DONE!

It's so great finally being done with everything this semester.  I only have my exams to go, but that's no big deal.  I really just hate having projects due.  I have a hard time getting started on them.  I feel like fifty percent of the time I take for projects is actually spent on stressing and being intimidated by them.  It's just not very good for my mental health.  Atleast it's all done.  Now that I have finished on my school projects and can get to work on some art projects.  I have some designs due by the end of the month and I haven't gotten a single one finished.  Not to mention I need to start making some Christmas gifts.  On the brightside, I can find art projects relaxing if I take my time and not wait untill the last minute.  Here goes the holidays... Hope its a good one!

Thanksgiving

So, in general I pretty much like Thanksgiving.  There's lots of delicious food.  I get to see family that's never around and I'm out of school for the break.  There's just one thing... or one person who gets on my nerves.  My younger cousin.  He's about ten but I can forget because he's bigger than me, but I have a hard time tolerating him.  My brothers a good sport about it and will entertain him, but you won't catch me doing that.
On the last day of break I won't wake up early because my younger cousin kept me up because he "wasn't done playing" in the room where I slept.  Anyways since I wouldn't wake up, my dad thought it would be a good idea to send that same cousin down to wake me up.  Like a normal child, he couldn't just tap on my shoulder or something like that, instead he has to KICK THE AIR MATRESS!  I walked up stairs and informed my father that if he ever wants to "ensure never having grandchildren then he will continue to send the most annoying person in the household to wake me up in the most annoying way" everyday.

Sick Day

UGH, I have been sick all day.  I don't know about the rest of the world but when I get sick I shut completely down.  My world comes to a halt.  I don't like being sick for days and I disagree with people who think you should stick it out and then stay slightly sick for weeks on end.  I take one day to completely hibernate and nip it in the butt.  Today I took two naps that totalled about six hours.  I already feel so much better then I did this morning.  Also I don't do this "Oh I'm just going to eat what ever when I'm sick" either.  Only juice and soup for me.  I won't eat anything that will agitate my throat in anyway.  The sooner its soothed the quicker it will heal.  I don't leave the house or anything either and I TRY to stay away from things like the computer.  This blog is the only reason I even will touch the keyboard.  Keyboards are breeding grounds for bacterial... its gross.  Anyways, off to hibernate some more.  I have a feeling ill be feel a hundred percent by tomorrow night.

Passwords

I cannot stand having accounts on the computer.  My friends pressured me to get a facebook now I have to have this blog for class.  It's not that I dislike writing or even posting things.  It's that technology hates me.  If there is a computer that's a ticking time bomb to crash... I will find it.  As an example, this blog, past two days I've been trying to log on and post something for class but blogger decided it didn't like my password anymore so it wouldn't let me on.  Now, even if I gave blogger the benefit of the doubt and blamed the password on me typing in the wrong thing, that still doesn't explain why it takes an over night ordeal for my email to come in with a new password for me.  I don't understand why my email works about as fast as snail mail.  It doesn't make sense.  This isn't the first time though.  I have literally sat down at computers to print things off and as soon as I touch them they die.  I must have the technology thumb of death.  BEWARE ALL YE WHO RUN ON ELECTRICITY, KATIE THE REAPER COMES THIS WAY!

Fall Break

So about a week before fall break my best friend suggested that we use our time off to go down to Ringling College in Florida so that I could visit a few of my old friends.  I was missing them so much that week and so I jumped on the idea.  Best road trip ever.  It had taken us about ten hours to reach Ringling.  Cassi, was the only one who knew I was on my way down, and we had devised a plan to surprise the others.  Since school started I had been texting my friends at Ringling about setting up a skype date but it never seemed to work out.  So our brilliant plan was for my friend and I to set up camp in my old common room and skype the Ringling kids while they were all in Cassi's dorm room and see how long it would take them to notice that I was across the street. 
At about 5 o'clock we log on to see about six of my old friends staring at me over the computer.  They're all talking trying to get a word in when one of them say, "Hey Katie, it's crazy but your room looks a lot like the fishbowl." The fishbowl is what we called the common room.  Then I go on to say, "Yeah it is, I missed you guys so much I decided to redecorate." as I turned to reveal the rest of the room.  They went crazy! All I could hear was screaming coming from the computer but when I looked at the screen the room was empty.  They all ran straight out of their room as soon as they figured it out.  About two minutes later I was tackled by my friend Matt, who had sprinted so fast across the street he apparently was almost hit by a car.  The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with my old friends, with many other similar reactions, as word that I was on campus spread.   

