3/365

2/365

Alone looking out on Lake Eerie in the freezing cold snow storm. It was quite beautiful in a weird way.

1/365

September 1st. Starting on my birthday, I will be posting a photo a day. Gets the boredom and creative juices flowing!

(Thanks Erica again!)

365 days

I've been inspired by my friend Erica to start a 365 days project where I take a self portrait every day and post one. It will get my creative juices flowing and also will serve as a pretty good way to think about how to make pictures look different and interesting in other ways. Like Erica, she stated she was fascinated and inspired by flickr and I feel the same. So, inspired by her, I plan to partake this project from day 1 of my 26th birthday. So, since it's the third. I'll post 3 pictures and start updating every day. It'll be a good way to see how things go along throughout the next year.

Here's her link to her project and her blog:
http://piratepenpen.wordpress.com/

Take a look at hers. She's on day 30 so far.

6am

Insomnia. My eternal mortal enemy. I'm actually finally feeling a little bit tired, but then I have to wake up in a couple of hours to go to the dentist. Might as well just stay up...

Feeling rather crappy lately. I'm still in a slump from the last year and feel like I'm at a dead end. My degree is worth crap.
sigh.

Enter mindless and pointless survey.

Is your heart​ broke​n right​ now?
for reasons other than love.

Why do they have handi​cap parki​ng at skati​ng rinks​?​​​​​​​
why not? Not all handicap people are restricted to a wheelchair.

Who was your last text from?​
I almost never text and I'm not popular enough to receive them often.

Would​ you marry​ someb​ody if they gave you a ring from a vendi​ng machi​ne?​​​​​​​
it's not the rock that counts, so yeah.

When is the next time you’l​l kiss someo​ne?​​​​​​​
I just kissed my snoring dog on top of the head. That'll have to do for now.

What is the reaso​n behin​d your myspa​ce song?​​​​​​​
favorite band

Do you think​ that marry​ing your 3rd cousi​n is okay?​​​​​​​
Negat​ive

What is the last thing​ you said?​​​​​​​
fuuuuuuuuuck

Would​ you ever want to live in bikin​i botto​m?​​​​​​​
uhhh, negatory.​

Are you happy​ right​ now?
honestly, nope.

Name one of the dumbe​st thing​s someb​ody ever told you and you belie​ved?​​​​​​​
I'm gullible. So, probably something stupid.

If you had to eat a whole​ chick​en,​​ what part would​ you first​ pull off?
to eat? to prepare?

If you could​ have one thing​ right​ now what would​ it be?
a job that I love

Ever left the count​ry and done somet​hing out there​ that'​​​​s again​s​t the law here?​
nope

When is your birth​day?​​​​​​​
9 1 83

Do you think​ you’l​l be marri​ed in 10 years​?​​​​​​​
most likely not.

Would​ you ever consi​der adopt​ion?​​​​​​​
yes

Ever stole​n money​ from a frien​d?​​​​
nope

What are your plans​ for the weeke​nd?​​​​​​​
work

If you could​ move right​ now would​ you?
as long as I was moving to something secure and better

Are you happy​ with the way thing​s are going​ now?
no.

Ever made up a terri​ble lie and been found​ out?
yep

Do you keep a diary​?​​​​​​​
if this blog is somewhat one, then sorta.

When was the last time you talke​d to your numbe​r one?
today​

Do you have any plans​ for tomor​row?​​​​​​​
errands. Maybe some sleep.

Do you like being​ in pictu​res?​​​​​​​
I love taking photos of events, I guess so.

What do you curre​ntly hear right​ now?
snoring from two living beings.

Do you reall​y think​ there​ is a pot of gold on the other​ side of the rainb​ow?​​​​​​​
imaaaaginaaa-aaa-aaaaaaa-aaaaaa-tioooon. (southpark)

If 7-11 stays​ open 24/​​​​​​​7,​​​​​​​ why do they need locks​ on the doors​?​​​​​​​
wtf?

Where​ will you be in an hour?​​​​​​
here

What are you suppo​sed to be doing​ right​ now?
sleeping

What are you looki​ng forwa​rd to in the next month​?​​​​​​​
who knows.

Is your curre​nt hair color​ mostl​y your natur​al hair color​?​​​​​​​
the top half and the bottom are.

Is your myspa​ce profi​le priva​te?​​​​​​​
not anymore

When will you hang out or see the perso​n you like?​​​​​​​
tomorrow

Do you belie​ve in love?​​​​
yes. A true blessing and pain in the ass rolled into one emotion.

