I CAN SEE THE END!!!

Hi! Wowzers, guys. I only have 14 days of school left in the semester! Not that I counted or anything...ha! So, you know that point when you realize, oh wow! Only 14 days left! Yay! Then you think...oh my GOSH!!!! How in the life am I gonna finish everything I have to!?!?! Yeah...I'm at that point now. Thankfully, I realized it earlier than I usually do and I planned out everything I have due until the very end. Each week is written out so I can look ahead of time and actually do what I need to. This week, I have a final research paper for American Art, a research presentation, and an art project. I can do this. (:

This is also the part of the semester where I realize how much I actually do...and try to reconcile that with how much is physically possible to do. Since I also work every day that I'm not in school, and I intern all day Thursday, and I'm adding things like Student Ambassadors and Treasurer of Alpha Chi next semester, I figure planning is what it's all about. Plus balance. Physical, spiritual, and emotional balance. That's what I'll been striving for this week.

I don't want it to seem like it's all work and no play! I do things for myself sometimes and especially with my friends. The other night, I went after class to help a friend who is scenic designing a new off-Broadway show--he was picking up a table and chair from a Craigslister. That was QUITE a fiasco. You try pushing a huge Ikea table on two wheels, then breaking one side and having to wheel that sucker 6 blocks on one wheel. Plus carrying a chair and the other two legs of the table. :D We rested once we got back...

Foof!

Yayy! His show opens tomorrow! :D

I also really want to see this new photography exhibition. Its all about the Civil Rights era...which I'm supremely interested in. Civil War and Civil Rights have always been really interesting for me...I'm thinking about secret, mysterious ideas for my senior studio art thesis show... ;) Can't tell, but it may be partially inspired by that.

Besides all this, the weather has been nutso here in NY. One second its rainy...

...the next, sunny and gorgeous!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy, blessed Easter Sunday! I was at the sunrise and 9:30am services at Astoria Community Church and then worked all day at FAO Schwarz. Seems like everyone was gone that weekend--I was wishing I was at home with my family. But alas, duty calls! I'm was just excited to break Lent and my fast--I can finally have chocolate and eat junk food again! :D

It's been ages!

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a delightful spring break! I spent mine down south...I flew to Virginia for the day, went shopping for Italy clothes (!), drove down to North Carolina with my mom and spent the night at her sister's house. I got to see my super cute cousins, Makena and Trey and Chelsea, and Chelsea's son Caden. 

Caden James (:

Makena Elizabeth!

After that, we drove down to Beaufort, SC where I was born and spent a total of 6 years of my life. However, the weather was not optimal--it rained pretty much the whole time. It was pretty cool to see how everything is changing, though! Unfortunately, we did get bored with the weather and decided to come home early...but we stayed the night in Myrtle Beach, SC in this awesome hotel...it had a lazy river! Overall it was a very relaxing vacation away from the busy, busy, ever busy City. (:

A plantation house for sale in downtown Beaufort.

View from our hotel in Myrtle Beach!

Once I got back, there was a whirlwind of stuff to do. Advising appointments (a bit of a nightmare since I'm feverishly trying to graduate as a transfer student, double majoring, on time...), two research papers due, and interning made for a crazy week. It felt like I hadn't really gotten a week off. Oh, well. What can ya do? I'm just happy there are only a few weeks left until the freedom and excitement of summer!!!!

Registration went well, I got all of the classes I need--I'm taking Michelangelo, Senior Art History Seminar, Senior Studio Art Seminar, Drawing II, and Visual Arts Seminar. So many seminars!

Work is going well, nothing much to report. Internship is as well--Katy is finally so much better than when she fell at Christmastime and broke her elbow. Dont remember if I told yall, but I intern with Katy Martin--she's a contemporary artist who lives/works in Tribeca and owns her own printing business. I intern for 8 hours every Thursday before my 7pm class. We went the full 8 hours last Thursday and got so much accomplished! She wants me to bring in some drawings to play around with on Photoshop, so I'm working on that. I finally finished my best friend's birthday painting...which was supposed to be January 29. Ha, here it is!

From a picture of us, silhouetted and paint spattered.

I also got an email the other day about volunteering for a bereavement center gala and I decided to do it. I used to volunteer all the time in Virginia and I was happy to be doing it again. Here's all of us lovely ladies at the gala, dressed classy and sophisticated for the guests! It was awesome to see philanthropy at work. The proceeds went to such a worthy cause: http://www.acaringhand.org/. It was awesome!

We're so elegant.

