Sometimes the Easy way is Harder

So I really didn't feel like writing today, or recently for that matter. Maybe because I've spent too much time writing cover letter after cover letter. Or maybe it's because after finally realizing that I'm done with school and I don't have to write anymore, I've just succumbed to laziness. As some of you may of noticed I didn't even bother to post for a week. I threw something up last week and called it a good day. This week I've been too excited to see my boyfriend after six months that I haven't been able to focus on any one thing for more then five minutes at a time. Even while watching TV I pop up every five minutes because my mind is in squirrel mode. So I didn't even bother thinking up something to write. Instead I drew pictures. I discovered drawing was the only way I could watch TV without running around my house. My lazy mind couldn't multitask and act like a squirrel all at once so I managed to sit down at my desk and quietly watch TV. It reminded me a lot of being a kid when your parents or babysitter hands you a box of crayons and paper so they can have a moment of peace. After a while I figured that if I posted my drawings onto my blog THAT could count as my Tuesday blog post. I kinda felt like I had cheated the system and won. I loaded up my cellphone pictures of the drawings and rotated and cropped them. I then attempted to upload onto my blog. It came out like this.

In fact they call came out like that. Upside down, or sideways. I sat there confused for a minute. I had been so sure to rotate them to the correct position on my laptop. Why weren't they uploading into my blog right? The blog wouldn't even let me rotate them once I put them up. I tried redoing it several times and kept getting the same result. At this point I'm thinking to myself "writing a blog post probably would have been easier". The truth is technology and I don't get along. I always end up killing it. When I was in middle school I somehow managed to reprogram the family computer to only "speak" Spanish. We had to have a computer person come out at reboot the whole system. So I don't know why I thought I could do this, but at this point I really couldn't give up. I decided to try rotating them wrong on my computer and attempting to re load them on the blog... I got this

Well, at least she isn't upside down anymore. Again, I stupidly sat there angrily until my common sense kicked in. "Yo, dummy, try turning her all the way upside down on the computer so she's right side up on the blog". Oh yeah.

HEY! I did it! Sure it only took me an hour to figure out how to do it. And I'm sure all the five year old's out there are doing this.

So that's my sad story of my failed attempt to be tech savvy. I guess I should just stick to the basics before I break the internet. Although now that I have figured it out I should at least be allowed to post the rest of my doodles I drew,

It's the simple things in life

I woke up this morning to a challenge. One of my Facebook Friends tagged me in one of those dessert recipe photos that have been flooding Facebook. The ones that are something like beautifully arranged cupcakes shaped like the Mona Lisa, and photographed with text reading “Easy Baking!” I usually look at those pictures and feel horribly inadequate.  I can bake chocolate chip cookies as well as the next person, but I’m sorry rainbow swirl cake that shoots out fireworks is not “Easy Baking”. Even though I fail as a female in the kitchen department I’m a sucker for posting endless drool worthy photos of food. While for me it was a wishlist of foods I hoped someone would make for me, the rest of Facebook began to see it as “I call your bluff now make it”.
            It started with a picture watermelon carving of a shark. I excitedly shared my picture of the watermelon shark with Facebook and within an hour my sister had commented; “Okay so that’s what you’re bringing to my party?” We joked around about it, and before I knew it I had accepted the challenge. It took me all morning before the party to come up with something. I slaved away with a big carving knife and covered myself in fruit juice. The end result looked like a mutated pac-man. Even though my watermelon was not a beautifully carved shark it was well received, and a standard was set.
            So when I looked at my phone this morning I saw the message, “Christina, here’s another for your goody list.” The accompanying picture was what my brother would call (in the voice of the actor in the diabetes ads). “baked diabeetus” There was a picture and a small description of Chocolate Chip Cookie Reese Cup Brownie Cupcake. The gauntlet had been thrown. I spent most of the day in the kitchen with my brother hovering, waiting to snatch up raw dough and brownie batter. When it came to putting the Reese Cups on both my brother and my father were hovering. I was nearing the end of the bag when I was assaulted by…
            “Are there going to be any left over?”
            “I want one!”
            “I was looking forward to stealing one.”
Needless to say I ran out of Reese Cups. I had to book it to the store and back before the dough, batter, and remaining Reese mysteriously disappeared. Sadly convenience stores don’t carry giant bags of Reese. An issue I personally think needs to be addressed. So I ended up substituting Oreos. I rushed home and began to put them in the dough and batter mix. Again the men appeared out of nowhere like the Trix Rabbit.
            “Oreos? I love Oreos”
            “Will there be any left-over?”
            “Do you still need these?”
            “Can I please have one? Just one?!”
            You noticed that when I was cutting up the watermelon and fruit I was left alone in the kitchen. Fruit and vegetables, men’s kryptonite. I managed to grab the package before it disappeared and shooed them away.  Wasn’t long before the finally creation was done. I pulled them out of the oven and nearly backed into my brother, who again popped out of thin air. I popped them all out of the tray and handed one to him. You’d think he had died and gone to heaven. He thumped his fist into his chest and said. “Right in the Diabeetus!”
            The dessert was declared a keeper by everyone. The smell of melty chocolate and peanut butter hung around the kitchen and I didn’t expect the actual food to last. Sure enough my brother was back in the kitchen and reaching for the… Oreos?
            “Oh good! There’s some left!”
            Seriously?  After working on this elaborate dessert it’s the Oreos that still win out in the end?  Why do we bother trying to make new creative recipes when people really only want the Reese Cups and Oreos? Ask any little kid and their favorite part of baking cookies is the cookie dough, not the actual cookie. Or those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kiss on top? How many people are eating that for the peanut butter cookie? I give up. You want a triple layer cookie sundae that smells like heaven? Make it yourself, I’ll be eating the Oreos.

