Squeaky-clean in the grunge hole. What bliss.

Well, here I am, back at Hard Times, with a cookie on call. No tea, though. There's plenty of that back at the dorm. Ahm nahm. Soupy is hangin' out here with me. He's in the picture, too. He's my huge plaid coat. And he does art with me.

Got them classes finalized, and basically got into the ones I wanted, except I'm on a different lab day than Rachel ad Katherine for the same class. Booyah.

So after waking up at 8:20 Saturday morning, my day consisted of making hot chocolate, moseying next door through the rain, and drawing a naked lady as I ate my breakfast. No biggy, right? Eh. Seriously, you learn a lot from figure drawing, but some things I would rather stay un-learned about, thanks. But waking up and just drawing is not a bad deal. That was nice. As I packed up, the model (now in her bathrobe, thank you) and I had a nice discussion about how Midwest Mountaineering was having a nice sale, and how I wanted to be an art teacher. She then informed me of various other figure drawing co-ops around the cities, and I thanked her for the info, and moseyed away. I suppose if I really had to, I could take her up on that information, but I would rather not be one who seeks out naked people in co-ops for the sake of drawing them. I would like to leave them be.

Then, the good part of my day came. Noopo came and picked me up, and after dropping off books at the library, we drove through he local countryside back home. And I got to play with the puppy. A lot.

And that was my day, basically. I snoozed, played, and then in the evening, Carla and I collaborated on a charcoal drawing, smeared it all over each other's faces, and ran into the office making banshee sounds. We then proceeded to play some loud sounds, and ended up finding some bubble wrap, so we put it on the floor, and banshee-danced upon it to the Dropkick Murphys. Hootenanny.

Bjones stopped by, and showed me her mom's new press-the-keychain-button-and-the-engine-starts sports car. It was fun, and we drove around in it late at night like small town kids with nothing better to do.

The night ended with Noopo and I eating pie and falling asleep on the couch while watching Balto. Whee.

With Sunday came church and more play with the pooch. He showed me his favorte digging spot in the sandbox, which is an ok place to dig, since sand is easy to clean off, and he's not doing any harm. He bounded up to his dent in the corner, leap in, shoved his paws deep in the dirt, proclaimed "BrrOWWRARWROORM", and proceeded to dig like a maniac.

He's my chum.

It was hard to leave, but it won't be too long until I can spend some summertime there. Mmm. Summer. These last weeks are crazy. Crazy, in that, of course, schoolwork piles up. But also crazy in that, well, I'm almost done with my first year in college. And I will soon have to move out of the little hobbit hole we have created. I mean, we do have an apartment lined up, but the first year in the dorms will be memorable, for sure. And being my overly-nostalgic self, I am going to miss it.

Being nostalgic all the time really sucks. It take a lot of effort to move forward.

So, yes. And I am just getting progressively crabby with things that are as trivial as you can possibly imagine. It's time to bust out of this little world for a while.

Summer.

oh summer.

I intend to put a list up soon of all the things I want to do this summer, and hopefully, I will stick to it and update it. Yeah. That'd be a good idea.

Ah, I have been typing so ferociously that my fingers are tired. I might come back and blab some more, but I am going to take a break.

Peas haute.

Song of the Day:

Ultima Ratio Regum by OmegaDubstep

LISTEN. This is the kind of grunge that gets one through finals.

Skip-a-dee-doo. Duh.

I am sitting here in Hard Times on my lonesome, listening to 60's music skip over the speaker system. Finally the worker with the sweet dreads has walked over to aid the poor, choking sound machine.

With a chocolate-dipped-orange-shortbread-cookie in one hand, and a mug of cinnamon hibiscus rose tea on call near the other, I am set to try and tell myself to wind down.

Registering for fall classes today. That's what's up. Must wait until 2:30. Painful.

So, in the meantime, I will divulge the week's doings.

As was mentioned in the previous post, I am a lovestruck mess. We met our puppy. He is a doll. After waiting a long time for him to arrive at the cargo pickup at the airport, the four of us peoples took lil' Linus home to play in the yard, meet the rabbit, tap a nap (he snores), and do other puppy things. Let me tell you, it was hard to leave that evening. But, I get to see him tomorrow evening, and all Sunday, so I can't complain. School is nearly out.

Here is my boy:

Yes, there is love here.

The middle of the week, as usual, gave me nothing important but school, and I feel like that is an awful thing to bore you with. Yesterday, though, was amazing. It was the start of Spring Jam '10, where various musicians and comedians and such come to the U and have a blast.

And yesterday, Earth Day, the opening band happened to be Cloud Cult.

I booked it over the bridge about a half hour before the concert started, to sit outside on the front lawn of Coffman with the hippies, to get free stuff, sign a petition against coal, and take in the general merriment. Once Cloud cult got on the stage set up by the wall on the lawn in front of Coffman, my jeans began to vibrate, and bass reverberated throughout the land. It was magical.

