ASL name sign for the new President, Barack Obama

As you all know, in the past couple weeks I have been fully involved in learning ASL, and becoming a part of the deaf community. I even find myself signing when there is no reason to be doing so, and no one understands me anyway(you gotta practice sometime). Well today, upon the inauguration of the new president my ASL class was taught President Obama's name sign that will be generally accepted by the deaf community. When you become a part of the deaf community you are given a name sign that describes who you are, and allows a much simpler way to say your name. Mine for example is extending your pinkie and touching it to your left shoulder and then to your right shoulder. This is based on the sign for Cleveland,a reference to where I was born and raised, which is the same motion only with the 'C' hand shape instead of the 'J'. So when introducing myself I would sign "Hi, My name is Julie or (insert name sign). This is helpful because from now on, whenever someone wants to refer to me, instead of having to spell out my name every time(which can be tiring and confusing), they just make my name sign.
Well anyway, President Obama is pretty popular with the deaf community so they honored him with his very own name sign. I think the explanation is very cool.



(Don't worry, there are captions for the signing impaired)

BOOK BLOG!

I have created the blog for my book project. I'm not sure about the background, let me know what you think.

YAY BOOKS!

An Update Of Epic Proportions!

So November and December came and went with no postings. Sorry about that! So I guess I will catch everybody up as much as I can.
Let's start with All Hallows Eve. As you know Athens is supposed to be the place to be on Halloween, but I wasn't feeling it this year so I high-tailed it up to Kent to hang with my friends there. It was a fun time and everybody had a great time.
I don't have too many pictures but my favorite costume for sure was my friend John as himself in High School, and Leanna as Barbra Streisand

We all had a good time just being together and watching movies like 'Silent Night Deadly Night 2' that has memorable scenes like this.

Next thing that happened was finishing school for another quarter. It was alright, but I'm glad it's over. My grades weren't too bad, but not my best. Then there was thanksgiving that I spent with most of the Ohio fam. We ate awesome food at Monica and Matt's house. The next day Cecilia, Monica, and I went out on black Friday, and it was pretty packed. It was fun to see the hoards of people looking for a deal.
I didn't do too much else with my December. I went back to Chillicothe and tried to find an apartment and such and then came back home. I visited with friends and then left for UTAH!!!
I had such a good time visiting Rowie and Gabey! After napping through my first day there we watched Kung Fu Panda, and hung out like woah. On Christmas morning we all got together and opened our stockings and then restrained ourselves from immediately opening presents by making breakfast. We had a cute little Christmas tree that we borrowed from one of Rosa's neighbors.

After we had opened our presents I made some kickin' pizza.

Gabey liked the Pizza, and Rosa did too, but I don't have any awkward pictures of her eating it :)

But I do have a picture of her serenading Gabe and I.

So we had an amazing and generous Christmas filled with presents and chocolate covered oreos! Two days later Rosa and I totally painted these amazing pictures. Rosa did the princess daydreaming about trogdor the burnanator, and I did the fanciful unicorn.


Gabey and I went to Salt Lake to see temple square, it was soo pretty. We got the cliche temple picture, and we look good.

Also, there wer sooo many of these bag things with really detailed and amazing designs poked them with candles inside. They had a bunch of different languages, including brail, so I went on the hunt for sign language, and sure enough, yay!





The rest of the week was filled with good fun, good food, and good times. Rosa was going to take me skiing... but I freaked out and thought I would die so we went bowling instead. It was good and very safe. I pretty much had an amazing time and loved it there.

For New years I have almost no pictures because I left my camera at Christie's house. But yeah, I started out the night at Christie's and migrated to Kent closer to midnight. It was a mixed bag of emotions. It was a lot of fun, but the new year always has a way to make people cry. I have a video of our count down, but it's on my phone and you can't see anything anyway.
Well that was just a summery considering the huge amount of events the past two months, but it will have to do. Right now I am in Chillicothe and I start school Tuesday, and I'm apartment hunting tomorrow. I'll keep everyone updated.
Oh yea, I hate new years resolutions but I made one. I vowed to try and read 50 books next year. I don't think I will be able to do it, but it won't stop me from trying. I'll be blogging about the books and I'll post the website as soon as I make it so you can follow along!
This is where I would normally put a song, but I'll spare you all.

