week of hellll

soooo portfolios are due monday. i'm pretty much done, i just need to fix my mp3, which is proving rather problematic. stupid thing wants to save to the computer when you click on the blackboard link....

anyway, everyone else's stress is making me a bit stressed, plus i've got a paper due friday in fi that i haven't even written. correction: i've written the opening paragraph. it's a then-now paper, written about an issue that is important today and comparing it to how important it was in the past and getting to the 'why' of the issue. i'm doing drug use and how the american government deals with it. a pretty interesting subject, but one i'm having trouble writing... probably because i have to do a lot of research.

but really, this is the worst week for a paper to be due - at least for afo students. there is virtually no time for any of us to spend on non-art things, since we've all decided that that takes precident over academics. i mean, this is our future here at college! i'd say it's pretty important.

but what makes it hard for me is 2 things: meds, and a trip home. i am completely out of meds, having used my last one last tuesday with the intent of writing this paper but instead nearly finishing my portfolio. and now i can't get more here, cuz the test i took says i don't have ADD, but the notes from dr zeiger say i do. inconclusive, and so they can't do anything for me. fucking a...

on top of that i have to go home tonight for an eye appointment in the morning. i'll be spending around 9 hours total on a bus and with no internet, making it hard to write that paper. and when i get back tomorrow i have to go almost immediately to drawing, and then the paper is due. i'm gonna have to knock it out when i'm home tonight, and finish it thursday night. this is not gonna be fun...

in other news, i went swimming yesterday! anna found the hours of the franklin street gym pool, and she and i and jenny went there for about 20 minutes yesterday before drawing. it was pretty cool, i guess. it was just for laps, and the swim club was practicing, and it was dark and grungy and stuff. but it was still nice to be able to do that. i ended up rushing through a shower when we got back to the dorm - i just washed my hair - and as a result managed to get shampoo in my eye in addition to the chlorine already there. not fun. it was the same eye that had the infection, too. and it still stings a bit.

oh, i didn't talk about my infection. after the flogging molly concert, we had to rush home cuz i had an eye appointment. i figured it was just the usual "how bad are your eyes" thing, but the doc got distracted by a more pressing issue: my red and unhappy left eye. turns out i had an inflamed cornea from wearing my contacts longer than they were really good for on tired eyes. i've been banned from contacts until i can go back - which was supposed to be last friday, but had to be rescheduled for tomorrow - and i got steroid eye drops to knock the thing out as fast as possible. my eye is all better now, but i'm still waiting till i go back to really start wearing my contacts again. i cheated and wore my last pair saturday for the belle isle trip, but it was only for, like, 8 hours.

alsooooo, yasha came down to visit last weekend! exciting! it was a bit strange, having 3 people in our room, but not too bad. he met ben, and we got bubble tea, and did fun things. we spent saturday at belle isle - it was practically a floor outing: me, cesley, anna, jenny, nicole, susan, emily, kelsey, laura, taylor, liz, ben, molly, and yasha. soooo exciting! yasha and molly really bonded, it was quite adorable. jenny found a toad that had been frozen, so we buried him and mourned. nicole delivered a very touching eulogy for poor toadie. and then on sunday yasha snuck out of the parking garage and didn't pay. exciting!

sunday night there was a fire on the 7th floor. some guy's phone charger started smoking and stuff. according to bed it smelled like burnt plastic for a while. and of course, this happened at 3am. i was sleeping. at first i didn't know what was going on, and i never really woke up. as soon as my heart stopped racing from climbing those dumb stairs, i was dead asleep.

i'm making a giant book for space. it'll be an open book, 4' x 2.5', with the story of 'the snow queen' coming out of it. i'm making a giant castle for in the middle out of slotted wood and hot glue and glitter, with various scenes arrayed around it. it'll be awesome! i get to buy a mirror and smash it!

okay, i think that's all the news and updates. i'm sleeping in bowe street next sunday night so i can turn my portfolio in nice and early. it'll be awesome!!

walking to belle isle
[courtesy of laura]

sooo

today...

