fifty-four dollars

Today I found an envelope at the museum park that asked me to open it. Being a curious person, I did. Inside was a letter and fifty-four dollars. The person was using this monetary sacrifice to parallel Jesus' sacrifice and convince the person who found it (me I guess?) that they too should become Christian. It seems a little presumptuous to me to ask someone to renounce their philosophy or system of belief for fifty-four dollars. Oh well, the Lion's Club is fifty dollars richer and I have money for lunch on Friday. ROAR!

geology weekend

Steve had extra credit assignments for geology this weekend. We went on a geology walk, which was more of an environmental science talk. Then we went to the rock and mineral show in Pasadena. I got a 300 million year old sea bug fossil (trilobite). I love fossils, super cool.

kissyfur

Happy Birthday baby brother.

sunday morning

Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last... Life, I love you, All is groovy.

the neglected week

Last week was a neglected week. I planned. I intended. I thought about. I tried. But in the end I mostly just slept. It wasn't a bad week it just took too much effort.

Good things that did happen: Valentine's surprises from Steve. New friend. D300. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Chalkboard and shelves in office. Becoming Jane. Chicken fried rice. 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Goodnight.

Caving

Last weekend I went caving at Colorado Bend State Park. I went with the Outdoor Rec group at the University where I work. The best part wasn't the caving, or the camping, it was just the people. It's been so long since I have enjoyed just being with people so much. I get so used to it being an oddball thing for me to want to do something like caving, or eat something like hummus (both of which I was ridiculed for this week), that it was just nice for it to be the norm to want to crawl on your belly through a muddy hole, and to eat with people who think hummus is a staple. Just the general relaxed, non-competitive, non-judgmental attitude of the entire group was such a pleasant shift. I will definitely go again, if they will have me. Oh yeah, caving was awesome too.

lye berry

Today I went to the library. Sometimes I think I like acquiring books more than I like reading them.

stolen moment

I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up to Sony having a puggish asthma attack. Once he calmed down I tried to go back to sleep, but my inner-critic was up too and decided 2am was the appropriate time to gnaw at the inside on my skull. He wanted me to know that I needed to change my oil and that I shouldn't wear the same pair of jeans three times a week and that I hadn't started to accomplish any of the goals that I set for myself which is OK since they weren't worth a crap anyway. After about 45 minutes of that I got up took a shower, and then went back to bed. I woke up groggy and crappy and late. I would have called in sick, but I had responsibilities at work, people waiting for me to finish their projects. Things due. I called in late. Sometimes when I do this I steal a little moment for myself. I got dressed, brushed my hair, ate my breakfast, had my tea, and then, instead of bustling off to the office, I looked into three little puppy faces and asked, "Do you wanna go for a walk in the woods?" Heads tilt. Ears perk up. There is a mad dash to the front gate, and we are off. A moment in the day where I transfered my time from looming deadlines and a sunless building to a sunlit walk down a little wooded path with three friends who run through the trees for the sheer joy of a new smell.

February Goals

One month down in twothousandeight already! I feel like I'm going to have to step it up if I want to accomplish anything this year. Here are my goals for February.

• create two finished illustrations that I like and feel are portfolio worthy
• create the one paper cut piece (it's in my head)
  
• start a contact list of 20 illustration clients that I would like to work for
• upload my design portfolio so that interested parties can download it
  
• learn something new to make myself a better photographer
• get business cards printed

That's a lot for a short month, not very focused am I? We will see how far I get.

After two weeks I am dumping the idea of posting links weekly. maybe monthly. maybe sporadically. maybe never again.

