Marvin the Mouse

This year for Christmas, I decided to be thrifty and give my family paintings for presents rather than store bought treasures (which tend to empty my pocket book). My goal was to finish 9 paintings: 5 small paintings on canvas board (for my cousins) and 4 large paintings on stretched canvas (for the adult couples of my family). Like most projects, I procrastinated until the last week and faced the daunting task of finishing 7 paintings in 6 days. My brain has been on an alternate plane the entire week due to the ridiculous amounts of paint fumes I have been breathing. It came down to Christmas Eve and I had three paintings that needed finishing touches and three paintings that hadn’t even been started. So I painted from 11 o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock at night when my family arrived for Christmas Eve dinner. I did however make a couple of trips down stairs to take care of various things, such as cleaning brushes, eating lunch, and stretching my legs. One venture I made downstairs and away from my studio was at the strong behest of my mother who called, “ALI GET DOWN HERE QUICK!” Since my family lives on the edge of town and we often have interesting wildlife in our backyard, I expected to find my family crowded around a single pair of binoculars peering out at a deer or bobcat. Instead what I found was a baby mouse that my father caught in a mason jar. World, I introduce to you my family’s first Christmas visitor: Marvin.

For those of you who are wondering what has become of Marvin, just ask my brother the question, “can baby mice swim?”

Have a happy holiday everyone, and have a cup of cheer. 

Goodbye Fall. Hello Spring!!

Tonight is my first night in my new room, #305. The benefits of the new room are: a window that looks out to the lawn between the girls and guys dorms (perfect for people watching), a disco ball, and I was able to remove the loathsome doors from the closet.

My new roommate is Callie White and I am so excited to live with her!!

Even though I am so excited about living with Callie, I am also very sad to say goodbye to my old roommate Kaci Shough. She is a wonderful roommate and we get along famously. I will always welcome her company and friendship.

This is a picture of us enjoying cheesy bread sticks and enjoying a few last minutes in our old and empty room.

This semester has finally come to a close and I am happy to see its end. Not to say it has been bad, but I am ready to move on and enjoy whatever else it is life has in store for me.  I always get a surreal feeling around Christmas and New Years. I can never believe that a year has already gone by and despite my disbelief the coming year will go by just as fast. I am at a very different place than I would have imagined myself a year ago, but I am better for it and I know that it is God who has brought me here, safe as always. So world, here is to another year gone and a fresh start! Soon it will be spring and there will be new life to enjoy. A fond farewell friends and a wonderful end to a splendid year. 

The poor product of procrastination.

I reconstructed some clichés in my desperate attempt to procrastinate from studying. 

If you give a mouse a cookie, you’ll have to shoot it before it bankrupts you.

The early worm is caught by the bird.

Absence make the heart grow bitter.

All that glitters is never going to come out of your carpet.

Always a bridesmaid, never the groom.

The bigger they are, the harder you fall.

Curiosity killed the consumer.

The more things change, the more things become different. 

Nothing can give me back the time I lost while willing words to come to me so I could recreate these cliches. Blast. 

The moral of this non story is that in an attempt to procrastinate, you will always procrastinate.

Happy finals week to one and all. 

Here's to you and me! A toast to being alone.

Today is Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday and I only have two classes. After I get out of my last class on Thursday all I have left to accomplish until I am released for Christmas Break are finals. But since I have a moment, I’ll tell you what I am doing now. At this particular moment in time, I am sitting in Cuppies and Joe enjoying a cup of coffee and coming down off of a sugar high the cupcake I purchased gave me. I have developed a habit lately of going on what I call “lonely dates”. The premise is that I take one night and I devote it to enjoying myself by doing something that you can only do while alone. I decided since I am single and have no one to take me out, that I will take myself out. Yes, I go on dates with myself.  I talk to myself, pray by myself, read by myself, buy coffee (and occasionally a cupcake if I am feeling rather generous) for myself, and listen to my favorite music. I always make sure to look my best. I enjoy this habit very much and have found it to be very useful. I do not think that people give themselves enough credit and forget to take care of their own soul. I like to recognize my own person from time to time and thank it. God gave me a healthy mind and body and I need to honor that gift by treating both of them well. So tonight, I am treating my mind to some well-deserved time alone to think, pray, read, and enjoy some of the world’s finest delicacies – coffee and cupcakes.  I would encourage anyone to take themselves out on a date – single, married, or dating. This practice may seem narcissistic and self-serving. Well, perhaps it is, but I have found it to be very rewarding and if done right can give you a greater sense of self and a great measure of peace and calm. The moral of this story is: one may be the loneliest number, but being alone isn’t always a bad thing and can even add to one’s happiness. So stop spinning about and causing your world to go asunder. Take a breather. Read a book. Brave the world alone for a couple of hours. 

