Look what I found

I found this picture of me and one of my campers on the new and improved Camp Royall website.  I thought it was cute and had to share.

I actually just got back from a few hours of wedding-fun with future bride (and roommate), Alexa.  I got to experience, first-hand, the ravenous spirits of moms and bride-to-be's as I climbed and clawed my way through the clumps and crowds at the wedding show/expo.  And it was all to get in (to my tummy) as many wedding cake samples as possible (that cake does taste as good as it looks).  I also experienced my very first fashion show of any kind and saw many beautiful wedding gowns and cute, colored flower girl dresses.  In retrospect, I do very much regret not being the flower girl at my godfather's wedding.  Come to think of it, I regret not being five years old anymore each and every day.

At the end of the day, I was very overwhelmed and began to quit processing any information, likening my appearance to a zombie's as I continued to accept free pens.  That being said, I can only imagine how Alexa is feeling.  She was accosted by many a hungry spokes/sales/planner person and was sent home carrying a giant men's warehouse bag full of all sorts of information.  I do wish her luck as today was fun, yet eye-opening!  Nevertheless, when the day comes, I know she will make a lovely bride.

Love,

Monica

Wish I had access to a sauna

because I'm starting to get winter nose bleeds again.  It's been about five years since my last and, no, I wasn't picking.

No love,

Monica

Plants and Civilization

My winter term class is going to be fabulously entertaining and enlightening.  The book I'm reading right now (Botany of Desire) is a fun read and I'm so excited to see what this mini-semester brings.  

For a brief moment in class my professor talked about Joyce Kilmer and his poem, Tree.  So, I looked it up (because, despite being a famous poem, yours truly had never come across it).  Here it is:

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Also noteworthy, my professor gave us a brief history about himself.  One of his power point lecture slides was titled "Who am I?" and upon clicking the space bar of his laptop, a picture of him as a teen zoomed onto the screen.  It said "Rattlesnake-Killer".  From there, he became a "Bored-Banker" and is now a present and self-identified "Tree-Hugger".  Let me just say that once you see an old photograph of your teacher holding a dead rattlesnake from the estimated seventies, you can't help but warm yourself to his/her friendship and, in my context, to their knowledge on plants and civilization.

Today's class ended with our group of students walking outside into the frigid cold, led by professor, to a pine tree where we heard some rem(b)arkable history about North Carolina's state tree.

Now I'm off to acquire transportation to buy a kazoo.

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

SNOW and random cravings

I'm spending my winter break in Maryland and we got snowed on big time.  From around 9 or 10 last night until not too long ago, the heavens dropped what looked like several tons of powdery dandruff on our heads.  My dad estimates that we have about 18 inches right now.  18 inches?!  That's  a lot of snow these days for me.  The last time snowfall came that close was that blizzard more than ten years ago.  I was little, so snowfall upwards of 2 feet seemed more like 10 feet to me and, contrary to my excitement, it was very difficult to play in.

Now, going to school in North Carolina means that everyone goes CRAZY when it snows.  And I have to admit that I am very thankful when we do get that inch or inch and a half once a year.  So far it's snowed freshman, sophomore and junior year at Elon.  Technically it's snowed senior year too, but I'm not counting that because I happen to be in a different state at the moment...

...oh, and I'm craving Yum Woon Sen so much that I just consumed the only ingredient from that dish that is in my house: lemon juice*.

Love,

Monica

*scrunches up eyes, nose, cheeks...entire face due to bitter taste

The stockings are hung by the fireplace and there's a nice smelling tree in the house but I still need to bake pies and decorate things

There's something smelly going on with the dog, and we need to do something about it immediately.  But that's not the purpose of this post.  I'm gonna take a second and brag about my grades for once:

Fundamentals of Design: A

Professional Practices in Art: A

Honors Thesis: A

Senior Seminar: A

Statistics: A

For winter term, I'm taking my upper-level GST (Plants and Civilization...should be neat).  These are the classes I'm taking in the Spring:

Advanced Projects in Ceramics

Honors Thesis

Art History III Cathedrals/Conquest

Installation Art

Senior Seminar

Whitewater Canoeing

Piano

It should be busy, but EXTREMELY fun.  I'm especially excited about the installation art class and the whitewater canoeing.  I just got the syllabus from that class a couple of weeks ago and my professor (coach, haha) said that some practices will be taking place in school lakes.  That makes me nervous because of all the stories I've heard about people getting e. coli from polar-bear-plunging into the waters.  I guess as long as I don't fall in, I'll be okay.  After all, it's canoeing, not kayaking (though I strongly wish there was a kayak class).

In other news, Rachael is officially done with school.  I'm jealous, but not jealous at the same time because I have a lot of loose ends to fix up this Spring.  I'm excited to see her this break and go to her graduation!  Now I've got to do some holiday shopping/make myself poor again.

Love,

Monica

P.S.  My artist website, for any that are interested:  My "website"

I'm a busy, busy bee these days

It's exam time again and, therefore, this blog has been and will be dead at least for another few days.  The hiatus will be over soon.  I promise*!  For now, things that are cool:

1)  I'm officially a returning-counselor at Camp Royall next summer!

2)  Related:  I'm officially a counselor for Camp Royall's first installment of Winter Camp.

3)  Exams are going well and quickly.

4)  Jenna made us Chocolate Chess Pie and I've been eating it at inappropriate times, like at breakfast and in bed.

5)  I think one of these days I'm going to be a walk-in at the Chess club meeting.

6)  There's an Elon area running club (God knows I've been looking for a running club since I got here) and I can finally join this winter term.

7)  My hamster is still alive.

A thing that isn't cool:

1)  I've got Paul for secret Santa (pretty sure he doesn't read this blog).  Any ideas?

Love,

Monica

*I feel like I've made at least four or five promises here.