Day #1 - East Coast Ridin

After going to bed a little later than I should have, I got up a little later than I should have but managed to get out on the road at a somewhat reasonable hour. The weather wasn't pretty so it was the perfect time to ditch Jersey. Lots of traffic, lots of singing, and lots of sodas and snacks. Around 2 in the morning, we stopped off to find a hotel to crash in for the night in Yessemee or Ridgeland or South Point. I couldn't tell you which one of these is the correct name for the place. Especially since the first hotel we attempted to get a room at had "Yessemee/South Point" on the wall. Be that as it may, the Best Western there is awesome. The staff was really sweet and we got free breakfast at Denny's for staying there! Thanks ya'll!!

Hooky Wook

Instead of going to my last class of the quarter, I played a little hooky. I don't often miss class so I figured I could get away with it. I finished my project last week so I had nothing that I could even do while I was in there. When a teacher tells you to "bring something to do" you might as well just stay home. Plus, I had laundry and packing to do! Around 4:30, my teacher called me and asked if I was alright. So busted. He actually is just a really nice man. He definitely didn't care that I missed class other than missing the chance to tell me crazy stories. Moreover, he took the opportunity to offer to help me move since he has his car back now. He's such a weird dude, but you gotta love him! Everyone does! And a large portion of the students think they're his favorite. I love to hear people talk about their relationship with him. They all feel like the most important person in his life. I don't know what that means. I guess it just shows how sweet and personable he is. I don't think anyone thinks they're my favorite person. hahaha

Had to go up to Ai to take my Art History final today. It was a pretty crazy last class. My teacher had to cancel last week's class because she was in the hospital suffering from a migraine that she's STILL dealing with. She's had it for nearly a month now. Brutal. All that considered, she kind of had a shit fit at this chick that wouldn't take her sunglasses off while she was going over last minute things that we needed to know for our final. Kind of like a review, but more like a really fast last lesson so that we didn't leave our Art History I class without her ever talking about Leonardo Di Vinci and Michelangelo. hahaha She had a fit though. Classic lines? "You see how bitchy you're making me? Have you ever seen me this bitchy? If you make me anymore bitchy than this, I'm going to throw you out of class!" I can't blame her. I found about 90% of that class to be irritating idiots so I'm surprised she was able to remain composed for as long as she did. After a somewhat difficult test, I went and bought myself a turkey burger. It would have been a total win if they hadn't put cheese on it. Next time I'm telling them I'm allergic to cheese. Grr. Then I went home and fell into a time warp and suddenly it was like 4 in the morning and I had to go to bed. It's probably because I was doing stuff like this...

Baby, I know you like

Had my final classes for Image Manipulation and Life Drawing. I had to take a snap of this drawing. It's not mine, but it's an epic piece of work that spurred a lot of controversy. It'll be one of the main things I'll remember from this class in the long run so I had to take a picture. I left this class feeling a lot better about my art and my style. So, all in all, I had a pretty decent day. Feels like even decent days are few and far between sometimes so I'm counting my blessings for this one!

Like the news, everyday you get pressed

What an awful day. I woke up with a headache and the hiccups, which was clearly an omen. I was looking forward to a day of studying for my Art History final and relaxing, but all of those plans had to be swept under the rug when I attempted to open my Image Manipulation final project to print them. We had to create a realistic magazine cover and an ad which would be in said magazine. The cover opened just fine, but the ad that I worked on for 4 hours last Wednesday when my class got canceled would not open at all. No matter what I did, it was toast. Somehow, someway the file was corrupted and I had to start from scratch. So, that's about all I did for the rest of my Monday. These kind of things really push me away from 3D animation...

Little baby babe

Try as we might, my mother and I were not able to fully avoid visiting family. We're such assholes. hahaha Despite our lackluster attitudes, it was a pleasant little visit. John and Loraine brought their new baby, Ava, over who I saw once before, but she was even tinier. She was too small for me to hold. I don't like to hold babies that can't hold up their head yet. It's not for me. But I held Ava and it didn't suck. Contrary to popular belief, I don't hate babies. I don't get all goo goo ga ga over them, but I do think they are cute. But, in reality, I do get a hundred times more excited about puppies than babies. That'll change. When I have my own babies. Anyway, meet Ava, blogosphere!

