Day Trip to Pittsburgh 2

3-20
Tanger Outlet Mall (new this year)
-worried other Lauren-Giving me bunny ears isn't cool.Indulging ourselves at the milkshake and chocolate store in Southside.A late Saint Patrick's Day. One lonely Guinness at Fat Heads.
And THIS guy, who had the largest gauges I've ever seen (that weren't hollow). It's like he had hockey pucks in his ears.Overall, we were stoked to be there. I bought rain boots, a bag and two new pairs of pants at the Gap. Best of all, we ended the day at Ikea where I picked up some seriously exciting stuff: new rugs, some baskets, votives, and a hanger thing for belts (that of course I have always needed, I just didn't know). <3
-L

Day Trip to Pittsburgh

Problem worth complaining about: having money makes me feel more comfortable spending money. After two days in Pittsburgh this Spring Break, I'm aware I need to go back to feeling poor.

3-14-09
Enrico Biscotti Company
If you lived above Enrico's, your apartment would smell delicious all day long.Fun truck some Rasta man was selling his woven goods out of.
Some memorable seafood place:
Where do they think they're going?Of course I loved this wine store. They were full of all sorts of accessories too. BUT, they had one "cork"board and they didn't cut the corks in half. Several had come unglued and were missing. This is tacky, don't do this; they are too heavy that way.Spices, mmmmm.Next we went to the famous Roxanne's Dried Flowers. It smelt incredible and I wanted one of everything. There were so many visually stimulating fabrics, bags, jars and crafty tabletop cluttering thing-a-ma-jigs. I mainly took photos of the labels so I could remember the lovely words, but this is what's worth sharing:
Mural. Train.
And last, but certainly not least, why not a photo of Big Mama's House of Soul? (next to the, apparently not defunk, Club 1601. Oh yes, people party there...)
<3
- L

Everything I do in a week (- like a giant to-do life of life)

My list - in a week I:

Wake up 7 times
Go to sleep 7 times
(Those are both lies of course, because I love to nap - in my not so distance past, before I added a second job, I totally napped all the time. Now I only get to when I'm sick)

Read about 4 books on average for classes
Grade about 40 papers
Plan for three classes
Write at least one paper
Write one decent poem and twenty terrible ones
Start at least one project I don't finish
I'm waiting tables now, so, five long shifts doing that
(You're right, I don't have time to do all these things I say I am doing; understand my life now?)

Feed the piggies - at least 14 times
Change their paper - once
Sit with them at random to groom and love on them

Trim my nails
Paint them occasionally
Other grooming acts at random

Take my recycling up to the hill
Check my mail - six times
Go to the post office - once
Look at things on-line I can't afford - eight times
Grab some groceries - once or twice
Take out the trash - twice
Laundry x's three (at least)
Organize books and desktop clutter - four times

Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate.
Daydream about my trip in May - like 36 times

Drink - maybe once
Eat six bowls of cereal
Eat four bowls of pasta
Drink 21 bottles of water (I refill them, although I hear there are negative to this, too)
Eat ice cream - three times
Shower - ten times
Dry hair - four or five times

Rant about my vacuum cleaner not working -three times
Fret about bills - quite a few times more than I'd like
Dust - once
Think about dust - substantially more times than that

Sing out loud something I don't know the words to - 18 times
Wonder why I even bother texting - like twenty times
Watch a movie on TV I later wish I had not gotten wrapped in to - three times
Try to blog - once or twice
Consider deleting MySpace
Consider deleting Facebook
End up wasting time on Facebook and forgetting I wanted to delete it earlier that day
Hope it doesn't snow - three times
Check my bank account every five minutes to watch it dwindle away...

Hope you're all doing well. I am in the middle of so much right now I can't really blog, but I doubt anyone minds it.

-L

The snow's all gone and I feel great.

I received my new drawer pulls (yay) and sold the old ones on eBay (yay again).

I haven't written much in the way of updates because there hasn't been much to say. I am busy reading books and worrying over them; also, I'll start a second job any day now, so I wish to complete all of my later assignments as soon as possible. While this would be nice, I already have the one job that requires me to bring home work from the office: papers to grade, their reading homework to review, and lessons to plan (no yays follow this).

However, I really love the readings for a young adult literature class I'm taking. I feel like I am getting that second chance to read all the good books I missed out on while watching the Wizard of Oz on repeat. And of course my poetry class is perfectly delightful. I'm going to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, so I'm trying to wrap up any loose ends in the way of work this Sunday and can't say much else without taking up precious daylight hours.

I'll want to get good sleep tonight:

The weather is lovely though, no complaints there. AND, only 14 weeks (and 2 days) until the semester is over and we leave for our trip. 100 days and counting. :-D

Three day weekend

Well the other white matted picture fell as well. So my advice is to not cut corners, and to not hot glue picture hanging wire on to the back of anything you wish to hang, even if it is lightweight. :(

But, at least I am not being haunted.

