Filled with Love and Life and Grand Illusion

Ahhh how I have missed that smell. You know, after a never-ending and dreary winter, you get that first whiff of someone grilling out – the smell of charcoal wafting throughout the neighborhood. That right there is a sign, my friend – the inauguration of spring and the promise of summer. It gives me a little hope to know that soon the sun will return, the gray skies will dissipate, and flip flops will once again become acceptable footwear…at least by my generation.

Some of my summer favorites include: grilling all sorts of things (obviously), freshly cut grass, the sound of kids playing outside and lawn mowers going all throughout the neighborhood, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, swimming pools, the ice cream man! (hey, no one is ever to old for that), shorts, driving with the windows down, flowers, vacation, the long hours of daylight, and ohh the smell of sunscreen.

Summer is by far my favorite season of the year. Sure, some may say it’s too hot, but with summer, the possibilities are much more available and abundant than, say, during the middle of a blizzard or a thunderstorm. It’s just great to be able to spend a whole day outside, from dawn ’til dusk. Those are some of the best days of summer – just playing around outside all day until the sun goes down, and then ending the day with a bonfire. It seems like a much more simpler time like when our parents were young and would spend the entire day out on their bikes or playing in the street with the neighbor kids. Sometimes I wish I was born during that era, but then again, today can be pretty great too.

When you hear the term “vandalize” what comes to mind? Some broken glass, maybe, a trashed school gym, or maybe graffiti? I’d say Americans tend to think as a group that graffiti is a bad thing – something only trouble-making teenagers who sneak out at night to scribble some sprawling message on the side of a boxcar do. The thing is, though, that looked-down-upon act is actually (although not always) a brilliant piece of artwork. I’ve always been fascinated with graffiti. I saw it all over New York – it looked a lot like a logo being professionally painted on the side of the building, only prettier, more personal, and more important with meaning.

I think graffiti is beautiful – maybe not in the traditional sense of the word, but there is, no doubt, a lot of beauty to be found along the dark, drizzly alleyways we wouldn’t think to go down. And it’s not just aesthetically pleasing in the way that it jumps out at you with boldness and vivid color, it also takes a stand. Most graffiti artists do what they do in order to convey a message, they use their art passionately – and well, they have to be passionate! They’re breaking the law (depending on where they are) of course!

Anyways, I was thinking about this after flipping through a book I found in our bookstore between my classes. I wished I would have had more time to look through it though because it was pretty awesome – I would recommend checking it out.

Packages, packages! I love getting packages! In college, snail mail is the best. Normally, mail isn’t that exciting – especially senior year when all you got was thousands upon thousands of junk mail from every college across the country. Now, though, mail can be the highlight of my day. Most days my mailbox remains empty, but every once in awhile, I’m surprised by a letter or package card sneaking out from the darkness of our teeny tiny mailbox – then I get to go parading down the stairs with my package card to the front desk, and race back up the stairs to open my mysterious and goodie-filled package. I’ve gotten a couple cards, some movies, candy, magazines, and…oh…art supplies – those dang art supplies. It’s so exciting!

So on Saturday, we did something out of the ordinary – we went to Indy! No worries, no planning, we just went. It was me, Jamie, and Jackie. It was awesome. No doubt. Screaming “White Houses” at the top of our lungs was definitely a good way to kick off our spontaneous road trip. First stop was Mass. Ave. – one of my favorite streets in Indy. It’s a really artsy, music-loving, boutique-lined kind of street, and I would recommend stopping there if you’re ever in the neighborhood. My favorite store is Silver in the City, which my mom and I have been going to on little road trips like these over the past five years or so. I never pass it up. I wish there were more streets like these around. No chain restaurants, or Wal-Marts, or McDonald’s. Just local places, the kind of places you walk into and find the most unique and happy people. These are the kind of places that are full of character and life.

Anyway, we just had a great time hanging out. We shopped (of course!), we ate at some cool pizza place on the centre, and we took lots of pictures. Broadripple (another street) was one of our last stops. That’s my other favorite street in Indy – go there too if you get the chance. It would be even better if I was 21 because it’s full of cool little pubs, some of which open up these big long windows in the summer so that you’re practically sitting outside even though you’re still inside. You know, some people say that Indy is boring, but it has some hidden gems in my opinion. Even take Fort Wayne, which isn’t always the greatest, but if you look around, you can find some pretty terrific places.

Mmmmmm I love Milanos. They are just so deliciously scrumptious….but only the double chocolate – the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow haha. I love them so much that I’m eating them as I write this. It’s probably not such a good thing that our dining halls have these, and I have a practically unlimited (not really, but it seems like it) amount of money in my account. That means buying way more Milanos than I need to eat. Oh well, everyone has a weakness! That’s one bad thing about college – lots of junk food right at your fingertips…I guess that’s why the freshman 15 is so infamous. Luckily, I have yet to gain those extra pounds, so I think I’ll keep eating my cookies.

