I'm in Denver right now, sitting at a Panera with Whitney and Melissa. I don't remember if I've mentioned this, but I'm in Colorado until next Tuesday to hang out with some of my Florence roommates. We are staying at Whitney's apartment in downtown Denver. Two more of us--Vanessa and Hannah--are still in her apartment upstairs. She doesn't have internet so we're bumming off of Panera.

It's fun being here and together again, like we haven't left each other. I had a scare with my luggage, but the airport delivered it to the apartment at one am last night. It woke me up, but I was super thankful.

We're about to tackle the day (it's mountain time and on hour behind Texas, so it's 10:30).

I'm hanging out with these people minus two (it's us in Vienna last fall, minus me who is behind the camera).

Well, my stomach did not get to feeling better last night (see last post). It in fact tortured me all night. Our plans to go to the The Cheesecake Factory and a movie were altered and instead we went home and I threw up eight times. My digestive tract attempted mutiny and tried to jump ship.

My stomach doesn't hurt anymore. I'm nibbling on some Apple Cinnamon Bread and still feeling pretty weak. But I've lived to see today.

Must have been a 24 hour bug of some sort. I hope you don't get it. And I hope and pray that Ryan and my family don't get it. Ryan was by my side through it all, by the way. And we still got to exchange Christmas presents. And it was still special.

And my stomach lives to see another day.

'Tis the day after Christmas, and my stomach hurts really bad. Sorry, I've logged on, intending to write a post, and all I can think about is how much my stomach hurts. asdkfjieenfanvc.

I bought a fish aquarium today, because one of my Christmas presents is some new friends--some fish. I'm going to get some specialty goldfish. For instance (oh man my stomach hurts):

Calico Shubunkin Goldfish

Calico Ryukin Goldfish

Black Moor Goldfish

I'll probably include some snails and live plants too. Unfortunately I have to wait until I get back to Waco to get the aquarium started, as it would be difficult to travel with them.

Bleh, That's all I've got. I can't concentrate on this.  Hopefully I feel better soon because I have a hot date tonight.

I'm in day three of my wisdom teeth recovery. I am at the peak of my swollen-ness. Exhibit A:

Curiously, it is only my left check that is noticeably swollen. Like I've gotten punched in the face.

Speaking of getting punched in the face, I watched "The Hurricane" last night with Allison.
I was a bit wary about it at first, because it is 2 and a half hours long, but by the time I realized there was only one hour left, I was actually pretty disappointed. I wanted more Hurricane. It's a good movie, with kind of three stories in one, and it keeps you riveted. I'd suggest it.

Earlier, when I meant to type "It's a good movie" I typed "It's a good morning." I figure it was a Freudian slip, because it actually is a good morning. I woke up at ten to soft piano Christmas music. Then my mom made me oatmeal. It's cold outside apparently, but I feel cozy and warm in my house. I love Christmas break. This is a such a needed one. This has been one of my hardest semesters, academically, but I've pulled through and am pretty proud. I don't think I've written so many papers or done so many presentations in one semester. And I've applied to at least one grad school, so that's something. I at least have one step into the future attempted.

I'm excited about this new day. Thanks everyone, for taking care of me. For bringing me milkshakes, making me oatmeal, watching movies with me, going to multiple restaurants in search of egg drop soup. It's good to be weak sometimes, to be reminded how much we need other people to make us strong.

I am now on the other side, sans wisdom teeth. It was not bad at all, and my recovery it going well. It actually turned out to be a really fun day. Friends and family were in and out; we watched movies and ate milkshakes and talked. I'm not super swollen. See (taken just now)

We had a Christmas movie extravaganza. We watched "It's a Wonderful Life," "A Muppet Christmas Carol," and "White Christmas" which I had not seen. I think my favorite of the three was "It's a Wonderful Life." Other Christmas movies I enjoy include but are not limited to -- "A Christmas Story" and "Love Actually." What is your favorite Christmas movie?

And Ryan was by my side the whole time, making sure I was taking my meds and taking care of me. (taken by my phone only hours after the wisdom teeth extraction)


Thanks.

I have really enjoyed being at home. I'm pretty much finished with my Christmas shopping, so that has taken some stress away, though I'm taking the GRE January 10th, so that adds a healthy dose of stress and keeps me occupied. I don't remember barely anything about math :/

I'm done! My exams are over. Allison is here. It SNOWED today. Life is good.