An ode to James Gurney

What is art?  I found this answer on the artist James Gurney’s blog (http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/). 

Art is the deliberate transmission of emotion. 

Bravo! bold bohemian. I like your answer. It is simple but leaves room for interpretation. What kind of emotion? Who or what is transmitting the emotion? I love the question "what is art" because no one is ever really right or wrong, unless of course they use absolutist language. I am going to start collecting and compiling answers to this question. 

This watercolor pencil sketch by James Gurney, surely and simply stated, is art.

I would say it all my life to you.

Every time I listen to the song Impossible Soul by Sufan Stevens my heart wants to leave my body and melt into the oblivion of a world Sujan lives in.

The early bird catches the worm. So pray you are a bird.

          My day started this morning at 6:45 when my loving roommate Kaci reminded me that I had promised to go swimming with her. Lets just say, all I wanted to do was take a rain check (it actually was raining… ha!) and enjoy a couple more hours of sleep. But... unfortunately I had also told Kaci to make sure I woke up and not to let me sleep. She promised she wouldn’t and warned me she wouldn’t be nice. She kept her promise and by 7:10 we were walking across campus with towels in hand through the mist towards the pool. Despite how tired and begrudging I was to wake up, I am so glad she didn’t let me sleep in. The morning was glorious. The tree colors have finally turned completely from green to variations of red, orange, and yellow. Through the mist, the trees looked magical. They looked like what you would expect to see if you were strolling down the streets of London on a dreary day… the leaves oversaturated from lasts night’s rain and the limbs drooping due to the extra weight. Also, every time I wake up to a misty morning, I imagine that scene from Pride and Prejudice where Mr. Darcy walks across the field shrouded in mist to ask Elizabeth Bennett to marry him. If I were going to be any fictional character, I would be Elizabeth Bennett. 

            In addition from the lovely walk across campus, the swim was fabulous. The funny part about swimming at the pool on campus is people like Shawn Sikes are the lifeguard. Despite the awkwardness of there being a total of five people in the pool and walking around in a skin tight bathing suit, I just don’t feel that comforted in the fact that the person guarding my life was wearing kakis and a hoodie, was sitting at a desk, and most likely doing homework or perusing on facebook. We (Kaci, Katie Pryor and I) swam for forty minutes, left the pool to get ready for the day, and got to breakfast in time for Calvin to make me three eggs over-easy and get my 9:30 class. Despite the fact that I fell asleep on and off all morning in my class, this morning goes down as one of my favorites so far this school year. AND I got a free donut before chapel. Bam.

            Speaking of chapel… Yesterday’s speaker told us that we should be tattooed for Christ (he said it didn’t have to be on the outside of your body… I am a little worried about the people who will take this literally and get their insides tattooed with something Jesus-y). Before he got around to his point he had all the people with tattoos stand. So I stood up. I don’t know why I did this because I most definitely do NOT have a tattoo. Then he told the people who had a religious tattoo to stay standing and all the heathens who had secular tattoos to sit. I shamelessly stayed standing. Then he told all the people with whose tattoo did not regard Jesus’ death to sit. By this point I was feeling rather sacrilegious and self-conscious so I sat. Why did I do this? What in the world possessed me to pretend to have a tattoo? Now all of my friends who don’t know me well enough to ask me about it will assume I have one. Oh well. Things could be worse. Now I just have to live with the fact that I lied to about one thousand people all at one time. Maybe that is how politicians feel. Except on a much larger scale. Or maybe they don’t feel at all. Wow, what a digression.

