15/365

May or may not have dyed my hair blue. And purple. And a little bit green. Just sayin'.

I only have a year and a half left of acceptably doing crazy things, so might as well take advantage of it.

14/365

First day of spring semester and classes are being canceled because of the snow. Welcome to Minnesota, dontchaknow.

Classes should go well, I know quite a few people in each of them, blah blah blah, school etc.

Four months, then a senior. Unreal. Then I have to, y'know, find a real job or something. Be responsible and all that jazz. Uh oh.

13/365

Playlist for this week:
Breathe-Telepopmusik
Back In Your Head-Tegan and Sara
Carry Out-Timbaland/Justin Timberlake
By Your Side-Coco Rosie
Volcano-Damien Rice


Probably going to do this every Sunday. Why not.

12/365

I have a feeling that this tattoo is going to be showing up a lot in my 365, so might as well tell its story now.

I spent five months studying in Sweden last year (Jan 09-May 09). I traveled in a group that went as far north as Kiruna and south to Karlshamn. It honestly was the trip of a lifetime, and the people I met, the places I had the opportunity to visit--it all still seems unreal at points.
Over my spring break, during which we all had the freedom to travel wherever we wanted, I decided to go to Gotland, and I fell in love. As a history major, Gotland's past interested me to no end, and the time I spent there was filled with roadtrips to bronze-age burials and medieval churches---I was in heaven. One church which I wandered into, in the town of Dalhem, was immaculately preserved, and the paintings on the walls still looked new.




I found this little guy above a doorway near the back of the church, and was drawn to him. I'm not very religious, but for some reason this image stayed with me, and in August, I decided to get him tattooed on my arm.
I don't know, I find him to be a nice little reminder that there's some good out there, that some people still do believe in the good of others, y'know, that sort of deal.

11/365

Everybody says it, but it's so true. Sleeping in your own bed is bliss. After a late night on the town on Thursday, a night in my own bed was exactly what I needed.

I went home, which for me is the land of Lincoln, Jordan, Blagojevitch, and Daley; more popularly known as Illinois. But I think that, at this junction in my life, home is becoming a strange new word of sorts. I call Chicago home, but I more fondly call Minnesota, especially where I live now, home. I know that with age, this notion of home will warp even more, but yes, everybody says this too, but home is where the heart is, and I have mad love for MN.

10/365

My soundtrack for the day (which consisted of a grand total of 2 songs): Feel It In My Bones--Tegan and Sara/Tiesto and Telephone--Lady Gaga/Beyonce. Why? I'm going dancing. I've got a friend who lives up in the cities and is taking me out on the town, and let me tell you, nothing, absolutely nothing, feels better than shaking away the cares of the day while music pulses through you. Absolutely. Nothing.

9/365

Just look at those Converse. Look at them. Those were brand new a month ago, no smudges or imperfections. I guess a few days painting has changed that.

Too tired to post anything of substance. Blah.

8/365

You know you're a geek when: you finish off half of a book assigned for a class which you haven't even started yet.

I'm taking a class spring semester called European Lives: Stalin, which is a special topics class and I'm so stoked for it. I got a few of the books I ordered for classes from Amazon today, and started this one, and can't put it down. It follows the life of Janusz Bardach, a Polish Jew who joined the Red Army, and after a series of unfortunate events, ended up in a labor camp in the Soviet Union. I recommend it to just about anyone-it's an easy read, but quite interesting.

If all the books for this class are like this, I'm going into one great semester.

7/365

Good thing I didn't care about these jeans.
First day of a week of painting! Urinetown is the musical that my college decided to produce this year, and one of my housemates designed the set for it. And since we all had a week off of classes, most everyone who would normally help with the painting of the set went home. What else was I going to do with my day? Besides, everyone knows that their seven-year-old self loves getting dirty and messy. I know my inner seven-year-old is certainly rejoicing.

6/365

I love these rings. They've become somewhat cliche, which I hate, but I will, without a doubt, continue to wear these two suckers.

My mom gave me the one on my left hand, and my dad gave me the one of my right. We're a really spread-out family, and so for me, it's a way to keep both of my parents with me no matter where I'm at--even though we have our disagreements, our differences, I'm half of each of them, and they're wholly with me 24/7.

5/365

Normally, I'd be crocheting while sitting on a couch. Or a chair. At the very least, I'd be sitting on something other than concrete. But my house is currently getting new floors, and since the contractor wasn't working during the weekend, I pulled out a few couch cushions, found a couple bean bags, and curled up with some Mad Men (Christ, I'm addicted!) and a very, very ugly sweater vest that I'm working on. Granted, it wasn't as comfortable as it normally is in that space, but at least it made for a good dancing arena :)

4/365

I'm dog-sitting this week, which means I'm doing a lot of hanging out with this guy. I think college students (of which I am one of many) flock to dogs like bugs to a light. Walks sometimes take twice as long as they could because once on campus, students will go out of their way to come pet this fellow. I don't know, call it a comforts-of-home thing, but there really is nothing like curling up on the couch, blanket around the shoulders, and dog resting on your lap. Absolute bliss.

3/365

My ship tattoo is the simplest one I have, but it still remains my favorite. During the Vendel period, those living in what is now Scandinavia would bury their dead either in ships or ship-like vessels, seeing the ship as a transport to the next life. Even though ship burials are associated with Scandinavia history, its practice extends all the way to the Mediterranean. Author J.R.R. Tolkien used this idea while writing his Lord of the Rings series--the Grey Havens symbolizing an afterlife, and the ships which those of Middle Earth take to reach them, they are the literal manifestation of these burials.

My ship tattoo means all of this. Four years ago today, someone close to me committed suicide. It hit me hard at the time, as it did all of us who knew him. I decided to get this tattoo as a memorial for him, since his love was the water, and his ashes are spread in the Hudson at West Point. It only seemed fit, and with the added background of the ancient burials, it just felt right. I love seeing it daily, and hope he's at peace now.

2/365

Ah, the perils of eyeliner. I've never been much of a make-up kind of gal myself, but there are times when one just needs an excuse to doll it up a bit, y'know? And this evening, I have a pretty darn good excuse. I'm off to see the Minnesota Orchestra perform Debussy's La Mer in Minneapolis. I'm excited, as it's my first time seeing the Minnesota Orchestra perform, although I'm no stranger to live classical music--I'm kind of a classical music nerd at heart. Growing up near Chicago allowed me the chance to see one of the best symphony orchestra's in the world multiple times, and I owe my appreciation of such wonderful music to those experiences.

1/365

Alright, so here we go. I'm starting out on a 365 day project--one self portrait a day for a year. I hope that even though I'm starting this project out of, well, a lack of anything to do at the current moment, that it keeps up even when I'm busy as all hell.


I'm a Midwest girl at heart. I bitch and moan about the dog days of summer when it feels like I've stepped into a sauna rather than out my back door, or the windchills which delve into temperatures absolutely otherworldly, or even all those corn fields which never seem to end, but deep down, I actually like all those things, and more. No matter how much I travel, if I stay away long enough, I start to get a yearning in my heart which can only be filled by the prairie.
So yes, even though I wore 5 (yes, 5!) layers outside today and still felt cold, I really do love it here. Call me crazy, but it's true.