Candy Crush Crack

Last night my Panda Jam app stopped working. This is a tragedy.  How am I supposed to save the panda cubs from the evil monkey and return them to their mother? I had three lives left! I could have SAVED THEM.
            For those of you healthy souls out there who don’t play Panda Jam, Candy Crush, Words with Friends, or I’maddictedVille all of these game apps work basically the same way. You download this app for free and play a good deal levels or lives for free. At this point, you’re hooked. You can’t stop playing these games. So what’s 99 cents in the long run? Nothing. So you buy the next set of levels and when those are done the next. Now if that wasn’t a rip off enough, most of these games have a limit on how many “lives” you have. Panda Jam for example has five. Every time you fail to save the panda cubs from the evil monkey you lose a life. Then when you lose all five lives you have to stop playing. Every half an hour the game refills one life. But you can’t wait a half an hour. You have to save the panda cubs! You have two options you can pay ten bucks for more lives or you can beg your Facebook friends to give you more lives. This is marketing genius. You pay up, or you help provide Panda Jam with more customers.
            There is one more way to avoid paying, or to hide from your Facebook friends that you have a gaming problem. You download more apps. For example my original addiction started with Words with Friends. The rationality behind it was, “I’m an English major, this game is good for my vocabulary”. That argument lost its validity when I started using words like “Hm”, “Qi”, and “Jo” to score points. How in God’s name is “Hm” a word?  As time went on I found that my real life friends no longer wanted to play with me because I would play two letter words and rack up 70 points. I decided it was time to move on. That’s when I met “Candy Crush”. Candy Crush is a hugely popular gaming app that I see all of my “Junior” Facebook Friends playing. I would even get requests from them to get lives. So I took up playing it. I still didn’t want anyone to know how low I have sunk to play these games. I still feel hugely embarrassed anytime people find out I use to be addicted to FarmVille. I was so hooked on to FarmVille that when I went away for a week I planted crops that took a week to grow and asked my friend to feed my “animals”.
            So I kept my addiction to Candy Crush private. I see people posting “I beat level 12 in Candy Crush” and I’m like… “I’m on level 147”. You’d think that is would stop me. It didn’t. I continued to play. Even when I ran out of lives I did not turn away. I simply would turn to other games and wait for the first life to refill itself. That’s when I met Panda Jam. I downloaded it while feeling abandoned by Candy Crush. It’s the most frustrating and annoying game on the planet. These panda cubs are trapped on the top of this multi-colored brick wall. You have to match three or more colors in order to break the wall and slowly move the panda cubs down. Once they reach the ground they run to momma and you beat the level. If it only were that simple. You also have to get enough points to make it to the next level. You may free Panda Cub in one move but you lose the level because you don’t have enough points. Then the evil monkey pops up and says in a very condescending way, “You must plan your every move.” Thank you evil monkey I will keep that in mind. In addition to gaining enough points to win a level you also have to win enough points to move on to the next set of levels. This means replaying several already won levels attempting to get to new levels.
            Now, if you’re a healthy employed person you’re probably thinking “You put way to much thought into this, get a life”. But people, I can only get a life if you accept my Panda Jam request on Facebook! Being unemployed I have made a schedule around these games. I wake up in the morning and play them until I lose all my lives. Then I job hunt all day… of course every half an hour I have to stop and save the panda cubs or beat the next level in Candy Crush. It’s a vicious cycle. Even if I do manage to get really involved in a respectable project my phone dings with reminders. “Your Shark is Hungry! Feed him!” or “Dman C. has sent you a drawing!” or “ALL YOUR PANDA LIVES HAVE BEEN RESTORED COME PLAY!” It doesn’t take long to abandon what you’re doing to make the notifications stop, then once you start, you can’t stop.
            It’s sad to think that we all have these powerful computers sitting in our pockets, capable of being a postal service, library, radio, phone, bank, endless information database, or even a way to find work. But most of us use it to look at cat pictures, snapchat, or play endless games of Candy Crush. My question is, if you’re all out there playing these games, why aren’t you giving me more lives?! The whole point of this post is my panda cubs need me! 