Maze

Last week I went to the North Georgia Corn Maze in Cleveland Georgia.  It's one of the largest corn mazes I have ever seen.  It took us hours to find our way out of the maze.  Of course when you go through the maze you have to punch your card at certain check points so you can't just go straight to the end.  Probably didn't help that my friend and I would stop every so often to feed the cows right outside the maze's outer wall.
I'm liking how the weather is starting to feel a lot more like fall.  It's my favorite season.  I think thats because it never stays long enough, so you always appreciate it when it comes around.
Anyways, as the sun started to set and we were lost in the maze, I started looking forward to the bonfire that awaited us right outside the exit.  By, the time we made it out, the sun had completely set and seemed everyone had the same idea as us, sitting next to the fire and enjoying the mountain air.

School

Its so weird not having any art classes this semester.  Im starting to feel like its going to get alot harder then i had originally expected.  Im taking English 101, Spanish 101, Music Appreciation, and Bio 101.  I will admit I'm actually enjoying Spanish, not that I like my teacher or anything... he's okay.  What I really like is actually studying for that class and getting to practice with my friends.  Enlish is cool.  I enjoy writing stories and poetry more then research and the type of papers we've been writing though.  I'm a little nervous about this midterm coming up.  Grammer and spelling are not my strengths.  Music is fun, mostly because I don't have to pay attention and can draw throughout the whole class, but I still count that.  Bio is the class I have come to fear.  I just don't get it.  In high school I remember I was pretty good at it, but now... UGH! All this reading and written homework, I'm just not use to it.  I'm going to have to crack down and figure out how to study for classes like that.

Halloween

Today I really missed my friends from back at Ringling College.  October is right around the corner and that means Halloween.  This is always a HUGE deal back at Ringling.  Most everyone I know starts making their costumes and planning out how to turn their dormitory into a haunted house.  It's all very cool and its even cooler to be surrounded by people who don't give a crap about whats IS considered cool and whats not.  Not only will most of my friends make one costume but they'll put together two, one simple costume to wear during the day throughout the Halloween week and then a second fantastic costume, that they've put in hours to make for Halloween night.  Not to mention most of these costumes will be considered incredibly dorky (which I love).  It's not uncommon that I would've had class that week with maybe a charmander or Scott Pilgrim, possibly even a Hogwarts student... Although with a official Quidditch team, that's not unusual... even for a normal week of school.  Of course I plan to keep up the spirit of Halloween, even though we can not celebrate in person together.  Maybe I'll recruit some fellow nerds for good game of Zombie Tag.
I really miss my Ringding-a-lings and I hope they have a great Fall season!

This thing we call "Art"

For the longest time I use to calculate every brush stroke, every color.  I would allow myself to be completely consumed by the thought process of creating "worthy art".  Art worth putting into this world that others would find pleasing and awe inspiring.  That's a lot of pressure to be resting on my brush.  More pressure then I ever should have put on myself.  More pressure than in the end I could handle.  Then, it happened, enlightenment.  I completely gave up on thinking about how to create this "great thing" called "Art" and simply stopped thinking and starting just doing art.  As if art were a state of being, or an action.  Not that I was creating "art" but that I was taking part in it!  Now I find peace, in painting, in drawing, in creating.  The final product is now less important.  I do not end with a piece that others must find pleasing, but instead, a memento that "art" had taken place... if only as a reminder to myself. 

P.S. its best to paint with a friend.

Francois...

Francois... what is there to say about Francois? He is allusive... mysterious... and hopefully not lost.  I remember the day I first came upon Francois... still fresh in my mind.  Oh Francois, peeking the top of his head through the trees.  Out along the back roads in search for adventure, first laying eyes on him. I knew from this moment I wanted to climb right up him by the end of the day. Alas, it was not meant to be. The deeper into the wilderness I traveled the further away he appeared. By the end of the night it was too dark and I was forced to return home.
Recently I went in search for Francois.... and once again I found him more allusive then ever.  One day I will find that mountain... and when I do, HE SHALL BE CONQUERED!  

Hmmm.... the first entry?

Hmmm... what to say... what to say.  I guess I should introduce myself? eh hem, I am Katie Beck, Adventurer Explorer Extraordinaire, adversary to the darkness and lover of life! ... or at least that's how I like to think of myself :) 
I know we've just met but I have a secret to share with you... that's right, lean in. Well here it goes, You will learn a lot more about the world if you choose to walk through it.  That's what I've come to find anyways.  So much of our world is passed by every single day and most miss out on it because they hop in their cars and they have their noses in their phones.  People are in such a rush to get everywhere.  One of my favorite things to do is to just bike around town. 
Its crazy, one would think by biking places, every trip would feel so slow. But, its not true. In fact, its quite the opposite.  Sometimes I feel like the world is slowing down and I'm going at just the right speed to appreciate it.