i was chewing gum...

i got kinda started on the giant self-portrait. i'm not gonna do the whole tearing it up thing cuz, during class discussion, it was brought up that would make it look surgical, i guess. and i wanted it to be smooth and perfect. so i'll be embroidering a background instead. oh god, sooooo much work! the final will be 22.75 x 66.5 inches, meaning the figure on it will be a little under lifesize. so far i've taken all my reference pics and started gridding the final paper. oh so much work ahead of me...

i've actually started my unit 3 paper. all of a paragraph and a sentence, but a start. yay...

yay! my ADD test is tomorrow! finally!! so happy that it's finally gotten to that point. i'll have time right after FI to get back to the dorm and put some stuff down and get my checkbook and go catch the bus. i can't wait to get this over with...

oh, and progress pics are over on the art blog....

as a random side note, jolt gum really does get me energized and a bit focused. which is great! meds in gum form!

what a trip

I finally went to my intake appointment today.

The doctor was different than I had imagined.

Before I left I managed to find the company's website and checked out who my doctor was. Dr Zeiger specializes in things like dream analysis and sand tray drawings.

Okay, a lot different than I had initially thought.

I left Surface early to make sure I could get a bus to the right place. It was a pretty boring bus ride, though I am glad it was a nice toasty bus. The weather has finally decided to act like November, so it's actually cold and windy now. After waiting in that, a warm bus was just what I needed. I guess.

I managed to get off the bus a bit too late, and then proceeded to walk into Henrico County. I had to find a sign with the address to know exactly how much farther I had to walk. I ended up walking back a few blocks, but it wasn't that bad. The bus ride was shorter than I had planned and I got there with plenty of time to spare.

I found the building and checked in, then settled down to wait with my book. I was glad I brought that book, having gotten there about 20 minutes early.

Finally I meet Dr Zeiger. She's wearing a white sweater and a white hat with a red skirt. Nice woman, really. We get to her office and that's where the weird actually starts.

It smells kind of like apple cider and cinnamon, and something else pleasant and sweet that I still can't name. There are dolls and figurines on the shelves and African masks on the wall. There's a sofa and a few chairs. And there's a rather large plastic box filled with wet sand on a table in the middle. On the table is a wooden candle holder of four people holding hands, the candle burning in the middle. There's another sand box on a smaller table between the sofa and the wall, this one dry.

The session begins.

She asks me about myself, my family, my school, my whole situation. It's not quite as awkward as I was expecting it to be. She's a vegetarian, and she's been up to Baltimore before and even knows Reisterstown. She gives me a short test to see if I really am ADD, just a preliminary. Yes, I am, of the inattentive variety. No surprise. She asks me some more questions, specifics about my meds and my life.

And when it was all over she gave me a weird 100 question test [with plenty of weird questions about alcohol], which I proceeded to fill out and then I left.

I took the bus back, and was home nice and cosy by 7:35.

Where I watched House and ate food and watched The Breakfast Club and learned that cool dance they do. I'm awesome.




[it's at 1:04-1:07, by the way]
[yes, it's shitty. cuz someone was filming their tv...]

oops...

oops, i forgot about a pic yesterday. i took one, but didn't post it. oh well... here it is.

anyway, today!

my hair is sticking out weirdly today...

anyway...

so, my intake appointment was this morning, but i found out last night that i really wouldn't have enough time to get there on time, so i had to cancel and reschedule. it's now this evening at 6, and i'll be leaving surface a bit early to take the bus there. well, i think so... i'm still a bit on the fence about that, even though i'm fairly confident it'll be faster than my bike and i'll get there on time. from bowe street it's a 12 minute drive or an hour and 38 minute walk. there's a bus that goes past bowe street that gets to three chopt at 5:40, so that would be the bus to take. my bike would hopefully be about the same about of time, but really that's iffy. at least the bus has to stick to it's schedule...

grr, i should be writing my FI paper, but since i currently have to actual information [except a bit of general stuff about german cliques from bayly] i can't really do much. i'm even stuck on the stupid intro...

wow, i just remembered there's another movie night tonight. but i don't think i should go, since i have to write that paper...

yes, i'm currently procrastinating. and i think i will take the bus.

on friday, after yasha gets here, we're gonna duct tape me to the wall outside bowe street just because. i'm really not sure why, but does it really matter? no. not at all. but it'll be awesome, so whatever.

