Courtesy.

Apparently no one knows what it means to be courteous anymore, i.e. treating others the way you desire to be treated. I always felt returning calls and emails was a no brainer. Not many people in my life seem to agree at the moment, especially craigslisters who would have my heart skip a beat upon seeing their 150 dollar bonnaroo ticket, and then never get back to me. Even if the ticket was no longer available, I feel like if in their shoes, I'd be kind enough to make this known.

Also, to the old man that came into my workplace today and was hateful enough to make me cry, fuck you. Minimum wage is not enough incentive to deal with assholes like you.

home.

Simon and Garfunkel, Indigo Girls, and Sufjan are going to make it ok.

Highschool Graduation, re-visited

If you have ever visited a small town in the south, there are a few givens. The biggest attraction/and or meeting place is the local Walmart,and the people are very friendly, very racist, and very conservative. This is the setting for the scene of my cousin's graduation festivities.

After we drove for 30 minutes to the closest restaurant, we arrived at The Garden Patch, which is made entirely of tin and looks more like a warehouse than a restaurant.It's an all you can eat buffet. The most telling points of the selection were something called "streaked neat" which is fatty bacon deep friend until it's crispy, and fried green tomatoes. I can't knock some good fried green tomatoes, but it was a little hard to stomach with the three different specimens of taxidermy staring at me from the walls.The waiter never seemed to grasp that I, in fact, was not the graduate, seeing as he congratulated me several times and patted me on the back on my way out, saying, "It feels good to make it through twelve years, doesn't it!?" I smiled and thanked him. As we left, I noticed a flag above the register, below which was enscribed

"America: Love It or Leave It!" Did I mention that my grandmother brushed the lint off off my ass in front of all of the fine patrons of The Garden Patch?

Once at the stadium, I made a bee line to the bathroom due to the two giant diet cokes I drank at the restaurant. As I'm washing my hands, two very loud, very large women come into the bathroom. I hear one of them settle in, and(sorry for the graphic description) as the first poop plops into the water she screams WOOOOOOO! I had to leave very quickly to avoid erupting in laughter. As we waited for the ceremony to start,the rules of conduct were announced three separate times over the loud speaker, making me increasingly wary of what they expected to go down. The 8 cop cars didn't help ease this suspicion. There were some rough looking people there that looked like they were very possibly attending their first graduation of any kind.Oh, and it rained.

The rest of our evening was spent drinking coffe and eating italian cream cake while watching the news. In accordance with the same manner in which I have conducted myself for the majority of our visit,I choose not to contradict the ridiculous political assertions of my ultra conservative republican family. Among the most notable of these specualtions are "I bet the spill is terrorism! You know they can swim down there and just blast it!" My dad is currently trash talking Letterman in favor of Leno because "At least Leno takes shots at both sides."

Tomorrow I get to go into the city to see the lovely Lisa, with whom I will escape the craziness while scouring the aisles of Ikea and enjoying lunch in Little 5. I love my family, don't get me wrong, but I'm really looking forward to the break.

this is me pretending my updates are important...

news: I PASSED GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTFOLIO.

To those who don't know me, this is one of the single most important achievements in my life. I worked my ass off, and presented a year's worth of work in about ten minutes which determined the course of the next two years, if not the rest of my life. For a while I wasn't sure if I had what it took. It was an emotional rollercoaster of trust and distrust between myself and my creative abilities, and I feel like I've now proved myself, to myself, if you will. The possibilites for my art seem limitless now, and I couldn't be happier.

It seems summer is finally here, arriving much more slowly than I would have preferred. I haven't really done anything except watch Micah and his friends play video games, hang out, and go to work. I took just about forever to unpack my things into my room. This is mostly because I'm a hopeless knick knacker(this sounds better than potential hoarder) and finding a place for everything, especially amongst my endless art supplies, seems daunting at best.

It seems that atthe start of a new season, I should seek out change a bit more actively than I have in the past few busy months. The following are a list of goals to achieve this summer.

1. Read. A lot. Mostly classics, but some brain candy is allowed. And return the books to the library by the due date(and have read them by then).

2. Bake. Not excessively, as this will conflict with the following guideline, but some raspberry lemon cupcakes are most definitely in order.

3. Accept others. Let go of the negativity that might linger from previously existing situations. Make peace with the present.

4. Bike. Drag Leah along if she will agree, and if she won't, chain her to the handlebars so she can't possibly protest the constant whining that accompanies going uphill.

5. Photograph. Especially with the Diana +, but also with the Brownie and 8mm recorder if parts and film are available.

6.Get a haircut.The asymetrical look is getting old.

7. Paint Nails. Often, and without letting them get jacked up as per most nail painting incidents.

8. Expand Design infuences through research.

9.Travel. To Asheville, to Nashville, and to CA, if a plane ticket and some couches become available.

10. Write Letters. No one gets snail mail, but who doesn't love a good letter and I have stationary coming out of my ears.

11. Make a habit of writing, and writing well. No English or writing for school in 2 years is beginning to take it's toll.

12.Run with Nilla. Maybe. I feel like this could be expecting too much of myself.....or well, of Nilla's attention span.

13. Did I mention letting go of negativity? Nostalgia really cannot bring me down this summer.

14. Spend some time alone.

15.Save half of every paycheck.

16. Get a record player.

17.Study some apologetics.

18.Scour plenty of thrift stores.

19.Sponsor a manatee.

20.Begin ice dancing again.

21.Develop a taste for good wine and beer.

22.Lift others up.

23.Actually develop some of my photos.

24.Go to Ijams.

25.Buy a nice plant for my room and have it live for at least two months.

26. Write some sings, sing with other people. Hopefulllllyyyy get something going music-wise.

25.Be content despite inevitable change.

I guess that covers a good bit of ground. It's hard not to look at this list and think of the last summer list I made. The other seemed more ambitious, but it was also made at a time when I was being anything but realistic... I think this summer will be the summer to grow up...And I'm okay admitting that this is something I've yet to finish doing.