I am still looking for the sheet of paper for that assignment. It could be fun to have people I know write down random words and then that is what I need to represent through pictures and create a story out of. I also saw a book about how beauty or design is in the little things in life or something to that effect. That could be fun to do something on as well. The photography would be interesting--to photograph something we're so used to seeing every day in a different way so that you don't recognize it at first. For some reason, I've been thinking about the imagery first for this project. Maybe I should focus on the other content, like what I'm going to write. I guess I could write about the things I just listed. Especially if I decided to make a story out of the pictures. I think it would've been fun to have written the mystery out about the project I did this summer. I had a continuous dialogue going in my head while I was drawing so that I was always thinking about how I wanted to convey the mystery through the drawing. We could also only use one spot color...I don't know if I would do that for this. I've always liked writing fiction, too. And I haven't done that in awhile. I was going to take one this year, but I decided to work more instead. The last time I wrote creatively was probably my senior year of high school. That's sad--I should just start writing again, but I feel sort of rusty now. Maybe if I find some old assignments I can try writing them again now.

Well I think the Blizzard is officially over. I was supposed to go home yesterday, but that didn't happen. Closing the highway kind of put a stop to it. I checked the Iowa Department of Transportation website and it basically said 'travel at your own peril.' So that is fine. I think I'll do laundry today. I should have enough quarters. I have a lot of laundry, though. I'm not very domestic at all. It's my hope that someday my domestic genes will kick in and I'll be able to cook and finish my laundry without it being a big ordeal. I know plenty of guys who cook better than I do. Or maybe it's just that they're willing to put more time into it. I get irritated when my TV dinner has to heat up for 5 minutes and 30 seconds with a cooling time of 2 minutes.

Lately I have had the weirdest cravings. The other day I really wanted some tomato soup. And now I've been craving scallops for at least two days. I have no idea why I am so hungry for scallops. My roommate has been wanting a BLT, so if we could find a restaurant that serves BLTs and scallops, we would probably be eating there right now.

My friend has random pictures that his sister took from the top of a touring bus hanging on his wall. That would be cool to create a collection of random shots from different things. In drawing class this summer, we had to take random shots representing different things and then put them in some sort of order to create a story out of them. That was really fun. Mine was a murder mystery involving my roommate. She was kind enough to help out with my project. That would be really fun to recreate somehow for this project...

Dancing

There are certain politics to life that you learn as you grow up. People politics. You don't really realize when you're little how much they are a part of life. Take family relationships, for instance. Who you invite to a family event may not just depend on what type of relation it is. It also could depend on whether they invited you to the last event, sent a card or didn't send a card, saw you in a store and made an effort talk or ran away instead, and the list could get more and more detailed. And then you can't really invite an aunt without inviting her kids, unless her kids did something to obviously snub you at a past event, in which case everyone would know why they weren't invited... It's all just very confusing. Our family's not even that complicated and we run into these politics.

It's almost like a dance. You have to learn the correct way to react and handle certain situations--because there is a correct way. One wrong step in the 'dance' and you might upset the cycle and cause the politics to start, even though it was an accident.

Snow

The snow is amazing. As much as it makes travel difficult...and walking, it can look amazing outside. I had to drive home the night it was really snowing bad and when I turned to go down a side street there was a huge branch that had fallen and was spanning the road. I felt like I was in a movie for some reason. Nothing else exciting happened while I reversed back out of the road, though.

Tonight

Tonight I have nothing planned, and that is very exciting. It's times like these when I think I'll finally catch up on everything--homework, cleaning, movies. It usually turns out to be a movie and then that takes up most of my night, but I'll at least attempt to work while I watch. Tonight, though, I definitely need to clean. My room is always a mess. I can keep other areas of the apartment clean, but for some reason my room has never been able to stay clean. I like to call it Creative Chaos because then at least it sounds positive. There's a certain cycle to it. Every few months I'll get really motivated and clean it from top to bottom, and then gradually it creeps back into chaos. Rinse and repeat. One would think that if you just put everything back from where you got it, it would never get dirty. I must not be doing that.

Aches, Pains & Fate

Yes well broomball was amazing, but I am paying for it today. I didn't even know I had some of the muscles that are hurting. This has really made me realize I need to work out more. It used to be better when I lived on campus because my whole floor would go to pilates or cardio together at the Bell Center, but now I have to rely on my own motivation to go by myself. That is clearly much more difficult for me.

Have you ever thought about fate? I've been having this discussion with my roommate lately. Some people believe that you control your fate. I think I used to agree with that, but I've been changing my mind. I mean, you can want something really bad and do everything you can to get it, and still not get it. So all the choices you make would be toward your goal, but ultimately you don't decide whether those choices will really make it happen. There always seems to be some element that comes in outside of our control. So maybe all we can really do is move in the direction we want and see what happens. I think the hardest part about accepting that theory is the fact that we can never have complete control over our lives. It means there will always be a deciding factor we don't know about, so all we can do is plan according to what we do know.

Broomball

I've realized that since I started writing this blog, I'm actually writing more in my journal.

Anyway, today I was in a broomball tournament, which was amazing. It is a hilarious game because the harder and more intense you play, the more you fall all over the place. They actually have special broomball shoes that you can buy. I can't believe such a non-major sport actually has specific shoes. Two of my teammates had them and they looked like moon shoes. I loved the team names, too. Ours was kind of boring, "Lexicon Ice," but some of the other teams we played against had names like "The Concussioners," "Team Shadiness," "THWACK," etc. Everyone got really into it. It was for Des Moines area businesses, so I expected to play professionals. Well, the first team we played was so drunk the goalie just layed on the ice and kept throwing the ball in the wrong direction. It actually became one of her teammate's job to yell at her before she threw the ball so she wouldn't mess up. And the games started at 12:30pm! At least it was the whole team I guess, and not just one player. I'd be a little embarrassed to show up on Monday.

