Via Lisbeth

Art-to-Art sharing

Matthew with "Brown Monkey" mask...such a sweetheart

The play went wonderfully today!  Everyone and their families and friends came out today to support the lovelies: Liam, Michael, Ewan, Peri, Graylin, and Matthew.  The kids put on a GREAT show.  While Elisabeth stayed behind the "curtain" to help them get on stage, Jordan and I stood on the sidelines playing different percussion instruments, bells and kazoos while Donovan narrated the story.  At the end, everyone erupted in satisfying applause and I wanted to cry because I was so happy and excited.  They did so well and I have never felt so accomplished before.  It was a great learning experience and I learned a lot about teaching art and teaching it to individuals with autism.

The high school volunteers were also such great sports through the whole experience.  For most, it was their first time ever working with kids with autism and I don't know if they knew what they were getting themselves into exactly.  That is to say, I don't think they knew how much FUN they were getting themselves into.  They really took responsibility for making everyone feel comfortable and happy and these pictures below represent the culmination of great effort, communication, enthusiasm and friendship between a bunch of crazy (in the best way) people:

Backstage "pow-wow" before the start of the show

"Tiger" scares and picks on "Brown Monkey"

Pikachu uses his "good-natured powers" to put "Tiger" in his place

"Frank", "Zeus" and "Jazzy" the Cat on stage

Group dance party at the finale

Parade around the University Mall...we're such show offs!

Donavan leading the play with upbeat, can't-resist-the-urge-to-dance drumming

Me and Elisabeth holding the arms of a GIANT puppet we did not make

Ewan posing for a good-bye photo

THE END

Weekend Equations

Friday = Jean + Elisabeth + Indian Food + Rollerskating for one and a half hours + Falling down occasionally for about a half hour + Pumpkin pie ice cream + Autism the musical + Sleepover in the living room

Jean + Elisabeth + Indian Food + Rollerskating for one and a half hours + Falling down occasionally for about a half hour + Pumpkin pie ice cream + Autism the musical +Sleepover in the living room = Too much fun!

Friday = Too much fun!

Saturday = Jean + Elisabeth + Waking up late + Going to the grocery store to buy blueberries, blackberries, chocolate chips and pancake mix + Cooking up a mess in the kitchen + Eating pancakes while watching Mozart and the Whale + Jam session*

Jean + Elisabeth + Waking up late + Going to the grocery store to buy blueberries, blackberries, chocolate chips and pancake mix + Cooking up a mess in the kitchen + Eating pancakes while watching Mozart and the Whale + Jam session* = Too much fun!

Saturday = Too much fun!

So, by substitution or transitional theory or whatever:

Friday = Saturday  ?

*Jam session = she & him songs, falling slowly, pricilla ahn and kazoo improvisation and zombie remix

I can't focus

because Jean and Elisabeth are coming tomorrow!  I can not wait!!!

Franklin-stein Street

This past weekend, David, Stephanie and I went to Chapel Hill to visit Elisabeth (from camp!).  We did lots of walking back and forth between cars (because of strict parking rules), hung out at her characteristically-high-ceilinged dorm room, played bananagrams and had dinner at a conveyer belt sushi place all before changing into our costumes.  Elisabeth was a Jedi Knight (probably a young obi one), Stephanie was a sultry devil and David was one of those endangered, yet plump bumblebees.  As his girlfriend, I played his flower counterpart by wearing a flower-printed dress and stapling flowers that I cut out of an old Georgia O'Keeffe calendar to a green cardigan.  All of this was topped off with a flower smack dab in the middle of my head:  

Then we walked Franklin Street...

What I DID NOT know was that Franklin Street is basically a giant party in the road.  Plus lots of drunken girls in small animal costumes and boys wearing anything from pizza boxes to Elvis garb.  

I'm exaggerating, of course, but maybe only a little.  Here are some of the highlights from the night:

Fun for all the ages!

Everyone wants in on the picture!

I am proud to say that I got the cone reference.

These are my friends!

This guy was cool.  He asked me where I was from because he said it was what he asked when people said to him, "Can I take your picture?"

I saw the balloon kid at the very beginning but he got away before I could take a picture.  Luckily, I was OBSESSED with finding him and snapped a shot of him on his way out.

Believe it or not, he was not the only peacock on Franklin Street that night.  And I thought it a pretty original costume.

This guy had a dance-off with himself.

Swim team? or Triathletes stuck in the swimming portion of a triathlon?

Octo-mom!  And Franklin Street isn't just for college kids anymore...

"Oh my gawd!  A Big reference?  It isn't every day that you get a Big reference!!" --really drunk guy who saw the Tom Hanks classic 

First costume I saw that night, and the reason I love group costumes

Oh, and this is what I meant by pizza box earlier.

After all of this craziness and more, we went back to Elisabeth's friend's apartment and watched creative people build halloween cakes for $10,000 in prize money.  We would have gone home after that, but with the extra hour from daylight savings, we decided to watch Corpse's Bride, a movie witch (haha) Stephanie had yet to see and ended up sleeping through.

Now, life is moving very quickly.  I'm busy working, of course, on my thesis and am trying to keep myself out of trouble (and by that, I mean keeping myself from adopting furry little animals).  My dad came to visit yesterday, installing a nice little blinker for night-driving safety along with much-needed new brake pads.  I've got babysitting this Friday for six hours and will be helping out with some kiln firings on Saturday with the other claydogs.  I've also got to greet the jurors that I selected for the Juried Student Exhibition this Sunday .  With all of that on my plate, I can say for certain that I am looking forward to a relaxing matinee showing of Kiss Me, Kate at Elon on Sunday.