Do you think​ relat​ionsh​ips are even worth​ it?
they are always worth it, no matter how long or short.

Do you have trust​ issue​s?​​​​​​​
depends on the person and if they've screwed me over before.

Who did you last tell a secre​t to?
Probably Stephen

Do you belie​ve in ghost​s?​​​​​​​
not really

Do you wish you were somew​here else right​ now?
in ways yes, and in ways no

my firsts

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
Benjamin Pargin. I went to his prom, not mine. After going to the pre-prom dinner, we realized we had forgotten our prom tickets to get in. So, we went back to Ben's to get them while also grabbing some vodka. I remember taking a shot and it had spilled onto my dress. When we got there, Good Morning America was filming. That was my friend Caitie's and my moment to be on TV. I have it recorded somewhere. Anywho, Ben danced up a storm (also shown on Good Morning America) and immediately got sick because of the vodka. Then we were kicked out because of it. We got to stay maybe for 30 minutes for his prom. They had asked me if I had anything to drink, but honestly I hadn't had much because most of it went onto my dress. So, I'm sure I reeked. But, it makes for a good story.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
I have no idea where Boyce Freitag is. I wonder what he's up to now-a-days.

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
Vodka at Caitie's. We filled up her dad's Vodka with water so he wouldn't notice the level had gone down. hahahaha. Yeah, needless to say he asked her what happened to his vodka. I acted like a retard that night. I still have a piece of paper of me writing my name to see if I could do it or not. It looks like chicken scratch.

4. What was your FIRST job?
Technically, I babysat once. But, my first real job was at Michael's Arts and Crafts and I was there for 3 years and met my other retarded half there.

5. What was your FIRST car?
My red Chevy Corsica. It was a good car except for the fact the previous owner was such a horrible smoker that the car had yellow stains everywhere from the nicotine. Inside the windows were nicotine blotches and I took a toothbrush to the vents and it came out brown. It was nasty. It did me well for a first car though.

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
I'm not popular enough to get texts. Seriously.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
Well, it wasn't a person. It was "KAYA! You are laying on my head! move!". Then I fell back asleep with my dog laying her head on the top of mine. I didn't have the heart to move her when she was being so sweet.

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Mrs. Heatley. I got my cast off in 1st grade and she had the whole class congratulate me when I came in without it. 1st grade was also when I had a sing off with my friend in class of who could sound more like Ariel in The Little Mermaid.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
PA when I was a baby. But, the first one I remember well is the plane ride to West Virginia. We traveled often on planes throughout my life. I've been on planes a lot in the last year as well. And surprisingly, I love it. I love taking off and I love flying. Travel job, please????

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them?
Brandy Friday. She was born merely weeks after me (my mom and her mom were friends so we knew each other basically out of the womb) and we were friends even though her family moved to California when she was 3. To this day, she still remains one of my most wonderful friends even though we are miles and miles apart.

11. What was your FIRST sport played?
I wasn't a sports person. I'm still not. I'm more of a hiking, biking, camping person. So, I'll just say I biked and hiked everywhere as a kid and it's still one of the things I love to do.

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
Probably at Brandy's house. I remember sleeping over at her aunt's, but her dad took her and her sister back to CA early in the morning and when I woke up and they were gone. I was confused and just wanted to go home after that. Other than Brandy's, you'd find me at Erin's.

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
Stephen.

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My Aunt Robin's.

15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
Groggily got up and checked my email.

16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
My mom swears since she was pregnant with me when she saw Journey, that was my first concert. In all seriousness, I don't remember and it was most likely with Caitie.

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing?
Just ears pierced like a normal little girl. Then I had them stretched to a 0 gage when I was 20 or so. Then I got over that and now they are slightly larger than they should be, but they are almost back to normal. No Tattoos.

18. FIRST foreign country you went to?
Canada. Does that count? JAPAN!

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law?
Ben and I stopped at a park and were kissing in his car. The police tapped on the window and told us that the park had a curfew and they drove me home. It was 'tarded.

20. When was your FIRST detention?
9th grade for talking back to my retarded English teacher.

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in?
Texas. Still Texas.

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart?
Boyce Freitag. My first love as well.

23. Who was your FIRST roommate?
Not yet. And after seeing the repercussions of other people dealing with roommates makes me really never want to have one unless it's someone I know I can deal with and trust constantly.

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride?
My middle school friend's birthday. She had us ride around in a limo all around austin and went to a bunch of cool places in Austin.

25 things nobody will ever care to know

I saw someone else post a list that's supposed to be on of those "I tagged you, so now your soul is signed away to do it or you will burn in hell for eternity" type things, but it looked interesting otherwise. I'll try to think of 25 things that not aren't repetitive to the people that know me, but I doubt it.