Apparently there is a blizzard or some sort of winter storm headed for Des Moines between now and Tuesday. I think it would be great if we got a huge snow storm, but I'm only expecting ice. It seems like that's all Des Moines gets. Last year, I freaked a passenger in my car out because even though I'd started braking very early, the car started sliding through a stop sign on 31st. I tried driving up against the curb to slow it down, so we managed to spin the car into a turn going onto 31st. Thankfully there were no cars coming--only one guy in a car waiting to turn onto the street we just slid down, and he looked terrified.

Da Colts

Well the Super Bowl is over. I usually watch it for the ads, but this year proved the opposite. The game was the most exciting part and the ads were a terrible let-down. First, I must say it's wonderful to see the Bears lose. All season I have been wishing they'd lose whatever luck they had, but it turns out this is even better--They had the opportunity to win the Super Bowl and didn't. Too many crazy Bears fans have turned me off, so they're right next to the Green Bay Packers on my list. (I'm a Vikings fan.) And yes, I know the Vikings haven't had the best season(s), but what kind of fan would I be if I was only fair-weather?

But anyway, on to the Super Bowl ads. I thought they were a huge let-down. The majority seemed like they were about television shows and a few beer commercials. Last year, I had to write down my favorite one for an ad class I was in, and I had so many written down it was difficult to pick which was best. This year I could hardly find one. And I thought there was supposed to be a proposal during the Super Bowl as well. Did anyone else hear that? It really surprises me that more companies didn't take advantage of Super Bowl airtime. I didn't see Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Coors, Geico, and others.

This is a picture of, well myself, and my brother's cat Leonard. (Or as he likes to spell it, Lynyrd.) You wouldn't believe how skinny Leonard used to be. His head used to look like a triangle as a kitten, but he had enormous paws, so we always expected a growth spurt. Just not sideways. Lately he looks like he'll burst if he runs into anything sharp.

I truly enjoy cats. They are so different than a dog. When a cat is loyal, that's when you know you have a true friend. Usually they like their space. We've had quite a few cats throughout my life, whether we kept them long or not. If it was up to me, we would've kept all of them. Let's see, it started with Buttons, then Murphy, Bitsy, Cookie, Montana Max, Smokey Joe, Sam, Cheeto, and finally Gidget.

One of my favorites

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Today I don't have a lot of interesting things to say. I guess what've been going around my head the most are a ton of questions that I don't really have the answers to yet. For example, this whole 'job after graduation' thing is pretty scary. I think I could feel a million times less stressed right now if I only knew what was going to happen after May 12. In my mind, I can see the calendar dates clearly up until then. And after May 12, it turns into a dark fog. I don't know if I'll still be in Des Moines, back in Minnesota, trying a new state... I think that I'd like to stay in Des Moines. I know there are so many people who want to escape the Midwest, especially Iowa, but it's really not that bad. I've actually grown to like Iowa.

I know that life won't stop after I graduate if I don't find a job, but for some reason it feels like it. It feels like if I don't find a job with my major that I'll get sucked into this black hole where it will be twice as difficult to come out and get back on the 'right path.' And as much as I love my parents, I do not want to live with them again. I'm sure worrying won't solve any of this and somehow something will figure itself out, but until then it's going to keep disrupting my peace of mind.

People Watching

Yesterday I was walking to, of all places, Carnegie when I noticed two guys walking in front of me. They were dressed in normal winter attire, but one of them had a limp. Now this is nothing extraordinary--I've seen limps before. So from lack of other things to do while walking, I studied their pace waiting for the guy without a limp to step out of sync from his friend, but he never did. In fact, he walked identically to his friend, resting longer on one foot, but without a limp. So this got me to thinking they must be such close friends or spend so much time together that the friend developed a sympathy limp. I've heard of this before where, in an extreme example, a husband develops a sympathy belly while his wife is pregnant. (My roommate told me this is probably just an excuse for a man's beer belly.) Either way, it's something to think about...

Overview

I am originally from Mankato, MN. I decided Des Moines was the perfect distance from home--I can still go home for the weekend and have my separate life in Des Moines. I'm the youngest of 4 kids. I have two brothers and one sister who are currently 38, 36, and 34 years old. It has been nice being the youngest. They all had different expectations of me, though. Jeff always pushed education, Dave pushed sports, and Lori, of course, wanted a sister to save her from her two brothers. I've become very close to all of them and family has always been a big part of my life. We tell each other almost everything, so secrets are hard to keep in this family. If I tell my sister something important, I can probably expect calls from my brothers and my mom within a day or two asking why I didn't tell them first.

I also have 8 nephews and nieces so my family is growing continually. It's fun to see how different all of their personalities are. I'm not asked to babysit much, but that's probably because I made it pretty clear to call me only as a last resort. I'm not a very big kid person, which I'm sure sounds horrible. I love my nieces and nephews, but I get along with them much better after they've learned to walk and talk. Then I can at least teach them new tricks to annoy their parents.

On the Way to Moline

Well, this weekend I am at my brother's house in Moline. On the way here I noticed a ton of hawks on highway signs and lamp posts. It always interests me when I see that because when you think of nature and a hawk, you imagine it sitting in a pine tree in the forest, not next to highway 80. So maybe I'll keep my eyes open to see if there's anymore instances of nature adapting to technology. That would be fun to photograph, too.

The Beginning

Welcome to the first blog I have ever created. More to come. I promise.