People are all about convenient and quick these days. It seems as though every day is about how much you can do in the smallest amounts of time, and there’s always something new on the agenda. Sometimes it’s like there’s a voice in your head saying, “go, go, go, GOOO!” Exhausting just to think about the day ahead of you. And because we’re constantly on the move, more and more simple activities are modified to be more convenient for our busy world.

Take brushing your teeth. It only takes a couple minutes out of your morning and a couple minutes out of your evening, yet it seems like people can’t even find time for that anymore. In fact, you can now get toothbrushes prepared with toothpaste from a vending machine at the local movie theater. Yeah, weird. First time I’ve ever seen such a thing in one of those bathroom vending machines… and the label said “chewable toothbrush.” Doesn’t really make me want to buy it, but ok.

I saw once on the Food Network that there are hard serve ice cream vending machines too. They were so cool! Oh yeah, and if you’ve been to the airport anytime in the past five years, you’ve probably seen the iPod vending machines – kinda cool, but really, who buys an iPod on their way to Chicago or Miami or wherever they happen to be going? Umm not me haha that’s one expensive purchase to come out a slot!

Weather here sucks. Let’s just say you never know how crappy snow, rain, etc. is until you have to trek through it day after day to class. Winter is the worst – you have to layer on bundle after bundle of scarves, hats, gloves, the whole sha-bang. I’ve started to get used to it, but it’s still not something I look forward to waking up to in the morning.

So this morning, at the bright hour of 7 am, I drowsily made my way to the bathroom with my eyes half open, started going through my routine, and all the sudden I hear on the radio, “closing at this school, closing at that school, delay here, delay there, blah, blah, blah due to freezing rain.” That’s maybe the only thing I miss about high school – the unexpected days off. With a slight glimmer of hope, though, I checked my e-mail right before class, in the doubtful case that it was canceled. I looked, and there were two e-mails from Soc. 100 (a good sign), but then I read on to find they were from students.

Grr. So I prepared myself for the icy 10 minute walk to class. Ha what a treat! It was hysterical! I could not contain my laughter, and chuckled to myself after hearing people crash to the ground and moan behind me. I felt like I was in a slow-action scene of a movie because everyone was walking as if they were just learning to walk. Ah it was funny – people slipping left and right. So I walk all the way there to hear my professor say how he almost canceled class. Luckily I managed my way there and back without falling. I consider that a small accomplishment for the day.

Ok, so this semester I started my Drawing 2 class, and, well, most people know this class as “the one that you draw naked people.” Ha it still makes me laugh. This class has worried me since last summer when people would ask me about my classes as an art major. They all joked that maybe, just maybe, I would end up meeting some gorgeous model like Lena does in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 movie (which I love by the way!), but that has yet to happen seeing as we haven’t even had a male model yet.

Anyway, today was day three of drawing the nude model. It has started to get a little easier and a   little less awkward, and actually slightly boring at times. By the end of class, I was getting annoyed. The girl that modeled has modeled for us before, and every time she almost falls asleep! First off, I don’t even know how you could even come close to falling asleep surrounded by 20 students staring you down, and being naked at the same time! Second, when she started nodding off, she kept moving her position, so by the time we were done with what was supposed to be a 20 minute drawing of one pose actually turns out to be an improvised scrambled ball of yarn with maybe a nose here and a foot there. Seriously, how am I supposed to draw someone when they’re constantly moving?! Ha sounds like a nude modeling not-to-do book in the making. Ugh, we’ll see how day 4 goes…

New Year’s resolutions are definitely not a new idea. Every year, you see them drag themselves to the gym for the first week or two (if that) in hopes that they’ll keep up a resolution that has been reinstated each year, but they somehow always fail to stick with. At our gym, there’s even a wait list for all the machines because of all the resolution-makers, and everyone says that will subside within a few weeks because they’ll all give up – kind of discouraging to think about. For that exact reason, I’m not a big fan of making up some common resolution that I know I’ll never maintain. This year, however, I kind of spontaneously and unknowingly created a goal for myself, along with the help of Claire, to actually have a workout plan. I know, I know, I sound like the person described above, but hey, there’s hope. I’ve already ran more in the past week than I have within the years since sophomore gym class when we were actually required to run that dreaded mile. So maybe I won’t be one of those people to give up this year…

Who knows? Maybe I’ll be one of those 90 year old women still working out at the gym that everyone aspires to be one day… ha or maybe not.

Claire ready to get running!

Me ready for the death run.