academic validation

all my grades except one have come up on the registrar website thing. so far, im feeling very validated! woooo! all my sleepless nights, stress and crazy zombieness are paying off. what's up dean's list, nice to see you again! (unless i fail cognition....which is unlikely, but you never know)

to celebrate, i ate a bowl of sugar-free, fat-free vanilla ice cream. nice shopping parents! that's not a pointless, bland excuse for ice cream at all! (mental note to introduce my mom to skinny cow bars) it wasn't that bad actually, but i covered it in rainbow sprinkles. fat-free dairy i'm all good with, skim milk all the way, but sugar-free anything tastes like splenda or the blue sugarthing in coffee...blegh! my dad likes the blue sugarthing. it's disgusting.

now im drinking a cup of verbena mint tea with raw honey in it, crocheting something new on the couch and watching curb your enthusiasm. winter break, i love you. have my babies! i'll have your babies! i'll do your laundry! i love you!

Current Craft Projects

Things I have Done Today:
1. woke up at 1 pm
2. made coffee
3. messed up in making the coffee which then leaked all over the counter and the floor
4. cleaned up coffee leak disaster
5. made toast
6. prayed to the weather gods to make it stop raining. it's been raining since I got home Friday. IT WILL NOT STOP. no sunshine. sad california weather. Here's a gratuitous shot of my backyard being bombarded by the downpour. Maybe you can't see the giant raindrops in the picture, but believe me, it's a deluge. We only get weather systems like this once every 12-15 years, a series of rainstorms coming in off the pacific one after another and another. grrrr please stop!



7. decided to blog!
8. then decided to eat a cookie first.
9. watched grey's anatomy reruns on lifetime. yuuppppp.
10. spent forever getting all these pictures into this post, seriously they should invent a simpler way to do this. jebus!


So, here are some of my current craft projects. Some are done and some are in-progress. Many are in Balitmore, which means they won't appear on this blog till I'm back there mid-january.

Finished Projects:

Flower Decorated Throw Pillows
-technique: felt pillows embroidered with cotton yarn, "yoyo" cloth flowers (i'll do a tutorial on them someday) with vintage button centers, backed with a patterned wool fabric, and a crochet trim. (the little one doesn't have the crochet trim yet but let's just imagine.)


Grandpa Scarf
-technique: crochet, alternating rows of double and single crochet stitches. Creates a nice, simple, gender-neutral/slightly masculin scarf. Good for Grandpas, Brothers, Boyfriends, Dads, whomevers!

Lace Scarf
- technique: crochet open-work lace mesh stitch with flower decoration at the edges. Followed a pattern by Drops Crochet,
link: http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=104&d_id=11&lang=us



Grey Beanie
- just a little crocheted hat i made at some point while in france. don't remember the stitch, but looks like I used double crochet clusters.



In-Progress Projects:

Granny-square Baby Blanket for baby Charlotte
My cousin Shayna had a baby in September! The first of the new generation, it's very exciting!!! Shayna is 12 years older than me, she was the first to get married and then the first to have a baby. So, I'm making baby Charlotte a little blanket, especially because her great-grandma, my grandma's sister Freda, isn't here to crochet anymore and I'm sure she would have already crocheted and sewed that little girl an entire warddrobe. technique is crochet granny squares.

Rainbow Bobble Afghan
technique: triple crochet clusters. I started this blanket with yarn I bought last year in San Francisco at an amazing craft store, but then ran out of yarn and need to order more before finishing this. It's very warm and colorful, which I like, clearly.




Giant Doily Tablecloth
this one is in Baltimore, but it's going to be very cool. Similar to the thing I made in May for my host parents, but an oblong shape. Here's the pattern: http://www.learn-how-to-crochet.com/doily.html Colors will be teal, dark green, lime green.

Oh Hey World

Oh heeeyyyy world, there you are!!
So after I got back to the US, I stopped blogging. If anyone actually reads this blog, they may have noticed the 6 or 7 month "hiatus." I found that blogging during school was stressful and often I just forgot that I even had a blog. I had to spend way too much time staying up far too late studying, working at my part-time librarian gig, and when not in a completely sleep deprived zombie state of academic stress, I was asleep on our sofa or eating macaroni and cheese. All of this, I realize, is fairly typical of college students, but I just couldn't find the time to blog.

