Friday, August 30, 2002

Wednesday:

I watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back! It wasn't as bad as John made it out to be, and I in fact, enjoyed it very much. The best part was how all the actors kept making fun of themselves and their own movies. And John, I now understand many more of your jokes. "Do somethin!"

Thursday:

My new friend Jeff has finally realized that we are both Art Education majors. He said, and I quote "Well, whatever class we both haven't taken yet, let's take them together, girlfriend!" After he walked me to class again, we were early, so we wandered around the Fine Arts building for half an hour and bought one thing out of each snack machine.

Today: My Ann is back! For the weekend! Yay!

Photography was interesting today. We toured the darkroom in our groups of six. My group is a lot of fun. We're Group One, therefore we do everything first. We had to go into the blackout room. That's where you take the film out of the cartridge things. They can't be exposed to any light of *any* kind. The walls in there are painted black, and there are no lights. You have to open the thing with a can opener, cut it in the right place, and load it onto the reels and into the chemical baths in complete and total darkness. It was an adventure, we had a great time. No one has done it right yet, but these were all just practice rolls of film.

One guy in my group named Beau talked the whole time. He told us about how easy it was to "share feelings" in the dark and proceeded to talk about how he cries when he thinks about his best friend getting married. Mr. Park was with us, and later, he said "If you mess up your first real roll of film, don't cry like Beau, you have time to shoot another one." We all laughed, but the other groups didn't get it.

In Art History, we took turns reading out of the book. How old are we? She'll wait for everyone to stop talking before she says anything. "I'm the teacher, you can't talk while I'm talking." By the end of class, we were talking on purpose so that we didn't have to keep reading out loud. But let me just say, some of these art majors should definitely never switch to English. You would be surprised how many different ways there are to pronounce Mesopotamia. And just forget about Assurbanipal and Assurnarsipal. It's bad when the teacher doesn't even pronounce Hammurabi and Sumer right. I wanted to hit people.

I went out for dinner with my Mommy and my youngest brother Marc. Then we went to Walmart. She bought me the 2002 Christmas edition Barbie doll. I have all of the ones from 1988 to 2001. They would be worth money if I didn't take them out and play with them when I was younger. The earlier ones are broken and missing hair and stuff. The more recent ones are still in boxes. Sadly, I cannot have her until Christmas, but she is very pretty. Then she and Marc went to the first football game of the season. If you know anything about high school football in the state of Georgia, particularly in Southern Georgia, you know this is an important night. (The Valdosta High School Wildcats have won more national championships than any high school team in history. But they're the arch-rivals of the school I went to. We happened to beat them for the first time in 10 years when I was a freshman, and we won the state championship when I was a Senior! Yay for Lowndes!) Ahem, off track there. Anyway, I don't particularly like football, but it's a whole separate religion in this town. And I'm being serious. Tomorrow, me and Mommy are going to the regional arts and crafts show.



Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Everyone has to tell me how proud they are of me. I made a new friend! I've never met him before, but he somehow already knew my name. He sat next to me in 2D Design and talked to me and the Powertool Girls. Then he walked me to class in the rain. His name is Jeff and he's definitely homosexual and proud of it. I mean, it might as well be tattooed on his forehead, just from the things he says and how he says them. Not to mention the bright pink shirt. And if that didn't do it, we were walking in the parking lot and some guy stared at his shirt. So he yelled "Yes, I'm gay! And you probably are too!" The guy ignored him. He looked at me and said "That's how you tell, you know. Gay guys always stare at each other." I laughed at him. He's so much fun to be around. He talked nonstop from the moment he sat down next to me until he left me at the Art Education room door. He's an art education major, too. Oh, and he has a crush on Mr. Valley (who is, as I said before, hot ;) ) He's definitely....unique. I like him.

We made some brick stitched bead earrings in crafts class. I made mine the way I've always made them, and they looked exactly the same as everyone else's, but she didn't like it because I didn't make them *her* way. She can just get over that. And Mr. Valley didn't like my sketches because he said I didn't do the asymmetrical balance right. So I did them again, basically the same way, but I exaggerated it more. This received his approval. I'm not a fan of asymmetrical balance, but I'll do it to make him happy.

