I'm a particular person sometimes, this should be no surprise to many of you. One thing I'm particular about is my pens. I tend to keep one good one and one spare to lend out. I keep good track on my pens, right?

In class the other night I'm taking notes, which is what one does in such situations. We have to move places for facilitated discussion so I reluctantly join my group. I don't care for my classmates, but I'm willing to do whatever I need to do in the pursuit of LEARNING. So I attempt to join in the discussion, all the while feeling excluded since discussion turns to a previous class I was not in. The discussion was interesting, but there were a lot of cliches being tossed around and if there's one thing I can't abide, it is a bad cliche.

We finish and I head to my seat. now, all the while, the girl who took my seat is sitting there playing with MY PEN which I left on my notebook. As she leaves I ask for my pen back.

"Uh, this is actually MY pen."

"Oh, then mine must've rolled off the desk because I was using that same pen."

"I use the same kind of pen, I get it from my office."

"Well then, I'll look around. I don't think I brought another pen though."

"You can just keep it."

"No, no, I don't want want to steal YOUR PEN."

"No, keep it. I'm known to be a pen thief."

What a pain in the ass. You might think that I was too harsh, but listen, the pen had my toothmarks on it. I also knew about how much ink was left because I'll need to replace it soon.

I mean, really, it's a pen.

Labels: drama, school

• This weekend was the annual Sacred Harp Singing in Henagar, AL. It was beautiful as always, the food was great, and the weather was lovely. I ate, no kidding, four kinds of macaroni and cheese. There may've been more on the other table (there were two long tables just full of food). One thing I noticed was that there were no handbags with big designer labels. It is a rural area, but these are not unstylish people. In fact, I saw a few outfits I coveted. Except that's a sin. Ha! But I did record it thanks to Kelly Jo's digital recorder. Audio to come later, it's loading right now.


• Seems as though someone with whom I spent some time a few years ago is importing his email box into every social media system. It's pretty annoying. I wish him no ill will, but I do wish he would leave me alone. Unfortunately, I no longer seem to have his phone number or email address. I can only hit ignore so many times, you know?


• My godchildren (and accompanying parents) are back in town to live, hopefully for good. I'm very excited by this!


• School has started. Assignments have started! Difficult puzzles, some math.


• Looking to sell condo at the end of summer. Needs work, looking at a few different contractors.

Labels: news, roundup, school, travel

too tired to update really. tonight was class preview. Can you guess what I'm taking?

Labels: school

too tired to say much of anything. tonight we presented our baggage projects for sculpture class. pictures to come! people were exposing things about themselves that we did not know. you know, the kinds of things that make you feel like an a-hole for not being nicer.

My classmate Beverly gave me a very nice print.

More later. promise. not tonight though. tired. can't think.

Labels: school

I don't have much to say today except that I didn't see any car crashes, although an ambulance passed me on the way home.

I finished my class project.

Oh, and I do not like this new song I Kissed a Girl. We already had a song in the 1990s about girl on girl kissing and it was much more clever and fun.

I'm not sure this daily blogging is going to work. my writing sucks and I just don't have that much going on!

Labels: school

Starts with a lackluster brunch that featured delicious $3 mimosas. It's a new enterprise in a new development. Everyone else at the table enjoyed it, I thought my omelette was lacking and the offerings were nothing to get excited about.

My DVR is set to pick up "Beavis and Butthead" when it airs. This morning I woke up with three hours worth! It's still funny, although the humor is slightly lessened by the fact that I've seen every episode dozens of times. It also reminded me how crappy music was back in the mid-nineties. Seriously.

Did I mention that yesterday i finished my final project for sculpture class? Well, for the most part. I've got some trimming to do Wednesday and THEN it's done. I'm happy with it. Thanks to all who helped (a more tangible thanks will be on the way later on. Unfortunately while finishing the project I missed a call from Angi and family (it's ok--I talked with them tonight).

Ice Cream Crankin was just as good as always. This year I stuck with the fruitier flavors and they didn't disappoint (well, some did). We, being Presbyterians, embrace the alcohol rather than avoid it and two of the flavors contained alcohol. They weren't just gimmicky either--they were actually delicious. Most interesting flavor was probably Veggietales, which is probably what you're thinking it is. My favorite was a tart, delicious lemon I tasted early on.

Can't remember my dream from last night, though I do vaguely remember having one.

Labels: dreams, food, school

Even if it is one sentence it is something.

So tonight I had class. I got quite a bit done and now only need to sew. Unfortunately there is no machine in the art building! At one point there was but I was not given a reason for its absence. I will sew at my Mom's house so I've got that going for me.

I've been feeling odd the last few days. I'm achy and lethargic. Enough that I notice it, but not enough that it interferes with work.

There was a trip to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom over the weekend. There was some drama so the story will have to come later when I'm not so tired.

I kind of was thinking about Citizen Kane on the way home from class (weird, right?). I'm thinking about a blog post later.

This is all. I hope this will do for now. More later.

Things to look forward to this weekend:

• Rollergirl car wash to benefit a dog rescue. East Nashville at the Lipstick Lounge.


• Ice Cream Crankin to benefit Martha O'Bryan. First Pres on Franklin Rd.