But, as a new years resolution, I aim to start blogging again. This will be my final semester at Hopkins, which is a terrifying, thrilling, daunting and wonderful concept. I'd like to remember it in detail! Also, I aim to get my etsy shop up and running, and I want to use this blog more to document my crafting and as a sounding board for new projects.
Crafting is therapeutic to me, and while some of my friends may know me as their pseudo-grandma who will darn their socks or mittens and is most often found crocheting on the sofa drinking strong tea, I don't see this as odd for a 22 year old at all. Well, maybe for an average 22 year old, but for me, it seems to fit. I am a septuagenarian at heart, I accept this, and I embrace it. This little personality quirk of mine lets me be the creative crafter I am, and I love that. I also consider it an honor to continue in the steps of my late grandmother and great aunt, her sister Freda, who were amazing crafting, spunky old ladies who crocheted and sewed and needle-pointed to the skies and back. They were both absolutely crazy but also wonderful, I miss them very much and like the fact that my hobbies reflect theirs.

This new, second version of this blog (which I hope I really will be able to sustain and post on regularly) will also reflect a new life decision I made recently, or rather a new life path I've chosen to pursue. As an art history major, I thought for a long time that I was going to pursue a PhD in art history after college, with the end goal of either working in a museum, or more likely, writing art criticism for an arts publication like Art Forum or Art News. I recently realized though, that I'm not that interested in research, don't want to get a PhD (at least not that this stage in my life), am not that interested in a career in museums, don't want to spend five years (or more) of my life in a research program that will lead to academic pursuits/academia when I don't want to work in academia and blablabla, basically no more PhD for me. What I am interested in, is design.

Interior design or textile design or surface pattern design, I love it all! I'm applying for internships now, and trying to introduce myself to the field and get a better orientation into the field and figure out how to pursue a career in design. Aaahhhh it feels so good to say it/type it, out loud! I won't apply to any graduate programs this year, because I need to build up my portfolio first and understand the field more before that. I aim to apply to schools next year, for fall 2012 being the start date.

So there you have it, world. My big update!!! It feels pretty good to be blogging again. I'm excited about all these new ventures, albeit slightly overwhelmed, but only slightly, which is probably normal. Let the wild rumpus begin!!!

Return!

Well, I've been off the airwaves (internet waves?) for quite some time. Ooops!

I enjoyed my time at home, short that it was. LA was filled with seeing old friends, sleeping in, swimming, watermelon, cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, and crafting. I didn't take pictures of anything! So not blogger-y of me! Again, ooops! it was the summer sunshine obscuring my vision, and sense of time. Before I knew it, it was time to return to Baltimore, to do thesis research, theoretically. Well, I've been here for exactly two weeks and not much thesis research has been done, my adviser doesn't seem pleased with that.... but I'm working on it, honestly. Ehh, not too hard I'll admit. I've been having trouble waking up at a decent time and it's so humid here I can hardly make myself leave the apartment so i've only gone to the library a few times. I haven't been feeling very productive, I'm kind of in a summer-vacuum rut, as in since i have no class and work hasn't started up again, i have nothing to do adn no responsabilities, and i'm acting like it.

I should-- no must, must, MUST- work on this in the next week. But for now, I'm going to cook some tofu, maybe I'll be proactive on the blogging front and actually document my process. Unlike yesterday when I made beet-sweet potat0-arugula hashbrowns and nectarine relish!

Classes start in a week and yet it doesn't seem real....summer is ending too quickly, slipping away without me really noticing how fast time is going by. eeek!

Home At Last

Well, I got home Friday night, and I have sooo much to update about. But I'm still so jetlagged so I'm going to put it off for a while yet. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get around to it, but let's just leave it with this:

I had amazing adventures!
I explored new places, ate new things, heard new languages, learned about myself, got sunburnt, ate licorice a billion times, I went to Oxford, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Vienna, and Berlin.
I saw so many things and had so much fun!
Then I had to travel 18 hours (9 hour flight from berlin to new york, 3 hour layover, 6 hour flight from new york to LA) and finally reached home!

