Overachievers, Please Try Harder

Another quarter has come and gone, and I am officially done with my first year as an Interior Design student. I have already mentioned how much I love it, and I think it loves me too. Yes, I am still getting good grades.

However, I don't really like school's grading policy. Instead of giving A's, B's, and C's we get grades like 4.0, 3.9, 3.8...you get the picture. So my final grades for this quarter were: 4.0 for Textiles, 3.8 for Architectual Graphics, and 3.7 for Rendering. Technically these are all A's, and I can't help but be pleased about that. But when I look at my accumulative GPA for the year, I have a 3.87. It looks like a got a B somewhere, but I didn't. A 3.7 is my lowest grade, which is still an A, but it doesn't look as nice as a 4.0. This is very frustrating. It is no longer enough just to get an "A" but now it has to be a nice, solid, perfect-looking 4.0.

P.S. The image above is a picture I took of my final project for Architectual Graphics where we learned how to draw 2 point and 1 point perspectives. If it wasn't for the stupid models we did earlier in the quarter I would have gotten a 4.0 in that class too.

A Word About Tattoos

Sometimes I see a really cool tattoo and think, "If I could come up with something that cool, I would so get a tattoo." But I really wouldn't because 1. the prophet said no and 2. I'm not a huge fan of needles. Sufficeth to say, I am not ever contemplating getting one. After all, they are kind of permanent.

That being said, sometimes I do enjoy body art. I worked with a girl at the bakery in NYC who had some clever tattoos that could stand the test of time. I am even slightly proud to say that I helped pick out one of them. (She wanted an homage to the home state of Washington, and instead of an apple, I suggested blackberries. It looks cool.) However, not everyone can pick out great tattoo designs. It takes a truly creative and inventive individual. Because if you aren't, it could be disastrous. You know what I'm talking about. You've seen it.

Case in point: (and I soooo wish I had a picture of it) a middle-aged lady came into the store sporting a tattoo on her foot that caused me to stare for a while. It was a very two-dimensionally stylized hopping frog. The kind of frog you would see in children's fabrics or on a rubber stamp (for her sake, maybe it was a stamp?). The following picture can give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Just picture it bright green and with a bow on its head.

I thought to myself, "Really? This is how you've chosen to decorate your body. FOREVER? Did the tattoo artist laugh when you picked this out because honey, I for sure would have. In fact, I'm laughing now."

So consider this a warning to all would-be tatted-up individuals: Choose wisely.

A Bright, Shiny Weekend

Well it was two weeks ago, but since I promised to write about my weekend with Max I thought I'd better get right down to it. Especially before I forget all the fun details. I really looked forward to Max's visit. Even though we had already spent hours getting to know one another by phone, text, and Skype I wanted to solidify this attachment by actually hanging out with him. I was nervous about seeing him again. I worried that I wouldn't feel the same way, or that my parents wouldn't like him. Or worse, that they would like him and then he would immediately repulse me. Thankfully, my parents and the pets all liked him, and I continue to like him still. Additionally, he continues to like me.

Anywhooo here is our fun weekend. In a list format:

1. There may be some truth the the phrase that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Although this hasn't worked for me in the past, I decided to try again. This time I chose the meals and my mom made them. We ate pretty good at home with marinated steaks, cinnamon rolls, pie, tandoori chicken, caramel popcorn. Not all at once, of course. And I think it worked!

2. One of the biggest challenges I faced that weekend was finding a way to entertain Max. I haven't really explored Spokane so I was at a bit of a loss, and I did not want to spend all weekend at the movie theater. Thankfully the super-cute Browne's Addition neighborhood was sponsoring two events: Artfest and Elkfest. (The latter being a music event with really bad rock bands.) Artfest was not exactly filled with art that I would want to purchase, but it provided one thing that I wanted for the weekend: props for aiding in my quest for good get-to-know-you questions and topics. I'm not so good at asking people about themselves; I consider myself more of an observer. Thus, I need props. This is what I learned: he wants his own stuff to do wood working and build furniture, he wants to know more about furniture styles throughout history, he appreciated the photography, and like me he wasn't interested in the rest of the stuff.

3. Even though Artfest and Elkfest as events were a bit of a bust, the two festivals were in a lovely neighborhood with fantastic historic homes. Many were in great shape, and it was fun to spy in the windows...except for that one that had creepy dolls in the window. (More on creepy dolls later.)

4. Max is so secure in his masculinity that he not only wanted to go, but also enjoyed what I already referred to as the estrogen-filled activity that was the Farm Chicks antiques fair. It was a really cool fair with so many antiques and vintage treasures that even though we just casually looked around, we stayed for over five hours. But we did not leave empty-handed: we bought spicy Cowgirl Chocolate; he purchased a vintage Hermes scarf for me; neckties and a belt buckle for himself, and he managed to get my hand into his.

5. The antiques fair was brimming over with gorgeous furniture pieces, bikes, and stuff (for lack of a better word), but there was also a large quantity of creepy dolls. Why are dolls so creepy looking?