If I Come Without A Thing, Then I've Come With All I Need

So like you have seen, nothing much has been going on. Well nothing that seems important enough to write about. I've been working hard at school, and trying to do as well as possible without losing my mind. So instead of talking about school more I'll mention some other things that I have been doing. I went to Yellow Springs, Ohio for a "hippie" festival. It was really neat and Luke and Michelle made a cool hut while we were listening to a band that was playing.

Another thing that happened, Bridgett and her twin sister Ashley turned 21. That was exciting. Here's a picture of the birthday girl and our friend Chad.

Oh yeah, I forgot that I didn't tell everybody, I no longer have a car. The clutch failed and I figured it wasn't worth fixing it because of the condition of the car.Also, I don't think that it would have been a safe car for the winter, I almost died twice last winter, so I was hoping for a more stable car. Now I am looking for another, and hopefully I can get one next quarter. In the meanwhile I have been using Andrew's car. It has it's own problems, but not nearly as bad as mine and is a very dependable car. I miss my car dearly, and I miss the independence and being able to help people out, but I think I made the right decision. But here is the final moments I got to spend with my car while Hannah and I waited for a ride.

Rest in Peace.
So much more has happened, and I thought of it earlier but now I forget.

This is a new band I started listening to. Andrew really likes them, and I really like their lyric style. I know I say this for every song, but it's one I relate to, and a very good song.
A Sweater Poorly Knit <----- Click Here For Song
By- MeWithoutYou
In a sweater poorly knit, and an unsuspecting smile
Little Moses drifts, downstream in the Nile
A fumbling reply -- an awkward, rigid laugh
I'm carried helpless by my floating basket raft

Your flavor in my mind swings back and forth between
sweeter than any wine,
and bitter as mustard greens
Light and dark as honeydew and pumpernickle bread
The trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead

As you plow some other field and try and forget my name,
see what harvest yields, and, supposing I'd do the same
I planted rows of peas, but by the first week of july
they should have come up to my knees
but they were maybe ankle high

Take the fingers from your flute to weave your colored yarns,
and boil down your fruit to preserves in mason jars
But now books are overdue and the goats are underfed...
The trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead


You're a door-without-a-key, a field-without-a-fence
You made a holy fool of me, and I've thanked you ever since
If she comes circling back, we'll end where we'd begun
Like two pennies on the train track the train crushed into one

Or if I'm a crown without a king, if I'm a broken, open seed
If I come without a thing, I come with all I need
No boat out in the blue, no place to rest your head
The trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead

It's the Only Way to Keep That Last Bit of Sanity

So I haven't updated in a while partially because it has just been crazy with all of this school work. But other than school not too much has really happened. I went through my first wave of testing and I think I did pretty well.
Poli Sci-
97/100 (2 points short of the highest grade in the class)
Interpreting-
Presentation: 92/100
Test: 46/50
Anthropology- 76/87
And I haven't gotten my sign language test back, or taken my Coms 101 midterm. I was really nervous because this has been my worst quarter yet. Everything was(and still is) going wrong, but it looks like I am keeping my grades alright despite the personal troubles. There's more I could talk about but I have to go to class.

Music of the Week:

Paul Baribeau
Brown, Brown, Brown <---Click here for song!
I saw your eyes,
they were brown.
And all the stars
went out.
And the moon got lost,
and it fell in Lake Michigan.
And a tidal wave tore through this town

I saw your hair, it was brown
And the roof flew right off my house
And then my doors broke off their hinges
And all my walls came falling down.

You sipped your pop, it was brown
you gave me a little coca cola kisses
And my heart broke on the night that you(I) left
And there are a few pieces that I still haven't found.

Yay for Birthdays

So it is the day after my birthday and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for everything. I had a really good time at home and seeing everyone was really great. I have a new phone too so you can text me again :) and boy can I text.

I absolutely love this phone and am really grateful.
My actual birthDAY was uneventful, but I like that, I just went to school and stayed with my thoughts and thought about the past year.
Like I said I just wanted to say thank you for the calls and cards.

Here's another song. I know a lot of you won't like it, but I like the words and for some reason it breaks my heart. I was thinking a lot about it on my birthday.