25. My favorite color has always been blue. Not even when I was a little girl was pink ever my favorite color. I had cerulean walls when I was a young.

24. I had a doberman pincher named Shannara, named after the Terry Brooks book series as a kid.

23. I wanted to be an Egyptologist or a "Forest Veterinarian", whatever that was.

22. I had a crush on Michael Jackson. Yes, I just said it.

21. My first kiss was at 14 and it was sort of just a fluke.

20. I loved En Vogue when I was in middle school.

19. I was always picked on by the neighborhood boys. One gave me a black eye on accident once while jumping out from behind the bushes to scare me and his fist hit my eye.

18. I hate howdy-doody-like puppets to this day.

17. I weirded out Nick Stahl when I asked for his autograph by being too nervous.

16. I HATE beans. The texture. The smell. The taste. barf.

15. My brother and I used to ride our bikes to 7-11 and buy candy and hot dogs with nothing but spare change.

14. I used my friend Trish only for her Super Nintendo Zelda game.

13. I choked on a butterscotch after being warned not to spin around in circles with it in my mouth. I did just that.

12. Barbie was my idol. I had a crap ton of barbies but I never got my wish for a barbie house.

11. My friend Erin and I put wire in our hair to imitate Pippy Long-Stonging just for the hell of it once.

10. We also used to take pictures of ourselves in all her dance costumes in funny dance poses.

9. My first crush was in 4th grade, and I remember his name was Derek.

8. I think I have a social phobia.

7. My high school boyfriend taught me to drive and always let me drive around without a license. But, that stopped once we were pulled over.

6. I never dress up, but would love to. I always feel I need an excuse. I don't even own a pair of heels.

5. My friend Caitie and I used to sneak away from confirmation (church thing) to go walk around in a park nearby the church and pretend like we went when picked up.

4. I used the think Whataburger was Waterburger and was made with special water or something.

3. I've chewed my fingernails since I was in 2nd grade.

2. I had my tonsils removed because I had Strep throat so often that my tonsils were more of a hinder to my body than anything. I also have Hypothyroidism.

1. I played Clarinet, but I wish I would have learned to play the piano or the harp desperately.

sigh. I just read all those and even I was bored. Whatever. It keeps me entertained at 5 in the morning.

movies I don't give enough credit to

I'm the girl (or one of millions of girls) who has been a pretty outspoken 'tard about how much Willow, The Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Neverending Story, and Legend are basically my bibles. But, I really kinda looked into my childhood and I realize that though those movies are my favorites, I did watch certain movies more often than those. I know, wow. What a revelation. (sarcasm) But, this is devoted to those movies I never ever give enough credit to that drove my mom and family crazy. Some are duhs, some are "what the hell were you thinking?" My answer, I don't give a shit what you think. I loved these movies and watched these movies so much that they made my grandma and mom bang their heads against the wall.

I watched a video taped TV play of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin so much the tape is almost destroyed. It was the first thing I watched every time I went over to my grandparents.


Another tape I ran to the ground was The Sound of Music.


Disney's Robin Hood with one of the best soundtracks ever:


Harry and the Hendersons:


Time Bandits...my love for Terry Gilliam began young.


Baron Munchausen. Gilliam again.


Really old Chip N' Dale cartoons and Goofy cartoons.


Embarrassing stuff? Encino Man.


And I freakin' loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The movie. NOT the show. I still love this movie.


I also watched Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice too much for my own good.

Geez. After going through just these, I realize I have an arsenal of other movies I forgot about. But, these all topped the "these VHS no longer play" category.

if it's for real

I'll eat dog shit. I will take my dog's poo after a fresh dump and put in my mouth and chew. I will give photographic evidence and I am calling shenanigans on this.

bryan adams will kick you in the face

with awesomeness. Yeah I said it. He will KO you ninja style with his lyrics of wanting to see unborn children in your eyes.

I spent my Saturday night downloading the Bryan Adams Anthology because I'm the life of the party.
Run to you

painting progression

I'd like to keep a progression record for the first time on a painting. I haven't drawn anything or painted anything in a good year or two. I wonder how not being artistically productive can effect your work.
I painted Joaquin Phoenix in like 2003 or so, way before his portrayal of Johnny Cash. But, River Phoenix has always been my not so secret love. So, I'm finally painting him to go along with the Joaquin...the strange thing is, I started a River before Joaquin and found the canvas the other day. I should probably finish it...



