Behind the scenes: The Sunrise

This weekend, as every other, I saw the sunrise. This is what happens when you don't have to wake up before the sun, you see. On this particular weekend however, certain disillusionments were cleared away. Saturday morning I awoke groggily and looked out my window. I saw a brilliant blue sky and an amazingly bright orange sun peeking just over the roof of our neighbor's house. Generally I look at it, thank God for a beautiful sun, roll over and go back to sleep. This time I thought I'd stay awake for a few minutes and watch it rise.

I waited and watched.

And waited.

And watched...

nothing! The sun was not moving! I thought this was a little odd (come on, it was 7:30 in the morning, I'm not very rational at that time). So I lay there for a bit, pondering on this dilemna. And then I moved...

And the sun moved! Jumped! So I sat up and looked out the window...what the hey!? The sun had now risen at an impossible speed!

It was then that I put my glasses on.

It was then that I looked out upon a streetlight.

Yes, for countless days I had been waking up and thanking God for a beautiful....streetlight. Sigh, what a Lindsey moment.

Gon We Shin Nyen!!

Or "Happy New Year!" That's chinese. This week in preschool we're celebrating the chinese new year, with all sorts of fun. Today for snack time the teacher made...rice...and the kids "used"...chopsticks...That lasted for about 2 seconds for most of the kids, punctuated by remarks like "These sticks don't work!" and "these are stupid." Of course, me and the teacher had to answer with "we don't say stupid in preschool" and "well they use them in China, it's hard to learn..." la dee da.

So who likes sweeping up sticky rice?

The kids also found out that most of them are snakes. Yes, hours of fun to be had by hissing like a snake and saying "I'm a snake! I'm a snake!" I found out that I'm an ox, my ox sounds were not as amusing to the children. I was informed "That's not funny." Yikes. Tough crowd. On the upside, I got my first paycheck today! And can I just say....I HATE TAXES!!!! Ooh, and on another upside, today was "teacher appreciation day" so the school catered a meal from Boston Market for us....hoooo chicken. That's the best I've eaten in weeks.

In other news, I have a whopper headache. Probably my brain is shorting out from staring at computer screens for hours on end. Maybe that's not the only reason.

In other other news, I am a bit worried about the end of the semester creeping up on me. I've been waiting for the last 3 weeks of class for things to suddenly get out of control busy...but they haven't! Shouldn't I be grateful? Instead of increasingly and nerve-wrackingly worried that the build up will be beyond my ability to cope with.

And now, my brain is oozing out of my eyeballs and it's taking extremely long for my fingers to get the message telling them which letter to hit. Also not so good with thinking. So, this concludes our broadcast hour. I think I'm going to bed at 8.

St. Peter's! (uh...abstractly speaking)

Now, weren't you all wondering what a sewing endeavor by Lindsey would look like? I should smile you were! Well, here's my very first ever quilt. It's uh, quite small, only 8"x13" suitable to my skill level. We're not making anything enormous in class, since we only have 15 weeks. Now I have to add embroidery and beading to it! I'm excited! I'm not thrilled about the "gold" color of the "building" but I had to borrow that, so I didn't have much choice.

Coming next week, pictures of my world-famous* Cheesy Hashbrowns!

*"world" in the sense of my house. "famous" in the sense of the following exchange: "Lindsey...are you using the skillet???" "What's a skillet?" "LINDSEY'S USING THE STOVE FOR SOMETHING OTHER THAN MACARONI!!!"

And How I should Smile

I managed to change the background of my blog! The whole high contrast white on black thing was really getting to me. That's something we learned in Graphics 1, bad bad bad. Of course, once I changed the background to a lighter gray, the light gray text everywhere disappeared. I'm so proud of myself for wading through all of the

//a:;{if}color= <#000>. What do I really know about HTML? Whatever it was, I learned it in my internet design class at community college 5 years ago. GADS!!! FIVE YEARS!!?!??

So, I'm a little frustrated at technology right now. Specifically my Giga drive, that has ALL of my MOST IMPORTANT files and PHOTOGRAPHS on it. Yeah, that I need for my big review at the end of this semester. I've tried getting onto our server here in the art building, but the blasted thing won't accept my password. So, I'm working off one of those things called a zip disk. Remember those? They're almost as outdated as floppys.

In other news, I'm thinking of a design studio name for myself, other than "Lindsey Blank, Graphic Design." One that I came up with during 3D yesterday (while we were discussing the depressing domestication of art, if Mom and Pop can "design" their brochures and ads in Word, then where does that leave us "trained" designers?) is "And How." Not sure if it would be And How Design, And How! Studio, or just plain And How. I like it because it's a phrase that's fallen out of common usage but is used very commonly in the era of novels I love to read. As in, "She's a good designer, and how!" Hmm, another one that just came to mind is "I Should Smile." As in, "Is she a good designer?" "Good? I should smile! She's the best!" Decisions. I think I like And How better. I'll start working on some stuff in my sketchbook and Illustrator, see which one pans out the best.