Ohio
By Coco Rosie
Out from my window across from the city
I have what's considered a good view
Two blocks from the subway, three from the fountain
Where I walk to break in new shoes

She stands on the sidewalk just waving at taxis
Like horses in parades in passing
I ask where she's headed she tells me,
"Ohio, I've not seen my mother in ages
It's been a long time, a real long time."

Out from my window "How far is Ohio?"
She laughed and pointed out east
She said, "I grew up there with my dear mother
And I haven't seen her since thirteen.

You see, I was taken while she lay sleeping
By my father's hired man
We moved to city so far from my family
I haven't been back there since.
It's been a long time, a real long time."

Out from my window please hear me Ohio
Your daughter wants to come home
She longs to be with you to hug you to kiss you
To never leave her alone

And I've gotten know her to live with to love her
It's hard to see her leave
She belongs to her mother and the state of Ohio
I wish she belonged to me

See you sometime, see you sometime

I've Got the Weight of the Washing Machine on My Mind

So I am back at school, good ol' Chillicothe. THE PHONE IS STILL BROKEN SO DON'T TEXT ME, CALL ME. But yeah it is good to see everybody again but there is a natural home sickness. So much has happened but yet I never know how to put it into words when I sit down to tell everyone. Well, I'll start with before I left. After that terribly bad week I went to Kent again and had an amazing time. I was so glad to see all of my friends before I left. We just had so much fun, it's hard to explain, it was wonderful and I miss it. This was just a really random sign in Kent. These are some pictures from different points in the summer. This is Brett, Christie, Danielle(barely), and Steve. We were waiting for our turn to get in on some soccer action. Libero and Jeff getting into some soccer. Sammie, Kevin, and Jimmy also playing a little soccer. So these next two pictures need explaining. One night I was sitting alone by myself at 1 in the morning and I thought to myself 'I wonder what Shannon is doing?' so I called her and turns out she couldn't sleep either. So we went to 'my friends', a 24 hour diner, and after two hours or so there and another driving in the metro parks we decide to go to downtown and watch the sun rise. It was really beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Shannon scaring some birds/running around Ah and this is the wonderful Frosty Dog everyone heard so much about. I loved this job and it was always so much fun. I will miss getting visits from Cece and hanging out with my cool co-workers. These are pictures of a show that I went to in Kent. Lauren and I were standing on the couch trying to get a better view... Which we got. My camera malfunctioned but it took a really cool picture, I thought. This is from that same show. This was during Brett's set. You can feel the love between him and Rich. I love this picture. Ah, Shannon and Keith's back hanging out at Phoenix Coffee.

Those are some of the highlights but there were so many other good pictures and so many other good times it would be hard to fit it into a post. Well like I said, I'm back in Chillicothe and so far so good. We play ultimate Frisbee like we did with soccer at home. I have a lot of fun, and I'm trying to convince them to play some soccer as well :)

Well I don't know I start school in two days, yay!

This is interesting, I have a video of the person I wanted to go to the protests at the democratic national convention to see getting arrested. Keep in mind Dave is not a violent person so he did not put up a fight. I doubt he did anything illegal. So lame, he's the last guy in the clip. Poor Dave
oh yeah, I forgot that I always impose my music on everybody. I like this song a lot and I'm cool so you should listen to it. click on the link and scroll down on the list of songs, it's the last song
Mr. Miller's Opus
By: Endless Mike and the Beagle Club
I wear the same clothes for days at a time.
I've got the weight of a washing machine on my mind
with the whole world bouncing around inside of it.

And as I talk about doomsday and bands,
I'm letting the chance of a lifetime just slip through my hands
and land on the floor by the bed that I'm lying in.

I'm having trouble with sleeping again.
I turn to the stack of books that all my friends recommend,
but I can't even focus on the lines,
let alone what's between them.

So I surrender and watch some TV
and just feel ashamed of myself for giving into complacency,
breaking the two packs a day mark days ago.

And I finally paid off the van
then I bought a new car with better gas mileage than the van got
but I know I'm financing a war fought for greed and bravado.
I know where my taxes go while my taxes know nothing about me.

My roommate's boyfriend's a nice enough guy
but still I dread when he's here and I have to say "hi"
even though our conversations never go on much beyond it.

I don't know when I first got this way.
I think that I used to be someone with something to say,
but for the first time in my life,
I feel more lonely than anything.

Because I know people my age with children
and I know people my age with husbands and wives,
even more people my age with high paying jobs,
even more people my age with miserable lives.