The above picture is the self-timer self-portrait challenge over at Shutter Sisters. I do love toes.

from work to yoga : a journey in snapshots

failure to communicate

Did you ever play that game where you and a friend sank beneath the surface of the pool and yelled incoherent messages back and forth? The words muffled by the density of water and the bubbles that your lungs pushed out with the sound. You strained to understand the secret message and then revealed your muddled interpretation above the surface. Giggle. Repeat. That was my day except not funny.

last week in links

Yes, I was bored and have access to photoshop. Last week I found a new blog Shutter Sisters. I think I am going to participate. I have joined the flickr group but have yet to post anything. I also found these carved crayons, this cool photo book "As Far As I Could Get", and a series of posters created by a graphic designer named Becky Redman called Fucking Recycle. I may have found all or most of these things at It's Nice That, a blog that seems to have more things to look at then you could ever possibly look at so go look at some. I have also joined a mobile swap over at elsie marley I am dreaming of things hanging from strings, can't wait to start making mine, can't wait to see what I get!

no better dog

Just wanted the world to know, there is no better dog than this here dog. That's right, he is the best dog in the world :: SONIC.

dirty thirty

Wednesday was Leslie's 30th! Everyone went out for Japanese. Leslie's first taste of sashimi, my first time for Hibachi-style eating and warm sake. I ended up with rice in my hair. I think I can do without my food prep being entertainment. It was a fun night, Happy Birthday Les, and thanks for having the decency of turning dirty thirty before me.

recap of a grey week

Everyday of this week was cold and grey and yuck, but I got to wear my silly second-hand store hat. This is me on my daily walk up the hill to work. I refused to buy a $75 parking permit and now park off campus and walk, which was less fun this week. On the upside I did let myself spend that money on books on wanted on my amazon wish list.
Went for deliveries with Chas, what a nice day to be out and about.
A bit of metaphorical sunshine. This is the brand new carpet in my very own office. No more roomies. I moved in shortly after taking this picture.

fungus amungus

I rolled over a rotting log and this fell off. A bright orange gelatinous ball of what? I am enthralled with all the different mushroom and lichens and odd little lifeforms I can find growing in the woods. They are a surprise in form and texture and color.

real food

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

- Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food

this week in links

I have been trying to find a clever way to share the things I am looking at online on my blog. When I try to integrate them into my posts it just seems forced, and if I just add them at the end they just seem too lonely. I've decided I will just save them up and post them once a week. So here goes the first post...

This week I found the blog Crap Detector! It is a blog for graphic design students at Mississippi State University. It has great posts and loads of cool links to check out. It made me long to be a student again. I also found Rob Ryan's blog and consumed the contents of Jen Corace's blog think think, stare stare. I found The Whale Hunt. It is an experiment in storytelling through photography, pretty awesome. From the same guy who made wefeelfine.org, also awesome. Here are a few other blogs that I check out pretty much all the time: wish jar, Design*Sponge, Camilla Engman's blog, ProcessRecess, and Cool Hunting. I spent a lot of time looking at meomi cloud house which is insanely cute! Hope you find something new. Til next week...maybe.

cloverfield

Good movie, even Steve liked it.

That's some catch, that Catch-22

What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many of the best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.

- Joseph Heller, Catch-22

LUV :: STEVE

Here is my favorite person, doesn't he look sexy in his hat.

fiesta

Last Saturday we celebrated my birthday.

Jill and I rode our bikes from her place in town to my house.

Then there was friends, family, and food.

There was even a juggling clown.

My tradition: apple pie instead of cake.

woolf wolfe wolf woof?

Went to the used book store today and got five books for two dollars, when I looked down at my purchases I realized I got two books by Virginia Woolf, two books by Tom Wolfe, and one book by Hermann Hesse, Stepppenwolf. Wolves on the brain maybe? Odd.

manhunt

Just spent the last 45 minutes sitting in my car. When I get to the front, no wreck, just officers with flashlights. "Lost someone?" I ask. "No mam, just someone is running away from us we have officers and TDCJ dogs all along the right side of the highway, so drive carefully." Just one of the perks of living in Prison City I guess. The thing that always gets me is, why run? They always catch them, or they turn up dead. You never hear of the prisoner who escaped and then lived happily ever after. So should I attribute it to optimism of stupidity? My guess is the latter.MANHUNT UPDATE: Not prisoners, copper wire thieves. They were trying to steal the phone line that ran under the bridge. When the police showed up they ran, and got away. Maybe there is a happily ever after for the bad guys after all.

better than andes

Sometimes I find this on my pillow, better than a chocolate.