Lauren made a list of things that see likes about me by going around my apartment and taking photos of "examples." Some highlights are: I drink girlie drinks,

I keep paintbrushes lying around even when I'm not using them, I like to travel, there are always blankets and books open and ready for use,
I appreciate art, I keep a cluttered/happy fridge,

I use a table leg as a bracelet holder, the bed's always made, and I am fond of old books.
These particular books are mainly from my great grandfather McKenzie's collection.

My newest acquisition is a dress form (found at my favorite little hole in the wall: Bubba's Garage). It was a GREAT deal, 1/5 the price you'd find on eBay for the same basic thing. Plus, if you ever went to a B. Moss before they went under you'll know just how nice theirs were, with the canvas-type fabric and the great metal hardware and wheels. That's exactly where this one came from and I couldn't be happier with it.


Hope you're all doing well and that your new years are off to a great start!

A little hope and beautiful

Things I am working on:



Not hogging the covers.(actual photo of me sleeping - I'm in there some where)



My wall of inspiration!
Finally got it "off the ground." I hot glue-gunned some picture hanging wire on to the backs of the large white matted images. I was tired of waiting to take it somewhere to have plastic hangers applied. I am excited. I have no doubt it will become more and more cluttered as time goes on.


This is one of the shadow boxes I put together after Christmas. It includes some of my great-grandmother McKenzie's jewelry and images of her I am a particular fan of. I always loved sitting at her vanity and playing with her costume jewelry. I wear a lot of it from day to day now.


This is one of Lauren's I love. It's a print from a slide we purchased at a second-hand store. She surprised me with it for Christmas this year. It was the big kicker when we were weighing the pros and cons of owning boxes of some strangers' travel images. We needed these yellow chairs.


This is one of my cousin Jordan Reed's that I bought in April. This glass broke during shipping so they are just mats now, but I kind of like their look this way.


Here is my favorite. One of Lauren Lamb's prints from her show this past December. It's a triptych of me sleeping (perfect for the bedroom). It you want to see more of her work (and you should) take a look at The Click Shutter.


Another one of Jordan Reed's. If he has a website I'll add the link in here later. Both of these were taken in Columbus, Ohio. (www.myspace.com/redshebled is all I could find for now... not really an "artist page")


My second shadowbox. It contains a photo of Lauren's that I developed in the darkroom (she was trying to teach me how) and a strange piece of red construction paper that came as a secret bonus when my slide projector came in the mail. It was masking taped to the side of the original box containing the projector. But my favorite part of this is the paper on the left - you can't really tell, but it's this sweet little piece of paper I found in a book in a Buchanan, WV antique store - a sampling of handwriting on a folded piece of paper titled "Penmanship." I adore it. I spend a lot of time in the classroom and this just makes it dreamier - the ideal, you know?


Well, anyway. School starts Monday the 11th, and even though I started this blog on the 4th and it's labeled wrong, it's taken me forever to post because I got incredibly sick and have basically been laying around the apartment watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and taking antibiotics.

Hope you're all doing well, and those of you going back to the classroom enjoy your first few weeks without too heavy a workload (we all know the pressure will mount). :)

Spiders

This is probably only funny to me because my mother loved it so much. A co-worker sent it to her.



Fascinating stuff.

-L

Seven (photos & facts)

I know this mean I'm posting two blogs in one day (unheard of!) but Sandra from "Smosch" did one of her excellent photoblogs on seven random facts about herself and I couldn't help but do it too. I talk about the same things all the time on here so I thought I'd share. I'm going to go ahead and say JP needs to do this - and any other six of you who want to, just let me know in a comment!


1. The only books that are alphabetized on my bookshelves are the poetry books (out of, let's say, 300+). I'm partial.2. I "rescued" thousands of medical slides from a warehouse full of home acquisitions. Not only were they beautiful and weird, but I had a strange desire to keep them all in the same place - some had already been picked through and purchased. I wanted them to stay a unit for some strange reason. The drawers themselves are really lovely, too.
This is part of a heart :3. I have a knife collection from Mali, from my time studying abroad there.4. I didn't set out to get guinea pigs, but my lease said "pets." When I asked they told me that "didn't mean dogs." I wasn't sure about cats so I decided to "start small."5. I am a fan of jars and visible art supplies. Being able to look at what I have and make time for crafts makes me happy.6. My favorite toy from childhood is my "Dinosnore." The toy company was Commonwealth out of NY and the tag says 1986. I have never seen another, except my brother's which was a triceratops. They always look sleepy and make a noise like a snore when they fall over or are turned - hence the adorable name, (and, now you've all seen my excellent pajama pants).7. I am from the beach and feel most at home when near a body of water. I like large moving bodies of water most of all though - like bays, and oceans, and the sea. (this is the James River - it's a poor photo but just imagine the settlers sliding in, before there were pools built.)