So it's they that I take shelter under
and let laundry nor loan payments ever put asunder
but help me stay happy inside of these four smoke-stained walls,
waiting for someone to call,
as I'm waiting to just disappear.

More News Soon

I have news and pictures that I will post soon but I just wanted to say that my phone is broken and I don't know anyones phone number...sorry. I dropped the other night and now the screen and some of the buttons aren't working :(
Email me or call and hope that it rings

Times Are Bad

So everything was going relatively alright this summer, there were some bad times but for the most part I kept it toghether. Well such is no longer the case, everything is bad. Everything.

If Anyone Was Curious

ANTH 101
INTRO-CULTURAL ANTH BENN 103
5.00 M W - 1:10P 03:25P

POLS 270
POLITICAL THEORY
4.00 M W - 05:30P 07:20P

COMS 101
FUND OF HUMAN COMMU
4.00 Tu Th - 01:10P 03:00P

DSI 211
SIGN LANG IV
4.00 Tu Th - 05:30P 07:20P




TOTAL HOURS: 17

Good classes, bad class times

Sad But True

Random Ramblings

I decided to update because I am bored and it is 3 in the morning. I work all the time, but I like my job so that's ok. I still hang out, but I have been running around like crazy and I feel really spread thin. But when I'm not at work I am either too happy or too sad to do anything. I feel like I'm missing a lot, but really I'm not missing too much. I feel like I am not living my life, like I could be doing better, but at least now I have money, and that's a good thing I think...
I don't know what I am doing when I go back to school or even tomorrow for that matter, so naturally I stay up and think about it. I know everything is going to be fine, but like I said, sometimes I stay awake and think about it anyway. Just wanted to say that I am still alive and kickin'.
Does anybody even read this thing?
on a side note; Something I have been thinking about and something I feel we all should think about(the song makes it better so click on the highlighted "Ten Things" in the post, the words alone just make it seem like a chain email of an exhausted topic):



Name Ten Things you wanna do before you die and then go do them.
Name ten places you really wanna be before you die and then go to them
Name ten books you wanna read before you die and then go read them
Name ten songs you wanna hear again before you die, get all of your friends together and scream them

Think of all the things that are wrong with your life and then fix them
Think of all the things that you love about your life, be thankful you are blessed with them
Think of all the things that hold you back and realize that you don't need them
Think of all the mistakes you have made in your life, make sure that you never repeat them

Name ten thousand reasons why you never wanna die,
Go and tell someone who might've forgotten
Try to list the endless reasons why it's good to be alive,
Snd then just smile for awhile about them

Soon the sun will rise and another day will come
Soon enough the sun will set, another day will be gone

Cause' right now all you have is time time time yeah,
But someday that time will run out.
That's the only thing you can be absolutely certain about.

BEREA FEST!

So it is Sunday and I am finally home after an amazing weekend. I went to this festival in Berea appropriately named 'Berea Fest'. It was a musical collaboration of DIY/folk-punk bands from around Ohio and the US. There was about 30 bands there and it was an all around good time. A couple bands that I knew some of the kids in played the show, along with a couple pretty popular(in the genre) bands were there. I was most exited to see Paul Baribeau, Spoonboy, and Defiance, Ohio and they played amazing. It was such a good time and I wish that I had more pictures and more desire to type. It was so good I can't even put it into words, so I am going to stop trying to...But yea, you are jealous.

Where Does The Time Go?

