesterday; it was the first time in quite a while where I arrived home before dark, well, actually, the first time I'd arrived before midnight, actually. Traffic was amazing. I made it here in like, three and a half hours.

2. My parents and I officially have plans to visit the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills on Friday to see their current Tom Friedman exhibit. I am BEYOND excited as I very much want to see it again myself (I went last Friday with my sculpture class, and Nelle came along which was gloriously amazing), but I also really want my parents to see it. I think it will be good for them. It's all very contemporary, yet also very accessible to a lot of people, so it should be good. I really want my dad to go, especially. The first thing he said when we talked about it last evening was, "Is there a Starbucks nearby, you know, in case you and your mom get really into it, so I can go get some coffee and wait or something?" I just smiled and kind of went on to talk to him more about Friedman's work and that I didn't necessarily see any of us staying that long, and that he might very well find himself getting into it more than he expected. So, yes. Excitment. Friedman again on Friday, and an outing with my parents where I get to attempt to share with them some good contemporary art.

3. Tomorrow my dad is making clam chowder. From scratch. It apparently takes all day to make. Could I BE exciteder?

4. Nelle and I are getting a new coffee pot this week. She doesn't really know that yet (but will when she reads this, obviously). My dad and I ran some vinegar through the old one last night, which did next to nothing to help it. Though, at one point we ran some water through it and only lost about a cup in the process instead of two. See, lately (and, actually, I think way longer than we've probably realized) our coffee pot has not only been extremely loud whilst brewing The Drink That Sustains All Life, but it's also been losing about two cups of water in the process. Like, when I want to make eight cups of coffee, I have to put in ten cups of water. So, anyway, nothing was really fixing it, and instead of going out and buying some coffee cleaner that may or may not have fixed it, my dad and I just decided that we'd just go get a new one while I'm home. Yayness!

5. I started reading Inkheart. I'm not very far yet, at ALL, but so far so good.  And it's my goal to have it done by the time I come back to school on Sunday. Mwaha!

6. I just found this box in the corner of my room that has all of these notebooks and things from Freshman and Sophomore year. And what was the first thing I ended up pulling out? That's right, my friends, the manila envelope containing everything I turned in for my research paper for Freshman comp, exactly as I turned it in to Pate. I just opened it and read my thesis. You wanna know the irony? I wrote my paper on clinical depresson and argued that only antidepressants etc "are needed to solve the depressive illness because they correct the chemical imbalance that is at the heart of biochemical depression." Crazy, eh?

7. I just reached over to this plastic drawer unit thing by my bed (which is where I'm sitting typing this, obviously) and found what I'm pretty sure are the ingredients for butterbeer. I'm pretty sure it's all still good. So, guess what Nelle and I will be making after Thanksgiving break? Mwaha!

8. My "Word of the Day" email from webster.com mentions Oscar Wilde in their example sentence: Oscar Wilde penned this famous palinode: "Not that I agree with everything that I have said in this essay. There is much with which I entirely disagree." (the Word of the Day is "palinode," btw).

9. I just found my notebook from Freshman comp where I have this quote on the front cover, "Individuals who suffer from depression often feel tired and hopeless. In other words, pretty much how I feel right now because of this paper, which is utterly and completely useless; unless, of course, its purpose was to drive me to the point of insanity and mental breakdown in which case it has succeeded beyond all comprehendible expectation."

10. I reached number ten! I didn't think I'd make it! Mwaha!

I just have to share:

There's a boy oustide with his arm in a cast. He's skateboarding. And he just totally ate it..


I guess there's no need to go ask him what he did to his arm...

- looks at the calendar -

I'm graduating in roughly six months.

- looks again-

My show is exactly four months from now...




...Four months. Um, whoa. I have no words, only feelings of panic and terror. I know excitment is in there somewhere as well, but wow. 

Winning quote of the week:

"If Jesus was a Slytherin, you'd be Sirius Black." - Nelle



Close second:

"Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love." - Wally Lamb





 -hugs- More in-depth update(s) and whatnot  will hopefully be coming soon.

It rained for a bit today. The weather has, so far, begun to redeem itself.

Also: Tomorrow's Friday. Thank god. -sighs-

How much do I hate this effing weather?? It's November, November, people. Should it not be colder? Should I not be able to wear sweaters and jeans and, dare I say, even a scarf now and then, without dying of heat stoke? Because really, as much as I did enjoy the summer at times, I very much want my winter to get here. Winter, fall, something other than the random summer that's apparently upon us at the moment. I mean, really, for Dumbledore's sake, the sun needs to go away. If it doesn't soon, I can not be held responsible for my actions as I may be forced into insanity where I will most likely use one of The Unforgivables to cause some serious pain and destruction around campus. </angsty rant>

This week was insane, and I'm still, admittedly, kind of out of it, but today has actually been good. My parents drove down yesterday, though, I didn't see them until this morning. They came over to the apartment at around 9:45 this morning; we just kind of hung out for a little while. It was their first time seeing Nelle's and my apartment, so I gave them "the tour." I'd made coffee a couple of minutes before they'd arrived, so we sat and enjoyed a cup together, then headed off to Mervin's where I dare say I got several very adorable things, all the product of my mother spoiling me rather badly. Then it was off to Target, where my mom spoiled me again in purchasing for me a copy of White Christmas on DVD. -squees-

A meal at Olive Garden is pretty much a tradition whenever they come down to visit, so we had lunch there, which was phenominal, as always. We wrapped things up back at the apartment with a brief walk along the cliffs, more coffee, and a nice hug-y farewell.

After they left I watched Capote. All I can really say is: Amazing. Seriously.

I don't really have anything else to say here except :

I survived the week. Barely, but survived it nonetheless.




Okay. Carry on.

I'm officially registered for all of my classes for next semester. How weird is it to realize that was my last time registering for classes at Loma? so.much.

This week is going to be rather crazy, of that I'm sure. I have a speech on Wednesday night which I keep forgetting about I'm completely prepared for and looking forward to. I have a critique in sculpture for a project that I'm close to nowhere on I'm almost done with and ready to  present. And I have to have some sort of really rough announcement design for my show ready for Friday's class, for which I haven't even done so much as thought about since last class I have thousands of ideas...

btw: 2x4s are love; having eight of them in my car right now makes me extremely happy.

Emotional Velcro: The greed and laziness that make us stick to our ideas about ourselves.

~ Skip Schukmann, In The Making by Linda Weintraub

Amazingness is:

: ditching work
: homemade quiche
: gingerbread and pumpkin spice flavoured coffee creamers
: cinnamon and eggnog flavoured ice creams
: the internet
: zelda
: Vogue
: experiencing all of the above things today