It feels nice to be home, have a fridge full of food, pleasant sunshine and heat without humidity, my own bed and room, and to be with friends and family after so long without them!

The End Has No End

Ok, so maybe I stole the title of this post from a strokes song, but still, it seems fitting to the situation. I am leaving Paris tomorrow, and I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone by. It seems so surreal and weird that APA is over, mom's visit is over (well, they're leaving tomorrow also), Paris is over, France is over. Of course, the city and country continue to exist, but my time here is over. it's strange because the abstract, mental notion of time, the hours, the days, weeks and months, is certainly over, that i cannot contest. but, my sense of time, the piece of my life i had allocated to this experience, that does not feel done or over at all. i doubt it ever really will, it's similar to how i feel at the end of camp each summer but more exagerrated because i've been here for 5 months. It makes me nervous about graduating next year, even though that's still a year away! Normally I would say a year is a long time, but since the last 5 months took place in 3 hours, I'm not so sure anymore.

Anyways, I don't feel ready to leave, even though; a) i'm super excited for my grande voyage europeenne with amandatron, b) i do miss america and my family c) i was ready to let to academic semester fall peacefully into the night, ride off into the sunset, etc etc, actually i was pretty glad to kick this academic semester in the ass until it surrendered, defeated and wimpering, d) i'm really excited about being in LA for the little chunk of summer I will be there, and e) this was the most amazing experience and I'm so grateful i was able to have such a truly dream-like and wonderful opportunity.

Mom and Aunt Judy's visit has been mixed, to be honest. I think we all drove each other a little crazy, as Noah said, what happens when you put 3 breslers in to a 2 person apartment for 10 days? Add humidity to that equation and the answer you get is MADNESS! Not really, nothing insane happened, but first I was mad at my mom and then both my mom and i got fed up with my aunt. I was mad at my mom cause the morning my aunt got here, when my mom had already been here for 2 days, she told me my cats "had disappeared." We got these cats when I was 8, making them 13 years old, and they have been with my family as cherished pets for these last 13 years, except for recently they've been driving my parents insane with their nasty habit of peeing and shitting in random places around our house. Ok so I admit, this is disgusting and very bad of the cats, but a) i think they do it partially because they're old and incontinent, and b) partially because they can sense that my parents hate them/harbor resentment to them and want to punish my parents in some weird way. So, a few months ago, my parents told me they were going to start keeping the cats outdoors more, when they had always been indoor cats up till that point. I said ok as long as the cats always came home and were always fed and safe. Well, turns out, first Lucy ran away for a FEW WEEKS, then came back, then Fidget, my baby, my kitten, the one I picked out myself when i was 8 one summer day in the adoption fair at Petco because he was sitting in the water dish which I thought was funny, disappeared and did not come back. Then a little while later, like 10 days, Lucy ran away and also didn't come back. My mom says this to me in a nonchalent, these are the facts voice, no passion or emotion, it did not seem like she was affected at all. What's more this happened over a month ago, and she waited to tell me until she could tell me in person in Paris, then she decided to tell me in front of my aunt as we're having breakfast?!?!?!!! yeah, good plan mom, that'll lessen the blow that my beloved cats are gone, good thinking. Ugh!!! I asked her what they did to try to find them, and long story short, not much. No posters around the neighborhood, no midnight drives to see if they're around, they called the pound a few times and checked the lost animal registry. My brother said it seemed almost like they were glad, like their prayers had been answered and the stupid cats who shit on the floors were off their hands. Obviously I was incredibly incredibly upset, yelled at my mom about not doing more to find them, discussed everything with my brother to get his opinion, he agreed that our parents weren't proactive enough to find them, then i cried on skype to annie, sent a few passionate and angry and sad emails (ie hysteric rantings) to some people, and cried for most of the morning. It is so so so upsetting to me to think that they're gone, I can't stop wondering what kind of animal ripped them apart and ate them or what kind of car hit them in the road. It's just terrible! And I was SOOO looking forward to coming home and seeing them again, I have really missed them these last months. I feel very betrayed by my parents about this, I don't know why they thought elderly cats who had been indoor all their lives could suddenly transition to being outdoor cats, and i REALLY REALLY don't understand why they didn't do anything sooner, didn't put them back inside after lucy ran away the first time, and most importantly, why they didn't do more to try to find them once they were gone. Even if they were a bit glad to be rid of the burden, which i do have a problem with if they did feel that, they should have thought, gee our kids are super attached to these cats adn they will be crushed if the cats are never seen again, we should do more to try to get them back. you don't just shrug your shoulders and say oh well when your pets of 13 years run off, you do something about it and put in an honest effort. Obviously I'm still really angry, upset, and very very sad about the whole situation, but also it hasn't even really hit me because I haven't gone home to my house and seen it cat-less. It's a pretty traumatic way to lose a pet if you ask me, and I also lost a lot of respect for my parents.

