My favorite summer activities are actually not that interesting.  I make a goal of playing through a bunch of my old videogames, I work a gazillion hours to make up for the reduced money during the school year, when I can’t really work as much, and I try to get in some tennis with Jon. 

And you know what that means!  It means some random blog!  Woohoo!

Appetizer
When you travel, which mode of transportation do you prefer?

Car and usually me driving.  Jon’s driving scares me a little too much.  If its too far I really don’t mind flying, but I haven’t done in several years.

Soup
Have you ever met a blogging friend in person?

No, I don’t really know any "blogging friends". 

Salad
When was the last time you were really, really tired?

Um… like 12 hours ago??  I’m usually really, really tired because I tend to go and go and go until I crash! 

Main Course
If you could have dinner with any one fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be?

I would have dinner with Phedre no Delaunay from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s series.  She is such a strong female character and can overcome such odds and more or less save the world!  She is also a very classy woman and beautiful and I think it would be fabulous to see what she wears and talk to her and stuff! lol 

Dessert
Fill in the blank: One day, I hope to see _______________.

One day, I hope to see France and Japan.  I really like the cultures and histories of these two great nations and would love to see them for my own self.

As for this week we’ve just been really busy trying to get caught up and figure out how to pay the bills and everything.  Jon starts at the dynomite factory Thursday for training, he’ll be making 11.00 an hour.  So that’s cool.  We also bought him supplements and a tanning package so he’ll stop whining about how awful he looks when he wrestles on the 28th.  It sounds like we won’t have much money for my birthday so I don’t know if we’ll end up doing anything really exciting or not.  Welp, sounds about it.

Oh and fun little survey! 

Your Spicy Score: Mild

You may not make the hottest first impression.. But you’re definitely the type of girl that sticks in a guy’s mind. You prefer to play things cool. You know that good things come to those who wait. And the amazing thing about you is that you get hotter over time!

Appetizer
What are you proud of?

I’m proud of my photography skills that I’ve learned in the past three years, as well as how much I have learned about myself in those three years. I’m proud of how far I’ve gotten through school and how well I’m doing in school, even currently taking 21 credit hours (which is insanity).

Soup
What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize?

I once entered a painting contest for a Church competition (I also entered a short story, which they made me read in front of the entire audience).  It was really a horrible painting that I ended up giving to one of my Pastor’s daughters.  Anyway, the competition (which I don’t have any sort of idea what the name was, but we competed there two or three years in a row) gave me a trophy for my awful painting.  I should mention that I was the only one who entered my age bracket for painting….

Salad
Name something you do that is a waste of time.

 Going to class!!!!  Yes, I realize that I would never learn the material of the course if I hadn’t signed up for the course.  However, if you simply give me the books and tell me I HAVE to study on this day, I can easily teach myself the material.  Nine times out of a ten, I do NOT need a long in-depth discussion on something, especially like Buddhism or Confucious (though Confucious did confuse me a little bit until today’s lecture).   I’m so lucky I got this laptop for Christmas, because Lord knows that all my teachers would HATE ME this semester, ‘cuz I would SO be falling asleep in every class, rather than happily playing on my computer.  However, there is NO REASON to make me go outside for class, when I’m perfectly happy indoors with power to plug into if necessary, when I really don’t see the need for coming to your class in the first place.  Grr and Arg.  By the way, just so I don’t sound like I’m picking on Carl of the East Asian Religions Philosophy Department, keep in mind that I feel the same way about my Art History class, and at times about Malcolm’s classes (though the case with Malcolm is more than I shouldn’t have to go to the second class, because she gives the same lecture in both and they follow one another within an hour of each other).

Main Course
In what year of your life did you change the most?

This is a really hard question.  I think I’ve changed alot in several years of my life.  For instance I believe that at age 10 (or so), I moved out of childhood.  I began going to Church and becoming really involved with my Youth Group, to the point that I became a part of the Pastor’s "family" with both his daughters adopting me persay.  My grandma also died around this time (or at least not many years later), and this had a profound effect on me, which still continues today. 

At 18 I realized I didn’t have to depend on a man to help me through life.  It was a struggle to get to that point, and some may say I never really reached it, but I believe I did.  I love Jon, but there are times that I realize how much easier it all would be if I was by myself.  Then again, he’s also quite nice to have around so I suppose I’ll keep him  

I believe that at the age of 20 I realized that I had officially transcended the childhood experience and that I had grow up a lot during my first two years of college, beginning to literally take care of my self, as compared to mentally taking care of myself.  Also at the age of 20 I began to take my role of photographer more seriously and was determined to succeed at thie role during college, if not beyond.  I also became involved with the museum at the age of 20 and verified I have no problem in the world with continuing with that goal in mind.  I enjoy photography, but I’m neither artsy enough nor motivated enough to make it a career, at least in the sense that this University and program would have me to do.

