Thursday, February 08, 2007

Why, hello there! It’s me… remember me? Bonnie?

Hey hey hey! I'm writing in my blog, yes I am! That's because I'm not doing my homework. Shocking!

It's Thursday, my dayhayhay off! And I should be just starting my ballet class, but I decided to not go today on account of the fact that I have quite a bit of homework, duh, on top of a Photography critique tomorrow as well as an Art History quiz as well as a MOM coming YAY! So I’ve had an extra load this week and not enough time to get ahead on my work in time to make way for the fun times ahead with Mom. You see? But I’m sorta a little bit defeating the purpose. But I figure I’ll get my Film and English work done today as well as finish up studying for Art History, and I have my Piano Lesson, for which I never have time to practice =( and I am possibly going to pick up Jane, Michele’s sister, with her because she spending the weekend here as well as coming to my photo class with me tomorrow because she’s interesting in photo and takes it at school (but I don’t think she’s going to be an art major, I think she likes science) and then go to a NIPRG meeting at 9 to find out for about what exactly it is. That’s my day. I’ve been going to open model sessions on Thursdays recently because I’ve found that works a lot better for my sanity than going on Tuesdays, but this week I don’t have time.

So, now’s time to try and catch up on EVERYTHING from the past two months. Christmas break was so much fun fun fun. Laura and Pete and AJ and Heather and Grama all came down and we had a PART-AY! It was awesome to be home and I went to my old school at least 5 times to see all my friends and go to TRYumf classes etc. The first day I went back I got some many hugs from everybody I lost count! It was really great =D Oh man, I loved break and I wish I’d written in my blog while it was happening so I could have all the fun times written down. So great, I didn’t want to leave.

Which brings me to my next topic: I didn’t want to leave. Because I didn’t want to come back. But I had to, not because I felt I didn’t have another choice, but because my other options blew, and as far as I was concerned, weren’t even options. So I came back, stressed out a bit for the first week, but then had a small epiphany. I was talking Mom, because she’s always really good with advice and helping me figure out what’s wrong and how to master obstacles. And she asked me okay, now what exactly is making you unhappy? We went through the list of everything I do and discovered that, in fact, nothing was. What? Nothing? I know! I realized that nothing in particular was making me unhappy, and resolved to be happy because it meant that it was entirely up to me. Therefore, I have been happy for the past 3 weeks. I know it sounds a little crazy, like it’s not possible to just go ahead and make yourself happy, but now that I think about that, I already knew it was possible, because I’ve done it before. I really think often times it really is up to you if you’re happy or not. Just consider the fact that sometimes the people with everything awesome are so unhappy and people with nothing are having the times of their lives, you know?

So despite the fact that I have 50% more work this semester, I am quite enjoying myself. And how did I do this, you ask? Well, I have a problem that is linked with my previous unhappiness, which is that I tend to back myself into corners and then I can’t get back out. Let me see if I can explain this… Okay, ballet is a good example. When I was trying to go for the first time a few weeks ago, I backed myself into a corner because I knew I would be unhappy if I didn’t go, but I was really unhappy about going the first time on my own. Just nervous. But then there I was, unhappy either way, and the solution was to just get off my ass on go! I do that with homework all the time, waste time when it could have just been done. So now, I just DO IT and it’s done, and it’s awesome. Not that I have free time left over, but I don’t stress about just getting it done. Plus, I’m one of those people that feels accomplished when I can check everything off my list. I’m a list person. Not to the extreme, but sorta.

My foot fell asleep! Ahhhh!

So what else? Well, ballet! I’ve been twice, the first teacher was a tad arrogant, but that’s to be expected of male dancers who think they’re all that. But my second teacher WAS AWESOME! She was so nice and so good and I had such a good time and I’m sad that I’m not in her class right now as we speak! So, ballet is good. I really meant to get back in shape FOR REAL this semester, but that’s the story of my life, and I’m not in shape yet, haha. Actually what’s hindering that is homework, to be honest. Seriously, I barely have time to go to ballet once a week let alone the gym every day. I’m working on it because I do really want to be a super strong dancer again. And of course, this summer I plan to be dancing almost every day! That’ll whip me back into shape… =D It’s great to at least be dancing once a week again.