Red, red, red

beforeafterI supposed when I did the "after" shot I should have taken it with my hair down, but oh well! I'm not going back and fixing it now! Be that as it may, I dyed my hair! There was a big confusing mess concerning getting an appointment where I normally go for my hair experiments and so this fine job was done by my very talented mother. It was no easy task dying all of my hair. There's a lot of it. With teamwork, we accomplished it! The picture may not do it prefect justice, but it's very red. For about 10 years or so (since the Little Mermaid was out, really) I've wanted to have really red hair. Due to my dark brunette hair, I've never been able to get it. Always getting a more burgundy-purple color than anything resembling red. So, when I started going blond, I decided that when I was over the blond, I would dye it red so I could finally have the red I really wanted. Well, I cut the blond thing short due to financial difficulties and the fact that my hair stylist was really just getting lazy. The last time he highlighted it, it came out all splotchy. It was terrible! So, I went red! I'm happy with it! I'm afraid to wash it! I don't want it to fade! That's the downer to reds. They fade, fade, fade. Ah well. Be fun while it lasts! And moreover, my hair magic has inspired someone else! I wonder if this post will keep that ball rolling!!

I could easily overpower you

My little monster and I took a nice long, much needed walk in one of our favorites places. The weather was perfection. Furthermore, Gizmo really impressed me. Rather than using the leash with the big annoying plastic thing on the end which I cannot hook onto my wrist, I used just a cloth leash. I'm glad I did, because I discovered within the safety of the cemetery I can drop the leash and Gizmo is the perfect gentleman and stays by my side. Now if only I could get him to do that around other dogs and strangers.... Especially since I saw people taking their dogs into the Philadelphia Urban Outfitters! Gizmo and I could go shopping! Amazing!

I hear words in my sleep

Spring springing is awesome! Another thing that is awesome? Second quarter nearly being over! Nearly done everything, really. Had a good handful of my finals already done and over with. I'm completely done Eng Comp II in fact. As a last final hurrah, God made sure to align the stars so that I got to walk with one of the dumbest students in my class more than half of the way to the train station. Even better? I got to hear him whine about not going to bed the night before and praise himself for writing his final paper in a few hours, comparing his ability to write his 6 page paper to God creating the earth. It was a painful conversation to say the least. I hope I can avoid having another with that particular person for quite sometime after being all done my English courses! Yippeeee!

I don't know how to tell if it's Heaven or Hell

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yet another rainy day

Despite feeling like I was falling prey to some kind of cold or illness, I was able to finish my art paper! There is a certain relief that follows the completion of a paper that I've been struggling with. That's definitely the best part of the writing process! Having that been and done, I prepared to go out and have a nice hang with a few of my favorite people, but plans were changed last minute and I wound up a tad overdressed at Ruby Tuesday's with two mini cow burgers and a mess of rice. You just never know how your night is going to turn out. Or your meal for that matter.

take care, team xo

We just lowered his ears

I rarely update this early in the day, but I highly doubt anything else will happen today that will trump this! I don't remember the last time Gizmo got shaved. Probably Summer 2009. He's been getting by without one since I started cutting his hair the old fashioned way; with a pair of scissors. Don't be impressed. It was never a good job. It was always a hack job. A necessary evil. Just cutting it so it wouldn't be a big mat under his shirt, which he has to wear so he won't bite his dry skin. After his bath yesterday, I did my usual hacking off of chunks of fluffy matted Gizmo hair (which is always so much thicker and longer than the hair on his lower back which has never grown back the same since his infection), and I told my dad he could shave him whenever he had time. Well, low and behold, he had time today! He's lookin' pretty handsome! You gotta admit! But I won't be sad when his hair grows back either. I loves his fluffy Gizmo hair!

Yes! I hope every Saturday is this good!