6. To replenish ourselves from a day filled with antiques, we ate a late lunch in a milk bottle...or rather a building that looked like a milk bottle. We also looked at vintage cars, and saw grown ladies ride tricycles.

7. We next headed to the downtown portion of Spokane, and looked at the Spokane Falls. It was a rare hot and summery day so I thought standing by the river would cool us off. It did. One rogue wave totally splashed me. For a moment, I thought we were at Niagara Falls.

8. To dry off we walked all over Spokane. We burned off every ounce of good home-cooked delights, and the fries from lunch. I showed Max a few of Spokane's highlights, like the gigantic Red Flyer wagon in the park. After the shock of seeing something so cool/odd we found a secluded bench for some restful getting to know you stuff. That's all the details I'm going to give on that. Wink wink.

9. We ate Indian Food for dinner because we both like Indian food. Max encouraged me to have an appetizer and I finally tasted a samosa. Why did I wait so long to eat one? Yumyum.

10. The sly ladies at church came up to me and asked if that handsome gentleman with me was my brother. They just wanted to know if he was my boyfriend. Which he is.

11. My favorite part of the weekend was the 3+ mile walk we took Sunday afternoon. For a few short hours it felt as though the planet slowed its rotation, and stretched out my final afternoon with Max (for the weekend. There will be other weekends and more afternoons.)

12. We also hung out with some neighborhood goats.

13. Max didn't seem to mind that I totally kicked his trash playing card games with the family. He is new to the game Hand and Foot, so I bet he's practicing to have his revenge.

14. Monday morning before he left, and before I went back to school, he came over to have breakfast with me one more time. It was hard to concentrate at school and work all day, and all week long.

15. I can't wait for 4th of July weekend.

The Bees Knees

*p.s.andbytheway, I have no idea why the font is so weird today.

Now that you have recovered from the shock of my online dating announcement, I thought I'd go back to the beginning to tell you how we got to last weekend. Along with pictures!!

Around the start of the new year, out of curiosity, I began the process of having a profile on one of those LDS dating sites, heretofore referred to as "The Planet." I was immediately...horrified. Even without a picture or a populated profile (do you dig the alliteration?) I started receiving messages from people wanting to connect even though they knew absolutely nothing about me. Does anyone else find that creepy, or is that my overly-sensitive creep meter? Additionally, I didn't really find any profiles that were interesting. So I kind of gave it up until some pleading from my parents, who were concerned about my lack of social activity, and kindly paid for me to talk to people on the site. I was still a little wary, but one profile stood out enough for me to give it a go:

This isn't Max's profile picture...this is him and my cat Mr. Bingley, who adores Max.

So I wrote up something cute and charming, posted my picture, and hoped for the best. The next morning I had a message from Max, who lives in the Seattle area. And so for a month we exchanged emails and even had some fun live chats. He pretty much had zero competition, because everyone else who contacted me was either over 60, from a developing nation, or just plain not interesting.

Fast forward to Easter weekend and my cousin's wedding. I thought that perhaps since I would be in the area, I should try to meet Max. So, I sent an email to invite him to the wedding reception, which is quite possibly the most awkward way to meet someone ever. Besides perhaps a funeral. My phone was not working at all, so I had absolutely NO IDEA he was going to come until he actually showed up. My heart totally skipped a beat when I saw him walk through that door. He's totally cute in person.

We hit it off famously, finding conversation natural and easy. It wasn't even awkward. After the reception we walked around Seattle and threw around potential opportunities to see each other again. Things like the Farm Chicks antiques show here in Spokane. You just can't help admire a guy secure enough in his masculinity to agree to go to this estrogen-fest.

But before he showed up at my doorstep on Friday afternoon, we got to know eachother by texting, phone calls, and Skype. Since the distance makes traditional dates a challenge, we have Skype dates. For example, to celebrate 1000 texts, we each got Jimmy Johns sandwiches and ate them while Skyping. He helped me have the best birthday ever by sending me flowers and a gift card to my favorite art supply store.

He found out that I like peonies and hydrangea.

We have a lot of things in common, like music, style preferences, and a healthy dislike for mushrooms. And the icing on the cake is his kindness, generosity, sensitivity and patience.

So naturally, I couldn't wait for his visit. Which I would love to tell you all about, but I need to get ready for my Skype date with Max. Wouldn't you be eager too to talk to this dashing fellow?

Besides Homework...

Work and school aren't the only things that keep me busy. Sometimes I spend a lot of time on the phone. Talking. And Skyping. I'm not just reconnecting with old friends. Sometimes, like this blog, they get ignored. (A little too often for both, really.)

This story is this: after that truly depressing date story I told you earlier, I decided to widen my dating search using *audible gasp* the internet. This is a story in and of itself, but at 11:42 pm, now is not the time. Long story short, I actually found someone interesting. The feeling was mutual, and we met at my cousin's wedding reception held in Seattle in April. (Another story...)

I'm telling you this now because he -whose name is Max - is in Spokane to visit little old me. I couldn't be happier.

maybe this picture is better:

I caught him off guard which is hard to do with a big camera.

Anyway, that's the condensed-because-I-need-my-beauty-sleep version.

More to come. I promise.