So here goes. I finished my first year at OU with honors(cum. GPA- 3.94) OU-O YEAH. Upon finishing school and moving out of Lois's home I went to athens to say goodbye to all my friends and help a few of them move. After that I went back to Chillicothe to hang out with my friends one last time. I say one last time because two of them, Steven and Luke, are going to Alaska to try and live in the wild for 4 weeks and I am pretty sure they won't make it. I am honestly afraid that they are going to get killed, but to each his own. I wish them the best. When I came home I was happy to see a bunch of my friends and the fam, but had to quickly figure out what I was going to do about money and a place to live. As you all know this was a very stressful couple of weeks and I was unsuccessful in finding a job at first. I was very stressed out and very depressed, it was hard on me, but good in some ways. So, with the absence of a job I spent a lot of time with myself and finding and meeting new people. Because of this I had an almost complete music change, and my view of alot of things has changed. I am still the same Julie, but I think that the Julie from 3 years ago would seriously beat up the Julie of today. But it's alright. The song "Christmas Lights" by Paul Baribeau really sums up my first few weeks back from school. Please give it a listen, the song means a lot to me.
I started to try and get into the local music scene again, and it has been really great. I usually go to Kent with my friend Brett and watch and sing along to my friends bands. So let me explain who Brett is. He was the Kid in the video from my last post, and it is really weird how it came about that we are friends. Well, Brett goes to Kent, where he met Libero. Brett then came to Westlake to hang out with all of the high school gang and they all became friends while I was away. Then, Memorial Day weekend we were all grilling out and Libero says his friend Brett is coming to join us. When he gets there everyone offers him a hot dog and he says "no thanks I don't eat meat" to which I reply "me too, here I have veggie dogs" and the rest is history. Now, that's not that weird but it gets more strange, Brett and I hang out and one weekend we go to Kent to meet some of his friends. Now it just so happens that his best friends from school are kids that I used to play shows with back in 2004 and I hadn't seen in 4 years. I don't know it just is crazy to me.
My friend Bohardt came up to Cleveland to do his internship and he's living with Drew. Things ended up not really working out between us, but that's ok we are still friends. He works alot, and so does Drew so he keeps busy without me. I also have been hanging out with Lynn, Mitch, and Ryan, but Lynn works all the time and I live far away from Ryan and Mitch. But when we do see each other we have good times.
The other week we threw a Surprise B-day party for my friend Danielle and it was fun to see all the kids from high school in the same place again, I got to see some people that I hadn't seen since graduation. Fun stuff.
OH YEAH, in case you didn't know, I moved in with Cece about a week ago. It has been fun but now we both work all the time and don't really get to see each other. Cece was awesome enough to get me a job at The Frosty Dog, an ice cream place that is owned by Pam and her parents. I work pretty much everyday and it's a lot of work, but also we have a lot of fun. I like the people I work with, and I like getting ice cream for people and making them happy. One of the best things about this job is I don't have to work for "the man" which was a big problem for me when I was job searching. I get to see and work with the people who own the place I work for. It seems silly, but it was an important factor for me.
Well there is way too much to tell everyone, I just wanted to give you the gist. Hope everyone is doing well.

Sorry for the Delay

I know I haven't updated in a month. I am oficially a sophomore in college with honors and I am back home. I have been having a lot of fun and I have a lot of stories to share. In the meanwhile, this video should hold you over. This is my friend brett getting a plug from Mark Norton

Severe Weather Alert!

So last Saturday was a really good day. I was here in Athens and When I went online to check the weather it said "Severe Weather Alert Athens County" it was predicting tornadoes and everything. So I look out the window and it was probably the most beautiful day I have seen in a long time, no clouds, not too hot. So I said to myself "if by 'severe' you mean SEVERELY AWESOME" So at about 12 and we all decided to go to Dow Lake and swim around and tan. Now as you all know I am one of the most pale people ever and have suffered from sun poisoning for a long time now. But I tried to tan and even though I did burn a little bit surprisingly no hives and no throwing up. YAY, so maybe I am not as bad anymore. Another thing, I found out that Elisa Buccur is getting married and is gonna have a Baby!! I am so excited and I get to be the Great-Godmother since Christie already gets to be the Godmother. I kinda made that title up, but I'm still pretty stoaked about it. Well anyway, yesterday was a really really good day.
Also, I started to run again. I haven't run since I was in cross country in 8th grade and I am incredibly out of shape. But, Bohardt runs and I have been looking for a way to exercise that would push myself and help me stay in shape. So I ran about 3/4 a mile on Friday and then again Saturday. I am in so much pain, I stretched a little bit, but apparently not enough. I am walking like Frankenstein and it hurts A LOT!
In other news, I also got a new digital camera. Well I didn't buy it or anything because I don't have any money, but Lois gave it to me because she didn't have any idea how to use it. It's a 12 mega pixel digital camera, a video camera, an mp3 player, and it can record audio files. It's pretty neat, but it is kind of awkward to use. I took a bunch of pictures so that I could give you guys an idea of the place that I stay, but I had some memory card issues and lost them. But I figured it out in time to take a couple pictures.
This is a picture of my friend Keith. He is a hilarious guy and I decided to start taking pictures of him because I am obsessed with his shirt.
Some people might find it offensive, but it's supposed to offend no one and everyone at the same time. I don't know I just wish that I had bought the thing.


