Defining BodyArt and Other

My friend recently got three more tattoos to add to his existing collection of two. I was also discussing the BodyWorld exhibition the other night. All this makes me wonder about the definition of body art. Piercings and tattoos have been around long before the modern conception of ink and needles. For a history, click here.

In other news:

Oh yea, there's a holiday coming up. Something about celebrating our nation and freedom and the like...observe it if you wish. :)

Caryn's wedding is this weekend, which means Steve and Victoria are going to be in the Iowa City area for a few days. yay, I can give them the thank you note from SF that never got mailed....whoops...

Okoboji is fast approaching

My full-time w. benefits job is also hopefully fast approaching?? *cross your fingers folks* (ACT got my online resume, they won't start interviewing for awhile though)

I have too much free time on my hands. Am considering re-employment at previous sites..(B & N and PS) if they'll have me...as well as volunteering at the Herbert Hoover museum (though that's gas $ each week) Or in the slide library IF they'll have me.

That is all. Good night.

Happy Birthday Steve!

Yule Tide Greetings to ye all. Happy Holidays and required well wishing :) I hope you've all spent the Christmas evening and day and Christmas Day Evening (yes steve, I did type that) with loved ones. I am very lucky that I've got so many people I count in that "loved ones" category, so yay to you all.

On a more well, grounded note...I had a relaxing Christmas Eve after some rather interesting experiences in the holiday book selling retail world. I'd just like to say thank you to everyone visiting Barnes and Noble for not asking me where the non-fiction section is, and I hope I was able to help you find satisfactory gifts for your friends/sisters/fathers and grandparents who play Scrabble.

I've watched alot of movies, I've eaten alot of food, I've spent some time with friends and family, all in all, it's been a good break so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

Which means New Year's Eve in Chicago with Erik, Misa, Pete and one of Erik's friends who is home for the holiday. :):) SOOOO excited!!! Will update again soon, and eventually I'll figure out how to put up some pics on this thing...HTML has failed me thus far in that effort...

You HAVEN"T read the book!?!

Dear Indiana, Mom/Dad, Tina's, Waitress, PF. Chang's, Little Tibet, IMA, Residence Inn, B-town Theater, Trac, Erik, Rena, Jon, Steve, Becks, Misa, Aaron, Lenny's, Circle Center Mall,

Thanks for a nice drive to/from Indianapolis on Wednesday to pick up "Alaskaboy." Thanks also for a fine and somewhat windy drive to Indianapolis on Thursday for Thanksgiving festivies with my folks. Thanks also for not being too annoying with traffic or weather and delivering the other travelers safely to your state. Thanks also for not having the police decide that 10 miles over the speed limit was worthy of pulling over the blond in the civic...

Thanks to mom and dad for driving Thanksgiving food across three "I" states and sending me home with ALL of the leftovers. Thanks to Tina's in Bloomington for delivering a scrumptous pie. Thanks to the waitress at the Hilton hotel resturaunt for carding me and taking a long time to find my date of birth. Serves her right, haha. No thanks to P.F. Chang's mushrooms, though depositing them on other people's plates was a tad entertaining and the pin noddle soup made up for this slight problem with fungus. Thanks to Little Tibet for still serving their Iced Thai tea..sooo yummy.

Thanks to the IMA for having a real Norman Rockwell painting, which my dad found worthwhile and interesting to see (as so often I feel I drag him to art museums and subject him to lots of cultural things he could care less about.)

Thanks to the Residence Inn for having a hot tub! SCORE! :)

Thanks to the B-town theater for hosting a lovely and interesting affair called a matinee of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Thanks to Trac for pointing out things that are different between the movie and the book, since no, I HAVEN"T actually read this one (grad school got in the way). Thanks to Erik AND Trac for the combined effort to engrain the words "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time" in my brain probably until I die. Thanks to Erik for attending some after movie dinner beer time at Lenny's. Thanks to Rena for letting us bug her afterwards.

Thanks to those I talked to on the phone: Jon, Steve, Becks, Misa, Aaron

No thanks are in order for Lenny's being out of my newly discovered Ruby beer. No thanks are allowed for the Friday morning 6 am wake up call for Circle Center Mall shopping, and no thanks for the fact that it was the record low for the past 16 or some odd years at 17 degrees upon the 4
block walk to said venue.

But THANKS overall for a good break.

Signed,
one of your visiting students from Iowa


PS: According to Trac - I should also thank Martha and her Baking Handbook something. :)

PPS: Faraji wants me to thank him also, even though I technically didn't talk to him over Thanksgiving weekend, but this evening - so thanks Faraji 11/30/05

