What? Oh nothing, just the biggest blog post.

Behold, the cute kids of Carnie Gras ‘09.

Wig

Puddle

Emma

Each and every one of Stacie’s kids should be in here.  Fail.

My Nose Is RAW

It’s cold outside.  When it’s cold outside, it just so happens that when you live with five other girls, it’s fairly easy to acquire The Sickness.  It is then fairly impossible to rid yourself of The Sickness.  Needless to say, I am afflicted with said tragedy.  I have been downing DayQuil and airborns like crazy and getting as much sleep as I can.  A permanent box of tissues lives in my room, a separate one in my car, and several small packs in my various bags that I tote around.  It seems as though nothing is helping, so I will continue working, schooling, and playing LittleBigPlanet in my sorry state as my lovely friend Scott insists on taking care of me shall I need any assistance (earlier today it was decided we would both undergo surgery in order to swap sinuses).

And yes, my nose is raw from all the tissues rubbing against my nostrils.  Salve and lotion are attempting to soothe.  Sad Face.

Stupid Tuesdays

For those of you who don’t know, Tuesdays are now called Rosie’s Stupid Tuesdays.  At least for me.  It’s the one day out of my week that I have the most classes; have the most things to do, people to please, places to go; and therefore do the most studpid things.  Every Tuesday, without fail, I feel stupid.

Yesterday for my fiction writing class I completely spaced printing my stories out to give to my instructor as well as my writing group.  BIG no no.  I even tried to work it out in a way that wouldn’t upset my instructor, but no luck.  I could tell he was annoyed, which made me feel, well, stupid.

Things like this tend to ruin my whole day, especially when it involves messing up for a class.  I was getting pretty down on myself.  I then went to my supplemental instruction class (no, I’m not slow.  It’s for everyone.) for U.S. Institutions.  I answered so many questions correctly, I should have been teaching that session.  I felt quite redeemed, having basically outsmarted everyone about judicial safeguards, judicial review, and the relevence of the OJ Simpson murder cases to some of the amendments.  GO ME!

Picture overload.

Summer was fun.

And I couldn’t be more excited that’s it’s autumn.

Blahblahupdatesblahblahblaaaah

Sorry for the annoying title…

It’s been far too long. I decided I should give an update for multiple reasons. 1) I’m bored and 2) I haven’t posted in a while, and I hate it when people don’t update (I’ve become what I hate, yeah?).

So first of all, I’m all moved out and living in Logan. Logan’s great. Everything (almost) I need is here; I can walk to the grocery store, borders, and the movie theater; my roommates are super nice; and I see my family enough to not get homesick. As much as I wish I could say I’m on my own, I’m not. I’m still essentially living under Mommy and Daddy’s roof, there’s just no curfew. However, this doesn’t really matter because I just wander around my house all day until it’s time to force myself to sleep. Living sans-curfew hasn’t really affected me

As you can probably guess, I haven’t had a job. I’ll be starting a janitor job tomorrow — cleaning an AT&T store two days a week, one hour a day, $18 an hour. Pretty awesome money, but not enough hours. I’ve applied to other places, including Cha Cha. Anyone can do it. Go check it out, it’s pretty awesome. I’ve heard of people earning $50 an hour, it just depends on how hard you work.

Finally, the real reason I’m in Logan is for school, which I’ll be starting in fall. I went to orientation last week to work out my schedule and I can now say that I am officially a chemistry major. Woo! I’ll be taking chem 1210, chem lab, recitation, calc 1, and two general university studies classes — creative arts and U.S. institutions. Yay college!

To make up for the blahblahblahness of this post, I’ll share something I discovered a few days ago that I think is genius. If you have small children reading over your shoulder, have them cover their eyes before entering this website and looking at the photos. It really is quite scary. I just think it’s amazing that there are these wide-spread childhood fears and I love the way the photographer portrays them. For those too lazy to click on the link, here’s a little preview.

Twilight…Edward….hglubgbugh

So the only thing I really have to say about this is…OMG (which definitely goes against everything I believe in concerning text talk and blog language).

Ok, I actually have more to say. This is the first official trailer released by Summit. Everything else you’ve seen has just been random shots, interviews, or behind-the-scenes stuff. But this is the real deal!! I first stumbled upon this on IGN. Seriously, I would be completely cut off from the world if it wasn’t for sites like that.

Cars+Wine+KoreanGenius=JawDrop

You all know how the Mario theme song goes, right? You know, “Doo doo doo, doo doo do do, do do d-do do do do d-do doo” Well anyway, I sure hope you do because if you don’t then you are missing out on a whole wide world of Mario theme song imitations and remakes. This world is often filled with generic, unimpressive schemes of how to recreate the diddy — guitar renditions, saxophone renditions, vocal renditions…uh…theramin renditions (actually, just kidding. But that might be totally rad. And by totally rad I mean TOTALLY 100% RAD). But today, the wonderful television brought to me a couple of little surprises — a remote-controlled car and half-filled wine bottles! It’s a perfect match. Watch for yourself.