I got up at 8 this morning, got dressed, drove all the way to work, and discovered that she was not working again today. Sigh. You think they'd call me before I drove half an hour to town. My paycheck is going to be about half the normal amount, which is all I need right now. But hey, more time to do other things for school. I ate breakfast with everyone, we had it delivered from the Atlanta Bread Company. It wasn't the best, but we enjoyed the fact that we weren't working and had time to sit and eat. Tomorrow....the dentist!



Monday, August 26, 2002

Happy Birthday Adam!

I'm at home! I am not at work! Dr. Loeffler (as we predicted) is sick from the chemotherapy. She insisted that we see patients today. But when I rushed to get there after class...no one. There was a note telling me that we were not working today and that they were all at lunch. So I came home!

I was dragging all four of my bags and boxes and things upstairs this morning at 7:30, when Mr. Park, the photography teacher, caught up to me. He opened the doors for me, then asked me if I was moving in. I told him no, just taking four studio classes. Then he stared at me and asked me if I was crazy. Yes, I am. At the top of the stairs, I ran into Jason! He's the first person I've seen so far this semester that I actually know pretty well. I went to middle school and high school with him. I was very glad to see him. He stared at me, too. So I walked over and handed him some of my things. I didn't ask, I just gave them to him. Mr. Park laughed. For some reason *innocent look* he got the tackle box, which is the heaviest thing. He almost dropped it. He should have a new respect for us art people now, carrying around all that stuff. Jason and I had a conversation about why he was in the building, because he's supposed to be a pre-med major. We don't get many of those in the art building. He said he was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do, but it seemed that I had already found myself. I said I sure hoped so, because I didn't want to look again.

We learned about chemicals in photography, drawing was...normal. He made everyone critique someone else's work. And I just tried to stay awake in art history. Then I rushed to get to work, I barely made it on time, and didn't have to anyway. This week is going so much better so far. *crosses fingers* And no weird dreams either!



Sunday, August 25, 2002

My car is fixed, I did all my homework through Tuesday, and I went to the library. Things are going great right now. Probably not tomorrow. But we'll see, I guess. I've never not looked forward to school. I'm one of those weird people that actually like it, but I'm dreading it tomorrow. And that's strange for me.

Anyway, at church this morning, one of the girls from my class last year insisted that she sit with me. I told her parents that it was fine with me if it was okay with them. So she sat next to me. Then another girl showed up. She had to come sit with us. And a third one sat in my lap. I was the popular teacher or something, but it felt good that they wanted to sit with me. And my class behaved. They're fun so far. However, one of the girls' mothers won't leave. She stays in the classroom the entire time. And I know her daughter has Type I Diabetes, but it's not like I'm going to offer her sugar or something. And what's she going to do when her daughter goes to real school? Really. I got the first Religious Educator's Journal of the year. I took the big quiz inside and I got a good score. Yay for me!

My brother and I went to Wendy's after church. Then we went to Michael's. I found some glass beads that match my loomwork that I did in class on Thursday! They matched perfectly! I was so excited. And I got a lot of different Hematite beads to use in another project. Fun. Then we walked across campus in the hot sun and climbed the stairs to the third floor of the Library. Only to discover that they were packing up all of the recent periodicals. (Big expansion project, new wing of the library, four floors, etc...) Mr. Valley will just have to deal with printouts from the internet instead of actual copies like he requested. I copied things from the old periodicals, but there are no new ones on the shelves. I checked out some books for my Art History project that I hope to do over Labor Day weekend. I know it's not due until November, but I want to do it now and forget about it. Then we had to walk all the way to the Fine Arts building to the Fine Arts Media Center and read the copies of reserved articles for Art History. Sigh. It was all about Venus of Willendorf and Stonehenge, things that I've studied before in my Ancient Female Heroes and Ancient Religions class. But that's okay.