Here is a picture of me walking to my final this morning.


Just kidding. Allison drove me.

I've been tagged. I'm supposed to tell you six interesting facts about myself and tag six other people. So here they are, whether or not they are interesting (compiled with the help of Ryan and Claire) . . .

-I'm getting my wisdom teeth out this Friday
-my middle name is katherine
-i haven't shaved my legs in seven weeks
-i have a manly "hummer" phone because i always drop my phones and break them.
-my ancestors started a town-Carmack, Yukon- and started the Gold Rush of 1890s
-i can stand on my head

And now I tag

Claire
John
Rob
Christy
Allison
Melyssa

to do the same.


I have 3 tests down and 2 to go. I'll return to Colleyville on Wednesday. See some of you there! See others of you here.

Today is dead. Yesterday was dead. Tomorrow is finals.

And yesterday I got to experience snow! Or, more accurately, a "wintery mix."

I'm studying at my kitchen table with Elise. Here is a picture of my view that I took on my phone.


I took it like two seconds ago and sent it to my laptop via bluetooth. Amazing! We are living in the future!
Elise doesn't like this picture. Sorry Elise. Life is tough and hard to understand sometimes.

So yes. Dead days. They are making me a bit stir crazy. I have a test at 9 am tomorrow and am pretty tired of studying for it. Maybe I just won't study for it anymore. We'll see.

I have made a decisive step towards my future (I went to Pei Wei tonight and a fortune cookie told me to do something like that . . . something about making decisions and being assertive. . .). I have applied for the Art Education Masters program at UNT. I sent in the application, fee, letter of intent, writing sample, transcript and all I have left is letters of recommendation and GRE scores. Phew. Applying for things isn't so bad. You just have to do it. And I did. I feel I have some momentum now and should research other grad options. That sounds like a wonderful way to procrastinate . . .

I'm at the library and have been for a couple hours. I don't usually study at the library, usually I'm at my apartment or at a coffee shop. The library is kind of nice though. Everyone is studying. We're all in this together--that is the feeling I get when studying here.

There is one more day of classes. That's madness! Kind of. Time goes fast, but we always seem to forget that. Very rarely do we reach the end of a semester and say "Man. That semester was so slow!" Nope. It's always really fast. So if it's always fast, then it's not fast, it's just normal. Fast is the quickening of a normal pace of things. I think we just don't understand time.

Let's see . . . something else interesting.

Went to Austin yesterday. Checked out some sweet contemporary art with my art history peeps. We met Patrick:


He was made in 2004 by Oliver Herring and is a collage of hundreds of photographs taken of a guy named Patrick and then glued together as a collage image of his body. Crazy! And it's a sculpture. Didn't know if that was clear or not.

I have this song in my head


It's Joanna Newsom's "Sprout and Bean."

Thanksgiving week is over and I'm back in Waco. It was a really fabulous week. It's good to be back in Waco because of my wonderful family of friends and roommates, but I have lots of school work to do. For that reason I wasn't super stoked about coming back.

But it'll get done. I always have lots of school work to do. That's life right now.
So I'm drinking black tea and eating cereal at my kitchen table. The sun just rose
And now I have to get ready and go work.

Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm sitting on my couch in watching the Thanksgiving Day parade.
A high school band from California is playing a song from West Side Story, which is pretty awesome.
It's good being home.

That's all I got.

Hello friends, family, and stalkers. The last time I posted I included a picture of me cutting Ryan's hair, and now it is almost time to cut it again! Oh dear.

His birthday was last week and we went to the Nasher Sculpture Center . . .

We did other exciting things, but that is all that I have pictures of. I took lots of pictures there. I like art. I also like feminism. Both are often times misunderstood and I find myself having to explain my interests to my friends a lot. I like it though. Today I presented in my Philosophy and the Arts class over Feminism and Postmodernism. It went pretty well; you should have been there. I'm thinking of going on a lecture circuit. People should pay to see me talk about Feminism and Postmodernism. People need to know.

Just kidding.

Kind of.

This past weekend was Steppin' Out, which is a Baylor tradition which involves students' participation in service projects around Waco. Me and six of my friends did lawn work at a home for mentally impaired people (I don't know the PC term-mentally challenged? mentally handicapped? crazy people?). It was enjoyable, being outside and working. And doing it with people I enjoy to be around.