Follow the Red Brick Road

            When you’re unemployed you find that you really will do almost anything to get a job. Yesterday I had an interview in the city, an hour away by train. Of course I convinced myself that it didn’t matter. This was going to be great. I like going into the city, I could wear nice clothes and go sip a latte at Starbucks with the hipsters and the lawyers. I suppose going into the city makes me feel like an adult. So at 8 O’clock in the morning I clambered onto the train with the rest of the working world. I marched up the aisle all self-important with my pretty dress and fancy shoes and went to plop down in the nearest bench. Being the smooth business woman that I am I proceed to whack my head on the luggage rack directly above me. I held my head and looked around hoping that no one had seen. Sadly, right across the aisle way from me sat an old man. He was staring at me, his mouth hanging open. I could almost hear him begging to ask “Are you really that stupid?”
            Feeling rather deflated I sunk into the corner of the bench and played with my phone, sulking like a two year old.  Luckily the train ride being an hour gave me plenty of time to forget about it and I bounded off again pumped full of promise. I had made a plan the night before on my route, the train times, the bus I was meant to take, and how long the overall journey would be. Sadly, once getting off the train, I couldn’t find the bus. Ah well, I was undefeatable still. It’s a city, how hard could it be to walk there? I set my phone’s GPS with the job’s address and headed off into the general direction. Or was it? I have never been very good with maps and the only reason I don’t get lost while driving is because my GPS in the car, Germmie, talks to me, yells at me when I mess up, and recalculates. My smartphone is nowhere as smart as Germmie and I walked up and down three or four different streets until I figured out what direction the phone was attempting to get me to go in. I enjoyed the confused and annoyed looks of the city goers as they watched me spin around in circles, stop randomly to consult my phone, and then storm off in the opposite direction.
            Eventually I gave up trying to figure out my phone and made the executive decision to follow the red brick road laid out for tourists to follow. I realize how completely embarrassing that is, a native, using a tourist route to find their way around the city. I also realize how embarrassing it is to use the red brick road, and still get lost. In my defense the road just stopped and went in the opposite direction. So I stood at the corner confused, and slightly nervous. That’s when I saw the bus I was supposed to take pass me by. The city was mocking me. I stormed off angrily after the bus figuring well; at least I know it’s going in the direction I need to go. For the next hour I walked after it, occasionally catching glimpses of it. I did manage to find the right street after a while. By now it was 10 O’clock, I had an hour left before my interview. Prefect I’d walk down the street and find it. I turned the GPS back on and followed the little blue dot till it reached the address.
            That address turned out to be behind an eight foot fence with a security camera pointed directly at me. I could see the building. I could see the address on the building. I could also see that the only way to get to the building was to walk all the way down to the very end of the street and get past security and walk all the way back up the street. By the time I reached the building it was half past. I huffed my way up the stairs and darted into the bathroom before anyone could see me. I quickly prepped my hair, straightened out my dress, and checked for anything out of order before gracefully walking into the office.
            The first person I saw was another girl about my age filling out applications. She was dressed in yoga pants and a T-Shirt. I silently did a celebratory dance and waited my turn. The girl sauntered into the office and I could hear her and the interviewer talking. He did the typical run down and then asked if she had any questions.
            “Um, ya, can I like ask for a day off?” She said.
            “Well, it’s a bit early to be asking that, but as long as you don’t go crazy. Is there something you need to do?” He asked.
            “Yeeeeeaaaah, It’s my friend’s grad party on the 18^th and I’m going to that.”
            “Ok. Can you start Friday?”
            I sat there shocked as she walked out of the office schedule in hand, then I started feeling good. I mean if someone else could walk in wearing yoga pants and already asking for days off, then the job is in the bag. I patiently waited to be called in as he finished up some business. Finally he called me in and we both sat down for the interview.
            Before he could even open his mouth his phone went off. He was out of the chair in seconds answering it and having a conversation. After a while he returned to his seat and looked at my resume. He began to ask me a question when his co-worker walked in and asked him a question. The two proceeded to chat for a while before the attention was brought back to me. The entire interview went like that. Finally after 20 minutes the interviewer handed me a form to fill out and then said,
            “OK, um, I need you to go get a drug screening. This is the address of the clinic we use. It’s right next door. Once the test is processed we’ll meet up again. Oh, and there closed noon to one. Bad timing huh? Good luck.”
            And just like that I was sent on my merry way.
            I plugged the address into my phone only to realize the clinic that is “right next door” is actually another two miles away, outside of the city. I contemplated my options. I couldn’t exactly come back the next day, nor could I really give up an opportunity for employment. I ended up trudging to this clinic. Because normal people usually drive there my journey became interesting. I had find a way around a rotary and hike next to a dual carriage way. By the time I got to the clinic I was done. Sunburnt, blistered, and extremely hungry I stomped up the doors of the clinic and pulled at the handle. Locked.
            I stood there, my hand glued to the handle. I still had to wait for these people to come back from lunch. I took a deep breath and then exhaled. Fine, It’s Okay, I can find something to eat too. I walked out to the parking lot and scanned for a McDonald’s, they’re supposed to be available every ten feet. Nothing. Not even a convenience store. Where did the nurses go for an hour?  Home Depot? I circled the building and spotted it. In the distance was a beacon of hope and life. K-Mart. I only hoped it wasn’t a mirage. I limped my way across two parking lots and practically ran through the doors. I grabbed the first food and I could and then booked in back the clinic.
            By now the nurses had opened the clinic back up. I stepped into the AC, checked in, and plopped into the nearest seat. I sat slumped down and devoured my food box like a wildebeest. When the nurse came for me she found me sitting covered in crumbs with a whole gram-cracker shoved in my mouth.
            “Christina?”
            “Mmmfph?” I stared up at her, not really caring that I looked like a five year old.
            “We’re ready for you.”
            I spent a total of ten minutes in the clinic and now I had to make the long walk back to the center of the city.  Luckily for me, the bench I collapsed onto after the two mile walk back into the city itself turned out to be a bus stop. Not just any bus stop but my bus. After all this time I found the bus I was supposed to get onto hours ago. The bus driver took pity on me and helped me find my way back to the center of the city. I wish I could say my journey back was uneventful. It wasn’t. I spent most of the time waiting for the subway with a box cutter in my hand as a drug addict attempted to make conversation with me. By the time I got home it was past five in the evening. After all that all I could think to myself was. “The job…. It’s selling tickets to tourists.”
            The things we do for even the chance of getting any kind of job. 