And I've had yet another strange dream. I was living in this alternate universe, but it was like a colonial village. Modern clothes and stuff, just no electricity, that kind of thing. So I was wandering down the street, looking for (sigh...don't say a word) Frodo, Aragorn, and Legolas because I was supposed to meet them for something. But I couldn't find them. Then I turned the corner on to the main street and there were people running everywhere. I looked across the fields, and a giant wildfire was burning in the woods, heading for our town. I asked someone running by where the guys were and he said they were fighting the fire and that's where all the men were going. I ran into the nearest shop and the women were inside talking about how the only person who could come and stop the fire to save us all was a witch living in the "real" world. They were sending a few people through the portal to find her, but I wasn't going.

Then the dream changed to a "Meanwhile, on the real planet Earth" thing. I wasn't there, but I could see what was happening. It was the inside of a police station and Denzel Washington was the sherriff. He was talking to a girl, who was apparently crazy. She was homeless and kept yelling to people on the street about fires. He eventually decided that he couldn't put her in jail or anything, so he let her go. Outside, she was walking across the street, when a bookshelf appeared in the middle. A man ran up to it, then ran through it. She stared. Another girl, about her age, noticed that she was staring. This new girl ran up to her and asked if she could really see the bookshelf. The homeless girl just nodded. The second girl said something like "I found you! You're the right one! Come on!" Then she grabbed her arm, dragged her to the bookshelf, shoved her through it, and I woke up. Someone analyze that one. ;)



Friday, August 23, 2002

Look who finally has time to be online! I honestly forgot that I didn't have to work today. I didn't remember until I showed up and no one was there. Between school every day, work, homework, required weekly research at the library, getting things ready for Sunday school each week, and miscellaneous other things like buying art supplies, I have literally no extra time.

I guess the thing is that art people can't spend 20 minutes doing math problems. We spend hours and hours doing our artwork. Then again, it was my own choice. I wish I didn't have to work, but I can't afford not to. Speaking of which, I spent about 600 dollars on art supplies this semester so I'm holding off on the domain name. I have a design and a theme and all of that, but I A. can't afford it right now and B. don't have time to upload it all anyway. That will have to be that.

However, I did get my checkcard and I did join the Lord of the Rings fanclub. I haven't watched the movie in a whole week, I think I'm having withdrawal. Maybe that's part of my stress problem. ;) In other stress related problems and financial problems, my transmission in my car is not working. I have no car. And I have to buy parts for it because my mom won't and my dad doesn't have money to do so. I had to drive my grandma's 1970 Impala today. It's an antique, seriously. There are no seatbelts, no air conditioner or heater, no radio, and the speedometer doesn't work. The gas mileage is terrible. Of course there was no gas in there when I started, so I had to pay and fill it up.

On my way home, it was raining, and there was a pickup truck in front of me. I was following it to make sure I wasn't speeding. So yes, it was raining and all of a sudden, the back window opened. Two guys climbed out of the window, took off their clothes, and started waving at people. I waved back. It was funny. My problem is that while I'm at school, I'm fine. At work, I'm fine. (Except when that nursing student came to visit and *I* had to teach her everything. Add more stress to my job ;) )When I get home and sit down in my room, then I realize how much stuff I have to do and it's terrible. But I can't shouldn't complain because I know some people have it worse. At least I don't have a full-time job and some kids.

New subject: I had this really weird dream. I was in Rivendell (it's withdrawal, I tell you) and the elves were having a party. But it was like a modern Rivendell with electricity and TV's and disco lights. Elrond was sitting on a raised platform, like a throne and people were talking to him. He was very angry about something. I was hanging out on the dance floor when my cell phone rang. It was Arwen. She told me that she was on her way and that she had her dad's new robes that he wanted to wear to the party. She asked to talk to him. I said okay and started walking towards him when the second phone line rang. I answered it, and it was Arwen. She said that she had his staff, too, and was bringing it. I asked her why he had a staff, he wasn't a wizard. She just acted annoyed and told me to give him the phone. I finally made it over to him and he gave me the "evil look." I held out the phone and said "Um...Line one is for you. It's Arwen. And um....Line two is for you. It's Arwen." Then the elves around him started laughing, he snatched the phone, and I woke up. Hmm...



Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Yes, I am going to drop out of school. I think that if it wasn't for the reunion of the Powertool Girls today, it would be a complete failure. Luckily, all of us are in the same 2D class. We sat in the back and talked about Richard Petermanpants. Don't ask. Everyone else in the class thought we were insane. Then Richard walked through the door. We waved at him, he did a dance for us, then he left. It was great. And as I said yesterday, we didn't know who the teacher was exactly. It was not Mr. Edwards. It's some new guy who looks younger than us named Mr. Valley. He is hot. There is no other word for it. But because he's new to teaching and he doesn't know what to expect yet, he's giving us way too much work. This is a design class, not an in-depth study. We don't have time for all of the things he has planned. And research? Um....no? Not in a design class. That's a history class.

Anyway, he let us out of class two hours early. Andrea and I went to the bursary to pay our studio equipment fees. The people there wouldn't take our papers because they said "summer" at the top. The secretary forgot to change it to "fall." So we had to go all the way to the art department and tell Terry, the secretary. She cussed out the people at the bursary for being stupid, then called them and told them to accept our papers. So we went back and they were really rude to us then, but accepted them. Stupid fees.

Andrea had to go home, but she dropped me off at the Fine Arts building to wait for two hours. I sat in the hallway and directed people who were lost for a while. Then my advisor came by and talked to me about how my classes were. I've decided to like her for now, but I didn't used to like her at all. Same with Mr. Edwards. For now. I was sitting outside of the drawing room when a bunch of freshman art students came over for class. They were all nervous and scared to go in the room. So I took them in and showed them how the bench/easels work and told them all the stuff they didn't want to hear, but needed to know. Like how we're required to stand up to draw and stuff. I left them and went to the Art Education room, but I think they were still scared when I left.

My art education teacher is insane. We're learning "crafts" this semester. Crafts are basket weaving, sewing, working with bead looms (I already know how, yay!), making paper, and macrame'. Folk art stuff, I guess you would say. We have to make our own bead looms out of tree branches, even though I have a real one of my own. Sigh. Like I have time. I met the rest of the art education people in my graduating class, and we met the seniors this year. That consists of seven people. There are about 20 total in the Art Education program.

Then, believe it or not, I had to walk alllllll they way to the parking lot, which is a mile away, in a thunderstorm. Not to mention drive home in it. Can we say "panic attack"? But yes, I survived. And now I have a million and a half things to do before tomorrow morning at 8 am, so I will try and be on later.



Monday, August 19, 2002

I am going to drop out of school, quit my job, and become a bum. Yes. Or marry someone rich. So here goes:

I arrived at school at 7:30 am. And I did get a good parking place. All I had to do was cross the street to the Fine Arts building. I found my first classroom with no difficulty because I know my way around campus. Especially that building. It was Photography, with Mr. Park. He seems perfectly nice (but a little absent-minded) and I think I'll get a good grade in his class, but it's so expensive! They don't tell you that you have to buy your very own 35 mm manual focus camera. You have to buy your own film and developing paper and chemicals. There is one store in town that sells those things. You better believe that they can charge whatever they want.

After this, I went to Art History with Dr. Davis. She is, how to put this nicely, older. And I'm not sure what grade she thought she was teaching. She had to explain the concept that Art History meant we were studying art and we were studying history. Really? She went around the room and had everyone say their name and their major. She seemed pleased that we were all majoring in art. You think? I mean, I know the class is only open to art majors, but weren't we all expecting some biology majors in there? *end sarcasm for now* Then she handed out a syllabus and read it to us, word for word. She handed out instructions of how to write our research paper. *Ten* pages of just instructions. She is choosing our topic for us. We whispered amongst ourselves about this and she said, and I am not kidding: "People, you are supposed to let me talk, not be talking amongst yourselves. I am the teacher." She offered to help us with our papers because after all she is "a professional art historian and a professional writer." Yes, Dr. Davis, whatever you say.

Okay, so after all of that, I went to Drawing II with Mr. Edwards. I know I said that I didn't like him last year, but I was looking forward to this class. About half of us were from his Drawing I class last Spring, and we all sat in the back with our bench/easels in a circle. We told the new people horror stories about him. He walked in late, as usual, saw us all sitting the back and said "Not you again." Then he sighed and took roll. When he finished, he looked up and made an announcement. With a perfectly serious expression on his face he said "For those of you who have had me before, there will be some changes this semester. I have become much more fun." We started laughing and he said for us to shut up. He did actually seem more light-hearted than before. Maybe he figured he got rid of all the undedicated art people last year and we are the ones who are left.