Back to the Grind

Well, Spring Break was a welcome change from IUB and the humdrum life of sus the grad student. Instead I was Sus the traveler, Sus the MLS student with librarians to interview, Sus the friend back from out of town (this last one I find especially appealing).
So the first is great because well, let's face it, I LOVE to travel, and also, I'm fortunate enough that for xmas my parents bought me a ticket to visit Steve in San Fran (and they came along which meant things got paid for not out of my own pocket...hooray) Can I just say how great my parents are? I love them so much, and not because they pay for me to take exciting vacations, but because they are actually *gasp* quite cool to hang out with and converse with. I think even if I had to pay for my own ticket i would have jumped at the chance to spend some quality time with the rents. For that matter, I'd say the same about Steve now to. We've worked hard on our relationship over the past years, alot of growing up and communication, and now I"m happy to say I would even enjoy spending time visiting him regardless of the parents being along, or probably even the awesome locations he seems to pick to live in :) And let me say San Fran was an awesome choice for living - Well done Steve :) I had a BLAST out there...and enjoyed pretty much every minute of my journey out there. (plane flights not withstanding) Saw the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay, the SFMOMA (see below), Yeurba Buena Gardens (our hotel was right near it), the SF Aquarium, Hard Rock Cafe, tall ships, Monteray Bay, the M. Bay Aquarium, Seaside, Calif., Carmel, Calif, San Jose, some of Stanford Campus, Sunnyvale (and YES< it made me think of Sunnydale and Buffy the V.Slayer.) and the PACIFIC Ocean - both in San Fran side, and also from the 17 mile drive - which kicked, and also means I saw spy glass, pebble beach and some other golf courses, and houses I can hope to dream to own someday!
The SFMOMA provided me the op to be studious and a good student and inquisitive and interview the librarian at the SFMOMA about her position, library etc etc, it was well worth the time and will hopefully also help w. the paper i'm writing (ACK!) Plus the exhibitions were way cool,a nd I felt all professional and grown-up for setting up the tour/interview and exploring.
But, let me tell you why this last is the best. Now that I am no longer in Iowa City, I have gained this awesome status as the out-of-town friend that all of the IC friends should make it a priority to see while she's back. This is a great thing to me. Because I absolutely adore my friends back home, and love them to death, so it is only natural that when I am back in town I want to see all of them that I can and spend as much time as possible hanging out with them. I am happy to report that it was reciprical in most cases. Dude, totally just spelled that wrong - spell check didn't rescue me there. So first, thanks to all of you who made yourselves available to me, even for the smallest amount of time, it was much appreciated and I will see you all again soon (ACK!!! not much time left before I finish the first year of grad school - well hopefully finish)
Speaking of friends....secondly, SOOO many upcoming birthdays to send shout outs. Christa and Traci, this month, Rena, Q and Becks next month...happy birthdays folks!
all right, that said, I really should get a move on...I am wet from soaking rain, and soaked from wet rain..(and kickboxing) so must dry off and begin the process of trying to get ALL these things done...ACK! (back to the stress!)

holiday possibilities

I'm really looking forward to my Winter Break. I have high ambitions for how I will fill my days and evenings. I'm very excited that my grandmother is coming to spend Christmas with us this year! My brother is also flying home from San Fransisco for the festivities, and my aunt Julie will be passing through due to work. Lis is coming back from Korea for a few days, so I will also get to catch up with her. I must say I really really love the holiday season right about this time of year. It's not so much that I love the holiday of christmas, or dare I say the birth of christ which caused it's formation. For me, it's more about getting to spend the time with my family and friends, and getting to buy them things that make them happy or at the very least, i've put some time and effort into making for them. I'm on a zealous campaign to teach myself some more website html designing things, to play as much playstation II as possible, to practice the guitar, to read many great books, to hang out often with the friends, to play board games with them (haha, they'll get roped into it!), to see my old bosses and co-workers, to sleep alot, to party alot, to watch alot of t.v. and alot of movies, to explore a lill more of Indy and Bloomington before I go, to ring in the new year in a funtabulous way, to send out many happy holiday cards to friends near and far, to take LOTS and LOTS of pictures (which is a normal given in my case), to make mom's lasagna, to enjoy a wine and cheese party, some shopping, some cleaning of the storage locker, and some serious time by myself to write.
I know I know...as I said...zealous. about half of that I will probably actually get around to doing. But it's almost as much fun just thinking of all the hours of the day i COULD spend doing things that makes the Winter Break seem so open to possibilities. I know I know...I'm a big dork! At least I admit it!
happy holidays folks!

Mechanism to Cope over the Summer

Listening to: Dare You To Move (acoustic)- Switchfoot
Looking forward to tonight. The two girl revolution. Traci and I will eventually change the world, I promise. And, if we don't, then at least we dare to dream big.
I was trying to figure out my classes for Spring semester, and decide which of the electives I can take and should take (12 hours total, with core and electives). That's the funny thing about "electives" because when you are paying out of state tuition, you really want to make sure that they are relevant towards your career path. Well, I wonder what sort of career path I'm truly on these days anyways. My former boss was able to help me possibly score an internship this summer in the Art Library back on UI's campus (because this way, I can make money at a random job, do the internship and also live for free in the basement at my parent's again), and I think that is what I really want to do with my life. Work in an art library.
Regardless, even though I really don't want to be back in Iowa City this summer, because I've just finally gotten OUT of that town, the fact of the matter remains, sometimes you have to take what seems like a step backward in order to leap ahead. At least I've never felt like I needed to rebel against my parents, in fact I consider my relationship with my folks to be quite a lucky one. I think of my mom as a wealth of advice given in the kind and generous manner she has about her. I think of her as my "older" best friend even. There are few things I won't tell her and few things I would want to keep from her, so I cherish the bond we have. My dad and I bond over traveling, tech savy new toys (he's always got SOMETHING new it seems) and our passion for watching t.v. in the downtime. So, another summer spent at home to save money isn't so horrible, plus the experience at the library will make it worthwhile I think. I'll get to spend more time with my boys and gals in IC too, as they continue to grow up and make their own life decisions. (Hard to believe the younger set are finally turning 21 this year!) And, I must keep in mind, that some of the friends from Bloomington won't be far away...Trac will be in Quincy, IL doing her own internship and I'd LOVE to introduce her to the crazy IC folks. Oh ya, Roadtrips baby!
And perhaps I"ll go out to Cali and visit Steve at some point to, when the scenary of Iowa City gets to be hum drum as it often does. And when I get an actual job, it'll be farther from home, in a great city where all of the friends will want to come and visit ME instead of me always visiting them, and I can pay them back with hospitality and a fun city full of cultural treats to explore.
ya, that would be cool. I can see it now. Dreaming big is a valuable coping mechanism.