4 am wake ups

apparently 4 am is an appropriate time to wake up? 

class registration was this morning, went to bed around 12:30 which is the earliest this week!! set the alarm for 5:55 to get up in time to roll over and start the annoying registering process. of course, when given the first chance in a week to sleep 6 hours-- my body decides that nope, 4 am is a good time to wake up. so there i laid for another hour and a half. and duh, of course i would do something like fall asleep about 20 minutes before the alarm is going to go off. oh well, woke up in time and managed to get into the system only 30 seconds after it opened!! got all of the classes i need for next quarter. except here comes the problem. i'm signed up for 9 credits. which is 10 less than i took this quarter and 3 less than full-time student status. OOPS. it's really not my fault though, the system kicked me out and won't let me sign up for anything else so i'm going to have to run around campus talking to various people begging them to let me in a class or two. i decided that i would avoid that today because my voice is not in the persuasion mood. 

schedule

there it is for now. i'm taking 1 online course (psych) which isn't shown on the schedule and ice skating!!! i'm still trying to get into textiles (basically quilt making) haha oh art majors.. 

got out of class early this morning which meant i got out of work early which means that i just finished doing laundry!!! and i'm working on loads of homework before my 12 hours of classes tomorrow! ITS ALMOST FRIDAY!!!!!!

friends

no voice zone

yesterday my throat was hurting a bit, it felt kind of scratchy. by the time i woke up this morning i had almost no voice. unfortunately i had class from 9 until 4:30 today with no breaks so that was kind of yucky. i pretty much feel like i got run over by a truck and my voice is non-existent. i decided to go to the health clinic after class-- it's pretty nifty i guess, you just wander in and make an appointment. good news, i don't have the pig flu! haha not that it was in question but it's good news anyway. turns out my ridiculously sore throat & lack of voice is all due to severe allergies. apparently rochester is the 4th worst place in the US for allergies-- leave it to me to pick something like that. oh well, i'm eating lots of cough drops it's convenient that there is lots of sign language around here because then i don't have to talk!

in more important news... THE CAPS WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

life stuffs

friends are pretty awesome. there is one in particular who i happen to know checks the blog every once in a while so i just want to say thanks. you know who you are. 

this past week has been a tad more stressful than usual. both in school and life in general. i kind of feel like i'm being tested more than i thought possible.  it's kind of funny because i know everything happens for a reason but my patience is sometimes not always on that same level. friday night at IV large group they were talking about how we're all needed in local churches and there is some reason why we're there whether we know the reason or not. last night was kind of not the best night ever and i woke up early for church this morning not really feeling in the mood to go at all.  another three hours of sleep would have been great. it really helps to be motivated by other people because then i can't talk myself out of it. i was sitting there this morning after worship thinking "seriously, what's the purpose in being here today" answers never fail because then came the sermon and it was pretty much everything i needed to hear. weird how that works, huh? 

words don't really describe everything sometimes. just learning to take everything one day at a time. i'm also learning that eight hours of sleep and a decent amount of food in any given day are no longer an option. it's alright though, only four more weeks. 

i can't really promise a large quantity of posts before the end of the year. every minute of my life is booked. projects, tests, presentations, imagine RIT next weekend, work, bonfire for IV, music shenanigans next weekend, homework, classes, finals, studying, etc. i'm still alive and all, just thought i'd let ya know. i've completely give up on to-do lists because they are just depressing to look at. 

Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest. [Luke 12:25-26]

calm before the storm

this is effectively the "calm before the storm" except not really. just finished up laundry and got back from dinner with a big group of people. im sitting here on my bed listening to the pouring rain and sirens pass by. it's week seven which means major stress is just around the corner. 

tonight is the fourth and last accepted students chat. two weeks ago we had 150 students sign on between 7 and 10 pm to chat with us. there are anywhere between 10 and 12 ambassadors in the chat so it's a LOT of typing. sometimes it's a tad hard to keep up. 

tomorrow i have only 1 three hour class, work & i'm giving a tour around 1 (hopefully it doesnt pour... i can hope, right?). tomorrow night there is an IV small group meeting which i might go to if i have enough time? there is another one tonight but i can't go because of this chat. 

as for projects.. currently in the middle of a sort of logo design project for elements of graphic design, due next week. for that class i'm also working on a presentation (10 minutes long) where i'm supposed to talk about a famous graphic designer. for psychology, we're still plodding away at the book, we've gotten through 9 chapters so far, i think. in philosophy we're on our third book, took a test a week or so ago, so only two big tests left before the end. in vector we're working on 5 one page layouts of a quote (which you might have seen in my last post) i still need to finish 3 of those by thursday night. in 3d we're working on another project for imagine RIT, it's due monday so im going to need to finish that either tomorrow or friday. for drawing we just finished up our 30 in by 40 in drawing in chalk pastel (two weekends ago) but apparently it's wrong so i'm going to need to start over and finish that by wednesday night (oh wait, that's tomorrow...) we're also starting a new project due tuesday, two 9 by 12" drawings chalk pastel that are supposed to be "studies" for our larger drawing... two 30 by 40 in.. yeah you got that right. diptych drawing, the large one is in color (chalk pastel) as well and that's due in 3 weeks. we're supposed to build them at the same time so im going to figure out how the heck to store a 30 by 80 inch drawing...