Dessert
Where is a place you consider to be very tranquil?

 There is this canal back home in Colona, Illinois.  The actual canal goes into Old Colona (I’m not taking about the part of the canal that splits Colona Green Rock in half but the part further into Colona that leads to the split).  There is a bridge that goes over this really cool waterfall, and a lot of people go fishing there and swimming in the Rock River that joins it.  I used to always go and sit and watch the waterfall or play at the park near by as a child.  It was very calming.  Whenever I was angry with mom, bored, or upset I’d go and sit and watch it.  There’s a multi-faceted reason I like it, but the rush of the waterfall has also calmed me.  It’s also a place where my Grandfather would go to fish so it reminds me of him.  It was also inspiring for poetry, though it was also really bad poetry…

This blog posting inspired by Friday’s Feast. 

Well, its the end of March and soon April will be upon us.  With April comes my 21st birthday on the 26th.  My friends are already planning for it apparently.  Matt is quite excited about the possiblities of getting me drunk.  Jon and I are trying to figure out where we’re gonna eat that won’t be too expensive for everyone (my group of close-friends is quite large - Jon, Matt, Megan, Brad, Alicia, maybe Melanie and Liz, but we’re all college students at least for the most part). 

Jon has a wrestling show on the 28th that I’ll probably drag a bunch of people to, because Lord knows I don’t want to be there by myself.  The last show at this place we went to was just HORRIBLE.  The whole time Jon was like they should be doing this, but they’re doing this.  But it will get him in the ring, which is always a good thing.

As for the rest of the month, it’ll probably be like all the rest of the months during the school semesters.  I’ll be stressed out and working on project A, B, and C all at the same time, sacrificing certain classes to work on homework for other classes.  I’ll be working out at the Museum Archive during photo work.  

Bowling will continue on Sundays with the gang.  And photographing should continue on Saturdays with Jon.  My Fridays will continue to be my catch up on everything days.  And I will probably continue trying to figure out how to work on my ILP online course that I’ve only read the first chapter of and now it’s past mid-terms.

So it’s been a huge long time since I wrote up a blog!  So there’s lots that have been going on and I’ve been really stressed out, lately, because of all the work I have to get done. 

Briefly, we went out shooting Feburary 24th over in Crab Orchard, IL and we got these pictures :

Here’s a view of the "library" :

There’s this really awesome house there too :

Here’s a view of downtown :

Also of note there was a random goat farm (with really muddy fields on this particular day), as well as a scattering of what look like basket sculptures all thoughout the town.  But it was pretty cool and I love these pictures with the pouring rain!  (Because seriously…how else could the weather conditions be when I’m shooting….at least that’s how it seems the weather works).

 We also started bowling and I got some cool snapshots of everyone (Jon, Matt, Megan, and Brad).  I also created a fun layout that’s kinda random, but that will have to wait…

Here’s Matt and Megan (Matt who is avoiding his picture being taken cuz he’s a silly billy!). 

I never realized how ridiculous I look when bowling until Jon took this picture! 

Go Megan! 

Jon throws this really silly curve ball, and he usually doesn’t too good until about the 6th frame and then he spanks our butts! 

And for those who enjoy arcade games more than bowling, you’ll find that you have company with our crowd!  Here’s Brad shooting some hoops! 

And Megan playing in the arcade too! 

 Instead of going out shooting (much to my sadness) we started going thrift storing and found some really cool stuff on March 3nd.  Jon needed new pants, so that was the real goal.  But we also found some new dishes, a bunch of books for me, and a shirt that I really like.  Maybe I’ll post some photos of these later.

The next weekend (March 10th) we went to DuQuion to go thrift storing and we bought a new PS1 because mine had died the previous week.  We also checked out some cool hats in the mall, but apparently my camera ate them.  *saddness*

March 16th I had a doctor’s appointment back home so I had to drive 6 hours for a 30 min appointment.  I really need to find a good doctor in Carbondale. LOL  But I visited with mom and dad for a little bit and that was cool.

 This last weekend we went back home so that Jon could surprise his dad at his dad’s surprise party!  It was a blast.  Jessica (Jon’s sister) took some really cool pictures of the party and the people there.  I need to email those to her.  I also got Ruth’s email again, because I continually lose it, and she’s like the only member of Jon’s family that actually talks to me.  We stayed and Mom’s and played with her new Wii!  Both me and Jon want one now.

Then today Jon ended up getting fired from his really sweet job.  The brakes in his car went out this morning and I couldn’t give him a ride because I didn’t want to be late for my last class of the day (because I’d have to go get him), so he called in and explained about his brakes and a little later they called him and told him to not bother coming back.  It’s a really stupid reason to fire someone if you ask me!  So he took my car and went out job hunting today.  Hopefully, he’ll find one real quick, cuz we’re kinda tight on money and every time we look like we might catch up something goes wrong   Like a couple weeks ago, it looked like we had extra money, but it just went to his car because he needed to get the starter fixed.  Now he needs to get his brake booster fixed and the guy who was gonna fix it is at General Cable, and Jon doesn’t know the guy’s number to call him!