Gizmo and I spent the day as hostages in our bedroom. Despite the tremendous rain, my uncle came over to work with my mother on the book he's writing. He's completely computer illiterate so he continues to use typists to do his work. Used to be me. So glad it isn't anymore because what we thought was going to be something that would take a few short hours took an entire day. I did get some things done. Gizmo got a bath. My room got cleaned. I got some of my HW done. Watched tons of Office extras. And when I left my room, I got to do really fun things like scrub out the refrigerator. So, you better believe that I had the best Saturday ever!

I'm ready to go back to Egypt now

Took another trip back in time through Egypt and Rome. Despite the monsoon like rain, my journey there was better than my last. I didn't get lost! I had a lot more time to wander slowly around and consider things and write things down. I found a piece I'm pretty happy with. Despite the pictures above, I chose an Egyptian piece for my art analysis paper. I have no idea how to go about writing this. I have no template for this kind of thing! Trying to remind myself that the entire class doesn't either and they're a bunch of slackers so what I come up with will probably be ample. I hope.

I hated the city before you came here

Only I would buy a pair of sunglasses the day before a Nor'easter hits. These aren't them, mind you. I bought a pair of sunglasses for $5 at H&M that I haven't been able to wear at all yet. Yeah, I know, I went overboard. I splurged. Instead of eating today, I got glasses. My priorities are absolutely in order.

We're gonna be okay

One day of sun and people done got spoiled. The day before the park was packed. Today? Completely different! It wasn't cold. Just wasn't sunny. People are spoiled! They missed a lot of commotion! There was girls posing as statues, adorable little yorkies comin up to say hi to me, kids crashing and burning on their bikes, a man with a vest covered in real pennies, and so much more! Ah well. At least I was there.

Here comes the sun

Beautiful sunny day in Philadelphia! Loved it! Not only did the sun come to Philly, so did Nathan! Fresh from an extremely wild bachelor party, Nathan came to my neck of the woods and we ventured into Little France and had crepes! They were delicious! Just added to the glory of the day! Well, half of it was glorious. When the crepes were done, Nathan was gone and the sun had gone down, I was hit with a horrible migraine. I've been lucky thus far to be home or at least nearly home before getting a migraine, but I wasn't so lucky. Furthermore, I didn't have any of migraine medication with me and Advil wasn't doing jack shit. So yeah, the end of this day? Not so good. But I'm still glad it happened!

The usual Monday

Got away from my endless toil for a tiny bit and had a little lunch wherein I had a brief brush with celebrity. Meaning that someone knew me from my band, but I had no idea who they were. So, in a very teeny way, it's my celebrity moment. Other than that it was just work, work, work. That's basically what my entire weekend really revolved around. And while I work, Gizmo sleeps. He's got it dead easy. He doesn't even know. He could never live my life! His head would explode! He better just stay on his little pillow!

Happy Birthday to my Mother!

March 7th = my mother's birthday :)

Normally, I take much more vivid pictures of my cupcake delights, but these cupcakes did not come out at all like I imagined they would. There was all sorts of problems with the icing and I was running out of ingredients left and right. It was a mess! But somehow I pulled together a little something so I was able to go through with my little cupcake surprise nonetheless! It's sad, though. I had much bigger plans for my mom's birthday last summer. Yes, last summer I was thinking of what I wanted to do for my mom's birthday. That might sound weird, but I worked as a cake decorator so I was often thinking of what kind of cakes I could design for my friends and family. I had big dreams of making my mother a lovely beach scene with a palm tree and all that jazz. Not only was that one of my specialties, but my mother loves palm trees. Unfortunately, that didn't exactly happen and I didn't have the tools or the money to do it on my own. But there's always next year! Although, next year she'll be living in California! Boo hoo!

Something about late nights and thunderstorms

A photo of the sky that's not from my bedroom window! I'd be amazed if anyone could guess where I took this, actually.

