Goodbyes

I am in arts and crafts right now...attempting to prolong a Thursday night that has already technically turned into a Friday (the last day of camp and beautiful campers at Camp Royall). Before I graduated Elon a few months ago, I did something similar by staying up all night in the ceramics studio painting an intricate, silver eyeball on my cap, just for kicks and giggles. I literally stayed in the art building until four thirty in the morning that night and since it's already two o'clock here now, I will continue to take on random arts and crafts projects because I am too happy and too stuck in the motion of camp frenzy and excitement to go to sleep and accept the fact that it will all be over way too soon. Yep, it's called denial, kiddos.

Nichole, mainly, sorry for the lack of updates. My twelve hour work days don't leave me much time for what many consider frivolous blogging. However, my neglect of this blog does keep me awake at night sometimes and if I had internet access in the cabins, maybe it would get updated more often. I promise to share more about life happenings as soon as I, what, start school full-time again? Haha...YES! Actually, even though I will be really busy soon (as will you, Nitch) I will have lots of exciting things to share here. But, before I promise to update my blog more, I promise to see you in D.C., baby!

Homesick

I am having a blast during my vacation week from camp. I drove up to Maryland to spend the week with my best friend, Rachael (Yep, that's us at our senior prom).

Anyway*, Rachael, Christian and I have been frantically apartment-hunting since Friday with lots of potentials, but no luck yet. We've been on site to some places to check the safety of areas out in person and have been emailing people like crazy and I think I've visited craigslist way more often than I've visited facebook this week (seriously).

Anyway, for a much-needed change of pace, I got to go all the way to downtown D.C. by myself like a big girl today (I officially have a smartrip card!). I arrived at the steps of the Natural History Museum to meet up with Kenny, Corey, Jailee, Louiza and Andy (who are friends from camp that decided to spend their vacation week house-sitting near D.C.). While Rachael was at work, I shopped around D.C. with my campy friends pretending that I wasn't about to be homeless in exactly a month...I bought coconut ice cream from a hot dog car and selfishly purchased the cutest dress from H&M (a clothing store that everyone in the world has been to but me). Also, whilst at Urban Outfitters, I got to witness a real-life shoplifter get arrested. It was actually super depressing and sad because the woman was crying and looked like any other person. The situation was simply all-around uncomfortable and humiliating. Urban Outfitters is really, really, really expensive though.

Anyway, on my crowded, but solitary, metro ride back to College Park, I began thinking more and more about my new and different life scheduled for the fall. What will grad school really be like? Will I get good grades? How stressed out will I be? What kind of people will I meet? What about boys (just kidding)? What kind of part-time job will I get to slave away at? Will I make enough money for rent? What about for food? Will I be happy? The latter is worrying me most. I know that I will be happy, but I don't know if I'll every be as happy as I was these past two years. I know I've always complained about Elon, but ever since I stepped foot into the ceramics room and got to working with Mike, I've had some kind or sense of inner calm.

I know that sounds silly. It really does. But I COMPLETELY mean it. The daily struggle and triumph that I experienced working on my ceramics and sculpture made me feel so special and unique. I would tire physically at the wheel, wedging the clay, feeling it in my arms, shoulders and, even, abdomen. I'd get weird looks walking around campus because I'd be so mentally involved, constantly thinking about art, that I wouldn't even bother to clean the dried clay off of my pants, hands and even face. Needless to say, I absolutely LOVED every painstaking minute of working on my thesis. I loved even more discussing the things of life with faculty and peers. My happiest days were at the end of April, installing the senior art show. I hadn't eaten for two days, hadn't slept for the same amount, but I was all giggly and bubbly. I didn't want to be anywhere else. All I wanted to do was stay in the art building.