I'm a member of the Student Ambassadors at MMC, too, and yesterday I spent my day off for freshman/sophomore advisement at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts representing Marymount! It was fun to see all the high schoolers like some of y'all getting geared up for college! Hit me up if you have questions! (:
Have a lovely week!

PS A riddle for you! Here's some text from a Gullah New Testament I found in Beaufort...can you figure it out?

PPS I got my nose pierced! :D

Spring Break!!

Hey guys! Sorry I dropped off the face of the planet...I had SO MUCH TO DO! Lately, my notes have been more doodle than note...

Luckily, I'm finally done with my pre-Spring Break preparations. I am done with my papers, homework, classwork, presentations, artwork, extra art projects, my last day of work for the week is done...it feels so GOOD! And it looks simply marvelous outside today...it's a balmy 34 degrees but the sun is shining and the sky is perfectly light blue--or celeste. I'm teaching myself Italian in preparation for my summer trip to Italy. (: Its called Instant Immersion and its AMAZING--just like Rosetta Stone, but like $30 as opposed to $600.

So...that paper I was working on and drafting, and drafting, and drafting...and drafting...got accepted for Honor's Day! It was so much work, I was really glad that someone actually read it besides me. After it was accepted, I had to work on my presentation--thirty minutes seems like a long time until you have to present a ten page paper! But I rehearsed it and wrote my speech and made my powerpoint. Phew, it was so much work but on the actual day, it went so well! My day started at 8:45am with Alpha Chi inductions--its the top 10%, and you have to have a 3.75 gpa or greater, which apparently I do. Great! Turns out I get the honor of serving as Treasurer on the executive board next year! I got to see four other presentations for Honor's Day too! One was the winner of the highest award--the Deans Award-- then two on art and one on the veiling of Muslim women. It was superb to see how much work we all put into it and to be recognized for it--its a great feeling! Heres a video from my presentation!

Two days ago, my friends Carly and William came over to Astoria and we played with makeup--this was Williams creation:

I've also been working on a project for William's very belated birthday and I finally finished (see below)! One more thing to check off of my to-do list!

Last night, I sang for the praise team again at my church in Astoria. Lately I've been working on Sundays so I haven't been able to go to the morning service--but I got to sing last night and it was so fun! We checked out La Papa (also in Astoria) afterward and apparently, Barack Obama comes quite often. (:

Have a good spring break--be safe and come visit NYC! I'm off to South Carolina, where I used to live, for a nice, relaxing beach vacay...see ya!

SPRINGGG!

Spring has begun to spring! There was a lovely bird singing to me on my fire escape the other day and I've been waking up to sunshine at 8 in the morning! Its definitely uplifting after so much snow this year. We must have had about 25 blizzards. Snowpocalypse '11. (: But now its getting nicer-- I can even go running outside, although its not quite spring yet...we still have random downpours.

I've been sick for the past week and I finally had to break down and go to the ER. It turned out to be a viral infection in my throat, but it was ROUGH! I had a sore throat and then a nagging chronic cough, and finally I lost my voice for two days. That was slightly entertaining because I work as a salesperson at a toy store. I was trying to talk to customers and I ended up squeaking at them...I got a lot of funny looks. Unfortunately, I seem to be a trend setter and everyone now has it. Sorry y'all!

School is back in full force...winter break seems like a distant memory. I feel like I have been writing and will be writing papers for my whole life. What I don't mind is that I'm now interested in all of my classes! I absolutely love my African and American Art classes and I'm learning so much. I also love how the professors care about how their students learn. Today, we took a class vote to see if she was teaching too slowly or quickly or what and we decided to cover the material in a much more cohesive way. It really makes you take part in the structure of class so you can learn better!

Lately, Ive been so sure of my majors. I'm so happy as a double major in studio art and art history. It truly interests me and Im definitely doing what I love! I was walking home from work one day and I saw this absolutely fascinating gallery on 5th Avenue...unfortunately it was closed, but I snuck a picture of this awesome sculpture--I couldn't figure it out but I love it!

Later on I saw this random foot sculpture outside of a brownstone on the Upper East Side...so much art in this city!

 On a side note, Ive been having roommate issues, which is never fun. A word to the wise: DO YOUR DISHES. Or you'll end up like me--dealing with 3 weeks worth of standing water and a clogged sink that you cant talk to your roommate about. Communication is key.

Luckily for me, Adele released her new album! Its AMAZING and you should all buy it. Heres a little preview: (:

                       

Anyway, I hope you are all having a lovely week/month/new year! Happy March! I am desperately searching for a glimpse of Spring Break--I'll be off on a brilliant holiday to my old birthtown of Beaufort, South Carolina with my mom for a mother-daughter week. I cant wait! I'm living for this:

Week OHMYGOSH

Holy mother of tornado weeks. These first few weeks of my semester have been simply CRAZYPANTS. School started not even three weeks ago, but I can barely remember it...it seems so far away!