Unfortunately, I had to go to French class about 20 minutes into the concert, because I have a pact with myself that, unless there is a dire reason, I will not miss a single class this semester.

Needless to say, I was late, since I suddenly remembered we were meeting in a totally different building than usual, and I didn't time things right. Meh. I sadly zoomed away from those great sights and sounds, and gallumphed over to Jones Hall, listening to the soundwaves hurtle over the entire campus.

It was sad.

I came back about fifteen minutes after the concert ended, meandered around one of the live painter's art galleries (He's AMAZING), and got in the short line for the lead singer's autograph, only to have the line cut off about 6 people in front of me by a tech guy I swear I know from Christ Presbyterian Church. I was a bit bummed, and consoled myself with some free cotton candy, and eventually took the bus back to West Bank. I promptly marched over to the maps library to get my mind off my failure, and swiped three nice, free maps of Copenhagen, a park in Africa, and Tel Aviv. Placated.

So, there's that. It was a good day.

And today will be good, once I get registered for classes. I should head back.

Piece.

Song of the Day:

Drop the Other by Emika

Catsupping Up.

Been a while. Of course.

Let me begin with this: Minnesota is currently beautiful. Absolutely.

I basked unabashedly in the sun on Tuesday. After acquiring a blackberry lemonade, I strolled down behind Coffman onto the East River Flats, and parked myself on a bench to journal and have a discussion with God about ants and sticks and sun. I didn't even feel like I was in Minneapolis, there by the river and woods. After a good forty-five minutes, I strolled up to the bus stop, humming the lullaby from Pan's Labyrinth, which I was watching throughout the day, and adore. If you have no seen it/heard this tune, I suggest you do both.It puts me in my happy fairy tale place, which is rare indeed, and hauntingly beautiful.

Creepy little pretty thing, it is.


At the bus stop, I sat and watched the world go by. Buses rolling by, cop cars gathering up Washington, people everywhere.

Then, when the 16 rolled up, a man came blasting down the stairs, roaring at the top of his lungs "HOLD THAT BUS! HOLD THAT BUS!" I assumed that poor dude was late for something, but as he climbed on the bus, for some reason the bus driver wouldn't let him on. He stepped on, swore, and as he did, a cop car pulled up behind the bus, and two officers bolted out, saw him, and exclaimed "Up the stairs!", which is where he was running at this point. I watched them chase him up there, and then they disappeared. Later, I decided to ditch my bus and walk, and noticed that it looked like they'd caught him behind Kolthoff and Smith halls.Ta da.

So, I strolled away, and almost got run over in the mall by Goldie Gopher on his U of M Segway. What?

Seriously, my day felt like some giant trip at this point


The rest of the week had it's ups and downs. On Thursday night, my drawing class sat in the mall for four hours, first drawing buildings as the sun went down, and then parking ourselves there until ten at night to do a white charcoal drawing on black paper. It was fun, but my eyes hurt the next day. Bleh.

Saturday consisted of business, like early morning art, MOA, and a 3.5 hour opera with Abby Zilka and the rest of the gang here. "Die Zauberflote" or, "The Magic Flute" is probably one of the silliest things I have ever seen, in a good way. Mozart just had a funny way of telling stories. The audience laughed at places I don't this we were supposed to, but the English translation from the German was sometimes so undramatic, it was funny. I hadn't really been to an official opera before, so this was pretty sweet.


And yesterday, I went to the last CB Productions show that my sister would be in in high school. It was grood. Very grood.



And now, today, is the 19th of April. Do you have any idea what this means?



WE GET TO MEET LINUS FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAAAAAAAY!!!!



I'm getting picked up after French to go to the airport and pick up our little Alaskan Malamute puppy, who is flying in from Ohio. Um....EXCITED.

And bewildered. It's almost unbelievable.





So, I should go, now that I have caught myself up....again.



The next time I write, I will be a lovestruck mess :)


Audios.





Songs of the week:


Long, Long Time Ago from Pan's Labyrinth

Hafsol by Sigur Rós

Hljómalind by Sigur Rós

Grow Till Tall by Jónsi

Bliss. Frisbee frisbee frisbee.

Ohh, Il fait beau!

The weather is just prime right now. Just prime. I was just sitting around in my dorm room after French class, and decided around 4:45 that is was time to get out and get happy. So, I weighed my options, and decided that the best course of action would be to pack my bag, go downstairs and grab a sandwich and some cereal, and mosey my way on over to the East Bank for some quality time with the sun and my French homework.

I chomped upon a lil' ice cream cone as I strolled across the bridge. There is barely a swatch of grass without a soccer game on it. And the patches without soccer contain frisbee matches, hippies playing guitar, a group of frat guys hugging their buddies, a guy putting on pants (over his basketball shorts, mind you) potential lovers talking about homework and pizza, and other common human paraphernalia.

I was worried when the girl put 6000 onions on my sandwich that I would be dying. Nope. This tastes real good.