Labels: school, sick, theme parks

Back during the summer semester I did a short research paper about the Angelus Temple. It was founded by Aimee Semple McPherson and...ok, you can wikipedia it your own dang self. This was just one of the comments in a book I used in my research. It was FULL of this sort of stuff--not just allusions to Jewish ancestry but snide comments about her ministry and personal life. Honestly, it was more fun to read than the book itself. I got a decent grade, I want to say an A or B+?

Labels: pictures, school

Last night we drew nekkid people. Well, to be specific it was one nekkid person, a young lady. I'll be honest with you, I hope it's a long, long time before I see another nekkid person, man or woman. It's SO difficult. really.

We started by drawing as much as we could in 30 seconds. Over and over. then 15. then 60. then five minutes. Then we spent the remaining class (about 45 minutes) on one drawing. it was not easy. Seriously.

I'll share later on. Three more weeks of nekkid people. ugh!

Labels: school

In class we're learning about values. We did these with charcoal. Check out that sphere! I'm rather proud of it...

Labels: pictures, school

Have you ever looked at Grant Wood's American Gothic? I mean REALLY looked at it? Go ahead.

So, my answer to the above question is NO. I've never taken a traditional art class in my life. I was a drama nerd. I like movies. I can talk about subtle differences in lighting and what they mean but you put a painting in front of me and I look at it and say "nice. next???" I suppose this makes me a philistine but I say you smell.

I bring all this up because tonight was my first drawing and composition class. We looked at several slides of art, starting with American Gothic. I mean, who knew?

Also, it appears I'm now a regular at Taco Bell. As I got my bean burrito with extra onions the drive through lady said "see you tomorrow." Really? Really?

Labels: school

Final grade. I think I did better work. I'd be happy to post my papers but I'm a little worried about plagiarism and that sort of thing. Not like my writing is all that great, I mean, who wants to plagiarize a B level student? Kidding. I'm happy. ready for Jan 16 when Drawing and Composition starts.

Labels: school

This morning my ipod died. I went the whole day without, got the frowny face, all that. for a minute I thought it was dead for good but a good smack (what did I have to lose?) brought it back. I restored it and it is now resyncing (8500+ sound files plus other stuff). Still, I'm going to keep looking. Well, as much looking as I can do considering that an ipod is an ipod is an ipod and there really isn't any comparison shopping.

In addition my final grade still isn't posted. Allegedly it was to be posted this morning, the system was updated at 6:30-ish, no grade.

Labels: drama, school

So the short version is that somewhere in PA there was some sort of outage and Dunder Mifflin web hosting lost connection. The good news is my email didn't seem to bounce. Also, there was really nothing worth blogging about: I got my paper done, the guy in the next booth was playing world of warcraft, we watched the incredibles in our last class of the semester. Good times.

Listen to the podcast now.

Labels: drama, school

I got back from the spring MLAS preview. What does this mean? well, for one, I got to see the classes they're offering for spring. I'd pretty much decided to take the drawing class but knew it would fill up fast as it is limited and seems really cool. This way I could be well informed for second and possibly third choice. Well, as expected once they opened the sign up sheets there was a mass movement to the front. Luckily my name was already on the sign up sheet for drawing (I asked ages ago but wanted to make sure).

So you should know that of course, that all slots filled up, and then more slots were drawn in and those filled up. I thought "Crap,I've been here before." See, last semester I was really looking forward to taking a class that was limited but couldn't get in. I thought this might be the case here as well. I ask the Dean of the progrm and he tells me that they're going to take the first however many signed up, no lottery, no seniority, although he stated that bribes are welcome.

I felt bad because there were classes with only two or five people signed up. Interesting classes to be sure but it's like going to Sweet 16th and having enough money for only one scone. I mean, there were four of the six classes that I wanted to take (we are limited to one per semester).

So once I found out that I am more than likely going to be in this class I was excited. like, annoying excited. Like, I drove WAY too fast because I was that excited. Talking a mile a minute excited.

Oh, and the american apparel store has opened in Nashville!

Labels: school

Tonight in class we watched a movie I can guarantee you've never seen: "Closet Land." So it's crazy and intense. I think I could write about it. Our other option is the Incredibles.

I'm thinking that since I've written two papers on Kane totally around 12 pages I could probably get a thesis out of the deal. Rock.

Labels: movies, school

Tonight in class was Jesus Christ Superstar. Not the clever seventies version your mom liked so much but a crazy 2001 revival. More on that.

The first thing that caught my interest was:

Rik Mayall
as
Herod

Y'all, I love the Young Ones. I like Rik Mayall. The rest of the movie sucked. SUCKED! Well, except for Pontius Pilate, he had an amazing voice.

Why does Jesus always have to look like a hippie? I mean, Jesus WAS essentially a hippie, but can't he be more modern looking? And perhaps Mary Magdalene should have been costumed in something a little less--ahem--well, there's no delicate way to put this: when she bent over Jesus in one scene you could totally see where they blurred out her nips.

Labels: school

Last night before class I stopped in the dining hall for a rice krispie treat and a boite de verre. As i'm walking through the dining area i notice that "Flirting with Disaster" is playing overhead. Of course, the youngsters gathered are eating, gossiping, doing whatever youngsters do these days. i want to stop and yell "do ANY of you kids understand what you could be listening to? One of the finest Southern Rock songs EVER? DO YOU?" But I didn't. But I was happy to hear it.

Last night we watched Chicago which always makes me happy. they both! they both! they both! they both! they both! reached for the gun! the gun! the gun! for the gun. Good times. one of my favorites

Labels: school