No Brain Cells for Riggs

            I have had the pleasure of meeting and playing with all kinds of different dogs through work, friends, and family. For me though, the best kind of dog in the world is the Golden Retriever. My family has owned three of them and each one of them was beautiful, friendly, happy and dumber then animal should be. How these dogs survived and thrived is beyond me. So much for the survival of the fittest. My family and friends all have this joke about the intelligence of Goldens’ that the breed has one shared brain cell, that gets passed around from dog to dog. I’m beginning to doubt they even have that. Even if there was this alleged brain cell my dog Riggs is never allowed to have it.
            I may have mentioned this briefly before, Riggs, hides in the bathroom. Not just when there’s a thunderstorm, or when the nail gun is in use, or when you can hear the hunters shooting, or fireworks (when these things happen all Hell breaks loose). I mean he hides in there all day, every day, for no reason. He lives in the bathroom. After my Dad, Riggs’ version of God, leaves for work, the dog slinks into the bathroom and shuts himself in. Of course, being a Golden Retriever, Riggs is too stupid to figure out how to come out of the bathroom even if he wanted to. He doesn't even whine or scratch at the door. He just sits there waiting for someone to remember that he exists and come looking for him. One night when Dad came home from work we all got very busy prepping supper and settling in for the night we totally forgot about him. It wasn't until later that evening we realized Riggs hadn't come bounding in to great his wondrous God. Dad quickly opened the bathroom door and only then did the poor dog explode with excitement and gratitude.
            On a normal day though, once Riggs is freed from self-imprisonment he acts like one of those parasitic fish you see on TV that latch themselves onto a shark. He tries his very best to become one with the nearest human. You sit down on the couch with your book in hand, when suddenly you find an 80 lb Golden Retriever in your lap. Which would actually be fine if he then didn't proceed to roll around and trample all over you. So you stand up and try to shake him off. Then he tries to hug you. He stands on his hind legs and literally gives you a hug. Which again would be adorable if he only did it once, or even on cue. But he does it, and then refuses to get down or stop hugging you. When he’s in one of these moods you can’t even walk five steps without him latching on to you. Once you've made it clear you don’t want him all over you, he becomes visibly upset and starts circling around and leaping all over the furniture. Then if he’s really upset he starts grabbing things and carrying them around in his mouth; usually shoes, socks, dishtowels, and of course bras. Nothing is classier then greeting guests with your human’s bra.
            I think he does this because he can’t handle life. Life is just too stressful for Riggs. It’s a hard life living at a farm with lots of space to run, lots of food to eat, and having another dog friend. Especially when his God has to leave him for a whole 8 hours! Still, it’s stable. Riggs while he sulks all day in the bathroom is generally good. Until you change something on him. We've recently done some remodeling in the house, and that means lots of noise, new people, and new smells. It’s a lot for the brain cell to take in. One of the things to change was to us very minor. We had one of our hallways converted into a closet. We all didn’t think too much of it. But Riggs did. Riggs stood, his head nearly pressed against the back of the closet for a full 20 minutes. His little brain cell couldn’t take in the removal of the hallway and he was stuck. Perhaps if he just kept staring this new wall it would disappear. We had to physically pull him away before he realized he couldn’t walk through the closet.
            Riggs is always surprising us with new levels of stupidity; whether it’s barking at one of us because he didn’t realize we came home 20 minutes ago or knocking over lamps with his tail. Even while I write this I can hear my mom yelling at him to “Get down! What’s the matter with you!” Clearly Riggs is not allowed to have the brain cell. Ever. Still, he’s the best dog ever. We may not think that at 4 in the morning when suddenly he has to go out. But we do think he is when we walking through the door and he runs up and hugs you, so happy you’ve returned to him. I may want to strangle him every time he steals one of the my shoes and hides it. But whenever I’m feeling down he climbs up next to me on the couch a giant furry ball of love. Golden Retrievers don’t have a single brain cell between them, but they are all made of heart.  