Love,

Monica

Moshi Moshi

I just got back from my less than 12 hour stay in Chapel Hill with my lady friends Jean and Elisabeth (from camp).  It was such a blast!  I couldn't have asked for better company.  Here was how our time was spent:

1) When they first came to pick me up from Elon, they called my phone as I was in the middle of cleaning the fish tank.  I left the apartment immediately because I was so excited and forgot to turn off the sink (the sink sprayer was filling up a giant bowl with which I was using to refill the fish tank).  When we got back inside, the entire kitchen floor was flooded with water.  :(  After I cleaned it up, we frantically left Elon to get to Moshi Moshi for Jean's hair cut.  We were only a few minutes late.

2) After the cut, Elisabeth and I spent some time having to convince Jean that it was, indeed, a SUPER cute upgrade before entering into Med Deli for dinner.

3) Then we went to a vintage/thrift shop.  Elisabeth and I got matching sweatband sets while Jean settled for suspenders.

4) The rest of the evening was spent at Elisabeth's stylish, high-ceilinged dorm room watching the movie Boys Don't Cry as we made each other beautiful friendship bracelets.  Just as you can't buy true friendship, you can't find these one-of-a-kind hand-made friendship bracelets in the store.  They're staying on our wrists until they fall off or we die (which ever one comes first).

5) Saturday morning, after having a sleepless sleepover in the common parlor area, we brought our hot and tasty breakfasts from Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen to the upstairs lounge of Chill Bubble Tea.  Jean: Mocha, Elisabeth: Avocado, Monica: Taro

6) Oh, and did I forget to mention that we got cool, retro skip-its?  Well...

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.

Hello Kitty Thief

On Friday, Jean, Jordan, Elisabeth and I went to Carrboro to eat dinner.  We went to Elmo's Diner and had everything from salmon cakes to pecan pancakes.  It was very delicious, but something happened that will bother me forever...

Before we went to dinner, we browsed a comic shop.  I did more than just browse, however.  I bought a hello kitty cellphone charm.  It was one that Elisabeth had lost long ago, and since she didn't want it, I got it to remind me of her whenever I saw it.  I also bought some kiwi gummies.  Our friend, Andy, had tried to buy this variety of gummy candy in the kiwi flavor the night prior, and since he wasn't with us, we decided it was a good idea to surprise him with the kiwi gummies.  So, comic book shop purchase: hello kitty phone charm and kiwi gummies.  Remember that.

I distinctly remember going into the booth at Elmo's Diner with the comic book shop bag containing my purchases.  I also remember putting it on the right side of my body, resting it on the booth.  When I had finished my meal, I told everyone that I was going to the bathroom to wash up (then I used both of my hands to mimic the act of washing one's hands).  Telling them that I would meet up with them outside, I left (without my bag of stuff).

Then, as we were singing songs from camp on the streets of Carrboro (I was using both of my hands wildly to carry out the motions in "boddidly man" and "the moose from canada" song), I suddenly remembered that I left something at Elmo's!  We ran back (it was annoyingly close but far away) and I talked to the host.  I told him "Hi, I ate there and left a paper bag filled with a hello kitty phone charm and some japanese kiwi gummies that are just deee-vine.  Could you check your lost and found?"  The guy looked peeved, but I saw him go over to the booth and look under it and then talk to a few people.  While he was gone, a hostess came by and asked me if I needed help.  Since I figured it could only help things, I told her the entire story too.  She was sad for me and looked more thoroughly than the host had and at the end when she couldn't find it, offered to have me write down my name and phone number incase she found it later that night.  I gave her my email address too.

After all that, I felt good.  I had asked them to look for it, but I also ended up looking for it too (I went over to the booth myself and also checked the bathroom).  The case had gone seemingly cold until I remembered that I didn't have my cell phone with me.  We went back a third time to give Elmo's Diner Elisabeth's number.  However, we didn't get to talk to the nice hostess, we had to talk to the evil host man.  I knew something was fishy the moment he took down Elisabeth's number; he illegibly scribbled it down at the bottom of the reservations list (he might as well have drawn a hand puppet on himself).  When we got outside I theorized that due to his quiet demeanor and blatant unwillingness to be friendly and helpful like his hostess counterpart, that he was the hello kitty thief.  What was even more suspicious was that Elisabeth never got a call from them on her phone and that when I got back to the cabin, I had a message from the hostess on my phone.  It's elementary my dear Watson:  the host did not give the number to the hostess like we asked him to and for this he is the number one suspect in the Hello Kitty murder!

Now to end this entry with a happier, funnier story.  Saturday night, Andy, Elisabeth and I went to the movies (I will not tell you which movie we saw for fear of embarrassment).  The movie was at 9:45 pm and we decided to enter Subway at 9:43 pm.  Andy assured us that we would be able to bring the subs into the movies because he had done it all the time.  So, when we got into the movie theatre, approaching the ticket booth with our tickets and our subs, slightly hidden behind our thighs, a man shouted across the room "SORRY YOU CANNOT BRING FOREIGN FOODS INTO THE MOVIE!"  This teenage boy, rather, was acting very odd and Andy pointed out that it was because his manager was standing right there.  

Okay.  So that was fine.  I didn't really expect to get in with a footlong by my side.  I did, however, ask the manager if he could hold them for us, instead of confiscating them with no promise of return.  For a split second I felt like I was in middle school again.  But the manager was nice enough to save them for us and he even put my soda in the fridge.  

Now I have to go learn some more sign language.  My second camper comes today.  He is nonverbal and I need to brush up on my nonverbal skills.

Love,

Monica