Then I went to work. She decided for some reason that we would see 47 people today. She is used to seeing about half that many with a nurse practitioner there. We left an hour and half later than we were supposed to. So I went to the gym and now I am home. Tomorrow I have to work in the morning, then I have 2D Design (which I've heard Mr. Edwards is teaching. Yay....maybe.) And I have my Art Education class with Dr. Davis, but a different Dr. Davis. At least it better be. I know there are two.



Sunday, August 18, 2002

My Ann left me! She went off to college. It was very sad. But she will have email at school and a phone and she'll be online again in three weeks when she comes home for a weekend. Church was good today. Michael showed up, but I didn't ask why he was in town. It's just a good feeling to have someone come up and hug you. He even noticed my haircut. And then he hugged me again, and I went to class. I have six kids in my class, four girls and two boys. One of each of them talked constantly. And I mean, constantly. I didn't catch half of what they were saying. But none of them cried! They all came to class willingly! And they all said they had fun and wanted to come back again. I caught Noah asking his mom if he could come tomorrow. The director was standing there when he asked, so I was like "Ha! I'm a good teacher! My kids want to come back."

After that, my brother and I went to Wendy's. Then we went and stood in line in the hot sun, waiting for them to unlock the One-card office. One-cards are the ID cards at VSU and they put your scholarship money on them, like credit cards. When they finally unlocked the door, I was about sixth in line, but it still took ten minutes to get up there. Then the lady spent about one minute putting my book money on the card. After that, I went next door to the bookstore, which was so crowded we couldn't hardly walk. Luckily, all of the art books are in one section, and it is not crowded. I found out that I only had to buy three books! Yay! One class doesn't require one, and I already had another one. So then we waited in the checkout line for about half an hour because it went all the way around the store, even with six cashiers. I was very excited when I only had to pay 30 dollars out of my own pocket. I was expecting to have to pay a lot more. More money to buy stuff online! Ahem, yes. Then we went to the grocery store and came home.



Saturday, August 17, 2002

I know I told some of you this already. From what I hear, my Daddy and my stepmother have filed bankruptcy. In my personal opinion, this is because A. My Mommy used to pay all of the bills and since he divorced her, Daddy has had to pay all of them. And B. My stepmother had a lot of inheritance money, but has spent it all. Part of me wants to say 'Ha! It's your own fault that you have this problem!' and part of me wants to say 'Noooo!! That means we have to cancel our Broadway season tickets!' Neither of these is a particularly nice opinion of the situation, and in fact it seems very hateful of me, but there it is.

I started making my Daddy's carrot cake this afternoon. It was halfway mixed up when my mom called. She had to go to the hospital to help take care of a baby that was dying. Therefore, I had to stop everything that I was doing and take my brother to a birthday party. Which was okay. I just hope the cake doesn't taste funny. I haven't heard anything else about the baby and I doubt that I will. And when I got home my grandmother was telling me about her day and she said "Maybe if I die, my back won't hurt anymore." Yes Grandma, that's very positive. So I have retreated to my room to prepare for the first day of Sunday School tomorrow and going to stand in line to buy books. It's either going to be really good or really bad.



Thursday, August 15, 2002

Why did I volunteer to work all day tomorrow? Kim, the girl who does my job in the morning, won't be there. So I, in a moment of insanity, told them I could work all day if they wanted me to. Of course they wanted me to! I didn't think about the fact that it is my last morning of my two week summer vacation. Hmph. Yes, that's right. School starts Monday morning at 8 am. Remind me in a few weeks that I like signing up for 8 am classes because it means I have a parking place.

I took a quiz, look!

Congrats! You're the Princess of Hyrule! Although you suffer from an identity crisis, your character is not weak. You care deeply for those around you and often put your worldly knowledge to use by helping people with their problems. You sometimes depend on others, but are not incompetent; when the time calls for it, you can kick some serious ass.