Sorry Lads, my mind is mush

            Today’s plan was to write a really funny and awesome blog post about Job hunting. It was going to be totally cool and all of you would think I’m really witty and invite me to all your summer parties for entertainment value. Sadly internet audience, it’s just not in me today. It’s just too miserably hot.
            I know, for the past few months we've all been whinging about the cold. We refused to leave our houses because “there’s too much snow” or “I’ll get frostbit!” So we hunkered down in our homes, wrapped ourselves up in mounds of blankets, ate our own body weight in food, and hibernated like bears. Anytime we had to go out for school, work, or obligated social interaction we grumbled and cried out “I can’t wait for summer!” We all would then reminisce about beach days, tanning in the warm sun, cookouts, parties, and margaritas.
            Spring came and we all burst forth from our homes in clad in miniskirts and flip flops praising Mother Nature for the end of winter. Ironically the temperature at the time in all reality was only about 45°F. After a month of playing spring in autumn temperature we were unprepared for the real face of Spring.
            Today was a mere 80°F, Saturday is supposed to be upper 90s. Dear God help me. The inside of my house felt like there was a wood-stove going in every room. The upstairs made collecting all the warm air it’s job. So after three hours or so on my laptop job hunting everything started to feel fuzzy. When the poor machine began to overheat and protest by making loud noises and slowing the internet down to a crawl I decided to give up.
            At this point in the day I still felt like hiding inside was a waste. I did just spend all winter longing for summer. I dragged myself outside and out for a bike ride. The first five minutes were alright. I stayed mostly in the shade and I rode downhill so the breeze felt nice. After that though I rode into the cul-de-sac where there were no trees. Needless to say after six miles through the sun while exercising I was done with summer. Pack it up, ready for fall. Fall is nice right? I remember lovely cool fall days.  I gimped back into the house and hid in the cold bathroom with my 80lb Golden Retriever for the rest of the day.
            We can all even say goodbye to cool spring evenings and chilly nights. Nearly 10:00 at night and I’m still sticky and sweaty, just from sitting in my makeshift sauna bedroom. I had to force myself to write this post because I’d much rather sit in a haze doing absolutely nothing. Just you wait though, Fall is going to roll around and I’ll be blogging about how goddamn cold it is and how it’s raining all the time.  

