Why I am a Weirdo

Heth tagged me, so here I go: Six reason why I am a weirdo.

1. My hands and feet are abnormally wrinkly. Ever since I was a kid, I have looked like my hands are twenty years older than my face. Just look at them sometime when I'm at home. I used to hate it, but have come to accept it as perhaps a tradeoff - God made me creative and good at certain things and as a tradeoff gave me wrinkly hands. To keep me humble.

2. I have been in FIVE car accidents and only one of which was my fault - I rolled my car on gravel when fifteen years old. Going 35 miles per hour. Poor car. Poor Adam, who just sold me his beloved Z24 that soon enough bit the dust. Literally. As for the other four, I guess I have had a tendency to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And some other people really suck at driving, sorry to say. Happily, I am now accident-free for, hmm, about a year and 3 months now, I think? Woohoo.

3. I shouldn't be admitting this one, it will come back to haunt me. But whenever someone touches the back of my hair, I get a shiver down my spine.

4. I grew up on a small dairy farm in rural northeast Iowa, yet feel very much at home in downtown Chicago. Is that weird? Maybe not, but some people do think I'm crazy.

5. I can't eat those little, round red hots candies, they make me sick. I loved them all of a sudden in second grade, when I decided they were so great I could eat 62 of them in a row. Came home and puked. Every. Half. Hour.

6. I fold my underwear into neat little piles in my drawer, sorted by the ones I actually like to wear, and the ones I only wear when all my nice ones are in the laundry basket. I can't stand a messy underwear drawer.


Yes, I could think of a million more. I am kinda weird, I must say.

I'm tagging Bill, Natalie Joy, and Haleigh.

Looks Like My Sister, Maybe.

I had to do a self-portrait for drawing class last night, of course I did it after midnight, since that seems to be the ongoing trend for due-on-Monday drawing assignments. I tell you what, staying still for yourself while drawing while watching yourself in the mirror is a challenge. I am pretty pleased with my drawing, though I entitled it, "Self portrait + makeup + plastic surgery"

Fast Lenses, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and the Time of Achilles

Three things interesting me within the past three hours:



I need a fast lens for my camera. So that in low light situations (a.k.a. weddings), I don't have to concern myself so much with blurry pictures from slow shutter speeds. For real, I can't deal with the f/4-5.6 anymore. For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, I'll spare you and myself the trouble. In general, non-expensive lenses = slow shutter speeds. Mom, Dad, you know what I want for an extra-early Christmas/Birthday gift.



I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. The University Center, where I live, makes really tasty ones. I always take four of them, which is literally way too much to eat at once, and I dip one or two of them in my milk and scarf them down, and put the other two wrapped in napkins in my backpack for when I have a break from classes. Problem is, I always feel kind of nauseous after eating more than one. I don't know if it's all the sugar, or if they left some ingredient out. If it were a Chips Ahoy cookie, I could eat like 20 of them. It truly baffles me. I have been breaking off tiny nibbles to munch on from tonight's dinnertime cookies, and almost can't stand it. But I keep on nibbling. It is an addiction, I fear.



I watched the movie "Troy" tonight with Josiah. (My first viewing of it, not his.) I honestly didn't know who to root for between the Trojans and Greeks. The youngest Trojan prince, Paris, was a coward, stole someone's wife, and killed a good guy in the end. Josiah and I both couldn't stand him. But the Greeks were greedy and bad as well. But they had Achilles, a mighty warrior and good guy at heart. MY favorite character, Hector - Paris' brother - was killed. I was really bummed. However, it was a good movie. Josiah had to laugh at me because I kept mixing up who was who. The armor between the two armies was different, but still, why couldn't they have worn different colors, like in the Patriot?

Citibank, My List of Grievances

When our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, they first made a list of grievances to Britain to justify breaking away from them. Personally, I have had a great deal of trouble with my own 'Britain' - Citibank. I opened an account there at the beginning of the school year, and now plan to pull my account in a couple weeks and deposit my money into the good ol' State Bank of Waverly.

My list of Grievances:

1 - When my roommate and I filled out brochures to open accounts at your booth, you guys processed her account over the weekend and one employee even gave her his personal cell phone number, just because she is cute. Am I not cute? It took you two weeks more simply to process my account.

2 - I am certain I signed up for a checking plus account with overdraft protection. Yeah, I guess you guys lost that application?

3 - You sent me two debit cards in the mail that didn't work in the ATM, and made me wait for over an hour to get it corrected.

4 - Your website is not updated enough, and you don't post all the debits to let me know what my real balance is.

5 - When I came in 30 minutes before your office closed, your security guard told me you wouldn't have enough time to see me today. And none of your personal bankers were busy.

6 - The next time I came in, the same thing happened, though I stood my ground and got an appointment.

7 - You charged me $180 in overdraft fees that I shouldn't have been charged, AND you did it while I was on vacation.

8 - When I called to get the problem corrected, a woman promised I would be reimbursed. Two weeks later, I got $30 back.

9 - When I stopped in at the bank in the middle of the afternoon to get the problem really fixed, I waited 45 minutes, then was told I couldn't be seen because in the whole Michigan Ave location, there was only one banker there.

10 - The second time I used your phone service to correct the problem, I was promised $150 back. The customer service representative never even filed the request with her supervisor.

11 - I don't receive any statements or notices in the mail.

12 - Your bankers seem to not want to deal with people. When I wait in line to make a deposit, and it's my turn, they ask me to use the ATM. Not even any people in line behind me.