This is my favorite time of day. The sun is at the perfect angle to still keep you warm, but it sheds this magnificent golden light on everything. Except right now, because some rogue clouds thought it would be funny to mosey in front of the sun. Jerks.

No offense to anyone, but inquisitive Chinese sentences sound hilarious when yelled from a distance. Perhaps English sounds weird, too, but how would I know?

Can you tell that when I'm in a visually stimulating place, that my thoughts basically have no linkage between them whatsoever? If you have a problem with rabbit trails, you had best stop reading this.

BLARGH! This is an old bearded guy sitting on the fifth-floor balcony of Coffman, watching all of us here in the grass. Not going to lie, that startled me pretty bad.

Another bearded old guy wearing burnt orange is biking along the sidewalk, with two heavy paper grocery bags on his bike handles. Precarious.

Ahh, the Sun has returned, and with it's friend Wind. Very good.

Whoa, the lawn I am on is nearly deserted, now. The hippies are still here, though.

I think I might head inside soon. Wind is overpowering Sun. And since I have to deal with paper, this would be a good idea.

Mosey time.

Sounds of the Moment:

Bus...bus...bus...

That guy over there, coughing.

Someone fake screaming

Me, sneezing.

A language I don't know.

BIRDS.

Feet of girl, running.

...cicada?...baby chainsaw?

That car.

Friends greeting.

Airplane hustling.

Bike clicking.

Brakes squealing.

Bus driver chiding.

Beepbeepbeep bus cards.

"Ha ha, ha ha" behind me.

Velcro operating.

Bliss.

No icky additives or pesky preservatives.

I am sitting here on Rachel's bed, eating Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, and watching two baffled med try and load huge bundles of wooden poles into the wood storage area behind Regis. On guy is zipping around with a little forklift, and can carry the wood, but not get it through the doorway into the back area. Too bad, guy.

Ahh, what a week. Last week at this time, my chum Brenna came down form St. Benedict's to tour the campus with me. As we made our way into the mall, the grass was basically deserted, for it was about to rain and really spooky out. Across the sidewalk there was a little Indian music group, banging and rattling and plunking things and droning "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna...". It was quite pleasant, really. Ber and I played fetch with sticks until it began to really rain, and the music people moved into the bridge.

So, she took me home, and I spent a nice weekend with the fam. Carla and I went on a walk to go find feathers for her hat, and after walking in the woods, realized that, oh, I think perhaps tick season has begun.

I say that passively, but in reality, ticks are my biggest irrational fear. I flicked off the one we saw and her leg, and we bolted down the hill back to the path.

You know how in movies, when a camera runs after someone in a chase scene, and the view is al bumpy and blurry and wild? Well, I discovered that the is really what your eyes do when barreling down a wooded hill.

We tore off our shoes and pulled up our pant legs, se

arching, searching. I though I saw one in my shoe, but couldn't find it, so we meandered back home, with Carla acquiring a buttload of acorn caps along the way to string into a necklace.

When we got in the house, I took of my shoes, and there was that tick, trying to crawl through my sock. Needless to say, I made a pretty loud noise, and flung the thing to the floor, where Dad swooped it up with a tissue and I disposed of the wretched thing. Yes, it was epic. Every encounter with a tick that I have is epic. Especially when they get in my hair.

Needless to say, I lost a chunk of sleep that night, thinking that ticks were roaming my being.

So, on four hours of sleep, I awoke to a beautiful Easter morning.

It's sometimes hard to me to grasp the magnitude of what Easter is until a few days after. It is so utterly life shattering.

We moseyed on over to church, sang some grand tunes, and listened to Pastor John Piper preach for one of the last times before his eight-month leave. The poor guy has been at it for probably 4 centuries without such a break. He needs a nice vacation.

I wasn't really paying attention, but it looks like those guys got the wood loaded in alright.

The rest of Easter consisted of receiving the entire extended family over at my house, to celebrate both Easter, and my Grandma's 80th birthday. It was quite nice, especially since my cousin David, his wife Erin, and their daughter Audrey came in from Milwaukee. I don't think I have ever had my hair so yanked out of joint as when I spend time with a baby with grabby hands. She couldn't get enough of it.

From Easter on, this week has been rather dull. I went and interviewed a retail merchandiser at Herberger's for a paper I'm writing, and that was fascinating. If I didn't appreciate the displays in store before, I sure do now. That's a crazy psychological business.

Oh, and Rachel, Lucie and I went to visit a possible apartment on Monday in Dinkytown. We'll see how that pans out.

D'oi, so last night, I stood for four hours drawing the inside of the Regis Center for Fine Arts for my drawing class. I came back all ragged and smudged, towing this huge drawing, which Rachel promptly said needed to go on the wall. Gee willikins, fine by me. Here it is:

and in relation to my head:

I feel ok about it. There are definitely things I wished I would have had time to finish. Bleh.

Well, I should be going. French time.

Audios.

Songs of the Week:

Breathe Me by Sia

Forest Green, Oh Forest Green by Holly Miranda

Junebug by Robert Francis