Well, I guess I did in fact start school and with the start of school, I somehow had a few projects due in the first week or two. The first Wednesday back found me feverishly working to finish my works of art for my junior exhibition. I was running to the lumber yard, back to school, stretching canvases, gesso-ing canvases, and in between classes and on breaks I'd go back to gesso some more. (Gesso-ing is like prepping your canvas so the paint doesnt seep through...you need 5 coats at LEAST and each coat has to dry before you apply the next layer) Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night or very much until I actually hung it. But now its up and in the main art gallery! My friends even came to the reception. (:


Mine is the dancer to the left! (:

 The second huge project that I've been working on is my Honors Day submission! My professor of Surveys of Western Art I last semester encouraged me to submit this paper, but before I could, it had to be revised and edited many, many times. Probably four drafts. I'm a very big procrastinator and a very messy (but organized) kinda student and I work by crossing things off when I'm done. Heres the last draft...

In between all of that, I did have a social life. My best friend being back in the city has been wonderful! I have my own personal hairstylist. (:

Also, work has been great! The other day, I got to be...bum bum bum! A TOY SOLDIER! Thats one of those things that just doesnt happen unless youre over 6 foot. Which I'm definitely not. But they didn't have anyone for a party and I am always up for trying new things, so...I got to do it! As you can see, the uniform didn't quite fit but I made do.

Even after all of this craziness, there are certain bright spots. You know those days where everything seems to turn around because of one thing? Yeah, that happened a few times. Most memorably, my friend and I were wandering around Times Square deciding what we wanted to do when a random guy, around our age, came up to us and asked if we wanted to see Spider-Man the Musical. To which we replied...duh. $20 each! And it wasnt a scam! The show was AMAZING!!!!! Eveyrone needs to go see it. Its a mix of special effects, ridiculous scenery, cartoon, mechanics, flying, and really great music; I felt like I was in a video game.

After a month like mine, I am about wiped out. One night, while walking to meet up with friends, I stopped and I decided that I should belly flop into an otherwise undisturbed lot in Brooklyn. So I did. You know, some days you gotta do what you gotta do.

City love...

Wahoo! Im back. I've actually been back since January 2nd, working and taking Plato's Republic 3 times a week for 3 hours each. I always thought that philosophy was uninteresting and pointless but I'm actually learning a lot in this class! The professor is super funny and half of my notes are random funny quotes (havent decided yet if thats constructive or not).

I've never really read or studied any philosophy and it was always one of those far-reaching, abstract, conceptual fields that I'm just not really interested in--but now that I'm reading it more deeply and being exposed to it, its not as hard as I imagined! Its actually fairly easy to digest once you get past the style, which is very Greek and very un-embellished. I am having issues writing my essays in this class, though, since we are encouraged to write in the Greek style and it is quite possibly the exact opposite of how I typically write.

But, aside from that, I'm enjoying it. Well, aside also from the 3 hours a class. All in all though, I'm so glad I decided to get it out of the way--I can handle one month of intensity if I get to spend more time during the semester on my art. Luckily after this I only have 2 more gen-eds to finish up...one I'm taking next semester and one I hope to finish the following January.

Work is going well! I'm so happy to be working all of the private parties. I love interacting with people and anticipating what they want, and seeing how the richer side of New York lives. For example, look at this cake for a 1 year old's birthday party:

That's always interesting. January is full of parties, so basically instead of demonstrating the toys, for the most part I've been working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2 parties a day. That's also awesome because it ends up being more hours and I'm saving all of my money for study abroad this summer! Its also more interaction with my fellow employees, which has turned out to be a BLAST. The other day in between parties, we put on Disney and show tunes and I belted and acted out "Find Your Grail" from Spamalot for them. They enjoyed that. :D

I'm also super happy because my best friend (the one who visited for my birthday) has finally moved back to the city! We're hanging out all the time, and I'm glad to have him back. He's my new hot yoga partner, since I've been trying (New Year's Resolution) to go to hot yoga 3 or 4 times a week. (: There's a great (and cheap!) Yoga to the People on 38th and 6th that I've been going to pretty consistently. We tend to have a lot of fun together:

My number one NYR, though, I have been SO good about. I decided to stop biting my nails and I've actually stuck with it for...um...thirteen days! That is possibly my record since I was around five years old, so its a big deal.