13 - The supervisor I spoke with on the phone to FINALLY get my overdraft problem corrected proceeded to tell me in her own sneaky way that I was a liar, and that the account information isn't available anymore since the problem happened a month ago.

14 - The supervisor also tried to refer me to someone else, though that person has no power to reimburse me.

15 - When I get off the phone to you, I sometimes start crying, and sometimes even scream. At the top of my lungs.



For real, how does Citibank survive with this kind of customer service??

Coca-Cola Blekkkk

Walking back to my room after picking up my rolls of film from photocenter today, there was a small group of people with a cooler handing out promotional bottles of the new Coca-Cola Blak drink - it's a "carbonated fusion beverage" with a lot of sugar, carbonated water, and coffee. Maybe there's some cola in there too. So I snatched one, and tried it.

All I can say is, the taste reminds me of root beer barrels (which I do NOT like), and coffee mixed together. And it's carbonated. Sorry, not interested. At least it was free.

Way to Sock it to 'Em, Mom.

This is a random short post, since I have to eat lunch yet and get to class within the next 30 minutes, but I wanted to share an Easter snippit.

On my way home from Iowa to come back to the windy city, my mom gave me a call. She proceeded to tell me about a trick she was playing on Jacob at the moment -

Jacob had been pestering her to have an Easter egg hunt out in the yard all afternoon. Easter egg hunts are a tradition in our family since my little brothers were old enough to search, and since our yard is huge and filled with all kinds of trees, farm buildings, nooks & crannies, it is quite the hunt. However, this year it had rained a lot, and was still raining on Sunday. So in response to Jacob's pestering, my mom was explaining that it would be too messy to have an outdoors hunt. He persisted, so Mom said, "alright, give me 10 minutes, go to your room, and no peeking out the windows." She then got her coat, opened up the door, and shut the door. She then hid all the eggs around the inside of the house. Eight minutes later, she sent Jacob OUTSIDE to search for eggs. Ten minutes later, Jacob came in after realizing that Mom didn't hide any eggs outside at all.

Needless to say, we all had a good laugh at Jacob's expense. Sorry Jakey.

If only I were coordinated...

I found this on Adrea's blog, and wanted to re-post it. It is crazy.

Click to watch the juggling.



Yesterday I finally did my taxes... I already had my federal ones done 3-4 weeks ago, but I had to do Illinois state taxes (they wrongly withheld IL taxes, and I wanted it back) and my Iowa ones. Oh, and Illinois state taxes were ridiculous... the Non-Resident forms have two columns - one that's easy to fill out, the other makes you first look up another file with a bunch of instructions, which then refer you to the IL-1040, and so on. For crying out loud, just simplify it, or don't make me file! So...the damage? Seems being a poor college dependent with a job still means the government should get money. Only like $70 or so total. I'm pretty pleased.

Reckless Generosity

I have joined the Life Journal bandwagon. Woohoo!

For those of you not from Open Bible Church or who haven't ever heard of a Life Journal, it is simply a daily devotional journal that packs a lot of meaning into a small little entry. It's simple, but after 2 in the morning, hard to explain. You could visit Bill's blogand read his Life Journal entry, or Angela's as well.

Since beginning the Life journal, my devotion time has been awesome. Convicting, inspiring, intimate. Funny, since I had a devotional journal before I started the Life Journal. In almost the same format, and it was a struggle. Now I can't go to bed if I haven't spent that time with the Lord. Yay. You should really give it a try.

Here's tonight's late night journal:

Reckless Generosity

Scripture - 2 Corinthians 9:9-11 (Message)

"As one psalmist puts it,

'He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.'

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God."

Observation -

In a time and culture where generosity seems scarce, these verses speak volumes as to how we as Christians should be different. We have been given "more than extravagant" gifts. We have everything we need, and we should be able to show it through our giving and loving spirit.

Application -

What can I do in my daily walk to reflect the lavish love of my heavenly father? Who does he want me to touch today? I get so caught up in school, work, errands, etc. that I often lose sight of the people who really need God's love.

Prayer -

Lord, help me to open my eyes to opportunities to give love recklessly! May my life be a reflection of your great generosity.

You Know You're in Art School When...

I have been looking forward to blogging for so long now, not about anything in particular, but simply because I've been so caught up in hours of schoolwork that it hasn't been possible. There actually is a lot to blog about, but it may be a little while yet before I get around to that. With less than 5 weeks left of school, I've come up with a list relative to my art school experiences, all of which are true experiences of mine...

You know you're in art school when...

-Your dorm is covered in a light film of charcoal and oil paint residue

-Your shampoo bottles are arranged as a still life in the shower

-Trying to fit a gen-ed into your schedule is like trying to put a cat in a bucket of soapy water

-If you want to use the toilet in your room, you have to first move a stack of oil sticks and brushes

-Faculty in the science department have to try really hard to entertain you enough with creative labs for you to come to class

-You could do an oil value study on the dark circles under your eyes and your teacher would tell you that "you kick @!%!"

-When looking at others' old family and senior portraits, you critique the color balance of the print

-Rather than stressing about tests and enjoying art, now you stress about art and tests aren't very important

-One of your greatest joys in life is writing sticky notes with one of your 45 different colored sharpies

-Nearly every class discussion turns into a rant by some disgruntled student or teacher who hates the United States government

-When you get paid, you think, "I can buy photo supplies now!!"

-Your laundry drying rack doubles as a photo project storage unit

The list could go on, but I need to go to the digital lab and scan some negatives...