Take the Which OoT Character are You? Quiz!



Yay for Zelda! It is the greatest game ever made. And it's the only, and I mean only one I will play. (Well, other than Earthbound, which is the second greatest game ever made.) My favorite is the Ocarina of Time, and I really can't stand Majora's Mask. I have played and beaten all of the Zelda games in existence. I have the action figures and the soundtracks and all that, too. It's not really an obsession, because I don't play it very often at all, I just really like it. The exciting thing was that the questions in the quiz asked about characters like the Happy Mask Salesman, the Running Guy, etc, and I knew what they meant! I was not confused!



Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Today was very exciting. I got my hair cut. But no worries, it's still below my shoulders. Just barely. He said he cut 8 inches off. I haven't had it this short since...8th grade. It's cute, though. I went by the office and they all loved it. Erica said I was very brave and Colleen said she was proud of me. Dr. Loeffler said I should have gotten it shorter.

Then I met my Mommy at Chik-Fil-A for lunch. Then we went to the mall. I was originally looking for a present for my Daddy's birthday next week, but I ended up buying a Care Bears thing that sits in the car and it's head goes up and down while you're driving. Whatever that's called. It's Tenderheart Bear, which is my favorite. Then I went to the bookstore, continuing the search for the present. They had a life-size Legolas cardboard display! I was very excited, and asked if I could maybe have it. Sadly, someone named Emily had already claimed it. This is why I need to work at the bookstore. Damn it. ;) I got my Daddy a book. It's a children's book and it's called "What Daddies are Good For." He'll like it.

Me and Mommy went to Toys-R-Us and I got a Harry Potter "Tom Riddle" journal thing that screams when you open it. And we went to Michael's so I could get some new sketch pads for art class. Mr. Edwards will require them, I know. We went to Sam's and looked at laptops for my brother. There was a new one; it was smaller than mine and it was very cute. I wanted it, but I already have one.

My last stop of the day was the bank. I filled out the papers to get a check card! Woohoo! Why did I not do this a long time ago? Why? I mean, now I can order stuff online! (Lord of the Rings.net, Amazon.com, CDNOW, watch out!) And there are no interest rates or fees or anything! I just have to make sure I don't spend money that I don't have in my checking account. Now, all I have to do is think of a domain name.



Sunday, August 11, 2002

I made a carrot cake yesterday! Compeletely homemade. I don't know if it was good or not, I had to take it to my Mama at the hospital so she could share it with the other nurses at work. And Dr. Griner. As we all know, Dr. Loeffler will be starting chemotherapy next week and will not be working for a few days to get used to it. Another of the pediatricians in town, Dr. Anderson, had a stroke yesterday, so he will not be working for quite a while. Our town doesn't have enough pediatricians as it is, and with two of them out, I feel sorry for the remaining four. But we'll all be fine.

This morning at church, four young people walked in late. They were around my age. Instead of finding somewhere to sit in the back, they went alllll the way to the front. The very front. And the two girls were dressed like they were going out to a club, not to church. I assumed, as I'm sure many people did, that they're students at VSU (who all arrive in town this week). Anyway, after Mass was basically over, Father John said that we were going to start a new Youth Program for high school kids (we don't currently have one) and that the people who wanted to run this program were going to talk to us about it. Guess who these people are? Yes, the four people who came in late.

They went up to the microphone and started talking......and they're Australian! The accent gave it away. ;) They are two married couples who just moved here. Now really, why on earth would two young, Australian couples move to a place like Valdosta? There is no reason for them to be here, there is very little job opportunity. We didn't advertise for youth ministers. Hmm. One of the guys talked first. He said, and I am not kidding: "Let's kick it up a notch!!!!" The other three people smiled happily. We all just....stared. I'm sure several people glanced at Father John to make sure they'd heard him right. We're a very quiet church, we don't kick up anything. His wife realized he was not getting the response they wanted, so she took over and explained their goals. I'm tempted to volunteer to help with their program, but I honestly don't think I have time. And they kind of scared me. They were way too excited. Especially for us. And they were not dressed for church. But we'll see how it goes, I guess.