The Most Terrifying Moment of the Year So Far

Tonight, James and I took the kids out. It was cold, so we went to Haywood Mall where there's a play area for kids. Beatrice ran right in and James went with her. Amby wanted to explore a little so he and I walked around for a few minutes.

We came back to the play area and James was white and walking in circles around the enclosed area.

Bea was gone. 

We both started searching inside the play area for her. It was really packed and it's easy to just lose sight of a kid for a minute. I thought she was in a tunnel or behind something. That's how it always is. She's never wandered off, she's just hard to keep an eye on at every second.

But then he said that she'd disappeared as soon as they'd gotten there.

It was serious. She wasn't there.

As soon as it hit me that she was gone, a few other parents started noticing and coming up to us. But right then, a mall cop came walking towards us and he had her.

She was so little. And pale. And she had a bloody nose. I could tell she had been crying.

She eventually told us that a kid had punched her and she had run away. She got lost and a lady with some little girls had helped her find the mall cop. We were all completely shaken up. She sat with me most of the rest of the time we were there. And I needed that.

It's amazing how it can seem like everything is moving so fast, but then, in that one moment, it just stops and you zero in on your only priority as a parent.

Life Update

School + Internship + 45 Minute Commute + A Family = No Spare Time. This is normal. I'm used to it. But it does mean that the new season of Downton has to wait until after graduation. Monday-Thursday, I leave home at 8am and get home between 6 and 7. Friday is a home day. A bless'd, welcome home day.

If you aren't on facebook and friends with me, then you probably haven't seen my current profile pic. This is what it looks like. Amn't I glorious? (That's a word, you should use it.)

It's my last semester. I'm learning HTML/CSS coding, prepping my portfolio for the job search, learning about Islamic art, learning about conspiracy theories. Fun fun.

My internship is at HUB-BUB. I do graphic design, etc. "Etc." means some light marketing, generating ideas for exhibitions and implementing them, wine tasting and bar tending. I love working there! It's an awesome organization and the people are just my kind.

Watching/Listening/Wearing/Reading/Wanting

Etsy

Boy, I've added a ton of fresh stuff to my shop. There's a range of different sizes even though there's mostly just my own body modeling. Don't let the pictures fool you, look at the measurements in the listing.

Heads up, I'm planning a new name and look for my etsy shop. Excited!

SHOP

Word

"...we must remember, that while language constitutes a barrier, poetry itself gives us a reason for trying to overcome the barrier. To enjoy poetry belonging to another language, is to enjoy an understanding of the people to whom that language belongs, an understanding we can get in no other way…" -excerpt from T.S. Eliot's Nobel Prize banquet speech, 1948

Remembering T.S. Eliot, who died on this day, Jan 4, in 1965.

Lucy, An Amazing Gifter

Now that Christmas is a distant memory, this may seem late to mention. But my friend Lucy is a really gifted gifter. Here's what she gave me for Christmas this year, in a sugar skull/pop art bag, on New Year's Eve, over sushi:

A hand-drawn and lettered Dune-themed card that she made.

A message in a bottle necklace in which she hand-lettered an Edna St. Vincent Millay quote.

She customized the wrapping paper with Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel and glitter.

A box containing:

star confetti

mac'n'cheese lipgloss

cake vodka

an out of print Lemony Snicket book

Every single detail of this was thoughtful, personal and special. Gifting is a talent and she's got it!

Studio Space

A couple of my pals and I are clearing out a warehouse to use as a shared studio space. It's pretty big. The space has been used as storage for a number of years and part of the deal involves getting it cleared out. We don't mind because rent is hellah cheap.

I am so incredibly stoked about this space! I plan to spend lots of time there and do so much work. My main focus will be on screen printing. At first anyway. There are paintings that need to happen, oh, and photographs, a lot of them, that have yet to be taken. There are tableaux-based films that have been fixedly lodged in my head for years and there are tapestries.

Here is one little corner and the next is a photograph depicting myownself (L) and my pretty studiomate (R). All that stuff's the stuff we're clearing out.

End Of Term

Well, this is the last week of classes for me. Not really much to do. The nice thing about an art degree is that it is project heavy, exam light.*

I have a comprehensive exam in environmental science and some projects due, but that's about it. Oh, it's really nice to not be a procrastinator. I'm surprised at how many folks claim procrastination with a tone of pride. Well, have fun with all that stress come end of term. It's not for me.

In fact, I'm one of those annoying students. You know, the ones who sit in the front and answer the rhetorical questions, who ask for clarification on assignments everyone else hoped the teacher would forget, who get their money's worth or as close to it as they can. They say, "Cs get degree." But I believe honor roll As have a better chance of getting into grad school, not to mention getting a job.

So now that the semester's winding down, I'll have time for some fun. Street art, wheat paste, murals, actually reading actual books for heavens sake already. All the fun things I couldn't do with my time taken up with classes.

In fact, I got an early start, wheat-pasting last night before the semester's even over.

This isn't me. I neither grew a beard nor shaved my head.

*I'm reading Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Not through it yet, so no grammar/punctuation judging please. And honestly, I'll be damned if I ever diagram another sentence. Ain't nobody got time for that.