The Art of Art

            Back when I was a kid in school I fancied myself fairly artistic. Use to think one day I’d grow up and get to draw pretty pictures for Disney and be super rich and super famous. This idea came from The Lion King. Our VHS version came with this long introduction with how they made the movie. Elton John sang at the piano and blah blah blahed about the music. The directors would go on forever about I don’t even know what. Then the artists would be shown, and they weren’t just sitting around quietly drawing pictures. They got to play with lions. Lions! I wanted to have a job where I got to hang out with lions. So when I got to High School I went into Studio Art.
            We didn’t get to play with lions. Or warthogs. Or toucans. We mainly sat around and drew boxes. We would spend a solid month, everyday going to class and drawing boxes. And not different and creative boxes, the same box. The same brown, perfectly square box, from the same angle. I still have nightmares about sitting in a room and staring at a box. It never moves, it doesn’t come to life. It just sits there and I have to stare at it, and draw it. Eventually after a year we graduated to other objects like, a pen, a book, a bottle, and the most exciting thing, a dead bee. A dead bee.  Let that sink in. 20 high school students sat in a room and drew a dead bee every day for a month. Where were my lions?
            I ended up giving up hope and dropped out of the art program for my junior year. Which turned out to be like when you step into another line at the grocery store and the line you were originally in suddenly disappears. I would walk by the art wing everyday on my way to class and see these stunning art work pieces. There were beautiful landscapes, realistic drawings of the school hallways, and even really cool art sculptures. So I snuck back in line for my senior year.
            By now the craze for abstract art had hit the high school. I’m talking about pieces that look like a five year old had been handed a crayon and told to go crazy, but are deeply meaningful because the hectic lines and dramatic contrasting colors represent the inner suffering of the artist and his raging war against society. Me, being a 17 year old high school student had no inner conflict. The worst thing that had ever happened to me was algebra. Hard to create deep and meaningful abstract art about hating 2x-4ab÷5cx + 95 = bananas. So I was the five year old who had been handed a crayon and told to go crazy.
            I would usually sit in class and plop paint on canvas. Dark reds, blues, purples, and black to make it seem like I was working out deep angsty feelings of rage. Course I sat with all my friends who did the same thing and we would create a ruckus making fun of each other’s blobs of paint and hectic lines of despair. Eventually we caught the art teacher’s eye and she floated over to examine our art work. She examined my friend Mia’s work.
            “How beautiful, I love the blending of orange, red, and black, it’s like the soul’s inner fire.”
            “I can see a face!” I pointed out. “Looks like an Indian man!”
            “Oh yeah” Mia caught on “I’m painting about the suffering of the Native American people against the pale face strangers.”
            Knowing Mia had been splotching on paint like the rest of us, we all dissolved into sniggers. The teacher crinkled her nose distastefully.
            “You’re not supposed to see anything. It’s just supposed to be colors and lines. You’ll have to rework it so you can’t see any images.”
            She then glanced over at mine irritated and said “You need more yellow.”
            She stormed off to the other side of the room to be with the truly artist people who could tap into their hatred of math and create authentic abstract art. We went back to plopping paint, Mia made sure to make her Indian man go away and I added blots of yellow. 20 minutes later the teacher circled back to us. She looked down at my painting and gasped.
            “Who told you to put yellow in there?”
            “You did?”
            “No I didn’t. You need to fix this.” She glanced over at Mia’s. “I liked it better earlier.”
            Once she had gone Mia and I desperately tried to reverse our efforts, but it’s hard to reverse paint splotches. By the end of class we managed it. They both were looking soggy and runny by this point but sort of back to normal. The teacher looked them over.
            “You’re going to have to rework them next class. Mia, I still see the Indian man, and Christina you need more yellow.”
            There was no “winning” in this class. We spent the rest of the month working on our paintings before we moved on to abstract self-portraits.  After months of that we created abstract sculptures representing whatever beef we had with society. By the end of the year I gave up dreaming about drawing lions with Elton John. I went to college for English. There I ended up having to take a fine arts class to full a core requirement. I took Drawing 1, where I drew boxes. Lots and lots of boxes. 

Star Trek: Into Darkness

             Hello my name is Christina and I am a science fiction nerd. There I said it. I like my futuristic stories, time travel, utopia, dystopia, you name it, I’ll probably have at least heard of it. So when the first new Star Trek came out, I had my doubts. Who could possibly take the place of William Shatner as the infallible Captain Kirk? I’ll tell you. Chris Pine, a man who can drown you in the world’s most beautiful blue eyes. Ladies, let me tell you the newest Star Trek does not disappoint all you fan girls out there. Chris Pine, even though to my utter disappointment did not pull a Shatner and rip of his shirt, was drool worthy. Anton Yelchin’s, Chekov, adorable accent had me swooning. To all of you BBC Sherlock fans out there, Benedict Cumberbatch did indeed deliver all that was expected of him and more by playing the world’s best Khan. While I stared dreamy eyed at these wonderful men, especially Pine’s gorgeous blue eyes, my brother leaned over and whispered in my ear “Scotty (Simon Pegg) reminds me of your boyfriend.”
            Which is perfectly fine with me because as per usual Simon Pegg entertained me to no end. I particularly enjoyed watching him struggle to run the length of the room while the other characters could leap through the air and land without even twisting their ankle and then proceed to run around and fight for a half an hour. Thanks Simon Pegg for keeping it real.
            On a less frivolous fangirl note, I have to say I truly was blown away by the movie as a whole. The opening scene on an alien planet was breathtaking. I did not feel like they were on a set with a bunch of fake rocks and green screening, I felt like they really were on an alien planet. The scenery’s detail was incredible, and even more impressive, original. Someone had a lot of creativity to think up an entirely different world. What really took my breath away was the hiding of the Enterprise in the planet’s ocean. Who thinks of stuff like that? The effects and the scenery in general were all thoughtfully put together and executed brilliantly.
            The film also maintained a balance between new and old. There were lots of wonderful moments of nostalgia and quiet jokes poking at the original. Being one of those dorky kids watching all the original Star Treks with my Dad this really made the movie. Leonard Nimoy of course made a brief reappearance which always makes me chuckle. The costuming was cleverly balancing old school brightly colored uniforms with newer models that didn’t look quite so camp. Maybe Bones reusing the standard “Damn it Jim I’m a Doctor” line was a bit much, but hey what’s Star Trek without a bit of goofiness? 
            However, what I truly enjoyed about the movie was the interaction between the characters. All of the dialogue flowed so naturally and there were bits that seemed to have nothing to do with the plot and their main goal was to show the relationships between all the characters. It proved itself to be more than an action film with scene after scene of running around, explosions, and fighting. There was a true sense of story, with plot, relatable characters, and complex relationships. At one point Captain Kirk, Uhura, and Spock fly out to Kronos a Klingon planet. While in the pod Uhura and Spock break out into a relationship fight and drag Kirk into it. The moment seemed so human and realistic to me that it made me really start to care about these characters beyond their roles as Captain Kirk, Spock the Vulcan, and that chick who’s name I can’t pronounce.
            J.J. Abrams, I tip my hat to you on another job well done, I look forward to the next installment.