What I am trying to say is that today on the metro, it hit me. It hit me hard. I am not going back to Elon this fall (which I am okay with). Rather, I am not going back to the ceramics room. I won't get to see Mike's face every day. I won't have clay under my fingernails. I won't get to walk around the maze of Artswest, passing friends in the hall. I won't get to judge the bad art in the bathrooms. There are other things that I won't get to do, but mainly I am jealous that I don't get to make more art full-time. I hope that at the Corcoran I will have enough studio time to explore more with my art. I hope that I find the faculty and students as fun as I found my cohort of art kids. I'm not worried. It's more that the Corcoran experience I am about to embark on is being held and judged against my Art/Honors experience. Mainly, though, as much as I don't want this summer and camp to end, I can not wait another day to get my fingers back in some clay and my brain wrapped around someone else's art.

Love,

Monica

*I like this word.

The Greatest Place on Earth

Click on the flyer above to make it bigger so you can read about an awesome job opportunity for the summer.  I'll be there! 

Paperhand Puppet Intervention...with a twist

via paperhand.org

Autsim + Art + Drama + Puppets = FUN FUN FUN!

Needless to say, after going to my first Paperhand Intervention Autism group, I feel happy (Today we played a game where we had to fill the blank in with an emotion we were feeling).

This is definitely the beginning of something great, especially since I will be getting a chance to take some charge and leadership initiative in the group, as one of the few "Autism-experienced" volunteers.  I am so thankful for getting to do this every Monday for the rest of the academic year because, honestly, I don't think I could survive without even the smallest exposure to camp friends and autism every week.

--Off to work on a paper about bonsai trees and miniature plants

Love,

Monica

I'm back

I just rolled into Elon after spending a week and a half in MD for Christmas, a week working and New Year's at Camp Royall and some change at David's house catching up on sleep.  Getting my textbooks for my winter term class (Plants and Civilization) was an interesting experience because one of the books is a cookbook full of delicious recipes!  Maybe our homework will be to cook (doubtful).  What is more likely is that I will be reading and writing a lot of papers because class only lasts about three weeks and I have four good-sized textbooks from which to read.

In other news, the fish are alive and Orange is EVEN bigger than I remembered.  With the Christmas money my parents gave me, I will be able to buy them a bigger tank for their long futures (koi can live many, many, many years).  And in one short week, I will be starting a 12-week long Autism volunteer-ship in Chapel Hill.  The program I will be volunteering with is called "Art-to-Art" and is the drama program run in collaboration with the Art Therapy Institute of Chapel Hill, the ArtsCenter and Paperhand Puppet Intervention (I'm pretty sure that the phrase "paperhand puppet intervention" sums it up).  I am soooo excited!

Okay, now off to clean my room and read for tomorrow's class (I don't think teachers should be allowed to assign homework before the term has even started).

Love,

Monica

Poll

I'm starting to think that no one reads this blog.  

If you're out there, please watch these videos and comment with which song version you like better.  This afternoon, while avoiding my thesis, I recorded both of these covers* of the song "Why do you let me stay here" (She & Him) with the program Audacity.  All of the vocals are yours truly and the guitar (that's been distorted by too much "noise removal").  While I won't tell you which one I like better, I will say that I think I sound better in one of them.

Enjoy:

#1

#2

Tomorrow I get to go back to Camp Royall and make up for all of the Autism I've missed the past month!  I'm sooo excited.  David's going to come and volunteer too :)

Love,

Monica

*And I acknowledge that I may have screwed up the lyrics in the song...

Vintage BLUE

That's the color of my new, 48 key accordion. It was the cheapest accordion that I could find on ebay, and I bought it the whimmiest of whims, of course. It's just got a couple of uneven keys, but I think you'll agree that it looks pretty pretty.  Now all I have to do is learn to how to play the darned thing of beauty.  

I snagged it from the other bidder just as Amanda, Nichole and her little brother, Bobby, came into the apartment to visit.  I told them that it'd probably be kind of like playing the piano (which I got down).  But, they didn't agree and thought that it'd probably be more like playing a plunger or a folding drying rack.  I think that an accordion has a little place for all three of those "instruments" in its heart.