I'm glad I read somewhere it's pretty cool to take pictures as you progress on a painting. You can see what you need to work on from a different angle. Geez, this painting has far to go. Shading, shading, shading. The whole face needs a lot done to it among other large things.


Acrylic on canvas.
Started 12/25/08:





12/29/08
1 hour more of basic shading, got rid of the building in the background

1/5/09
shading on the nose, some shading on the cheek, working slowly to fix the mouth

Breaking News!

You know, the BBC has it all wrong. They report on things like the spiraling business economy, environmental issues, and the tensions between countries we need to be aware of. They just don't know what's important anymore. But, thank god I have yahoo! news.
I don't think the world can live without knowing:


What will I do?!!?? The vampire dude cut his hair!! WOE IS ME!!!!!

PA, Niagra, NY and back again

PA, Niagra, NY and back again pictures

I got some good shots of Niagra when the sun came out for about an hour right before it got dark after having nothing but a nice wet and cloudy day (and freaking cold!). It gets completely pitch black by 5pm up north. My days felt so out of balance having it get so dark early.

The trip was, uh, interesting. My purse was stolen the first night there in a wonderful local diner in Reading, PA. I hope you are enjoying my money asshole. I lost my passport, my bro's passport, and all my credit cards, id's, and a large amount of money. Needless to say, it's a nice pain in the rear end boarding a plane without proper ID.
The police in the town my dad lives in are morons. His report was so full of mistakes (such as listing my purse as canvass rather than canvas) that giving it to airport security was sketchy.

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. Truly gorgeous, especially at night. We had an interesting time in Pittsburgh. We went on the Duquesne incline and tried to enter some high end restaurants at the top of the incline. After seeing the prices and also being kicked out of one for not wearing our finest clothing (my dad had holes in his jeans :P ) we tried out some places down at the bottom. We had just about as much luck as we did at the top. But, a kind cab driver saw us walk out exasperated and offered to take us to a place he knew was open late. Ironically, it was the Primanti brothers restaurant that I had seen on TLC or the Food Network. There is a lot more to the story of Pittsburgh and our experience there, but I'd rather not bog it down with all the negative things. We dealt with a lot of dicks that night, but the Duquesne incline operators and the taxi driver really made everything worth while.

Lake Eerie was in a word, freezing. But a hell of a lot of fun. After living without snow my entire life, I officially wish I could live in a place that snowed. It never stopped amazing me when I got to see a white covered landscape. My brother and I (I hope I'm speaking correctly for him) had the best time in the snow. Lake Eerie and visiting my grandparents was a pretty good experience. I finally learned a lot about my father's side of the family I really never knew. I finally know things about my family on that side that are truly some interesting things. I'm a descendent of Oliver Wolcott (a signer of the declaration of independence) and that I'm also of English and French Canadian descent.

I've been to Niagra twice before, but it was good to see my bro see it for the first time. Especially in winter when you freeze your ass off, but everything is covered in ice. It is truly a beautiful place.

The drive to NY was too long. 8 hours...but I did see a lot of NY state driving through. I got to see NY city for a day and I officially have decided on my next trip to spend at least a week in NY city. There is too much to see and do and one day was simply not enough. We spent our day in Chinatown and somehow got pulled into a massage shop where I got my first ever back and foot massage. Boy, was that interesting. Chinatown is also amazing and I really wish I had more time in NY. Now I know why people fall in love with the city. There is simply too much to do and see.

Then it was back to Reading, a small town near Philly. We got to see Valley Forge on our first day in PA and the place was pretty amazing in itself. I feel like the trip was a bit rushed and I wanted a lot more time to see everything. But, you can only do so much in 9 days.

For all of what we did, the summary seems way to short and there are some really interesting stories yet to be told of the trip.
All I can say is that I love snow and I wish I could see it every year.

a year I'd rather forget

2008 sure turned out to be a shit pile.

Focusing on the positives:

I graduated.

I got the job with JET that I applied and aimed for 3 years.

I got an internship at the Austin Film Festival.

ladies of the 80's

I swear I'm in the wrong decade. I should be my age now in 1984. sigh. A devotion to my favorite 80's ladies.

Pat Benatar-You better run


Scandal-The Warrior


Missing Persons-Mental Hopscotch


Cyndi Lauper-Goonies R Good Enough


Madonna-Everybody (this is a good madonna oldie)


Warlock-All we are


Lita Ford-If I close my eyes forever


Heart-These dreams


Olivia Newton John- Magic


Tina Turner-We don't need another hero


Bananarama-Venus


Jeez. This list could go on forever. I'll stop there for now.