A Special Wednesday Post: Bike to the Past

            After yesterday’s adventures in biking I did not look forward to today. I knew that dragging myself back out there would be a very unpleasant internal debate that would probably end with me parked out on the couch eating a pint of ice cream. I was in the process of starting this debate when my neighbor, CC, wandered over to my yard. CC and I have always gotten along and usually end up standing around outside talking about how much we’d both love a glass of Sangria. We chatted for a while and I sighed about how I’d have to go out for a bike ride soon, maybe if I said it aloud to someone I would be held accountable. She stopped me and said.
            “Going now?”
            “In a bit.”
            “Stop by my house first”
            I was feeling intrigued at this point so I agreed to meet up with her and went up to change. By the time I came back down she had already returned and was beckoning me outside. I followed her out and stopped dead in my tracks. There, leaning against the fence was my old bike completely restored. I had given it to CC’s boyfriend to fix up just so it would run again, and after a year I had nearly forgotten about it. It was more than fixed up though. The old 1973 street bike looked like it had just come out of the factory. The fenders shone in the sun, not a spot of rust, the paint job looked fresh, and the wheels were brand new. Still, the best part was the little black basket on the handle bars; CC had even put adorable fake yellow flowers in it. I could almost picture Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz riding it with little Toto in the basket.
            “It’s your graduation present!” CC said. I stood there grinning like an idiot, then proceeded to fan girl all over the bike.
            “Look at the basket! So cute! It’s so shiny! Ohmygawd ohmygawd.” I Squiggled around and hopped from one foot from the next. “I can ride it? It’s better? Can I go can I go?!”
            Like a five year old at Christmas I had to use my new/old toy right away. I hopped on and took off down the road. It was so smooth on the road, and when it coasted it picked up speed. I felt like I was flying. The only thing that was off was the bike was just a smidgeon too tall. But who cares about a smidgeon right? I could still pedal and steer.
            Then came the hill. I had already gone up one hill already so the second hill didn’t seem like it was going to be an issue. Until the High School bus came around the corner. I had to slow down to make sure I wasn’t in the way, but then I found myself with no more momentum to finish the hill. I tumbled off my suddenly was too tall bike and walked it up the rest of the hill. At this point all the high schools had been dumped at their bus stop and were walking my way. Feeling slightly humiliated that I was walking my beautiful new/old bike I desperately tried to clamber back on, in the middle of the road, in short shorts. Needless to say, it must have been quite the sight to see a 21 year old girl trying desperately to get back on this 1973 bike with fake flowers, and short shorts. I made the mistake of looking behind me and seeing one boy doubled over in laughter. To be fair, were the places turned, I’d probably be laughing too. The rest of the ride went smoothly, no further injury other than my damaged pride. I returned the bike to CC for some final adjustments and vowed to return tomorrow to ride my new/old bike.




            I would like to give a special shout out to CC and her boyfriend. Thank you so much for everything you’ve both done for me. I could not be happier with my wonderful bike fully restored with my special basket. Thank you for all your support and kindness. I love you both dearly. Don’t worry CC, I’ll get us a bottle of Sangria and we’ll drink it by the pool this summer. X 

I like to ride my bicycle, I like to ride my Biiiiiiiike!

