mixtape, ink.

I decided I should probably write a list of goals given that I am a student again. I guess there is really only one goal, and that is to get my certification in line by the end of the year, and so maybe a list of benchmarks?

1. Apply for Grad School.

2. Get into Grad School.

3. Call the College of Education, the Grad School and the Student Accounting and Registrar’s offices 107 times to confirm all the ducks I need to get in a row.

4. Register for one. ever-loving. class.

5. Register for Content and PPR.

6. Study like Sarahthe.

7. Finish up portfolio.

8. Take Content and PPR in November.

9. Get a teaching job because you passed all your tests and got an A in class.

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnd much much later on:

10. Get a MA in Art Education/Art History/Educational Administration and then a masters masters and then a doctorate?

I am all of the sudden really stressed out.

Well, I was admitted to grad school today.

After a long, hard, week, Katie and I decided last night was a night to go out.

As an aside I am sitting here, working, because of an event at work that I am required to be at, but not needed to be at unless mass chaos breaks out. Given that it is highly unlikely that a riot of students will come up like a mob of angry villagers, the only thing making it worth being here is that we were bribed with pizza, and “the man” is picking up the tab.

We decide that we were going to eat dinner and Life’s a Beach. Our waiter was nice enough. My favorite part was while he took our order, he was looking 18 inches below our eyes and asking if we wanted a dinner salad with our coconut shrimp.  Katie was quite disgusted and so I told her that next time you notice it’s happening to make the gesture about them and say “Like ‘em?”. This action is humiliating to the perpetrator and ultimately makes them a little more gun shy. Just think of it as one less.

After demonstrating, another male waiter comments on his seeing it.

I start laughing.

Katie is now mortified and bright red.

Later on when we are reliving the moment on the way home, I remind her that I have no shame.

She says “I know.”

I hesitantly pressed the submit button when I submitted my grad school application today.

Now granted, this isn’t life and death here.  I am applying to retake a class that I didn’t do so hot in during undergrad the summer before I student taught.  I have absolutely no excuses outside of the fact that the senioritis was almost unbearable.

So I applied, and so that’s one step closer to getting ready to do what I really want to do - teach art.

Some other things that happened recently:

• I got my ears lowered - mixed feelings about it still, so maybe when I get a chance I’ll post a picture.
• I started and am nearly finished reading the manuscript to a friend’s book that I am really excited about.
• I visited the art museum with J.  I did not get in trouble for getting too close to the art this time.
• Zip blew up a balloon.
• The Midlo fireworks rivaled that of the Civil War.
• Saturday was like Super Summer reunion day.

A coworker of mine passed away today. I know that the Lord is sovereign but suffering is still something that I wrestle with, especially given that this particular person was very young and still in college. If you are the praying sort, please lift this man and his surviving family up today.

So maybe you wonder: why the mixtape?

Music and art are inextricably linked in my head when it comes to my creative outlet. I have also been making mixes since I could press the record button on my Fisher-Price Cassette Player. Music stirs my affections for Christ.

I began exploring this idea during the fall of my senior year of college when I took a watercolor class. I had to create a diptych painting as one of the assignments. The painting, in which a friend of mine now owns, had a CD that had one song on it. The CD served to balance the composition physically (acting as the sun in the painting), as well as conceptually (when the CD was being played while viewing the painting). Since then I have made similar paintings, as well as pushed the idea further with making the CD itself a work of art with the insert, the CD (painting directly on it), and a mix burned onto the CD. This is the furthest I have gotten onto this concept - making the art portable and playing more on the idea of “mixed media”.

To me the mix is sort of an art form itself. I relate music to memories. In hearing a song I can remember a certain time, what I was wearing/feeling, where I was, etc. To me it encapsulates the moment, and so I probably put way to much thought into a mix that another may have just thrown together.

In Indian Aesthetics, there is the rasa theory. Rasa literally translates to taste/relish/flavor…as it pertains to art and the experience and emotional satisfaction that is created (more-so in the confines of music, dramatic poetry and architecture because they contain the element of time). Like western culture, their music has an octave with a type of solfege that can be rearranged into a melody, called a raga. What is particularly interesting to me is that a proficient musician is said to be able to manipulate the notes and intervals in a raga to create an emotive response. While I don’t track with Buddhist/Hindu philosophies - I think this a beautiful description.

So this music that stirs my affections for Christ - how do I use this and art for His glory? I am still working through how this plays out in my life. For now here’s what I’m listening to as of late:

1. Strawberry Swing - Coldplay

2. Reasons to Love You - Meiko

3. Divine Romance - Phil Wickham

4. Where the Streets Have No Name - U2

5. Bottle It Up - Sara Bareilles

6. Pork and Beans - Weezer

7. Homecoming - Kanye West

8. Time’s A Wastin’ - June Carter/Carl Smith

9. Wild Horses - Rolling Stones

10. Big Love - Lindsey Buckingham (from The Dance)

“You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.”
-Davy Crockett

I keep trying to write about camp and reflect on the greatness that it was, but the flow is not there so a list will have to suffice.

Here are things I enjoyed at camp:

the awesome worship, quiet times, and teaching

getting to know Midlo folks better.

serving alongside J, and seeing him interact with students and other leaders

getting to know/hanging out with my cabin full of seniors/graduates

the fact that my cabin did all of the following:

• went to bed on time
• slept in (meaning they did not wake up at the crack of dawn to straighten their hair)
• ate together
• worshipped together
• hung out together
• (did not) have camp romances

dancing

singing

sand volleyball

worship

sweet shop date with B

catching people making purple/doing PDA

Things that I did not enjoy:

mosquitoes.

—

I am back at work, sneezy…not to be confused with sleazy.

Since the move into our new house, the Henrietta Hotties have been making domestic purchases - a refrigerator and a vacuum to be specific. The Samsung refrigerator has already been dubbed “Zelda” because of the nintendo-like sounds it makes when you ask it for things like ice, water, and adjust its temperature. By ask, I mean pressing buttons, but it would be cool if it was a smart refrigerator and talked back.

Consequently the LG washer and dryer have been named “Mario” and “Luigi”. I am noticing a trend.

The vacuum and television probably feel a little bit like the black sheep because they have not received a name, but I am sure, given the nature of the ladies that live in the house, and their aptitude for being amused by the little things most “normal” people don’t do (like name their household appliances; try to say all the states using the vowels as they are pronounced individually, i.e. nEbrAskA…sounds like nay-bray-skay…think Russian accent, and then proceed to have whole conversations using only state names; and the like), it is only a matter of time.

I realize that you are probably thinking one of two things at this point: one, my roommates and I are certifiably insane, or two, you are jealous that you don’t live with such attractive, creative, and easily amused Godly women.

The latter, right? I thought so.

In efforts to conserve energy, all of the lights in the offices at work are created with motion detection. While I am all for energy conservation, I am getting a little bit annoyed by my own light.

Periodically throughout the day (if one were to witness this), I can be seen waving my arms, or doing a little dance in my chair to get the darn light to turn back on. Apparently this motion detector cannot see my speedy quick little hands typing away at the computer.

It is currently dark in my office because I haven’t done this charming little dance/wave ritual in the last 30 minutes to let the light know that while I am not periodically making rash and violent movements…

I am. in fact. in my office. working.