Thursday, January 31
2:54 PMThis morning when I went out to my car it was encased in 1/4 inch of ice, but it wasn't frozen shut. I had to scrape the ice off the windshield, but for the windows, I just rolled them down, and the ice stayed in the shape of the window, and I could just punch it out. It was fun. Then while I was driving to my class on main campus I noticed all the trees were encased in ice — everything was. But the trees were beautiful, sort of whitish from far away. After my class there were a lot of streetlights out (not in my neighborhood, though). I drove to the art building and classes were cancelled because of a power outage there. I took some pictures of a tree up close. I wish I'd had a video camera because it was amazing, the trunk was covered with ice, but it was starting to melt, so there were little trickles of water running down the ice, and air bubbles shifting underneath.
Ecco:
And from a distance, the trees by where I live.
I don't have to do anything else to do today, so I guess I'll try to think of something useful to do.
1:40 AM
During a 3 hour nap I had a lot of dreams. One was sort of sci-fi, I was one of a bunch of pilots deep inside this giant organism or something, we were trying to explode detonators on this giant bulbous blue bubble. And then we flew over to this cliffside of some kind, still inside. Then a smooth transition to the next dream, and I was with this group of Christian missionaries and we were in hell (they were on a mission there). There were two rooms we were bunking in, and I stayed in the one with fewer people. They were going around the room talking about certain sins, and all the ones they mentioned were ones that I had done, so I felt like they already knew and were trying to get me to admit to them. The next dream I was driving, and I had to stop because of... parked cars in front of me, I think. And then David Letterman walked in front of my car and was talking to me about some fault with my car's engine, and how it could start to overheat and just spontaneously combust. So I was a little worried, but I don't think it actually exploded. Maybe I abandoned the car, because in the next scene I was running down this path with lots of statues on either side, each about 3ft high, and I knocked one over and it belonged to some woman in an apartment, but she didn't find out that I had done it. That was the most boring part of the dream.
Wednesday, January 30
8:31 PMCouldn't sleep last night.
I started a new drawing that's pretty interesting so far. I bought a 4x4ft sheet of plexiglas to do monotypes on.
Saturday, January 26
3:13 PMMaddy called me this morning! Well actually it was 1pm, but I was just waking up. I think she might be in the same bind as I am, in terms of explaining her artwork in a coherent way.
I bought a 40GB hard drive yesterday and am in the process of moving files onto it. I'm excited because I've wanted more space to record music, as sound files fill up space rather quickly.
Thursday, January 24
3:00 PMWhen I was Christmas shopping, Robo Baby creeped me out whenever I saw it. Especially the slogan "The interactive baby that will crawl her way into your heart". I wonder how well it sold.
Tuesday, January 22
12:53 AMOk, why not write?
Things just fall into place sometimes. Most of the time, actually, and I don't even have to try very hard. It hardly seems fair.
I had my review to get into the BFA program at school. I was accepted. I had five faculty members on my committee who reviewed my work. It was an interesting sort of debate I had with them and that they had with each other. I recorded the whole thing covertly on my new minidisc recorder.
This weekend I went home and hung out with my youngest sister while my parents were in Houston. We watched Mystery Men and Fight Club, played Mario Kart and drew some comics.
Wednesday, January 9
2:48 PMI got back from Pennsylvania last night, since I stayed Monday night at Maddy's as well. We watched Snatch that night; Lesley and Maddy saw it in Florence, I guess, and they each bought a copy of it when we went to the video store. It was a pretty good flick.
Dave Thomas died.
My classes start in five days. I don't want to go back to school, I don't want to stay here. I'd rather be somewhere I feel content, but I don't know where.
I don't want to write in here for a while. I don't want to touch a computer for a while, but I know I have to.
Monday, January 7
12:05 AMI have been at Maddy's house in Pennsylvania since Friday. Mike, Lesley, and John (a non-roommate) were all here, but Mike and John left earlier today. It's been very fun. Yesterday we went sledding on inner tubes and played Cranium. We went to a bar and then went walking on Deer Lake. Today we watched a couple of movies, Best in Show and Bottle Rocket. I liked them both. It snowed several inches and is probably still snowing. We went sledding down the hilly street and I had a snowball fight with Maddy's brother Ben. I was planning on going home tomorrow, but I think I might stay another day if the roads are bad.
Thursday, January 3
10:38 PMI'm home (in Columbus).
The 23rd my family and I drove to Paducah to see my dad's family as we do every year. We opened presents from each other in the morning before we left. I both gave and received the Simpsons DVD. I also got a minidisc recorder, which has been a lot of fun to play with. In Paducah I recorded some of my little cousins talking to me, and one of my uncles telling a funny little anecdote. Nothing really extraordinary happened, which is fine with me. It was, as always, a good time.
On Christmas day I left for Shannon's parents' place in Iowa, a 9-hour drive. I met some more of Shannon's family at a Christmas party that was taking place when I got there. The rest of the week, though, I didn't see many other people besides her and immediate family.
We went to Shannon's friends' place in Anamosa, about an hour from Arlington (her town). Mandy and Lawrence are their names. It's funny to me that Lawrence is from NYC and came to live in a small town in the midwest. We went with them to see Lord of the Rings, which I really liked. Elijah Wood is also from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Shannon told me a story about a kid who was crying in the back seat of the car on the way home from Cedar Rapids. His mother asked him what was wrong and he said "we never got to see any rabbits." Now that's all I can think of when I hear that town's name. (We went shopping in Cedar Rapids too, and I didn't see the rabbits either).
On Sunday we went to St. Paul, MN, where Shannon goes to school. I got to see some of her school, although everything was closed. We saw Amélie, which was every bit as good as Shannon said it was. We went to the Mall of America, which was somehow cooler this time than when I saw it in 1999. Maybe because I wasn't with my family.
I was only in St. Paul for two days. New Year's Eve was quiet and calm, but not at all boring, the best one I've ever had. We watched half of After Life but couldn't stay awake to watch the whole thing. The next day I took her to the airport for her flight to Ecuador, then I drove home. It took 14 hours, and by the end I'd lost my mind. But a good night's sleep brought back my sanity and peace of mind.
I got an e-mail from Shannon after she arrived and she said that she really likes the family she's living with. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun for her.
Now I'm going to leave tomorrow morning for Pennsylvania, to Maddy's house where all my roommates (except Alyssa, who lives way out in Oregon) are going to meet up. It'll have been one year since we first met. I can't believe it.