I trimmed hedges.

And now it is the week of Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I'll go back to Colleyville, where there will be food and love waiting for me. It'll be nice, but won't be without some studying. There is still a final hurdle before finals.

It's been awhile. But I'm not going to apologize. I feel like every time I write I need to apologize for how long it has been since I've written. Well, this blog is a luxury, not an obligation, so I will not apologize.

I was in poverty this weekend. For my Family: A Global Perspective class I had to do a poverty simulation through Mission Waco. So from Friday night to Sunday afternoon I lived like I was in poverty. That's all I can tell you about it. Part of the learning comes from not knowing what is going to happen, so I can't tell you what happened for fear that someone out there reading this will someday go through it and know all about it. Maybe I'll tell you if you ask me in person.

People keep asking me how it made me "feel" and I still just don't know. Last night Rachael asked me how I felt and I told her I had a headache. I don't think that's what she was looking for. I just didn't know what else to say. I'm debriefing still. I have a reflection paper about it due on Friday so hopefully I will know by then. I'll let you know.

I also took out my nose ring. We had to remove all jewelry for the poverty sim and so I took it out for the first time since last October. I had some trouble getting it back in yesterday, so i just decided to leave it out. I had it for over a year. It ran its course. No one has really even noticed, not even my roommates, so it obviously wasn't that big of a deal.

And then a nice boy came down from Dallas and made me a yummy pasta/lasagna dish for dinner.

I have a test tonight and one tomorrow morning, and as I was poor all weekend, I couldn't study for them. So I skipped my classes this morning to study. Now I'm just going to chill until my 5:45 test. I feel okay about it and just want to get it over with.

So those are some quick updates. I'm kind of tired right now and it's kind of dreary outside and I feel like that is showing up in how I'm writing today.

Here is a picture of me cutting the aforementioned boy's hair a few weekends ago. You can see my nose ring (may she rest in peace).

And now I will heat up some of his leftover pasta/lasagna dish.

I have been eating a lot healthier since I've been in college. My veggie-loving roommates have been a good influence on me. Before, I didn't even like lettuce, let alone things like tomatoes and mushrooms, but now I love most vegetables. And thanks to the World Hunger Farm I now know and love all sorts of veggies that I'd never heard of before--like swiss chard, liana beans, and kale.

All that to say that my stomach has gotten used to healthy foods. Today for lunch I went to Vitex with Rob and John and I got their famous "gut pack." My stomach is kind of mad it me for that now. It is not used such large quantities of barbecue sauce and fritos. I appreciated the Waco experience, but it's nothing something I will be eating everyday.

Vitex also has Dublin Dr. Pepper, which is amazing.

Performing at Common Grounds last night was really fun. Elise and I had good rapport on stage and charmed the audience with our banter and musical prowess. Be looking for our names on a marquee near you!

I have a headache :/ Maybe because too much Dublin DP and not enough water.

Tonight I and my roommate Elise will be performing at Common Ground's open mic night. She has a djembe and I have a guitar and tonight they will make sweet music together. Or sad music. Or angry music. Or funny music. Depending on the song. We are going to leave in like seven minutes.

The funny thing is that my voice is still not all the way back (see last post) so I'm all sexy and raspy (which reminds me of an episode of Friends. Anyone?).

It'll be good. I've done open mic there before (we get thirty whole minutes all to ourselves!) and it'll be nice to have someone else up there with me. Next time, Linh will hopefully join us, who plays piano.

Ok, gonna pack up.

I'm cold. And my lungs hurt. But here's another picture from Long Island. It's our shadows at the beach. I'm the one with my leg sticking out.

Questions? Comments? How ya feelin?

Long Island was a good time. Lots of museums and driving and gravesites and art and autumn. For example.

(a detail of a painting by Lee Krasner)

(a mustache cup in the Whaling Museum of the town of Sag Harbor)

(and we got to dip our toes in the sand a.k.a. my only picture of the whole group)




Interesting things were learned and I'm glad I went. I was ready to come back though, because it wasn't exactly restful.

Now I have a paper due next week and one this week and I'm off running.

Ok, here are some hair cutting picks, most taken by Rachael [see last post for the story]:

Now for the hair . . .





Not a bad job, huh?