All roads lead to Rome

After running something to Bridgeton, GPS took me on an adventure through the farmlands of South Jersey to Philadelphia. But the adventure did not end there. I was then cast into the construction ridden lands of University City. In these lands, my GPS was useless! It was like a labyrinth! A labyrinth into Egypt! And Rome! It was AWESOME! I recommend it. If you can find your way through the labyrinth, that is. It's not for the faint of heart!

For better, for worse

Had a craving for a fresh burger so I went over to the most dangerous place in Liberty One... FLAMERS! I simply ordered a turkey burger and without charging me extra or asking me if I wanted two turkey patties, the cook gave me two. I think he just gave me that because when I said I didn't want anything else, including fries, he was very surprised. He probably was concerned I was starving myself. haha Really not the case. I eat so much junk. But anyway, that burger was excellent! Thanks, dude, where ever you are!

Make each one count

I have nothing to say along with this photo, but it's too cute not to post. So there you have it. In completely unrelated news, the Stride gum commercial with the guys riding ostriches is kind of scary. They sound like Spitters from Jurassic Park. I'm never chewing Stride gum. Good work advertisement. You just scared me from your product for good this time!

Lookie, it's March!

Started out a brand new day

When did this start? These monkeys are so cute!

Oh, the places you'll go

This was a delicious decision. Jamie and I are geniuses.

You want some bangers and mash?

Behold, the second cutest miniature schnauzer in the household.

Nobody's buying anybody

Today was sort of George Harrison's Birthday. Sort of. In an interview he said that he was born right before midnight on the 24th, but they put the 25th on his birth certificate. So, legally, today was his birthday. But not. Hm. I suppose he celebrated on the 24th then maybe? Weird. I don't know. Either way, thought of George today anyway!

Also went to the movies and saw a movie. It was a pretty good movie. In the movie, two federal marshals went to an island to find a missing patient of insane asylum. And then.... I told you so, I told you so, I told you. Go check it out if you can!

Happy Fiddlesticks Birthday!

In case you didn't know, today is the day that Jamie was born. Despite that fact, life had to go on. I still had to attend my classes. Unjust? Quite! After all that learning nonsense, I met up with the birthday girl and the Matty Coco himself for s'more s'mores. Not only was it a splendid way to ring in her 26th year, it was also a nice end to a pretty craptastic day for me. We were further blessed to have a holy visit. Yes, Sweet Jesus stopped by to bless Jamie's coming year and to greet Philadelphia! It was.. well.. sweet! I can say no more.

Hope your birthday was just as sweet, Jamie! xo

This isn't what the indians and the pilgrims did

My windshield wipers decided not to function and thus caused me to miss my first class. Due to this, I had to drive up to the train in rush hour traffic. But it wasn't so bad because it made it a lot easier to find a parking spot and I got a lovely picture of the sun setting. A sight I rarely see from the train platform. Then I got to draw a naked man's feet for three hours.


ps. And at midnight, someone turned 26....

I love my puppy!

Five years ago today my mother and I got up bright and early and drove to the Philadelphia International Airport to meet with a woman that was bringing a special delivery to us in a little black bag from North Carolina. Drugs? No. Exotic fruits? No. A tiny little black monster? You bet your sweet ass! I became the very proud owner of a very special little monster that I named Gizmo Wilkerstintious in honor of my dear, beloved friend, Chilly Willy. Since then Gizmo and I have been like white on rice. Recently my mother described Gizmo as the safety blanket to my Linus from Peanuts. I think that's pretty cute, though I'm surely not as articulate.

Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovers out there!

A Day of Epic Proportions

by Nathan Terry Age 25

No, you don't know me.

I probably have about 35 versions of this same picture. I love all the different shades and variations of the clouds and the sky. It's never the same, but it's so beautiful. This is the view from my window. But in the next few months, maybe it'll be a different view! More on that later! Hopefully not too much later though. Hm. I shouldn't be counting my chickens before they've hatched...

I can't believe it's not summer

I don't know why my school canceled classes for today and tomorrow. Seems a little wussy to me. It didn't even barely snow. Look at that. It's nothing. You can barely see any snow at all. So ridiculous. I missed a midterm test because of all this "snow". Give me a break, Ai.