things could be busier i guess. i think it sounds worse writing it all out. this weekend is IV, a four hour orientation assistant get together thingamabob, a lacrosse game and a possible picnic at charlotte beach. 

the more

live goats

have i mentioned how much i love 60 degree weather?! i don't want it to get any warmer though, i like still being able to wear a sweatshirt at night

Friday gave a tour to around 35 people for the Junior Spring Preview Day. It went alright, it was kind of unfortunate circumstances for giving a first tour, it was SO busy, there were 7 tours that went out at the same time. We had 535+ families on campus which was slightly ridiculous. Friday after dinner went to the IV meeting. A few of us wandered back and found Jack Swift (local band) playing on greek lawn but it was kind of chilly and only half of us had sweatshirts so we ended up just coming back.

Last night Ash and I drove over to Rush Henrietta High School for the 32nd Annual RIT Spring Juggle-In. It's a 3 day event hosted by a number of organizations including Student Government, the RIT juggling club and the University of Rochester Strong Jugglers. I can't juggle to save my life but it's really cool to watch other people do it. During the day in the Clark Gym on campus they have different activities and workshops and then last night was a show put on by people who have been training for anywhere between 3 and 12 years. It was definitely worth checking out.

This morning went to church with a bunch of people. They brought a LIVE goat on stage! I think it's one of those, you had to be there moments but it was pretty funny. Came back around noon, brought back some breakfast from Gracie's and started on homework.

stanley cup

i apologize for the lack of blogging. life is kind of busy.

i just sat through quite possibly the longest 4 hour class of my life. lots of projects assigned/due around now. imagine RIT festival is in two weekends, have to finish a project for that. ash and i are volunteering at the welcome table from 9:30 until 3 that day. got the orientation assistant position for next fall... yay! it means moving in two weeks before classes start to train for a week and then lead orientation stuffs. lots and lots and lots of hockey. i guess it's really not helping my current sleep schedule. i was doing so well going to bed at midnight for six weeks but after last weekend i can't seem to get in bed before 1:30. waking up at 6:30 this morning was not pleasant. NHL stanley cup playoffs are from now until forever which i am quite excited about. there are roughly two games shown a night on the channel we get so it's basically hockey from 7 pm until 1 am or whenever it ends. pretty sweet. in more school related things, tomorrow i'm giving my first tour (to 50 ish people) for admissions. tomorrow night is IV sometime between 5:30 and 10. blues canucks game at 10 too, but that depends on if we decide to go hang out with people after IV. saturday is the juggle competition on campus as well as a comedian show at night plus the canadiens bruins game! monday is caps and rangers yayy, the caps game wasnt shown on channel 69 last night which was pretty upsetting but it's okay. i do realize i keep switching back to talking about hockey, sorry about that. sunday going to the fathers house again anddd homework is filling up the rest of my "free" time for the weekend.

big cities, small towns.

"No matter where life takes you -- big cities, small towns -- you will inevitably run across small minds. People who think they are better than you, people who think that being pretty or popular automatically makes you a worthwhile human. None of these things matter as long as you have a strength of character, integrity . . . sense of pride. So when you meet someone for the first time, don't judge them by their situation in life, because you never know, they may end up being your very best friend."

easter

been drawing pretty much all weekend. i think i drew from 11 am yesterday until 6 pm and then again today from 1 until 6 and then a few hours after that. i guess that sounds like a lot of hours when you think about it but it really wasn't, the time went by pretty quickly. it was nice to be able to listen to a heck of a lot of music. it's easter weekend and although RIT doesn't really acknowledge holidays, a lot of people went home for the weekend. i think i saw two people yesterday total. it's okay though, good to buckle down and get things done. i don't actually really care about how the drawing turned out, actually i kind of think that i would go back and change things but tomorrow is another day.

aside from all of this work nonsense. today is easter! despite going to bed around 2 am, i woke up at 6:20 and watched the sunrise-- with no alarm or anything! due to my still life taking over my bed, i slept on ashley's bed last night haha it's a good thing she was home for the weekend because then i didnt have to sleep on the floor. anyway, got ready and went to church with matt and ozzy. i don't think i can even fully describe this church. it's just amazing. we were talking about it afterwards and it's pretty much best described as a church for graphic designers. it's so overwhelming at first. the music is amazing-- they have a professional drummer, guitarist,etc. a hugeee (and when i say huge, i mean huge) screen tv along the back of the stage. i guess i never really realized until this weekend how much i missed being at church, it was really nice and i definitely plan on going back :)

after church the three of us went to jay's diner for breakfast! pancakes...yum. got back around 1 and drew until they informed me that it was dinner time... oops, i would have completely forgotten. hung around commons for a bit and then ashley got back! drew some more, hung out with people, etc. time for bed now, i have a headache. which i shouldn't be surprised about because i've had at least one headache a day for the past 3 weeks. lovely.



in case you couldn't tell, the drawing is of the quilt my mom made me and it's draped over my bed post.