PS. House of Mirth is not. Mirthful that is. I started the book a long time ago (by Edith wharton), but it was a little too depressing so I stopped. I watched the movie last night while sewing, and I now I don't think I'll ever finish the book. Egads, but it was sad. I should have seen it coming though. Anytime the main character gets addicted to Opium and is turned out on the streets...yeah, shoulda seen it.

They Came to Paris to See Me

So the other day I was driving along, extremely tired, on my way to Michaels (third on my list of money spending places, behind school and meijers). It's dark out, and I'm listening to 88.1, the local station that plays "jazz, folk and world beat" with the occasional NPR program thrown in. generally awesome stuff. Then the DJ announces that he's going to play a little something to "sooth my mind." That phrase alone was enough to begin my arm's motion to the dial, but then...it happened. Lulting synth piano...chimes...little dinging bells...sparkly sounds...and a woman, almost whispering, repeating "they came to paris to see me, they came to paris to see me, they came to paris to see me." I was frozen, I couldn't move my hand any further towards the dial. Within seconds I was comatose, nearly rear ending the poor soul in front of me 20 times. The lyrics became more complex "I was alone, staring at the dress in the window, I wanted to buy it, I wanted to buy it, but I was alone, staring at the dress, wanting to buy it....they came to paris to see me, they came to paris to see me..." How can they play this on the radio? Don't they know it could KILL people?????? I can still hear that lady saying "they came to paris to see me."

By the time I arrived at Michaels and managed to park without killing anyone (difficult), I had completely forgotten why I was even there, wherever "there" was...

Paris?

Stop Stealing Sheep

So, you know you're bored when you start looking at the Pittsburgh Steeler's depth chart to find out how many first string players played at Michigan (one, in case you were wondering too, Larry Foote, heck yes! best inside linebacker ever!).

graphics 4 starts in 15 minutes, apparently the teach has decided to end Advanced type at 1:30 and start Graphics 4 at 2:30 so that people can actually eat something instead of going 6 hours straight in the graphics room. Good idea. Reminds me that I have an apple for lunch in my bag. Ooohhhh and a bagel! Ann, our textiles teacher, brought in bagels and cream cheese for us this morning. there were a bunch leftover, so I grabbed one for lunch. Dinner is being provided care of the latest exhibit reception in the PAC. I love openings. So much food. So many meatballs. Punch. Cookies. Cake. The last one was a Jamaican exhibit, so they had absolutely KILLER mango pepper chicken plus fresh pineapple and little fruit cake thingys. That's the best part about exhibits and shows, the food. The campus' best kept secret. So I'll zip over there after graphics (although, what the heck am I going to do for three hours since me and amy already finished our website...?).

"Stop Stealing Sheep and find out how type really works" is a book by Erik Speikermann. Frederik Goudy once said "Anyone who would letterspace Blackletter would steal sheep." He said the same thing about lowercase letters. Naturally, this is very amusing. Heh hehe.

And that's about all for today. And this keyboard is really dirty. And this mouse is sticky. And these labs STILL don't have Illustrator CS (still running 10!! that's TWO versions ago! It doesn't even have the auto align bar!!!)

Chef and Crossbones

Ok, so my sister wants a lot of t-shirts from me, here's one design she wants.

This message is for her, she knows who she is... I need you to decide which you prefers, cleaver, or no cleaver?? Anything else you want? Remind me of the other shirts, BP (got it), Jeep (got it), Boylans (couldn't find it, but I'll figure it out). I also did a Wusthof trident and the Henckel knife guys (cuz they're cute).

Little Promo

Hey ya'll, me and a classmate finished our first website project. What's that you say? It's due next tuesday? We're a week early? HELL YES!!! Anyhoo, it's nothing fancy, just a few rollovers on an image. The assignment was to create three categories and put three sites in each category.

www2.gvsu.edu/~mishlerl

enjoy.

What Brown Did for Me...