And… well friends, I suppose! Mostly, Michele is my best friend here. I know a while back I wasn’t so sure about her, but she’s fun, I like hanging out with her, and friendships happen how they happen, and she’s who I’ve gotten the closest with. Caitlyn has pushed everyone away, so we’re not really friends anymore, Katy is also a good friend of mine like Michele, but she’s an Architecture kid, remember? So I don’t get to see her that much. I barely ever see Adah, and she’s fun, and we’ve never had any problems, but I never get to see her so we haven’t gotten as close as we potentially could. I’ve met some new people who are fun, but no one I see more than in class. Hum… oh, me and Morgan aren’t really friends anymore either because she went off into her own little world. Uh… I guess SDS can fall into friends. I like the kinds, but it’s the same way as classmates, they’re fun, but no real friendships.

The other thing that’s up recently is that Michele and I went to this really fun cooking demonstration done by this lady in her home for a few people. First of all, Michele is Jewish and becoming orthodox, though she wasn’t raised that way. This woman we went to see, she’s like the Queen of Jewish cooking here in Brooklyn and she had a gorgeous house! She serves Shabbat dinner every Friday, cooks hella good food for hella people. And I’d never been in a Kosher kitchen before, it was really cool. I also met the Rabbi’s wife, who was so nice! And the Rabbi (Rabbi Simcha) is awesome too, I met him last semester. Basically, the point of this story is that I had such a good time because I felt so welcomed by everybody! You know? They were so happy to have me even though they had no idea who I was before last night, that’s just the whole culture, and I like it. I know it sounds strange, but I’m lacking in that welcoming feeling right now, and it was greatly appreciated. Plus, the food was amazing, of course. As soon as I can, I’m going to go with Michele to a Shabbat dinner at Rabbi Simcha’s house one Friday night. Thus far, I just haven’t found the time. But Ariela, his wife, told Michele she HAD to make me come when she met me at the cooking demonstration. I was already planning to, both she and the Rabbi are so nice =)

Yea, I’ve been doing the Jewish thing with Michele, and by that I mean, I’ve been going to this class on Tuesday that the Rabbi has because I’m genuinely interested in learning about this stuff. And it’s the same deal, everyone there is so nice and welcoming, and I like going. Rabbi Simcha is CRAZY! He’s a lot of fun. Of course I highly highly doubt anyone could ever convince me that there’s a God in heaven, but if I was going to be a part of any religion, I think it would be Judaism because of the cultural aspects. I mean, it’s the same thing as Tommy going to that Youth group with his friends even though he didn’t believe in the religion, he had a genuinely good time. And Grama going to her Church group and talking to all the other ladies. It’s really nice to find a group of people who all welcome and respect you and are just nice people and there to have a good time and not pass judgment on if you’re religious or not =) I’m sure you all know what I mean. It’s occurred to me before, but it occurred to me the other day on the subway after this guy was standing in the subway station preaching how we are all sinners and doomed or whatever unless we accept God etc. and I was a little disgusted with it, but then I noticed a lot of people looking at him and listening. I stepped onto the train and looked around me and realized, I am very much a minority in my Atheism. Not that I’m not used to being a minority, I have been at the Oakland Public schools for 7 years. But it was weird for that to occur to me! I looked around and realized of the 100 people on that train car, I was the lone Atheist (Atheists are 1% at most I believe, because about 4% consider themselves Agnostic.) It was interesting. But the real point is that I really enjoy the Jewish group =) Meeting some new cool people.

Which brings me to my next topic: Photography. I have three super neat projects that I want to get a move on. Instead of just taking and printing and editing for the good ones, these three things are actually projects of sorts. The first, the Rabbi is writing another book currently, for which he needs a portrait. He has one he likes at home, which I’ll see when I go to Shabbat dinner, but he’s wearing a black shirt so his beard blends into it. It’s not that hard to get a good portrait for a book, it would seem to me, but he was talking about how he needed one and what it should look like with us last week, and somehow I mentioned that I was a photography major. So next thing I knew, I was supposed to take his portrait! This is good for so many reasons. First, I need more rolls of film for class (I ALWAYS need more rolls! The more pictures, the better!) Second, this is a great opportunity to take portraits of someone who doesn’t mind having his picture taken. I’ve never had someone ASK me to take their portrait, usually I shove my camera in their face, which I only have the nerve to do with people I know. So I can take his picture, he knows I’m there, and he can ignore me and wont be nervous about it. Third, usually I’d try to get out of something like this, but I decided what the hell? If I don’t get one he likes, oh well! He’ll find another way to get it. Who cares if I mess up? I’m an amateur, I need practice, it’s fun, he’s trusting me, and I’m trusting myself. I took the first roll this week. I haven’t looked closely to see what I got, but I already figure the first roll would be my way of seeing what to do better the next time. I told him it needs to be an on-going project, that that’s how I work. I can’t just get the picture like that the first time. So fun fun.