I didn't continue to act mad at my mom because she's in Paris and I didn't want to ruin the visit, but I'm still deeply hurt. I didn't want to blog about it until now because it's still very fresh and raw and writing about it is upsetting. Makes it seem more real. Also, my aunt began getting on my nerves, taking the attention off how upset with my mom I was. Aunt Judy just has some quirks and personality traits that wore down my nerves, nothing noteworthy really, just a general lack of consideration because she lives alone and isn't used to thinking of others when for example, getting the groceries. When all you come home with is loquats, whole milk, stinky cheese and cheese danish, there will be a problem. And she is very set in her ways, likes to be right, enjoys feeling superior as the winner of an argument, and will continue to argue on ridiculous premises that she has zero knowledge base for even when she is being proved wrong by many many people/sources. (example, she STILL thinks that the euro is less than the dollar, after having it explained to her 10000 times and being in France for a week, she insists still that 20 euros is like 15 dollars, when really its more like 30 dollars.)

Anyways, despite those details and the news of my cats, my last week in paris has been fun, we've seen a lot, been to many museums, adn the weather hasn't been terrible, and i ate two different croque provencales from different places that were scrumptious, not to mention, we ate lots of good dinners out. we didn't see all i wanted to, but it was a good week nonetheless, and i bought a sundress for 20 euro!!

Momma is here!!! So exciting!

Tuesday I moved all my crap into Dani's apartment, which took 4 metro trips, and bruised up my shins and knees in the process, along with pulling a muscle in my upper arm and callusing my palms. Isn't moving swell? Then, two days later I did it again on Thursday into the place I'm staying with my mom (and aunt when she gets here). Oy! My hands still ache a little. My mom had to come one day later than planned because my dad had emergency surgery, which is so scary! But he's doing fine now, they gave him two weeks off and he already feels like he can work so he's "enjoying an impromptu vacation!" excuse me dad, but you had an organ removed from your body, i kinda doubt you're up and running at 100% 2 days later! It was a useless organ nevertheless, you can live without your gallbladder for sure and they've gotten smaller evolutionarily. I like to entertain the thought that I am evolutionary evolved because I don't have wisdom teeth, never will, as in they are not present in my body at all. Which is sweet! I could be the "mutation" gene that sets a new precedent in the gene pool! I better have like 100 kids then right? Hmm, maybe I don't like this idea as much anymore. I was also missing one adult tooth (I have a fake one!) so maybe I'm too evolved?

anyways, now my dad is doing fine, and my mom is here and we're having a great time! We had a bit of trouble finding each other in the airport, sort of a whose on first situation, but now we're just enjoying some wonderful parisian sunshine before it starts raining and cools off tomorrow. Today I'm going to take her to the Latin Quarter to see the Sorbonne, the place where I had my classes (the Sorbonne's Institut d'Art et Archaeologie), Blvd St Michel, Blvd St Germain, then we'll cross the bridge and go on to the ile de la cite and go to Notre Dame, then back over to the Jardin du Luxembourg, including a stop at the delicious ice cream vendor old man (the ice cream is delicious, the old man is, well, he's kinda crusty) for some lavender flavored deliciousness! Or fig flavored deliciousness! Or that pistachio was really good too, and the caramel.........oh crap.