The first time I saw this, I’m pretty sure my jaw was completely disconnected from my face. I mean, come on. That really must have taken a lot of work. First the bottles had to be emptied to the right level so the right note would be made when they were hit. As far as I can tell, the notes were pretty spot on. To figure that out would take more patience+trialanderror than I could handle. And there is no denying that there are A LOT of bottles in that line, which means a lot of wine downed, and no doubt a lot of money spent. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s still impressive. The bottles then had to be placed in the correct position in the line to obtain the correct not length. The car’s path also had to be worked out so that it wouldn’t knock over the bottles, as you can see at the beginning of the video. Yeah, that’s impressive. Very impressive.

Look! It’s my brains!

The local EMT’s decided to set up a triage exercise located at my school tonight. They were in need of “victims” to practice on, so my drama teacher recruited a bunch of his students to join in all the fun. You know, gaping head wounds made of clay, plastic third degree burns, makeup bruises — SERIOUS STUFF, PEOPLE! The process of creating the illusions was quite entertaining. My favorite person of the whole night was my friend Natalie. She was the lucky recipient of the gaping head wound, which we would later find out killed her.

Pre-injury.

Mid-makeup.

That bottle of blood was “zesty mint flavor”, you know, in case you want to drink some blood. It’s safe. Don’t worry. Go for it.

Pre-blood.

Ready to be dead!

I know, I know. 100% totally rad, right? I know. Her skull is TOTALLY STICKING OUT OF HER HEAD and the blood is RUNNING DOWN HER FACE. Yeah, rad. After the makeup was finished, the kids were placed in the hall in an attempt to make it look like some sort of horrific accident had occurred in the high school. Unfortunately, my camera battery decided to give out so that I couldn’t properly document the most exciting part of the night. I resorted to using my phone.

I’M IN SHOCK! in the foreground. THIRD DEGREE BURNS! over on the right. Miscellaneous other injuries throughout the hall.

The kid on the left has no arm. The young lad on the right has a piece of glass STUCK IN HIS FACE and was doing a very good job of being IN PAIN.

When it was time, the EMT’s slowly wandered through the hall. In a painfully nonchalant manner, they assessed each injured person, labeling them a certain color(red, yellow, green and black I think) based on their apparent injuries. Let me just say…EMT’s, isn’t this supposed to be an emergency? A major disaster? I mean, that’s the point of triage, right? So step it up! Hustle hustle hustle!!

Secret photo of an EMT assessing a dead Natalie. It went a little like this…EMT: “Let’s see…are you…dead per chance?” N: “Yup!”

Close-up of dead Natalie.

This was probably the most intense injury. For a second, I may have even thought it was real.

I hope it stained the floor. I want to see the look on students’ faces when they see that the entrance the their U.S. History classroom has BLOOD SPLATTERED ALL OVER IT EEEEEWWW! I’m pretty sure someone might lose control of their bowels. Maybe. MAYBE.

Needless to say, this whole event was quite exciting. So much so that I think I overdid it with the caps lock in this post. Oh well.

Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood

Yesterday my life came straight out of a TV show. At least that’s what it felt like. I wanted to live the day over again and make sure people were catching it on camera and writing down all the thoughts running through my head.

Right when I got to school, I learned that a boy I knew in junior high and moved away two years ago had shot himself on Friday night. It was such a horrible story and he was so young. All I could do was imagine what was going through his head and how he was feeling. I couldn’t even fathom being in such a terrifying situation. I’m a crybaby, so of course I did my best not to burst into tears. I held it in and hoped for the best during the rest of the day.

By the last hour of school, my mind had wandered to other things such as the school blood drive. Last year I forgot to sign up and I was so angry with myself. I wanted to give blood so badly. Needless to say, I was totally bummed. This year I made sure to sign up and I was crazy excited about it. During my last class, I spent my time in the gym going through the whole process. It didn’t really hit me until the needle was in my arm; I was really doing this and I loved it. I didn’t watch the staff lady stick the needle in, I just felt it. But then I looked over at the boy next to me and made sure to watch the needle go in and watch the tube fill with blood (the boy couldn’t stop laughing after it went in. It was hilarious). It was amazing to watch the blood flow and know that it was for something good. Then the staff lady told me I was done, she just wanted to “fill some extra vials”. I watched closely as she poked the other end of the tube into each vial and my blood squirted furiously into the tiny vial. That was when I fully realized how amazing of an experience it was.