Ok, so this next picture needs a little explaining. If you remember in my post 'Recovery Week' I spoke of stepping on glass and being retarded for not wanting to wear shoes. Well I refer to that day as 'Night of the Broken Glass' or if you know German and a little WWII history-Kristallknacht(I think that's how you spell it) Even though this isn't the exact pile that cut my foot, you get the idea...

All idiot comments welcome.

On a side note, I started this post on the 1st but it is now the 4th and there was some severe weather in Chillicothe. Last night there was a tornado warning from 8:30 till 3:00a.m. It was thundering like crazy and there wasn't more that a 1 second break in between lightning. It was raining like a tsunami and there was hail with intense wind gusts. When I looked outside I didn't see any rotation in the clouds, but the tornado siren was activated anyway. When we heard this Lois and I went into the basement and hung out till the first tornado warning expired. But the lights kept going on and off and the sky was so ominous looking. It was really cool, but also scary. There are still flash flood warnings today, but I think the worst is over. phew!


P.S.Well I know it's a little late, but I'm going to post about my memorial day weekend eventually.

Crazy Bananas

Wow, so I am going to type out this whole post again because blogger decided to not post it and lost the whole thing. So here it goes again.

Boy does it stink here, literally and figuratively. Literally because the water main that goes to the dorms flooded and there was no running water to any of the dorms and it smelled like sewage. And figuratively because I am SWAMPED with work, and swamps tend not to smell too good. I have 170-210 pages I need to read for my Poli Sci test on Monday, and I’m stressing about that. But I can’t get motivated to just read and I keep doing anything else to not have to do it just yet(hence why I am writing the post!) I also have two paintings in the works and have a paper due in my Sociology class. But I have another week or so to write it. (I wrote my last paper on Cannibalism and I got an A-, but I got 4 points off because it wasn‘t really a ‘current‘ social issue. Even though with the food shortage, many researchers have projected that cannibalism may become a food source for impoverished countries.) Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m going to write my next one on.
But the big thing that I have going on is the play in sign language. In my class, 40% of our grade was determined by our final project. The original plan was that we were supposed to create and execute our own board game that related to deaf culture. No one in the class was too enthused so we decided to write and perform a play instead. It started out as just a cute little thing that we would have fun with, but it has become significantly larger than we had anticipated. The premise of the play is a young deaf boy and the struggles of growing up deaf. It is called “A day in the life” and it is performed in a deaf theatre ‘shadow’ style. This is where if you are speaking in the play, there is a person dressed the same ‘shadowing’ you and signing what you are saying, and vice-versa for signing and someone speaking the signs. This is popular in deaf culture because hearing and deaf people can enjoy the play without missing anything looking at the interpreter.
This is really cool especially because it is only a ASL level 3 class. We are donating the money to The Ohio School for the Deaf which puts together a camping trip every year for the deaf kids. Since it is relatively expensive they have a charity that allows people to donate for the kids to be able to go.But I am really starting to enjoy DSI more and more and I'm begining to be able to carry on conversations and not just recite sentences. It's really exciting.
So we are all pumped about the play, but no one was willing to take charge. So now it is up to me, Julie Decamp, and Sandy to do just about everything. I’m writing some of the script, Julie is making the flyers, and Sandy is getting the food and helping with the script as well. So we are working pretty hard and it’s tiresome. BUT to add a little more pressure, the board of the OSFTD is coming to watch! Crazy Bananas!
Another crazy thing that happened this week is that someone tried to steal my car! YES, SOMEONE ACTUALLY WANTED TO STEAL MY CAR! I was walking outside of my last class of that day at about 9 at night and while I am walking to my car, I notice my door is wide open. I know that I had locked it because I wanted to get something out of the car but I had already locked it and I was too lazy to unlock it again. But I left my passenger side door was unlocked, because the door handle is broken and it’s almost impossible to get in. But as you know my ignition is broken as well. My car will start, but won’t stay on unless you have something to hold the key in place. So unless you know how to get it to stay on it will turn off. So not only was the thief stupid enough to TRY and steal my piece of crap car, he was too stupid to figure out how to get the car to run to actually steal it. But I am incredibly lucky and am oddly enough grateful that my ignition is broken.Crazy Bananas!

