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Vive l’anarchie. With a dopey look upon my face hanging out in my living room. I really wish I could paint my walls, but until then I guess I will just keep covering them up. I wonder what kind of housing I will get when I go to study abroad. I’m hoping for an old apartment building with beautiful molding up a few stories with an amazing view of the street below and the buildings around. Hoping.

Spruce St. Halloween party. [2010]

Well, it is Halloween. I went to a party at Spruce St. on Friday and ended up winning a costume contest that I didn’t realize they were having. The prize was a bag of chips from the kitchen. I left it there because I didn’t really need any more chips. With a mustache like the one I have going on I was short on ideas for costumes. Of course there is always the Dali fall back, which seemed rather esoteric to many and my wide-eyed stare did nothing to try and explain the outfit. I was really surprised that the contacts that I hadn’t worn since my visit to Billings this past summer were still any good. They at least lasted the night until I caught the last drunk bus of the night back to my housing complex. And the other amazing thing was that as the paper flowers from my mustache fell multiple times in the mosh pit (dancing area? The influence of the hippie culture in Missoula is quite apparent when looking at the dancing at music shows) but I still somehow time and time again wa...

We did the steam roller printing yesterday. Thankfully I finished in time (although I forgot to carve in the horizon line, but just ignore that) and was able to print. For some odd reason when I take classes from Elizabeth I end up doing this accordion figure again and again. Sure, he repeats in a lot of my work, but usually only in my mind as the ‘accordion man’ and not with an accordion. Random. The process of printing was very coordinated and it seemed as though I was standing on the side while my print was put through the process, which I am definitely not complaining about since dealing with a 4’x4’ block on my own would have sucked. It feels so nice to be done with this print because it seemed to be consuming my life for this month, where as there are many other things trying to do the same thing, such as the application process for studying abroad. Since I only have one class today in the later afternoon I thought it appropriate to have just a small celebration after Fr...

Where all my evenings have gone… (sorry for the poor quality photo, but I hear that shitty cell phone pictures are all the rage these days) We are printing our Day of the Dead blocks this Wednesday. I am looking to finish it tomorrow in class with the use of a drill to create the transitions and hopefully some image of grime. I was hoping to get into the drawing studio to work on my makeup drawing homeworks but it was packed all evening (even more so at midnight when I left the art building) and my legs and back were killing me from all the hunching over to carve my block, so I decided to come back to apartment and perhaps crash since I had such difficulty falling asleep last night. It is weird to think that only a year ago I was moving back to Seattle. I wish I hadn’t been so blinded and stupid, but I guess that is life and the experiences to learn from. Seems like a night to break into the all natural ginger ale and whiskey and put on Henry and June. It seems that the lon...

It seems that I keep taking more and more photos of me messing around with my accordion while in my living room. Now if only I would actually work on practicing my accordion at the same time instead of getting distracted with making beautiful somber noises. This time I did it for a reference for my steamroller print for the upcoming Day of the Dead (which I should have gone to work on today, but instead stayed home and worked on architecture and study abroad instead… These next two days are /really/ going to suck for me). It seems be be coming along nicely and I will probably just need to spend a few more hours and get a hold of the drill that I have heard about to finish it up. Sometimes I think that I romanticize the bohemian era too much, as I take sips of a mixed absinthe drink from the flask in my vest pocket. On a lighter note.. Halloween costumes and how I have yet to really think about that at all. With the mustache back, perhaps Dali? Time to fall asleep as I att...

I think I have finally decided on the cities for which I am applying to study abroad at, although this may change… 1st is Rennes.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes  It has a metro system (subways kind of send my heart a flutter from time to time), fine arts museum, is in the northwest region of France, and has a nice large population. 2nd is Saint-Étienne.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-%C3%89tienne  It is in the mountains just southeast of the center of France and has a tramway, museum of modern art, and their main industry is bicycle manufacturing. 3rd is Montpellier.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpellier  It is near the Mediterranean to the south of France, has a tramway, hosts lots of cultural events, the largest population of any of my choices (265,364), and it pretty much stays at 50 degrees all year round. 4th is Amiens.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens  A smaller town to the north of France with a population just un...

October seems to be a month from hell in trying to get all my school work done. The largest, figuratively and physically, for the moment is a steam roller print for my print making class. Next to that though is filling out all the information for studying abroad. I just reread the application again today and realized that I have to write a paper for each of the four schools that I choose as to why I have chosen them. Meh. Today my plans were to do groceries and work on my print. Which I accomplished with a skinny flask of absinthe in my vest pocket, although it did eat up a huge chunk of my time. At one point I followed Robert, who was working on his print, over to the Butterfly for a little break. It can be an interesting experience sitting there as they close. Today I noticed that Javier has named his guitar Stella, or at least that the name Stella is stickered onto the head of his guitar.

Every time I try to put my schedule for what I have going on in this month of October it appears more and more like I won’t be getting anytime to just relax. (Now if only I would stop relaxing once I got home.. stupid addicting internet) It seems as though all my art classes are piling on the homework, which personally I love doing art, but I know that some of this work isn’t going to come out looking as great as it could just because as I get stressed I will rush to finish aspects of my homework knowing that I can get away with doing that. Bad habits. Upon all the homework that I have, I as well have my study abroad forms to fill out and essays for that and really the list keeps going. I’ve been working on breathing exercises and plans on when I will actually get it done in sections. Fun fun. In my desire to constantly run away I’ve started thinking more and more about when I finish my study abroad why don’t I look into getting into the Peace Corps and run away again for a f...

The sickness has seemed to pass, well, beyond the point of making me completely bedridden. I made it to one class in total all week. Not the best track record, but meh. Thankfully I made it to my French class to hear that there will be a quiz on Monday. It was the first time in a long time that I was completely lost in that class, I guess it really pays off to go to class and not miss almost a full week. I found it slightly surprising as well as comforting that this time when getting sick and not being able to get my groceries for the week that I still made it through without running out of food completely. Yay canned foods that I buy because they are on sale and I think that maybe one day I will get around to eating them. Although I am still pretty sure I lost some weight, so it looks like I will be making some fancy French dinners to gain back those few kg.

My parents and sister came to visit me this weekend and I ended up getting a costco card, which I may or may not end up using. With it only being me it seems that buying in bulk doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but at least I have another card with a horrible picture of me. As soon as my family left it seems that I came down with this annoying sickness. Surrounding a whole lot of homework that I need to get done too. Only a /little/ frustrated with the sickness happening at such an inopportune time. I sent off an email to my print making prof about not being able to make the deadline, although I am hoping that I will still get better and be able to finish in time for Thursday, as I was really looking forward to the final presentation of this assignment. Meh. Time for more sleep and tea.