As far as school goes I have two papers that are due Thursday and a test Wednesday in Asian Religion.  I haven’t read the books for Asian all month so I have to hurry up and do that tonight so I can study, plus I have to edit one of the papers and write and edit the other!  But hopefully it won’t take me long to do once I sit down and work on it.  The second paper only has to be 5 pages double spaced, so it’s not very long.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  We finally got Roman!  We adopted him from the Humane Society about a month ago, and we just got him!  He was sick so they wouldn’t let him go to the vet. to get neutered.  But we’re happy to have him.  For the first week he wouldn’t come out from under the couch, so we were a little worried.  Now he’s very demanding with attention, and he even works as a second alarm clock for me!  As soon as he hears the alarm go off he’s in the room by my side trying to get me to play with him.  Here’s some adorable pictures of the rascal :

This is the first day we had him.  He was really timid and paranoid, but still a sweetie.

As he stayed with us he continued to become more friendly, and he decided he really liked the tower we bought him!

And only recently did he reveal what a rascal he really was!  He even dropped a lamp on my head while I was sleeping to try and look out the window!  What a brat!

I also have a bunch of layouts I’ve done but those will have to wait for now.  These are plenty of pictures for now! LOL 

I have several things that I’ve been putting off uploading and dealing with so bear with me…First some songs that sum up last week, which was really hard to get through.  I don’t know if it was just that I was getting sick, wasn’t sleeping good, was stressing out about school, or was just upset that we didn’t have furniture yet, or maybe a little bit of all of the above.

1. I’m not okay - My Chemical Romance : I’ve been really sick and just really exhausted all week and I just haven’t wanted to do anything.

2. The Wall - Pink Floyd : I haven’t wanted to go to any of my classes this week, and even skipped my last one of the week (which was reallllly a bad idea but hey!)

3. Moving on up - Theme from the Jeffersons : We’re finally moving all of our big furniture into our house today! We’ve tried for the last 3 weeks to get a truck and move in, but every time we make a plan and get some people together it ends up raining or snowing or something!

4. Brain Stew - Green Day : I’ve been having the hardest time sleeping this week! And when I wake up, I’m so exhausted I can barely get out of bed. I can’t go to sleep before like 2 am and I wake up when Jon leaves for work. And then I can’t go back to sleep.

5. Beautiful Day - U2 - Late in the week it started to get really nice and warm - though we still had a lot of wind, as per Southern IL weather patterns. 

This blog post inspired by Sweet Shoppe’s From Our Blog to Yours.

I’ve got another freebie template for you all! 

Here’s a layout I did using the template.
Inspired by the Monday Night Maddness Sketch choose your own sketch @ SBB
(found here : http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=185223&cat=700)
Credits :
Ribbons come from Dawn Stocsill - Cabernet kit
Bows - Jennifer Trippetti
Everything else made by myself
Fonts : Engraver, Marker Felt, Handwriting - Dakota

So Wednesday I found out I did my film speed test horribly wrong, but I figured out how to do it AND that I’ve been mixing my developer wrong for 3 years!!!  No wonder my negatives are so crappy!  So I reshot the film speed test today and will develop on Friday along with a whole slew of other things that are on the To Do List for Friday.  

Today I finally talked to Malcolm about the internship at the museum!  She really liked the work I was doing, but now wants me to journal persay everything I’m doing.  Kind of like a conservation journal.  Basically this should consist of high quality images (somewhere around the best 1/5th of the number of pieces I do) printed 8x10 and some context of what it is, why I’m shooting it, the provenance of the pieces in the group, and the condition of each piece.  Basically per group of images (a group being defined as things that are similar and from the same collection that I will be photographing) it should be between 1-2 pages and have about 5 images.  So I’m going to try to start shooting the pieces with my own digital - since I know how to effect the quality of the images so that I can print it out.  Plus I’m gonna try to take the laptop back to the studio area so that I can actually type the journal as I’m working on the pieces.  So all of this sounds super cool, but its gonna be so MUCH work!!  But she said it would be a great thing to have in a museum portfolio, so thats awesome.  Plus she’s gonna talk to some people in St Louis to see if I can get an internship of some sort in the Conservation area (which is what makes all the money in the museum world it seems like).  But thats all I can think of it is how I have to go back and do all this work on things I’ve already done.  I’ve finished one huge collection of diarams and models and yesterday I did a bunch of photographic plates.  So now I have to redo all that basically and check the files to get information on them.  The cool part of this is that I’ll actually learn (hopefully) why we have all this strange stuff at the museum archive.  Now I just have to figure out how to fit it into the rest of my schedule.