Goodbye old year!

I went out with my sister this afternoon and we stopped for lunch at Ruby Tuesday. I don't go out for dinner often, and even less often do I get to go out with her. It was cold and grey outside so it was a nice treat to go out with her. She brightens my life. :) She ordered this crazy-good drink! A strawberry lemonade. I'm sure we're the last on the planet to discover this drink, but that may be a good thing. I'm already trying to figure out how we can replicate it and make them whenever we want to! It tastes like lemonade, seltzer water with strawberry pieces floating inside. But perhaps there is also a strawberry syrup in there too...I'm definitely going to have to try to make this. Maybe it can be one of my New Years resolutions. ;)

I am proud to say that my younger sister has picked up the habit (or new tradition perhaps?) of photographing things even when it's a bit unconventional to do so. I think our server probably thought we were weird for taking pictures of Holly's drink. But anything for the blogs, right? I know Becca used to tease me for taking pictures of my tea or of the signs on the shops that we went to, but I'm so glad that I can look back and read about and see what happened this past year or so.

Holly took a photography course this past year so I think she has been enjoying photography a lot lately! She took these last couple of pictures.

Well, it's not quite 8 pm and I'm already in bed. Teeth brushed (and flossed...if I learned one thing as a dental assistant it is that it is better to spend 30 extra seconds flossing your teeth than it is to spend 30 minutes in the chair all numbed up for a filling!), face washed, electric blanket on and I'm all tucked in for the night with yarn, my sketchbook, books and the world wide web. I think I'll be busy for the next few hours. :)

I may post about the old year on the other blog but since I have plans for tomorrow, I'll end here and say Happy New Year, blog!

Long time,,,

Wow, was it really August when I last wrote here? We're just finishing finals now! I've been so incredibly busy that I've kind of forgotten this little place. I am sort of sad that I didn't write here this semester...it's been such a time of changing and learning and living. It's been great. After getting over my initial shock of being here (which took a couple of weeks) I started to find that I was enjoying myself. This place is not bad at all. In fact, I kind of love it here. I've had so many opportunities to meet people and make new friends, learn new things, and discover new places. I've learned some stuff about myself too. It hasn't all been peachy, but all-in-all I'm so grateful to be here.

I switched my major. I'm no longer a Human Nutrition and Foods major. Instead I am a ceramics major. That non-major ceramics class = the most wonderful class I've ever taken! I love it so much that I switched my whole major to it. I'm so excited! I am also excited because it's the most spontaneous thing I've done, and it was one of my goals this year to do something spontaneous (I know that's lame, but I'm making strides here. ;). It's funny, even from the first time we got to work with the clay I was hooked! All we did was try to center it, and most of us couldn't do it. I think one guy in our class was able to do it. I remember getting completely filthy, scraping up my hands on the wheel and being unable to get my clay centered and it was still the most fun thing I felt like I'd ever done. I had been calling home and saying how I didn't like it here and was going to transfer home (being a big baby, really) and that night I called home and told my mom how excited I was about this class. Then I got off the phone with her and called my co-worker and told her how awesome it was and that I wished I could switch my major, because if trying to center clay was that much fun then I couldn't even imagine how much fun I'd have if I was actually making good stuff! But then I said I'd never switch my major...that would be impractical.

Well, I guess I'm impractical now. :) I just can't stay away from the studio! And now that the semester is coming to a close (my last final is tomorrow) I am very sad that my first semester is over and I have to go three weeks without being in the studio. Our class party was on Monday and I almost cried when I got home. I'm obsessed.

But that little nagging feeling of being ready to cry hasn't quite left yet. I get so sentimental and I'm sad to leave this semester behind. Firsts are special. First job, first love, first car, first semesters (I realize that may sound kind of strange)...it's always going to have a special place because it was so new and exciting. I haven't cried though. There is really nothing to cry for. I've had a blessed time here and it will be wonderful to go home and see family and friends and catch up on my sleep and hopefully work a little bit. I'm trying really hard to go to RADIATE09 this semester! We'll see what happens!

I've pretty much finalized my schedule for next semester. I'm taking a bunch of art classes and BOWLING! :) Should be lots of fun. Hopefully I'll be back in this space more often. I have lots of sewing to do this break since I won't be in the studio! I am hoping to work on a lot of stuff! :)