Hurray!

So a few months ago, me and Frank had a conversation that went something like this.

Me: I wish you could register for new apartments, instead of getting married. I don’t want to wait until I’m getting married to get all of the stuff that I need now.
Frank: *playing video games probably; said nothing*
Me: Like a toaster. I need a toaster now, but I don’t want to BUY one if someone will GIVE me one when I’m getting married.
Frank: *continues playing video games*
Me: But what if I never get married, and I die without a toaster?
Frank: Why don’t you just buy one?
Me: No, someone else is supposed to give me one!
Frank: Well if it’s that big a deal, I’ll get you one for Christmas.
Me: Is this your way of telling me you’re never going to marry me?
Frank: . . .

Then yesterday we are in CVS and Frank comes wandering over with a toaster.
Me: What is that?
Frank: A toaster. I’m buying it for you.
Me: Why?
Frank: So you can eat bagels at home.
Me: Oh. Thank you. You’re still going to have to marry me someday, though.

And now I present to you, MY TOASTER:

Okay, the bagels are a bit crunchy. I guess it’s a super-powered toaster and putting it on a level 2 is a bit much. Imagine what a 9 would do! But there’s even a special bagel BUTTON, so that my pieces-of-bread-I-use-as-hot-dog-buns are their own thing apart from my bagels.

earthfest and misc.

Saturday took Frank and Curtis with me to meet up with some friends (Stef, Jessye, and Sarah, plus a few) at Earthfest, a big free concert put on by Whole Foods and some radio station by the Charles River.  We got there pretty late but still got to enjoy some overpriced crummy carnival food (fried dough? ew) and dance to some cool tunes, haha.  I’ve actually always wanted to go to the summer concerts that Boston frequently has there, and hopefully I’ll go to a few more during my trips back here within the next two months, or once I’m back in August.

In other news, I’m headed back to Texas on Monday.  I’m actually quite excited about being home and seeing my Texas friends and not having to deal with public transportation EXCEPT that I’ll miss the few friends that I still have here in Boston quite terribly.    I hate having two homes and only being able to be in one at a time.

I know I haven’t caught up with my Ireland entries yet.  This week I will, alongside job hunting, as well as scanning in my polaroid shots.  I’ve taken some super cute photos.

Saw Up last night, the new Pixar movie.  I definitely recommend it.  I cried probably four times, haha; it’s an adorable and endearing movie.

Also made another blueberry pie for the boys, per Frank’s request.  Unfortunately, I had an hour in which to construct and cook it, and my blueberries were frozen.  Instead of being a normal intelligent person and defrosting them with like a microwave or something, I used the heat from the oven, which means they were still quite chilled when I put the pie in.  I forgot about the fact that while frozen, they have a LOT of juice which I drained last time, to keep the pie from being too runny.  So, go figure, the pie is really more of . . . a blueberry soup with some crust.  Frank and Richard have both very kindly insisted it’s perfectly fine and that they love blueberry soup as muh as they love blueberry pie, and both ate heaping plates (should have been in bowls . . . ) in front of me.  Boyfriend and boyfriend’sbrother win, haha.  I didn’t cry because my first pie for them was darn near perfect, but it still was a baking failure, and those are never fun.

Really wish I had a scanner and already could post my polaroids, but since I don’t, I’ll settle for these two photos Jessye took of me at earthfest with a D80.  A D80!  She checked it out from our school for her summer digital imaging class, which means I’ll have access to it when I take digital imaging in the fall.  Hurray!!

That’s me and Stef listening to the music.

And that’s me and Frank.

Have I mentioned my friend Jessye is an awesome photographer?  You may have seen the portraits she did of me for her photo project about a year and a half ago, as well as a couple portraits she took of me while we were in Europe.  She definitely knows how to make me look good in a photo.

am here

Have arrived safe and sound in Dublin, where I’ve spent the day walking around, taking pictures, and wearing myself out.  Am about to go upload Dublin pictures so y’all can see what I did with my day.  As always with trips, I’ll come back afterwards and draw on my travel journal (which I’m not doing a very good job of writing in) to give a fuller picture of everything I see; while I’m actually traveling, I only post brief notes or anecdotes until I can understand things in a wider context . . .

or, well, you know, because I’m lazy and tired. 

 

EDIT:: Okay, so my internet speed here makes dial-up look lightning fast.  For that reason, photos will not be up tonight.  i’m working on it, but I’m also exhausted.  I’ll get back to uploading tomorrow night and see if I can’t get at least Dublin posted.

^Dublin Castle, which is actually really unimpressive except for this photo.  Come on, Ireland; you of all places should not have unimpressive castles!

like?

My forehead was dominating my face again, so I gave myself bangs.  I like them.  If you don’t, I really don’t want to hear about it. 

Now I am going on a night photography adventure.  And I am probably going to eat ice cream for dinner.  Or fruity pebbles. 

I’m trying to piece together my summer: this month either Ireland, Poland, or Guatemala for ten days.  Possibly a weekend in Canada at the end of May.  MAYBE Greece for a week with Amberlee if her settlement comes through.  Maybe Puerto Rico or Bermuda, or maybe even Spain, in August.  Family reunion in Grove, Oklahoma (very exotic! :p ) and weekend friend trip, probably back to the river again.  At least a couple days in East Texas; I may see about spending a week or two there during the fall (if Mom and I don’t do our two weeks in Argentina) or in the spring as “research” for my BFA thesis.    I’d like to fit one more abroad trip in, since this is possibly my last summer of free flights unless I go to grad school –which I continue to go back and forth on.

lookie!