My final NYR led to me making the leap (which is actually more of a step for me) to becoming vegetarian. It's been good so far. I just dont know what to do with the chicken noodle soup and tuna fish in my apartment. Its actually not hard at all for me, I rarely ate meat before, but I just felt like it was time to make a big girl decision and stop being wishy-washy about it. My new best friends are peanut butter and baked potatoes. I've been obsessed lately...

I could never...

Anyway, I'm happy to be back in the city. My week in Virginia was nice--I got snowed in with my family on Christmas which was nice, and went for a trek in the woods with my black lab, Oscar.

I love and miss them and my Busch Gardens friends, but I think the week was a perfect vacation. I really feel like my home is now in New York...and I love that feeling of coming home. (:
PS--if you are planning on visiting or moving in the near future: IT. IS. FREEZING. Plan accordingly...your face will feel like its falling off if you dont have a fur hood. Enjoy January!

OHMYGOSHIMSTRESSEDOUT! (:

Hullo again fellas and lassies! Well, good golly miss Molly and a bucket of holiday cheer! I've been so incredibly busy lately, I almost fell asleep standing up at work today. I was pretty stressed out a couple of days ago...so I planned out every minute of every day in my handy dandy...NOTEBOOK! (Aka planner) You cant really tell, but I have about 3 free hours this week. Thats when I'll be sleeping hopefully. (:

As much as I'm totally complaining about being so busy, its what I'm used to and what, ultimately, I love. I just hate sitting around being bored and staring at the TV when there's a big, bright, bustling New York City waiting to be enjoyed! And its Christmastime...my ALLTIME FAVORITE! At our apartment, we've just dressed up Bruce the Spruce with some holiday trimmings courtesy of my lovely mother, including a countdown of mini presents to Christmas!

I'm so happy to be making more and more friends lately--I've found that the only way to find friends is to ... MAKE THEM! I've been chatting all the people in my classes up lately (you get more familiar with people as the semester progresses) and I found a group of lovely dates to the Snowball last weekend! All of them are in CAB (Campus Activities Board), so we arrived early (ish) to set up, danced allllllll the live long night, and helped break down. It was a night of swing dancin, big band, flapper-esque partyin'!

Work is getting busier and busier and I'm finding myself getting more and more classically "New York". For example, a couple days ago we had a line wrapping all the way around the BLOCK from 5th Avenue, down 58th Street and then around to Madison Avenue. I couldnt get to work there were so many people. I was getting a little frustrated because of the crowds and the ridiculous number of tourists walking SO SLOWLY. But then I thought, hey, NY is pretty amazing. I'm lucky I get to live here--these people may only get to see it a few times in their lives. Let them walk slow. (: I'm so incredibly lucky to be living in such a truly fabulous city.

So, basically this week I'll be gearing up in classes for finals in my two art history classes and my Bible as Lit class and rushing to finish the copy of a Vermeer painting that I somehow have to have done by Thursday. I'm also working on my junior exhibition. This is what I have so far....haha.

Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated!

Cant wait--only a week and a half til I'm back in Virginia celebrating my favorite holiday with my wonderful family. I hope you all have happy holidays! (:



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! (:

Hi again! Well, last week was Black Friday and I worked...in New York City...at a flagship toy store...on 5th Avenue. (:


Black Friday line into FAO Schwarz



It was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I babysat in the morning for my kiddies (who's mom last week gave birth to a new baby boy!) and then went straight to FAO Schwarz to play with toys. I seriously have the best job ever.  

     

My family left this morning too. ): Sad news, but they have been here since Tuesday and it's been nice having them around! My dad was sick, but they still got to see a lot of NY, even though I've been in school and working. My brother bought a Myachi at my store and we made it a family game in my tiny apartment. We also had Thanksgiving here! In my kitchen/living room, around my coffee table! We watched Miracle on 34th Street and football, obviously, and I finally got to have southern food! Its so hard to find real comfort food in New York.



The before picture.

Sunday my roommate and I cohosted a Thanksgiving feast withfor a bunch of our friends. We brought mashed potatoes, stuffing, banana bread, Coke, punkin pie, and other stuff! Thing is...we were both rushing from work, and afterwards our kitchen looked like the apocalypse had happened. But it was yummy!

Thanksgiving aftermath

  

Ohmygosh!!! My birthday was on the 18th and I got the best present ever! My best friend from Virginia called me while I was asleep at 7am and told me to answer my door. He'd come all the way from VA to surprise me and spend the day with me! It was so sweet and I even skipped a class :X We ate Pinkberry and I wore the dress he bought me and had my favorite food, Dallas BBQ. It was lots of fun.

Overall I had an awesome holiday week. I'm trying not to think about the two papers I have due this coming week... (: See ya!