The other two are more hands on the pictures themselves projects, so to speak. So I’ll show you them when they’re completed because it’s too hard to explain them. One is a collage of sorts. You’ll see, it’s going to be awesome =)

But unfortunately, I did not have as much time as I wanted to print pictures for the critique tomorrow. Yea, I could go print today instead of writing in this blog or doing my other homework, but that’s okay. I have enough pictures, it’s all good, I have plenty of good fun ahead of me printing pictures I haven’t gotten to yet. I have about 8 rolls of film to get to =)

Alright, now other school stuff. Art History! My new teacher is really good. She goes over about 10 slides per class, not EVERY SINGLE PICTURE IN THE BOOK like my last teacher, who I do believe was fired. She goes over them thoroughly, I take the best most furious notes of everyone I know, and then me and Michele are such good and thorough studiers, we’re gunna ace this class no problem. We’ve already studied all 35 of the pictures for the quiz tomorrow, and we pretty much have them down. All we need to do is go over them once or twice more to engrain then in our brains. And this thing about so few pictures is that we’re ACTUALLY learning them, and actually going to remember them for later reference, which is the WHOLE POINT of Art History. We’re currently learning about the Renaissance, which is by far my favorite so far and the most interesting. The paintings are just so unbelievably spectacular! Right, and the Museum trip, it’s a trip to the Metropolitan Museum to see about 7 Renaissance paintings, and actually for extra credit, but we figure we’ll go and just do the extra credit because it really doesn’t hurt and is good incase we bomb a test or something later on.

LCD? Okay. So I switched teachers, and I’m so my happier in this class. Both my old teacher and my new teacher are kinda trying to guilt trip me though, but I really don’t care because they just don’t know or understand that yes, I am a freaky kid who ACTUALLY WANTS TO LEARN! So Professor Roberts, my new teacher, gives me hella more work, but I feel like I’m actually learning. And good god I have a lot of work this week, but I’m really interested in it, the project seems really fun =) Dunno how it’s all going to get done though…

Drawing drawing. So my open modeling sessions have been going slightly better, drawing in general has, in fact. The homework last week, which I posted in the last blog, was really fun. And then yesterday in class was also really fun, because we were working with the exactly same problem: four tones, white, grey, and black, from a still lie in the morning, and a model in the afternoon, and I did well with it. Actually, the whole class did well with both the homework and the work in class. I like this shadow stuff. And our homework is the same idea, using white and black charcoal on grey paper to draw a still life in terms of blocks of shadows. Oh! And we also did a fun problem with the arcs on the figure. We were only allowed to use arcs to draw the model, instead of the typical only allowed to use straight lines, which I hate. Yay.

English… well, the class is interesting enough, but my teacher is a bit disorganized and scattered. We’re doing a class on Happiness, which is interesting, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s having trouble bringing it all back together to make a point. And, since I’m so good at English, it’s a piece of cake to write her essays and read her books. That’s all stuff that’s really easy for me because I had hard teachers and so much training in high school. She’s interested in the fact that I’m in SDS though. Actually, that’s where NIPRG comes in. A rep came and talked to out class, and after my teacher mentioned SDS and I said I was in it and so she’s interested. But NIPRG stands for New York Public Interest Research Group, so as far as I can tell, they do things to help out New York! Yea! So I’m excited to be getting in some activism. =)

And Film. Awesome. Way better than Video. Kinda like classic Photography is better than digital. Okay fine, not better, but I personally enjoy it more. So there. We haven’t filmed anything yet, but we will very very soon. It’s gunna be a fun class, lots of neat stuff, and my teacher is crazy in an eccentric awesome sort of way.

Is that it? Probably not. I’m trying to think…. Well, that was plenty to tide you over, and I’m sure writing more would just be procrastination. Which I will be doing more of shortly after I finish writing this. But I think I’m mostly caught up. Leave me a comment if you can think of something else you wanted to know more about.

Oh, and I can give blood again, so I’ll be doing that soon, and I got my friend an uber cool dinosaur shirt for his birthday. Oh, the wonders of ebay! The first is the one I got for his, the second is one I believe I’ll be getting for myself. The third is one I hope he wouldn’t have liked better, because I already got him the first one…







Yay uber long blog entry! For your viewing enjoyment.

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