I’m a healthy, blood-pumping, life-giving human being. I was doing a good deed that could possibly save a life. Something as simple as my blood could keep someone from dying, and it didn’t hinder me one bit. I cannot get over how amazing that concept is. While I watched the vials fill up it took all my energy not to, once again, burst into tears. The whole life-saving concept really got to me. I managed to compose myself long enough to let the lady finish. This was easily one of the most memorable moments of my life so far. Easily!

It wasn’t until a few hours later that I realized how the experiences of my day correlated. One — hearing that someone I knew had ended his own life — was something that couldn’t be a more horrifying experience. The other was one of the most humbling, positive things I’ve ever been a part of. Both of them, being polar opposites, brought out extreme emotions in me. It really was like something out of a TV drama, am I right? Anyway, enough about my emotions. On to the pictures!

The cots were really quite comfy. You can tell by Brandon’s expression.

The needle actually hurt for me. It was worth it though! This was the boy next to me who couldn’t stop laughing.

 

See? Ouch.

 

Afterwards, we were given PB&J’s and chocolate milk. My friend Lacey also gave blood.

 

Yay! I gave blood!

 

One pint of blurd. Oh, I mean blood.

 

It was good enough for Isabelle Eberhardt

“Oh if at every moment of our lives we could know the consequences of some of the utterings, thoughts and deeds that seem so trivial and unimportant at the time! And should we not conclude from such examples that there is no such thing in life as unimportant moments devoid of meaning for the future?”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Everything happens for a reason, and whether or not we can realize that reason doesn’t matter. The reason is still there. The future will be affected; every moment matters to the future. I’m a strong believer in that concept.

Gonna Find Some Animals…

I’m not exaggerating one bit when I say that this is the most awesome thing I have ever seen. It’s so awesome I don’t even know what to say about it. I mean, come on. Giant transportation devices…shaped like realistic animals?! I want one! No wait, I don’t want one. I want one of each. It would come in so handy…maybe. And even the kiddies would enjoy it.

These are some of my favorites.

Mmmlaaaaar, I have a giant creepy eeeeeyeee mmmbllaaarrrghghghg.

If you didn’t click the link, then click on it! You’re totally missing out. There’s more pictures showing the amazing amount of detail and even a video showing that these things are the real deal.

A Gathering of Shades

Lately it seems like I keep getting reminded of how much I like to draw. I decided to take a drawing class a couple years ago and it wasn’t bad at all. At first I thought I couldn’t draw one bit, but I kept at it and improved a lot. I quickly came to realize how much work it takes to finish something and consequently developed a great respect for artwork that I saw around me.

Sadly, with my lack of motivation, I stopped taking the classes. I still doodle in the margins of my notebooks though, faces mostly. Sometimes I’ll even pull out my sketchbook and practice for real. I’m still learning and improving. I really hope I can keep this up. The feeling of satisfaction that comes from finishing a piece is one of the best in the world, especially when it actually looks real.

My drawing teacher was big into realism. I think he instilled that in me, I usually don’t really enjoy drawings that don’t look realistic. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a great appreciation for a piece of art. I just feel like abstract pieces don’t hold as much value or talent. Anyway, enough about my snooty opinions. It’s about time I share some of my drawings.

My teacher really pushed us to do a lot of portraits. These are some of my favorites.

I finally go ambitious enough to come up with something of my own. This was inspired by the band The Snake The Cross The Crown, as you can see. I know I know, this isn’t real. However, the separate pieces in their own respect are real.

I eventually got really into architecture. These two turned out the best.

This one make me laugh because it looks crooked.

These are some anatomy sketches I’ve been doing. The proportions on the legs aren’t great on the first one, and the head sketch in the middle of the page is…horrible. But this was something I really enjoyed doing.

Knees

Looking at these, I’m seeing a lot of things that I need to add to and improve upon. I’m very tempted to go back over all of these and make the contrast more striking, add some detail, etc. And I really hate that swirly cloud thing on the snake one. I should take that out. I’ll share the finished products when I’m done. Yay!

Sorry if I made you wanna cry.

After many weeks of relentless pleading from my sister, I’ve decided to continue blurging. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate posting. In fact, I love the finished product of a post. I’m just too lazy to remember to take pictures, write a whole post, and make it interesting. This shows the extent of my laziness. I’M TOO LAZY TO SIT A THE COMPY AND TYPE. Awesome. But I digress. Tonight I have something fairly interesting to write about, something that I’m quite proud of. Enjoy.

My current senior english teacher has been my favorite english teacher since I had her in 7th grade (she also teaches at the junior high). She’s fun and creative and pretty easy going. At the beginning of the semester, we had an assignment to come up with 50 adjectives about ourselves and then incorporate those words into a drawing that represents us. She even broke out the crayons. Did I mention this is a concurrent english class? This reminded me of something we would do in junior high. At the same time she’s a very inspiring teacher and does an excellent job at coming up with thought provoking subjects. I would really like to think that I’ve developed my writing process a lot this year, and it’s all thanks to her. But this post isn’t about my progress as a writer.