UPS is directly responsible for my poor academic behavior yesterday. Also it is one of five things I will never (figuratively) complain about again::::
1. Having Class on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
2. The New UPS Logo (what's with swooshes and what was wrong with paul rand's I ask you?? I have included both for comparison)
3. Not Getting Enough Exercise.
4. Freak Michigan Weather
5. Toilets

These five things all dramatically formed my crazy monday. It began as a happy day, sleeping in on account of NORMAL (that is, not GVSU) schools being closed for MLK day, thusly: no work. Things started looking down whilst I was doodling ideas for our exhibit in my sketchbook. I looked out the window and was assaulted by the new UPS logo, glaringly large on a delivery truck. I festered for a few seconds about the mutilation of Rand's beautiful 1960s design, then noticed that Brown was delivering a package to our house! Oooo! It was close to 1, when I would have to depart to catch the bus to the main campus for my 3-D class (the one we're doing our "Only Designers Care" exhibit for, and strangely connected to UPS, because we talked about having a display of old vs. new logos, UPS was dealt with at length, as was Meijer). So, I gathered my bag, purse and coat and set them on the kitchen counter and decided to bring in the package from the porch.

You've probably guessed it by now and you're probably right. If you guessed that I went outside without my coat to quickly grab the package (sadly, not for me) and turned around only to find that the door was inexplicably locked...you were RIGHT!!! Words cannot describe the incredulous agony I felt. Five minutes to departure time, missing the bus was unavoidable and highly likely besides. So I went around back to see if by any divine chance the back door would be unlocked from when I let Samson out that morning...curses! No! And unfortunately the Backyard Auto Association (neighbors) were hard at work on some F-ing transmission and laughed greatly at my expense. They would have offered a beer and a lawn chair in their heated garage, but I ran back out front in my embarassment before they could make that familiar offer.

Because it was so nice and sunny (40 degrees) I sat on the porch resolutely for half an hour, calm and sure in my belief that Sandy had just "popped" out to Meijers for some groceries. I started to get a little chilly (coat, sitting on counter...) and decided to walk to the library, a few blocks away. The time was 1:30, so going to be late for class at 2. I sat down and read a book about Katharine Hepburn's style (yeah, a little boring, but it had funny pictures) and decided to head back to see if Sandy had "popped" back yet. Walk walk walk, hello Newspaper route boys on bikes, walk walk walk, hello lady putting an impossibly large package of pampers into her pickup truck, walk walk walk hello neighbors i'm sure she'll be here annnnnny second. It's 2 now, and no sign of the roomie. So I walked in the other direction to the park and wandered around the pond until a creepy minivan started driving slowly alongside me. I was a little scared since I only had the protection of my duck-swatting twig. Then I hit upon the genius idea of leaving Sandy a NOTE!! Oh HO! But...what to write upon, and with what to write? All questions that I rapidly answered with...library! Those scrap papers and pencils for writing call numbers on! Finally they'll have a use! So I walked back to the Library (looked dumb, cuz they'd just seen this wild haired hooligan in only a sweatshirt 20 minutes ago). Composed my note stating my location with words to the general effect of "HELP!!!" and asked a reference librarian for a piece of tape, explaining my situation in an attempt to alleviate any concern that she or the other library ladies (and the two library...lads) might feel by my continuted sporadic visits. Walk back to the house, pass the Newsies on bikes again, have to say hello because they're right in my way and waving at me, oh yes, we're old friends now. Awkwardly pass Pickup Lady who is now loading a sink into her truck. Slap the note onto the door and leave poor confused Samson once again looking out of the window and barking at me. Walk back to the library, via a different route this time, run into a man walking two pitbulls, and am reminded of the jingle in the Bernstein Law commercial "get the bernstein advantage, settlements for dooooog bites!"

Then I settled in good and hard at the library, after finding a nice funny book (written entirely in emails and answering machine messages, etc, very funny). 2:30. For the next few hours I ventured home a few times to check on the roomie status. The librarians were all sympathetic to my plight and held my book behind the desk each time I went out. They wouldn't let me check it out without ID, even though I have my 14 digit patron number memorized. Finally, at 6, Sandy comes into the library to rescue me, and I am by this time in the end stages of starvation. During this whole afternoon, more than being worried about missing class, I'm worried that Sandy went to Lansing and Joni's working late and the library closes at 8, and I won't get my movies back in time and I'd have overdue charges!!! After we arrived home, I got my movies, COAT and purse and DROVE back to the library to check out my book, return my movies and thank them for their hospitality. I ate my soup hungrily, drank two mugs of tea in rapid succession and watched 10 minutes of the Golden Globes before going upstairs to read and get ready for bed.

Then, at 10 pm., the toilet backed up. The blasted drains in the upstairs bathroom have serious issues. A 5 minutes shower leaves me ankle-deep in water. I have frequently expressed my anger at the toilet, and I think he got back at me last night. Of course I showered all forms of bitter diatribes upon his porcelain ears while trying to use a plunger whose glory days were during the Eisenhower administration. 45 minutes (and several hand blisters, and lots of arm muscle soreness) later I gave up, and poured drano down all the drains. I had nightmares about my feet melting off during my ankle-bath shower in the morning.

