oh, hi there!

I was in a photo shoot yesterday where -- for the first time in a long time -- I was not the photographer. It wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking as I had anticipated. Truth be told I kinda enjoyed being in front of the camera for a change. Kensie (the photographer) covered me in Holi red for the shoot. I wiped most of it off after, but I left just enough to cause a bit of a sensation on my drive home. It was fun!

Wanna know what's not as fun though? Flickr. Can you believe a week after I bought a pro account for near $25 I can no longer access my photos? What's more, the Flickr team has done nothing to help with this problem despite many emails I've sent their way! Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I'm very upset.

two songs

I'm just gonna ease back in here and pretend like I didn't disappear. Ok? Ok. But anyway, look what I made for my intermediate photo class.

 

It's my interpretation of Adrienne Rich's poem, "Two Songs". There are others, but I like this best.

Now Playing: Youth by Daughter

what i'm reading: anne of green gables

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first in the series will forever be my favorite. It characterizes my childhood not because I grew up in the same way or fancy myself to be just like Anne, but because of all the times I spent re-reading this series in all of my favorite crannies and dreamscapes. This is probably the 4th or 5th time I've re-read this book. It's different every time (I know that's a really trite thing to say, but it's the truth). And I suspect this is so because there is just so much scope for imagination in this book.

drop-stitch scarf

Remember when I talked about fostering my creativity some more at the beginning of this year...? Yeah, me neither. In any case, I've been doing just that quite a lot recently, and I began with this scarf. It is so easy to make -- in fact, I've done four of them since spying one on a friends neck last winter and hounding her to give me the pattern, which she eventually gave me not so long ago. It takes all of about 4 hours to complete and looks positively luscious; the pictures don't do it justice, but you have to trust me on just how scrumptious it looks once completed. I seem to have misplaced the pattern, so I can't really link to it on here, but if you're really curious let me know, and I'll be motivated to find it.

Oh, and I haven't blocked the scarf here in these photos, but I will soon, which should make it look less sorry and assume more of its inherent yumminess.

i never met free food i didn't want to eat

First things first -- I invested in a little Canon point-and-shoot recently, so the images you'll be seeing on here from now on will most likely be digital. Why? Because it costs TWICE (!!) as much now to develop a roll of film than it did in the good old days ("the good old days" being about a month ago -- gah! I miss those days). The quality is naturally not nearly as good but not quite subpar either. Well, at least I can update this bitty blog a lot more now. So all's well that ends well.

Now, on to business. My friends have been feeding and watering me quite a bit lately, which if you know me at all you would know just how perfectly this arrangement jibes with me -- I never met free food I didn't want to eat.

Exhibit A is an Amish casserole called Yumsetta (I'm assuming they call it such due to the yumminess inherent in the dish, but don't quote me on that). When done right (which I assure you Sarah's was) Yumsetta incorporates chiefly ground beef, egg noodles, cheese, and brown sugar into a fare that is savory yet delicately sweet. I had two heaping helpings of it last night and again for lunch this afternoon, and would probably have had it for dinner as well if Selene hadn't invited me over for dinner and a movie.

Enter  in exhibit B...

... deconstructed homemade Heavy D tacos. Oh, but it was good! I meant to bring some back to my apartment with me, but between the three of us (one of Selene's roommates joined us) there was barely any left by the end of the night to allow for the requisite take-home leftovers.

We watched this movie (which was wonderfully funny). Played with these cats:

Sir Oliver

Lord Colin

And I played and sang this song my whole way home. Definitely a fantastic albeit intensely hot weekend. I would totally do it over again!

i'm a news writer nowadays!

I've been away for so long. Gah!... Consistency has never been a strong suit of mine, but I'm working on it.
Anyway, I write for my school newspaper now (yay!), and I surprise myself daily with how much I love it and how good I am at it (hardly modest, but I don't much feel like sublimating my spirit right now). This was the first article I wrote for the Red & Black. It made the front page and the positive feedback was so massive it was almost embarrassing. I'm so pleased!

You best believe I have a clipping of it stored in my journal for posterity.

memorial day

It was really lovely. I got to spend it with some of my most favorite people in the world. And the food was just yummy. I'm infinitely blessed!

Now Playing: Turn And Turn Again by All Thieves

pentax k1000 // kodak ultra max

that's what's up

Wanna know what I was up to last night? Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway - I saw Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros in concert, and it was EPIC! They're so good live that even now, just thinking about it makes me excitedly giddy all over again. It was so worth the stressful hour and a half drive down to Atlanta (which really was a 2-hour drive thanks to the thunderstorm that kept us company the whole way there). We missed the opening band, but who cares -- the main act more than made up for that loss. Now I can't wait for their new album, which is coming out may 29th (I checked). All the songs they performed off of it were amazing (and all the adjectives I'm using sound so trite, but I don't have words to articulate the awesomeness that is an Edward Sharpe concert).

Oh, and that's my friend Stephen. He's such an awesome, reliable concert buddy.

Now Playing: That's What's Up by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

pentax k1000 // kodak ultra max

dear diary: sensible black girls

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with the post, but it was a pretty sunset that day. And even with the large, obnoxious crane in the foreground, I still enjoy it, so...