The rest of the night was full of bliss as we played multiple rounds of Bananagrams and electronic Catchphrase for hours!

And, even after being woken up by the fire alarm for no apparent reason and having to sit outside in my luckily modest pajamas at 5:40 in the morning, I am very, very excited for today to see Elisabeth and Jean (my best friends from camp).  They are coming from Chapel Hill to hang out at Elon for a couple of hours until Jean has to get her hair cut at a Japanese place called Moshi Moshi.  We are also planning on watching movies (sleep over!) and reeking havoc on unsuspecting university monuments and parks as usual.

Love,

Monica

*Actually, I just checked my email and there was a reason for the 5:40 fire alarm.  Look at the note below that was sent to me by my HA:

For those of you around who experienced the 5:30am fire alarm I'm really sorry about that.  It took me by surprise the same it did you.  According to higher authorities there was no sign of a fire in the room where the alarm was sounded.  The only aspect which seemed to be abnormal was excessive perfume.  Apparently the sensors are very sensitive and can react to even perfume (who knew).  Anyway, I just wanted to let y'all know what went on.  Just be careful and aware for the future.

Excessive perfume?  That just made my day.

Snails finished*

So, today I was asked to babysit Carson and his big sister for a couple of hours.  It was easy as pie as usual and I had lots of fun.  The coolest part was that their fish tank was overcrowded due to a recent explosion of fertility amongst momma guppy and momma snail (there were tens and tens and tens of baby snails and baby guppies frantically swimming about the tank, searching for an uncrowded corner in which to swim).  And while I was pleaded with to take lots of both species, I did not want any guppies for my fish tank.  I did, however, agree to take as many snails as they (the daughter and her father) wanted me to.  Consequently, I left the house with a sandwich-sized ziplock baggie containing about 8 or 9 aquatic snails.  And, oh, how I was excitedly thrilled to put the snails in my fish tank as the latest accessory (I've recently started putting bamboo plants in the tank and find that I absolutely love furnishing the place)!  

I dumped them right in, watching carefully where they landed.  I think the water change confused them a bit, and they did not immediately suction themselves onto the glass in the tank or onto any plants.  And I wasn't really nervous about the koi's reaction to the snails (for I have seen them cohabiting at various pet stores).  However, it only took me stepping away to the bathroom, to come back to an empty tank.  For, THE SNAILS HAD EATEN THE FISH!

Just kidding.  But, seriously guys:  In accordance to one of my fears I had not given much thought (it was fear in the siberia of my mind, with some cobwebs around the edges) the koi had greedily gobbled up the snails, leaving no sign or trace that they had ever been there. 

And, oh, how I felt terrible for promising the little girl that her snails would have a good home in my fish tank.  I had no idea that I would be bringing them to a dinner in which they were the main course!  I should stop feeling guilty, though.  How was I supposed to know that this would happen?  I was just trying to do a good thing.  My fish are the ones really to blame.  I believe that Karma will work its way around to them as I suspect the hard shells on the snails will do nasty wonders to the fishies' digestive systems...

*finished: obviously, the snails were finished.  But I also put the word there because, while I was babysitting, I found myself reverting back to behavioral strategies I used at camp.  Carson is not with Autism, but I noticed that I used those strategies from camp to solve problems this afternoon [I guess it's going to be a while before I forget all that I've learned the past 2 months (which is a good thing!)].  For example, when Carson, who is 3 years old, kept trying to brush his teeth over and over again just so that he could eat his toothpaste (Thomas the tank engine toothpaste, another little shout-out to Autism), the first thing out of my mouth was "Brush teeth finished" and not only did I say that in a stern way, but I also signed it without thinking.  Whether or not it was appropriate, my message was heard loud and clear by Carson and it, well, worked.

A good, good day in pictures

First we hung out downtown and shared the panini special at a cute, petite Italian deli.

In the late afternoon, we walked to the LaMancha goats.