            Back to the present. I am currently sitting in an awesome coffee shop in Edmond (never thought I’d say that….) called Vintage drinking a cup of white mocha that I got for free from my good friend Ryan Russell. AHH… the song “Falling Slowly” by the Swell Season just came on. Love it. I approve of the music that this coffee shop has been playing. Earlier some Elliot Smith was playing… and I believe I heard The Album Leaf as well. Very easy listening. In short, I’d recommend Vintage as a place to do homework or relax with friends. It is a little more uptown/urban than say… Cuppies and Joe, but it is still very chill.

            If you like looking at amazing artwork, look up the artist Leif Ilvedson. He is amazing and his work is so beautiful.

            In closing, it was a beautiful morning that turned into a fabulous day. May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm up your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

There is a first for everything...

Welcome to my blog. This is my first post. Just to give you some background information, I was born in Tulsa, OK at 8 lbs 10 oz.

I suppose blogging is like public journaling. Usually I can trust a journal with my darkest and deepest secrets, but since this forum is open I’ll just share the shallower and less invasive places of my soul.

To start, I would like to tell you about my weekend. The goal was to make a day trip to Tulsa to accomplish five things: eat lunch with the lovely Hannah Pike, go to the doctor, get my phone charger and bike key from my house, go to my friend Avery’s art show downtown, and make it back to Edmond before 12 pm. 

All was going according to plan. I had lunch with Hannah while we watched the animated film, FernGully (staring the voice of Robin Williams). FernGully is the original Avatar. Everyone thought that Avatar was just a nock off of Pocahontas. Wrong. It was nearly an exact copy of FernGully… with the exception of a more sophisticated graphics team. After lunch and a movie with Hannah, I drove to St. Francis for my doctor’s appointment. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot, my car decided to die. Fortunately, it had just enough momentum to make it into a parking space… My parents were in Dallas this weekend and my phone was about to die so, needless to say, I was a little worried about being stranded. But I went into the doctor’s office, and called my mom and dad in the waiting room to get some advice. They told me to call Papaw (my mom’s step-dad) and have him take care of me. So I called my grandpa and he picked me up after my appointment. We called a towing company and they (after a full hour) came and whisked my car away to the shop where hopefully it will be fixed at minimal cost.

This may sound to you like a stressful scenario but truth be told, the next few hours I spent trying to fix the situation with Papaw were some of the most precious and intimate moments I’ve ever had with any of my grandparents. When I tried to thank him for taking the time to help me he said, “Well honey, that’s what were here for. Now are you going to have dinner with us or not?” To which I most decidedly answered, “YES!”  What could have been a really sad and stressful day ended up being perfect. I got to hear for the first time stories of how my grandparents met, how Papaw proposed, etc. When I asked him how he knew that Mamaw was the one, his face light up and he simply said, “I just knew Miss Ali. There are some things that you just know.” We spent a good majority of our time together simply sitting silently and enjoying each other’s company. I hadn’t felt so comfortable and safe in weeks. My heart was so full by the time we said goodbye.

I ended up accomplishing three of the five goals. I eventually made it to Avery’s art show, which I was most definitely underdressed for. I did get my bike key from my house, but because my key ring is slightly dilapidated it fell off at some undetermined point and is now lost forever. I successfully remembered my phone charger. I didn’t end up leaving Tulsa until Saturday night. Ha! But my time in Tulsa was well spent with several of my favorite people. I also accomplished many other things that I didn't expect. For example: I unloaded the the bed of the truck I will be driving for the next couple of weeks, since my car is dead; see picture below for reference. A lonely hour and a half ride back to Edmond on a dark highway was the perfect way to end the trip. I listened to School of Seven Bells, Sia, and Florence and the Machines.