Anyway, school's out now (queue excited hand-clapping and body flailing), but before it was out I had to do this thing for one of my literature classes called a Capstone presentation. Basically, during Capstones, seniors (of which I am one) present to the class their aspirations, hopes, dreams, and (if you're one of the lucky ones) plans that are no longer mere objectives but concrete things happening for you presently. You also place those hopes etc. in concert with your idea of what you perceive literature to be and specifically how that particular class has guided or not guided those perceptions.

For my Capstone, I read an entry from my journal that I felt was representative of some of my feelings about myself, about my major, but ultimately about my race. I'm gonna share an excerpt here:

Up until I was about three my name was Catherine after my dad’s elder sister. But then my dad got into an argument with her, and whatever it was they disagreed on must have been very important and/or very intense, because my dad had my name legally changed to Karen. It wasn’t that much of a leap, since firstly I wasn’t too attached to the name Catherine considering my very young age, and secondly and more technically Karen and Catherine mean essentially the same thing – Pure.  

Except I don’t and have never considered myself pure. And I don’t mean pure in the sense of faultlessness or sinlessness; I mean the kind of pure that connotes a freedom from discordant qualities, but isn't necessarily metaphysical. Like when people talk about pure gold or a pure tone in music without any kind of extraneous or inappropriate elements taking away from the experience of that tone. So then, a musical kind of pure, if you will.

I am not a musical kind of pure. I am electronic and unplugged all at once. I am amplified. I am muted. I harbor too many contradictions to really and truly qualify the meaning of my name. And I think that’s why I have such an affinity for literature – or at the very least literature, as I understand it: Literature as all encompassing and inclusive; Literature as rigid and specialized; Literature as open and transcendent; Literature as elusive and insular. 

I have often considered what my future will look like; lately those considerations have tripled in occurrence, and are markedly more frantic now that graduation is nearly upon me and the prospect of the “real” world is made more tangible daily. These considerations consistently leave me feeling claustrophobic. I mean that they elicit a sort of strange, frenzied, oftentimes hysterical feeling that I am unable to articulate as yet. I wouldn’t call it terror although it does have the makings for that particular emotion. But more and more, I have come to think of it as the ultimate side effect of my gross indecision complex. Because I am grossly indecisive. 

I want to live on an isolated sheep farm in the French Alps with a whole slew of my own barefoot, underfoot children; I want to be a very capable food critic living in a charming, little, Seattle apartment with a cherry red front door; I want to be the flamboyant, artistic wife of an impressively bearded fisherman and live on an island off of the coast of Maine; I want to be a much beloved primary schoolteacher in a quaint European village; I want to tour the world over as an accordion player in a band that I shall call The Beard and the Trapezoid; but mostly I just want to be an eccentric and brilliant professor of Literature at a university – and I won’t even mind on which continent it is. 

I can’t imagine what some of these dreams seem like to people who aren’t me, because to me they make perfect sense. But I find that I have to defend my aspirations constantly to people who, during my entire explanation, maintain the same incredulous, almost pitying expression. Because sensible black girls aspire to sensible careers. Sensible black girls grow up to be doctors and lawyers and engineers and chief editors and computer programmers, and (if you absolutely must push the envelope) fashion designers. 

They know better than to gamble their futures on the success of bands that play obscure instruments like the accordion. They certainly know to stay away from places where the chances of them being the only one of their kind are invariably guaranteed. And every sensible black girl is well aware that fishing is no kind of life to live regardless of how impressive your potential lobsterman’s beard is. So, what to do when you’re a sensible black girl who practically avoids all the sensible things you ought to be chasing…?

Now Playing: Late Bloomer by Allie Moss 

athens indie craftstravaganza!

Between studying for finals, putting together portfolios for my web and painting classes, writing papers, working, and worrying about all the things I'm juggling, it's no wonder I haven't used my Pentax in what seems like years. But I brought it out of retirement this morning for the Athens Indie Craftstravaganza Spring Market. It was so great! I had the hardest time holding on to my nonexistent money (being broke seriously sucks). I did, however, collect some business cards for when I come into some money later (my ingenuity astounds me too, haha!).

P.S. Check out Jesse's online shop. I met her briefly at the market, but I can say this with all confidence: she's lovely and her handmade pouches are just as lovely too.

Now Playing: Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men

pentax k1000 // fujifilm superia x-tra

breakfast at belville's

We took a break from painting one morning and convened at my professor's house for a little look-see at his lovely home and studio. We got to meet his dog too, and her name is Slinky-Toe. I don't get it either...

Now Playing: Over The Hill (John Martyn cover)

(Is it bad that I like this cover better than the original?! It has all of my favorite people in it. Ben Lovett... *sigh* Ah! I can't get enough!!)

pentax k1000 // fujifilm superia x-tra

easter sunday shenanigans

Caution: the post you are about to view is heavily riddled with photos. Proceed accordingly.

riding in pink cars. death by shadow play. Wham!. imaginary convos via decommissioned pay phones. trolling downtown Athens. stealing photos of street crooners. yummy Five Guys burgers. brilliant sunsets. taking photos for strangers. taking photos of cute strangers (the operative word being "cute"). not-so-secret secret gardens. studies in floral arrangement 101. awkward poses by fountains. more trolling: library edition. lessons in lens focusing. obligatory reflection photos. all in a day's work.