She's my favorite, you know.

I fed them mushy blueberries but, also, fresh cherry tomatoes from my mom's garden.

Have you ever wanted to give a farm animal a breath mint?

After eating all the fruits and vegetables I brought, they turned to the hard-to-reach, out-of-bounds, possibly-poisonous plant.

David helped them reach it.

Then we went to Lighthouse Tofu with my parents and got bubble tea for dessert.  That's honeydew (left) and taro (right).

When we got home, I made homemade ice cream to cope with my nostalgia for camp.  Tomorrow, after I get my wisdom teeth pulled, I could probably eat this stuff too!

The Princess Pat lived in a tree

My parents both came to the weekly campfire tonight.  And they both sang our ridiculous, wacky, nonsensical, quirky, embarrassing, funny, lovable Camp Royallian camp songs!  Picture, please, my dad wiggling his hands, arms and, above/below all things, his bum in rhythm to a capella shouts thrown 'round a fire. 

Okay, I lied.

I acknowledge the fact that it has been less than 24 hrs since my last post and here I am, again, posting.  But, in my defense, I am sitting in the lounge talking with my new friends!  Anyway, I just wanted to tell everyone that I am having an awesome Saturday.  We spent the majority of today at the lake on the beach.  I tore up the volleyball sand court with some pretty rusty moves I remembered from middle school gym classes and covered my feet in sand (I also cut my knee while diving for a ball).  Then I got a little sunburnt while I waited in line for tubing.  Other, more coordinated folk went wake-boarding (I was too scared to try it out).  

Tonight, the entire Camp Royall team is going out for a night in Chapel Hill.  We'll be dining someplace tasty after which we will be set loose to roam the city and do as we please.  Some people might go to a movie.  I haven't decided what I'll do yet, but I'm excited.

Love,

Monica

P.S.  Just incase you guys were wondering why my job sounds more like a vacation than an actual job...it's because we are plunging into hardcore training starting tomorrow.  Our campers will, then, come the week after.  Hopefully I'll be ready for them.

Camp Royall

I've arrived and am settled.  I'll spend my nights on the bottom bed of a bunk (the room is also the size of a closet and I am beginning to appreciate the "generosity" of college dorm rooms for once).  

Today was crazy, filled with lots of team-building activities.  I've met so many new people and still need to meet so many more.  So, because making friends is hard for me (I know it's hard to believe, but I'm actually shy in the beginning), I won't be writing in this blog as often as I have in the past.  Maybe I'll have some updates every now and again, but don't expect too much until August comes around.  I really should spend the majority of my time here socializing and making this place my home!

Good night, and wish me luck with what promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Love,

Monica

P.S. Spring semester's grades are in and my GPA has never been happier.  I guess this is an indication that my major change was a smart move.  

Brunch

Today I had my phone interview with Jill from Camp Taconic.  She seemed to like me and wanted to offer me the job.  However, she had no spaces available for general counselor or speciality counselor in the areas of creamics or drawing.  She asked me if I had experience with photography and video and I had to tell her that I didn't.  But she said that if a space happens to open up she will give me a call.  

Afterward, I decided that french toast sounded good for brunch and went to get the ingredients from the grocery store.  I decided to use a modified version of this recipe from Alton Brown:

I'm all about portraits with dead fish.

Here's how it turned out:

Snow day

School was canceled for today.  The power was out until around 10 a.m. so I had to call my mom to see if school was canceled (as if the power outage and lack of internet weren't good enough indications).  Now I'm in bed, thinking about getting a shower.  In the distance I can hear what might be an ANTM marathon but I love these ladies (can't stop listening to them):

In other news, I'm still eagerly waiting to hear back from the four summer camps I applied to.  I know I just mailed out my applications on Friday...I just can't wait!  And I feel like I did when I was applying to colleges due to the fact that I have a top choice camp and a fear of rejection.

Love, 

Monica

P.S. I'm going to start signing off this way