            My last job was physically demanding. I spent hours lifting 50 plus pounds of product and carrying it around. While most would consider working like that just plain awful, it did benefit me in one major way. I never had to worry about my weight. For the most part, I stayed the same comfortable weight. My arms and legs became beautifully toned and I could sit in an ice cream parlor and consume a triple banana boat sundae with ten gallons of chocolate poured all over it and not feel guilty. Not one bit. I use to hang out at work and eat an entire bag of M&Ms and then go work it off by the end of the day.
            The sad reality is without this job I will puff up like Violet in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; I’ll probably even turn blue from eating ridiculous amounts of blue slushies. Why must they be filled with such glorious amounts of sugar? Or how about the crazy amount of iced coffee I consume? Nutella? Chocolate? Fried everything? So I had to make a choice. Give up eating junk food and eat only nice healthy things. Or start exercising.
            So I got off my lazy bum and dug out my Dad’s mountain bike out of the garage. After cautiously poking at it with a stick, then hitting it with said stick to check for demonic spiders, I took it out for a ride.
            The first day was lovely. The sun shone on my pasty white skin. The neighbors waved cheerily at me. I felt so healthy on my bicycle and made a three mile loop. I felt so proud myself. Look at me, I thought, I may not have a job but I am going to be so pretty and thin! After my bike ride I did some job hunting, Skyped with boyfriend, and read my book. Still feeling super healthy I went back out and walked/jogged the 3 mile loop.
            This was a mistake. The first mile went swimmingly; sun, neighbors, healthy, yada yada yada. The second mile, I began to feel it, but pressed on like a trooper, still all motivated. The three mile, that’s where things all went wrong. By now, it’s 5:30 in the afternoon, and I’m on the main street of my neighborhood. Cars are whizzing past me, barely avoiding me. There is no sidewalk, not even a place beside the road for me to go. I’m sweaty, tired, and the bugs are out. Still I make it home in one peace, and hey, look at that I’m feeling healthy and skinny. I go to bed all proud of myself.
            Now those of you who have ever attempted to exercise before know what’s coming next. My health teacher in high school once tried to explain this phenomenon of lactic acid and blah blah, but I was more interested in watching Johnny Football in the next row. Now I’m wishing I had paid attention, maybe I would know how to make this pain stop. I woke up aching everywhere, and laid pathetically in bed until Boyfriend messaged me and motivated me into moving. I crawled pathetically downstairs, through the house, and out to the garage. I pulled out the bike and pulled myself up… and then I felt it.
            I mentioned before how I borrowed my DAD’S bike. Well, the bike is made for males which means the bike seat is fitted for males. I am not a male. Let me tell you uncomfortable a male’s bike seat is on a female. I have never been in such pain. Still. I had to go on. At this point, it didn’t hurt too badly, and what, it’s only three miles. I did it no problem yesterday.
            Except today… today the sun didn’t feel so nice on my skin, and it was muggy. I couldn’t really breathe. Was that hill there yesterday? Dear god, this road is never going to end.
            Course the real test came when the spider crawled up my arm. I had neglected to beat my bike with a stick, now there was a Spawn of Satan on my arm. Before I knew it I was swerving all over the road, batting at my arm with my other hand and screaming, right in front of my pastor’s house. Hopefully he’ll never guess it was me because me riding a bike is as likely as Augustus Gloop taking a walk.
            I did indeed manage to make it home in one piece. I threw the bike into the garage and stormed into my house and took comfort in the internet. I did not go out for a walk/jog, I felt that the world of exercise had betrayed me. I did not even job hunt, I felt like the world was against me in that moment. I felt all the angst in the world and proceed to play level after level of Candy Crush. I resigned myself to eating only healthy foods and turning into some sort of calorie counter to avoid the horrors that exercise brings.
            Then mom came home with monkey bread.
            I guess tomorrow I have to go on a bike ride.   

            I recently graduated college with a BA in English. For the longest time that has been my goal, and I worked my ass off to do it with in three years. Then after a brief three hour ceremony, we tossed our caps into the air and congratulated ourselves on being so smart and so clever. My friend jokingly posted on my status, “So when does your new job as a barista start?” We all had a good laugh and I went off to celebrate.
            Then, suddenly, my cloud nine came crashing down. The next day I discovered myself unemployed and still living at home. My job had discovered that I was job hunting and cut ties. I find myself drowning in fear, doubt, and endless hours of imguring. All those speeches at graduation about how the world is now my personal oyster, and my whole life is before me, never mentioned that an English degree is worth squat. That the job hunt is more exhausting then actually working. That you need experience to get a job, but to get experience you need a job. The life of a college graduate is not all sunshine, bubbles, and hope for the future. It’s hours spent pouring over a computer, combing through Linkedin, Indeed.com, monster, and god help me Google looking for work. It’s endless cover letters and resume editing.
            Only now am I hearing the stories of people being unemployed between three months to a year after graduating from college. Only now are people telling me that I’m about to go through the roughest part of life. That transition from being a student to being a member of society. I thought I was poor as a college student, now I realize how rich and comfortable I was. So secure in my schedule, in my weekly paycheck, and in my classes giving me hope for a future.
            Among all the dark and depressing thoughts clouding my mind however, there still is hope. I can do anything I want, I may have to fight for it every step of the way, but I can do anything. I may actually end up as a barista in a local coffee shop… okay let’s be honest, a cashier at Dunkin Donuts, but it won’t be for long. This is the beauty of the transitional stage in life. It’s time to explore. I can write, I can go back to school, I can continue to hunt for professional work.
            I have indeed been disillusioned about life. You can’t just fly off to New York and get a job working for a magazine and earn oodles of money with the span of week. My guess is a total of ten people will even see this blog. But that’s okay. That’s life. It’s the struggle to survive in a world where even getting a job at Dunkin Donuts can be rough competition. The competition is probably people just like me; we’re all in it together. College graduates, unemployed losers living with their parents.  Welcome to my blog; Livin’ On A Penny.