Bullocks.

I am one lucky son of a gun. On any usual day, I could drive around and around the parking lots of the Collingswood Train station and never find a spot. But on a day when a lot of the spots were filled with mounds of snow rather than cars and the street parking was equally as snow filled, I was able to find a spot in the main lot. I can see the draw, though. When I returned to my car later, I found a quaint little package on my windshield. Within was a pouch of candy and a very lovely card congratulating me on my survival to my car. I really think I should have received the latter part when I arrived at my house, though. It had begun to snow again when I left the train station and grew worse and worse the further south I got. About 10 exits from mine, the roads were essentially completely unplowed and were covered in snow. Normally I would be driving about 75mph all the way home, but I was barely able to go over 40 without feeling the slippy slip under my tires. It was even worse off the highway. I didn't get over 20mph. Every red light I hit was a pain in the ass. My tires did not want to grip when I had to get moving again. It was ridiculous. All fresh and slippery. I'm pretty good at driving in the snow and I wound up getting a headache just from focusing on the road for so long. The conditions were ridiculous. This winter is bullocks.

It's a work in progress

Since I got a majority of my work done yesterday, I decided to do something that I'd been putting off for -whew- a long, long time. I can't even tell you. It's probably coming up on a year. I started it. Just drew the image in pencil and put it away. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about painting it. I wasn't keen on painting it with oils as I would completely lose my penciling. In my color theory class, we've been working exclusively with acrylic paints. I've never been a fan of acrylic paints, but I'm really starting to enjoy it. I still prefer the final look of oil, but I like that the acrylic paint dries quickly on the canvas so I can work for longer stretches of time. I didn't really take full advantage of that today, but I thought I'd show something in mid-progress for once. It's no where near finished, but at least it looks different than it has for nearly a year.

Forgive my ignorance, I am from abroad

All I did all day was school work. Manipulated things on photoshop for a long time, worked on my English paper for what felt like an eternity, and finished up some other things. Oh, and I also helped my mom decorate some cookies. Other than that, I just did school work. I don't know where the time goes. It just slips by. Sucked away in toil.

Another snow post

All these snow posts must be getting pretty tired. Well, get used to them. It seems they're not going anywhere fast!

This is called foreshadowing....

That looks like my parent's car

Due to the threat of more snow, I got up and got some things done and picked Jamie up so we could enjoy a few hours like normal sane people that haven't been in cooped up in their home for days on end. We didn't go far, though. We just went down to the farm and had a late breakfast. Some call that dinner, I think. Anyway, while dining, the snow began to fall and then shortly so did a small girl who ran full speed at a parking marker and proceeded to slide across the salted cement face first. I shouldn't have laughed inside, but I did. She wasn't really hurt. She didn't even cry; she just whined a spine grating whine. It was really her precious child ego that was bruised. Be that as it may, she had to have seen that shit. It was painted BRIGHT YELLOW.

Winter's long lament

I can't wait til I freeze all day because of air conditioning. At least then I can go outside and warm up. All I've done for a month is freeze inside and outside all over Philadelphia.

Fists of Flurry

You have no idea how hard this shot was to get. It's crap, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances. You can't get that dog to stay still at all in the snow! Stupid little fool. I hate snow. Why was a cursed with a dog who loves it? Was it to make me appreciate it? His reaction to it is the only thing I like about it. The absolute only thing, really. Congrats, Gizmo. You gave me something to like about snow.

Do you understand the words

I really haven't enjoyed any of the papers I've had to write for my English class. I suppose it goes without saying that papers aren't fun to write, but I'm just coming to find more and more that I don't enjoy the task of writing, in the formal sense. I know I'm not alone in it, but sometimes I think that perhaps I shouldn't hate it cause I'm relatively good at it. I've always excelled in all of my English courses. I don't know. Just some thoughts that have been kicking around. I won't worry about having a purpose or conclusion to this, though. In other words, my dog is distractingly cute.