For the past couple of weeks she has been telling us about a feature film made by her son that had been filmed in our town. It’s called The Sinking of Santa Isabel. She is quite proud of it. Consequently, on the last day of the semester last week, she let us watch it. It was a low budget film, but I found it very charming. It’s the story about a guy named Webster, the friends he makes, and how he comes to live in a treehouse for the summer. We actually have yet to finish it because we didn’t have enough time in class, but I’m already smitten with this film. It was evidently shown at Slamdance and is making it’s way to bigger and better stuff. I’m rooting for it.

 

 

I’m quite positive that the music in the movie only added to my enjoyment. All of the music is Joe Purdy stuff. I had heard the name, but I wasn’t familiar with it. Throughout the movie I couldn’t get over how much I loved the songs. So I went home and sure enough, I’ve got some Joe Purdy on my compy! I’m quite relieved because I’ve been needing something to listen to in order to tear myself away from Yael Naim. I’ve been loving Yael’s album ever since the beginning of the year and I haven’t stopped since. It’s all I’ve been listening to. Joe Purdy, I love you.

Joe Purdy – Can’t Get It Right Today

Donuts and Hope Sandoval

Last night I had the pleasure of learning how to make home-made doughnuts…or donuts. The recipe calls them spudnuts, but that’s dumb. One of my church leader’s husband worked in a bakery when he was a teenager, so we had a real pro for a teacher. The donuts turned out to be very delicious. Store bought donuts just aren’t the same. They were nice and warm too, which is always a bonus. Try it out!

 

• 2 cups warm milk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 TB salt
• 2 cups mashed potatoes
• 2 eggs slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 8-9 cups flour
• 2 TB yeast

Glaze:

 

• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 4-6 TB hot water

 

Make sure the milk is warm. Not hot, but warm enough. The amount of flower depends on how packed it is. The mashed potatoes can be the instant flake kind or real, it doesn’t matter. However, I’m sure all you cooking experts know all that already.

Add oil, sugar, salt and mashed potatoes to milk. Beat in eggs, hot water, lemon extract and 3 cups of flour.

Add yeast and enough flour to make a very soft dough.

Let rise twice, roll out and cut.

 

Deep fat fry at 400 degrees till golden.

 

Glaze and enjoy!

 

Now, I must share my true excitement. It has snowed here in Idaho, and so far the snow is actually sticking. It’s pretty cold outside. For the past two years of my life, that weather calls for something special. Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions as well as Mazzy Star. Hope Sandoval is the lovely genius behind both of these groups. I go by a strict rule that I only listen to her albums when there’s snow on the ground, even though I love it all to death. The reason is this: some of my most fun, joyful, intense, sad, and greatest memories spawned from when I first started listening to her, which happened to be when there was snow on the ground. When I hear her songs, I see myself walking to school in the snow, all bundled up. I’m sure everybody knows what I’m talking about. Certain songs or albums bring back memories of a certain time in our lives. That’s one of the reasons I love music so much. It’s more than just listening to a song you love. It’s remembering pastimes. Music is nostalgic, and I love nostalgia.

Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – Feeling of Gaze

Mazzy Star – Roseblood

 

 

 

NaBloPoMo? Wassat?!

So I’m totally not kicking super butt at this post-every-day deal. I had an off week. School has been stressful along with responsibilities concerning student council and being senior class pres. It’s crazy, but I know it’ll only do me good. Along with high school crap, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about ye olde college education. After much deliberation and a little bit of heartbreak, I applied to USU today. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. I actually love Logan and it’ll be close to home. I’ll be able to drive 30 minutes to go to my mom’s crazy cool new mansion humble abode and do laundry. I just think I got my hopes up for moving far away, which seems really scary now. I’m super excited to go to college. It’s gonna be something totally new, and I love new stuff! I love the idea of living on my own and having roommates that I may or may not hate and having a job and attempting to be responsible and and and….college! Woo!!

Anyway, I was tagged for a meme by the lovely freeandflawed. I have to list seven random things about myself so…here it goes.

1. I LOVE Christmas music.

2. I play with the rings on my fingers more than is healthy.

3. I’m harboring a growing likeness for Paul Simon, thanks to my mother.

4. The fact that IN-N-OUT isn’t located anywhere near my house is a real downer to me.

5. I want to major in chemistry in college.

6. I was a platinum blondie for 9 months and a vegetarian for one year.

7. I sleep on top of my sheets and cheetah print comforter.

I don’t know seven people to tag, so enjoy!