So, in the end, I had the day off, I sat in the sun on my porch (albeit minus a cigar), I got lots of exercise (both lower and upper body) and spent a nice long time in the library reading. Could have been worse.

Grocery list: Milk. Plunger. (soooo a U-Scan list).....

Culinary Curiousities...

WARNING: The following post may be traumatic for some viewers, please do not read if you are at all sensitive to matters of fine dining.

So. The other day I went to Meijer's hungry. Bad idea. Never go grocery shopping when you're hungry, you'll end up with random snack type items that don't make much of a meal. Like the following:
----5 yogurts (on sale! 10/4$)
----Bag of Cheese Nips (four cheese variety, also on sale)
----Box of off brand Cheese "bites," spicy gaucamole flavor! (why the cheese nips weren't enough? no clue, also on sale.)
----Loaf of bread (italian white, Aunt Millie's $1.19!)
----Saltine crackers (meijer brand, my reasoning was that I have a lot of soup)
----Package of sliced turkey (brand name: PlumRose...uh, what is a plumrose?? Should that be the name of my band?)
----5 cans of Tuna in water (Starfish brand was on sale! Perfect reason to buy!)
----Cottage Cheese (um...small curd was on sale!!!)
----Package of Monterey/Colby Jack shredded cheese (because cheese is good on everything right? also on sale...)
----Bag of Macintosh Apples (maybe it's just cuz I like the computers so much, but they're healthy! not on sale! shocking!)
----Shoes, corduroys, and two shirts (not to eat, but to wear to my new job, all on sale for cheap).

And there you have it. So when I got home, I was putting these items away and trying to decide what to eat for dinner. I should have had soup, but I wanted to put my new purchases to use (mustn't waste money now must we?). So, I will do this in a simple recipe format so that anyone who so desires can easily copy it for parties, meals, or Iraqi prisoner torture.

Ingredients:
3 Glops Cottage Cheese (small curd)
1 Can of Tuna (Starfish brand)
Cheese Nips (NOT "bites")
1 Macintosh Apple (because they make beautiful computers)
Salt

Begin by taking 3 spoon glops of Cottage cheese and slapping them into the bottom of a bowl (preferably the blue plastic ones that are kind of flat that Sandy only has three of). Combine tuna with cottage cheese. Be sure you drain the water out of the tuna can, not that anyone has ever forgotten to do this...or anything...right. Mix the tuna with the cheese for a few seconds, but this step is unimportant. Take a few handfuls of Cheese Nips and crush them over the Cottage Tuna base. At this point in the recipe, you are probably wondering what you can add to give it just that little extra zing. An Apple!!! Cut the apple. Core the apple. Slice the apple. Cut it into those little bites that people use in fruit salads. Put the apples on TOP of the Cheese Nips. Not important, but that's where they'll be because you thought of them last. Mix the ingredients and add salt and Cheese Nips to taste. Enjoy!

Note: I would like to state for the record that I actually ENJOYED this meal. This was not one of those Hazelnut Macaroni or Watery Scramble Eggs concoctions. It was yummy. It was not toxic. In no way could it have harmed me body-wise. It had fish, fruit, bread and cheese like material and salt. All very important. End of story.

Lindsey to the Aid!

On the plus side of things, I'm now gainfully employed at a local Catholic school as a preschool aid. I had my first day of work yesterday and was completely exhausted at the end of my four hours, but I had a lot of fun. The kids are adorable, very funny and very smart. There are 15, which I think is a nice in the middle number. Not too many to keep track, but just enough to completely destroy the play area. I'm currently trying to figure out all the paperwork for the secretary, do I put my permanent address or my school one? What the heck are the personal and dependency exemptions I am claiming? And what's with all the "add line 8 to line 9 or subtract H from C to calculate F and G." I hate money.

And I wish I could lay myself down...

Well. Here we are again. I have returned from break completely determined not to have another semester like the last one ever ever ever again. Ever. I have never had so many irritatingly stupid and frustratingly unrewarding classes as I did last semester (I'm really only talking about two classes, in general I've only ever hated one class per semester).

I came out with a B in Advertising. You may (or may not) recall my ranting a few posts ago about the teacher's poor record keeping skills. Well, they didn't improve any in the weeks since that last fiasco. He only marked me for ONE of the two chapter summaries I turned in for the two days that I most DEFINITELY was present. So, because I though I was getting an A in the course, I didn't study very hard (ok, at all) for the final and consequently bombed it. Oh well, lesson learned. Always bribe your teachers.