5 weeks until the end of the quarter!

the more you show me the more you grow me

it's been a pretty quiet saturday. i spent most of it drawing (11 am until 3 ish) it's going pretty well so far, about halfway done so i'll finish the rest tomorrow hopefully!

last night after class and work I went to building 8 for IV (intervarsity christian fellowship) which apparently is the third largest club on campus and the largest chapter in NY state? who knew. anyway, in a really weird string of events i got to know this guy who happens to be the lead guitarist for the worship band and he invited me to come. the actual thing didn't start until 7 but i went at 5:30 to hear them warm up and what not. the whole thing was pretty cool, everyone was super welcoming. it's basically contemporary christian music in the beginning and then a "message" and last night's was five people getting up and telling their stories of why they believe in God. pretty neat to hear. afterwards we hung around talking and then somehow a large group formed and we drove to Friendly's to hang out. yay ice cream!  

tomorrow morning i'm going to church with a couple people i met last night. it's called father's house and it's in west chili. you can check it out here.

more than useless

bet you didn't know that today was the day the titanic left england, the great gatsby was first published and paul mccartney announced the break of the beatles.now you do.

anyway, ashley and much of the rest of campus has gone home for the weekend so i'm left to entertain myself. this entertainment is going to come mostly in the form of homework. i am going to an intervarsity christian fellowship meeting tomorrow night though (well now, technically tonight) i've been talking to a guy who's the lead guitarist for it. so that should be something fun to do tomorrow night. i think i'm going to end up going an hour and a half before it even starts to watch them practice. other than that, have three hours of class then 2 hours of work tomorrow. yippee its friday.

here's some work. not sure how i feel about it. still have a bunch i havent put up yet. oh well.

30 by 40 inch drawing, we had to pick a master drawing and then draw it ourselves. the original piece is by MC escher

just some yucky color studies with fruit

window ledge in the drawing room, more color studies

soy beans and broccoli

apparently i have a thing for green foods. i've been pretty much living off of honeydew, salad, soy beans and broccoli lately. yum! too bad pistachios have been recalled...

ashley and i are watching the sabres redwings hockey game instead of doing homework... we're such good students. just kidding! i got a lot of homework done this weekend and i only had one class today so i don't have an overwhelming load of things to do.

it's supposed to snow again tonight. and tomorrow. and wednesday. gross. where'd spring go? i'm sick of the worms especially because no one believes me that worms smell disgusting!!!

turned in another application for housing today... hopefully we'll get something. i'm not sure if i've mentioned anything before but ashley and i are in "temporary housing" in a hotel next year... and it's 4 miles off campus... not the ideal situation.

here's some pictures from the reliquary project. they aren't very good because the lighting was yucky hopefully ill get some better ones when i get it back in a few weeks. it's a 6 by 6 inch wooden box with designs on three of the sides and a letter on the inside. we were supposed to pick something that was special to us and create a "reliquary" for it. i think it looks better in person but oh well. it was pretty fun to make :)

eight beat measure

went to the eight beat measure concert, it was pretty awesome like always.







the video isn't mine, found it on youtube.

so much for that....

WHY IS IS SNOWING/FREEZING RAINING? And, WHY ARE THERE WORMS?

seriously, it's saturday afternoon and i'm pretty sure every single one of my plans this weekend has been ruined.

last night we were all going to go out to dinner and walk over to the gallery for a MFA gallery opening. it was pouring rain and we were all dressed up-- got drenched. turns out the gallery opening was closing when we got there.

this morning we were going to wake up and get breakfast from gracies and watch spongebob. spongebob wasn't on.

at noon we were going to go to a lacrosse game. it is absolutely disgusting outside. there are worms everywhere and it's super windy/rainy and it's been snowing all morning.

at 2:30 we were all going to go ice skating. there is apparently a ice skating invitational going on today at Ritter that they forgot to put up on the schedule.

uhm, yeah. slightly annoying. anyway, i'm getting homework done. we're supposed to go to a concert/comedian thing later tonight. hopefully that's not cancelled or something... wouldn't be surprised.

oh well.

here's some pictures from our failed adventure last night...