Recovery Week

Once again my body has felt the brutality of Athens's wrath, and I considering wearing an 'anti injury bubble' to protect myself. I tried really hard not to get hurt because of an incident with a brick wall the week before, but I failed. I was doing so well and then out of nowhere I start getting all cut up out of nowhere. First, I was working on a car with Drew when one of the tools fell down onto the battery shelf. I had the smallest hands to get to the tool and in the process of getting it, I jot a cut on the top of my left hand. Later, we were all sitting outside and Eric wanted to break a glass bottle on the brick wall and couldn't do it. So, in my natural fashion I showed him up by breaking the bottle on the first try. But in the process of doing it I hit my knuckle on the brick wall and took a chunk out of my pointer finger. If that wasn't enough later ran outside really quick to grab something without shoes on and as a joke Eric gave me a little push. When he did this I stepped directly on some other broken glass. I didn't think my foot got cut cause it didn't hurt at first. Then a couple minutes later I thought to myself "why is it wet everywhere I step?" Sure enough there is a gash on my foot that you could fit a quarter into and it was bleeding like crazy. Needles to say there was blood everywhere and the cut was so deep if I pushed on my foot I had a sort of "puppet" that I could make talk :) Luckily it didn't hurt until the next day when I had to walk around a lot. Anyway, there is a ton of drama going on in Chillicothe that I am not going to get into. But Athens is surprisingly docile at them moment. All in all I am doing well, a little tired, but good none the less.

Doing Good Deeds

So lately I have been feeling selfish and self centered and have been trying to think of ways to give to people rather than receive. I was feeling a little bit discouraged because I have been having a rather strange week and I haven't been feeling the best. But anyway tonight I finally found a way to help somebody.
I went silent bowling with my ASL class, we try to go once a month and I went and had alot of fun signing and bowling it up. While I was there is saw someone eating Wendy's and I thought to myself "I don't care if I'm a vegetarian, I want a JBC and I will get one!" So at around 11p.m. we finish bowling and I drive over to Wendy's to get said cheeseburger. While I was ordering a man approached the car behind me, and it was obvious he was asking for some kind of help. I also saw he was with a pregnant woman and a little girl. So after I got my food I pulled around and asked them if I could help them in any way. The man said yes, their car had broken down about 6 or so miles away and they had been walking all day trying to find some help. They were from Atlanta, Georgia and were up in Columbus visiting the Woman's Dad who was really sick. They were on their way back when their car died. They asked for a ride to Wal-mart to get some money for a hotel room or find another ride because not only did their car die, the woman's purse was stolen the day before and they had no bank card. I call her a woman because she is a mom-to-be, but she was actually only 18!! That could have been me sitting in a Wendy's parking lot confused in Chillicothe, Ohio. So instead of dropping them off at Wal-mart, I took them to the local hotel and I payed for their hotel room and gave them some money for food, and since they hadn't eaten all day, I gave the little girl my JBC and she smiled and said thank you. So I didn't get to break my Vegetarian-ness but I feel really good. Not like I need a pat on the back good, More like it has been so long since I have helped somebody who needed it because of my selfishness and it felt nice to step outside of myself for once. So I hope Steven, Sarah(i think), Steven's daughter Whitney, and their future child well and I hope they get back to Atlanta alright.

New ipod!

Yeah, you know it, I have a new ipod nano. As you all know I haven't been in the best of moods lately and thanks to dad, I now have a new lease on happiness. Not that material items fix all your problems, but it definitely didn't hurt. I wanted to post a picture of it but my phone won't send me the message because of poor service in Athens. Well it is beautiful and I pimped out my little box that it came in so I can protect it in style:) I will post a picture as soon as I can but in the meanwhile, I can't.
Before I left for Athens I did update the pictures of my painting. It's coming along well, but my teacher absolutely hates me. Not with and intense feeling of loathing or anything, but she really doesn't like my unconventional and quite odd painting style. She likes the product, but not the process. Anyway, I am not really enjoying this painting anymore because of all the guidelines. She actuall ythreatened to dock me points if I didn't listen to her advice, thats kind of discouraging. Oh, well.



Well, there's my progress. At least I don't completely suck...