4 days, bee-tee-dubs...

depressed...

So, yeah, I'm depressed. See:

I've gotta get that stupid ADD test done. I just called one of the listed agencies and it's $100 an hour, and it'll take a while to get the test done in the first place cuz they have to talk to my insurance to see if they'll pay... Very annoying.

I've gotta call a couple other places to see if I'll have any better luck, and in the end I may just end up back at the VCU Psych Serv if every place else is just frustrating. At least with them there's hope.

Anyway, this was me when I got up before my evil art history class....

And this is me about 15 minutes ago after showering and getting dressed and stuff. And trying not to look depressed about the whole test thing...

I hate my life. I'm gonna need to be crazy with my pills, as I've only got 4 left now, plus that one 4-hour pill I saved... Really not fun.

I'm also depressed because the stupid VCU email won't load. So I can't email my SR teacher about what exactly to bring to class. Well, now it's working, so nevermind.

Yeah, I'm excited for the election results tonight. I'm glad my last class ends at 5:15 so I can start nice and early on the results party. At 9 there's one downstairs in the community room, but at 10 I'm watching the Indecision 2008 coverage cuz it's live and awesome. Oh yeah.

weekend!

Angela brought back the first season of Supernatural for me to watch. I've been doing that... and some of them are really fricking scary. Like, no kidding.

So, I'm taking a break from the scaryness to do this! Yay! I think I'm gonna go read US of Angel 2 again, and counteract the terrifying almost-reality with some sex. Yes.

Anyway, this weekend is gonna be fun. As soon as my doctor stuff is done with, anyway...

Man, it's really annoying and hard to get VCU to write my prescriptions. I really should have done this, like, 2 weeks ago. I went for one appointment, and it turns out they can't prescribe until they get my records of the meds and I get re-evaluated to make sure I still have it. I'll be scheduling that test tomorrow, when I call the VCU Psychology people back. And then at 2 I've got another appointment with Dr Chen about... some stuff... I have no idea.

BUT, after all that, THE FUN SHALL BEGIN!

At 9 tomorrow night is a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening! Party-tastic! I'm thinking of going to the virgin intro thing at 8:30, mainly to make sure I've got the necessary props. There's a costume contest, and if I had been thinking when I was home last weekend, I'd have grabbed my corset and dressed as Columbia. But it's too late now, so I'll just dress weird. That should be good, right?

Saturday shall have more fun! It's the Richmond Zombie Walk! I'm being a zombie rocker, since I brought my mystical plaid pants back. I just need costume blood, since I don't think my acrylic or gouache will wash out of clothes. Nicole and I are going to a costume/party store on Cary street tomorrow to get stuff for the zombie walk, like fake blood and latex stuff for grisly gross-ness. Awesome.

And Sunday will be boring. Yay? Not...

Oh, I'm working on a new book - this time for SR. I'm being crazy-specific with it, like I was with the Studio book last year. So far it's working well, since I've had even more time to figure my way through bookmaking and my specific techniques. I got Mod Podge and matt board. Oh yeah. You know I'm serious.

But, yeah. The book is supposed to be used for information on our top 3 major choices, but I have no real idea what that really means we have to do. She kept talking about visiting our majors and doing sketches or whatever while there, which means I can't just puruse the websites... I probably will anyway, and I guess I should go to the departments and stuff... Or at least email someone and ask questions. I feel weird about just going into the rooms for the majors, since I'm not in them...

Anyway, I've got time to figure my way through that.

Oh! And I finally got my laptop back! It's so nice to have all my music again. I've got even more since I got stuff from Jenny, Angela, and Cesley. I'm up to 1676 songs and an episode of Torchwood.