Boy brought me a flower last night.

Boyfriend win!

this always happens to me

Know what I hate?  When you look really, really cute and your hair is great and your outfit matches and you just need to be seen

but no one is going to see you.

What a waste of looking good.

I think I’m going to make a run to CVS since my potential plans for the evening fell through and . . . well, I SHOULD do more homework.  But let’s me honest, I’m probably just going to burn candles and drink tea and eat food and write.

 

^ does not do the awesomeness that is my hair justice, but you get the idea.

Dead

That’s the plant I bought with Thomas.  Lasted a month and three days. 

Also, I just got a package from hong kong.  It’s a $5 dress I ordered and didn’t have to pay shipping on.  I haven’t opened it yet though because I just like to look at the package.  And contemplate that it came from Hong Kong.

happy april!

I had a wonderful time last night, even though it meant I was, for the third night in a row, only able to snag about two hours of sleep before time to start the day.  Classes went well, and even though I feel physically exhausted, I’m not really sleepy.   It was supposed to rain all day but it was pretty and sunny until only a short while ago.  The coffee shop downstairs had its grand opening today, which meant FREE COFFEE.  I came home for lunch to find a beautiful flower arrangement from Mom and Jerry for Easter/my birthday next week AND a birthday present from Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dan.  I haven’t opened it yet.  I don’t think anything exciting is actually going to happen for my birthday this year, even if it is 21.  It’s on a Wednesday in the middle of the most stressful month of the schoolyear.  I might go home for Easter the following weekend, in which case I could go celebrate with Texas friends, but everyone is really too busy to do anything here.

The only downsides to the day really are that I really AM exhausted and I still have a big paper to write tonight.  I talked to my photography professor about my unhappiness with having a B and we talked about what I can do.  I have to reshoot my large format project, which sucks because that means completely redoing a photo project WHILE I’m also trying to do the final photo project (which is more work, of course, than a normal project) –that’s shooting, processing, and printing.  Plus I have final papers for all my classes, second papers for two classes, another piece of fiction to write and workshop, two final exams to study for, not to mention all the daily class work.  PLUS, I really would like to have submitted at least two pieces to things for publication by the end of the semester.

Oh, and less than a month to do all of that. 

Anyway, here are pictures of the flower arrangement from Mom and Jerry, the ridiculous LACK OF CARE INSTRUCTIONS that I was given (apparently I’m supposed to just have some sort of maternal plant instinct), and the plant I bought with Thomas while he was visiting on St. Paddy’s day.  That photo was taken TODAY, meaning it is STILL ALIVE.

I’m quite proud of myself.

Best week after spring break

Thomas came back to Boston with me to Boston for St. Patrick’s Day, and we had a lot of fun.  Except I basically walked him to death.  I forget people aren’t used to my way of seeing a city, and I just assumed that since he’s a 19-yr-old guy he’d be fine walking.  For like six hours.  Haha, he went home last night and has probably been asleep last night.  Ate out a lot (had AWESOME corned beef at the Pour House, which was “McPour House” for the day), got pastries from the 24/7 pastry place in North End, laid out in the Common to read in the sun (and crazy wind), and saw Coraline.  Which is really good, btw, but wicked creepy.  I’m pretty sure he had fun.

Just went to a meeting about my BFA thesis, and it is SO much less time consuming and stressful than I had feared.  I’m actually really excited about it.

AND Gary’s spring break is this week.  And he is GONE.  WHICH IS SO GREAT.  No slamming doors, no French people yelling outside the window, no stupid techno music playing until 2am, no weird noises that normal human beings don’t make. 

 Thomas’ new hat we got for him.

 Chilling in the apartment with Thomas and Diana for a bit before we walked to the North End for pastries.

 This is the pastry I got.  It’s the cookie monster.  He’s even barfing up a cookie.  He was good but I could only eat a few bites of him at a time.  Sooooo muuuuuch suuuuugar.

Photo Inclusions: London & Budapest

I mentioned before one of my London photos of Westminster Abbey was shortlisted for inclusion in Schmaps (like my Boston church one).  Just received the e-mail that it has been included; here is the link to view it:

http://www.schmap.com/london/introduction_history/#p=524&i=524_49.jpg

Also, my picture of Hero’s Square in Budapest has been included in Schmaps Budapest:

http://www.schmap.com/budapest/sights_districtxiv/#p=141552&i=141552_42.jpg

Finished shooting my large-format project, except I have five negatives left and think I may try self portraits, or else I’ll go out to the Esplanade in the morning.  I’m exhausted.  Shooting with that camera is SO much work and it just beats you up.  I have 20 negatives now to process tomorrow, and hopehopehopfully they’ll turn out.  As it stands, I was racing against the impending rain and battling the gale-force winds, but my models Fidan and Ayla were helpful and patient, and there were pockets of perfect shooting light.  All in all, took me basically three hours to prep and shoot.  Ugh.  If these don’t turn out, I think I’m going to drop the class and throw myself off a cliff.

On the way home, a homeless man was sleeping on the subway, and I wanted to tell him that he is missing a beautiful day outside, and that he should have saved that subway ticket for a cold, yucky day.  I mean, if you’re going to sleep outside, today’s the day to today it.  But then I realized how awful that is of me.  But seriously, it’s beautiful outside.