Out of town guests and new sights in an old town

Jess on June 3, 2009

ReAnne is visiting from Topeka this weekend and I’m very excited to explore things about Lubbock that I haven’t visited even though I’ve lived here for over 9 months. She gets in Thursday night at about 9:30 so we’ll probably wait until my class gets out at noon on Friday to have any adventures.

I’m thinking shopping Friday and then going to the First Friday Art Trail, an event that I’ve only been present for and missed twice in the 9 that I’ve been available to attend. I missed it last month because Kristen and Stephen scheduled their barbeque for that evening and once when we decided to see Watchmen instead of going. I think it’s the best start to any month in Lubbock and I’m glad that ReAnne will be here for it. After FFAT, I think we’ll go to La Diosa Cellars and enjoy the ambience. Kyle and I first visited it last week to see one of the communication studies professors boyfriend’s band. Their Bella Riojo wine is about the only wine I’ve ever wanted to try twice, but they had me at “blueberry” and “strawberry” flavors in the description. Mm. Maybe we’ll also go to Melt. If Friday night had a theme it would be “Classy on the Caprock.”

Saturday, we’re barbecuing and then going to karaoke or maybe the dance club we like. Maybe during the day we’ll just relax, go grocery shopping and hit up the National Ranching Heritage Center and the Museum of Texas Tech University. There are two exhibits up—”Spectacular Spectacles” and “A Double-Edged Weapon”—that I have been waiting for her visit to go see. Plus, people like to see where I work when they visit, I’ve found. Possibly, it’s because I work at a museum. An office would be far less exciting, I imagine.

I am leaving the rest of the weekend to fate, letting whatever happens happen. Maybe we’ll go to the wineries around Lubbock. Maybe we’ll try to find some prairie dogs. Either way, I’m excited for her to visit and to see some new things that I have yet to visit here.

Grind

Jess on January 24, 2009

Lately, I’ve felt stressed out and overwhelmed. I feel like things are never quite put-together enough at the apartment for me to work and have time to play. It’s like I’m always straightening something up or rushing to get something done or trying to find food to eat. I think most of this will ease up as I start to settle into my weekly schedule, especially as I incorporate work into it so I’m not constantly stressed about when I’m going to work or whatever. It’s also nice because we have a whole-day meeting for Interp & Communication so I don’t have any reading to do in either of my Tuesday classes. This should help me work Intercultural Communication into my regular reading schedule.

I still like my classes well enough. The history one is especially great, at least, it’s good discussion and thought provoking and far more like what I expected graduate school to feel like. I’m hoping that intercultural comm. will feel the same, but who knows.

We have a PS3 now, and I found Animal Crossing: City Folk really cheap for the Wii at Blockbuster. So now I have Little Big Planet and Animal Crossing to keep me good and distracted. Also, using the free browser on the PS3, I can play last.fm radio over the TV. Pretty baller. Should help me get some studying done, hopefully.

My weekend ends on Monday

Jess on September 8, 2008

And starts on Thursday. Baller.

I think I promised a blog sometime this morning about my weekend and it never arrived when promised, but here it is now! My weekend technically begins Thursday at 5:30 or whenever my class is out. This particular Thursday I had plans with the museum science girls to go to Wild West which is a hip hop and country dance club in the Depot. It was pretty… interesting. I had a good time even though I ended up only really hanging out with Nancy, Mary and Hilary. I really like those three girls though so it was fine. The night started with us meeting at Nancy’s where we pre-drank a little bit and then we got a cab from Hilary’s to Wild West. We watched people dance and got some cheap drinks and eventually met up with the other girls for a few minutes and then headed back to watching people dance. Texas clubs are so overwhelming during country songs because everyone two-steps. And it’s not like during hip-hop where if you have a partner you dance with them and if you don’t then you dance by yourself. Pretty much, you have to be dancing with someone. So my new goal is to make Kyle learn to two-step. We’ll see how that goes. (Hint: probably poorly). Since Kyle was home sick and watching 24 with Sid and Amber, I two-stepped once but mostly just danced during the hip-hop-ish songs.

Friday, Kyle stayed in sick again but mostly just sleeping and Sid and Amber and I went to the First Friday Art Trail. I was so impressed! I was worried that it would be too Georgia O’Keefe and I’m not really her biggest fan, also I don’t like a lot of Southwestish art which narrows out the Taos scene. It turns out there’s a lot of painters who do things that I really do like here and the art gallery selection is pretty huge, especially on first friday. I made a couple lists of artists I was particularly impressed with and plan to return first thing in October! Next time, with Kyle in tow. Also, at the trail, we learned that the Llano winery which is right around here is pretty good at making wines so now we have plans to go on a tasting! I’m excited. I haven’t been wine tasting since last Labor day when Kyle and I went out with Duran and Neely.

Friday, we decided to go to the National Cowboy Symposium on Saturday but instead we went to the Pow-wow which was free. Unfortunately, we showed up right as they took their hour dinner break so we left without seeing much and ended up not returning. The chuckwagon cook-off looked like a lot of fun though. There were all kinds of wagons about and the leftover smell seemed delicious. Hopefully we’ll make it next year before we leave.

Last night, new episodes of Entourage started on HBO and also their new series True Blood aired its first episode. I really liked True Blood and I think Entourage is going to recover from what was a lackluster ending of last season. Hopefully, at least. Jeremy Piven’s character is as appealing as ever and seems a bit snappier than I remembered him, but then, my love of Ari Gold is pretty unfailing in its sincerity. True Blood was really good too. Maybe I just love Anna Paquin. Maybe I just love vampires. Maybe most shows with pilots on HBO are good (though Rome I found not catching). Anyway, I’m excited for the next episode and I’m hoping Anna Paquin ceases to be blonde soon.

Speaking of blondes… I dyed my hair lighter. In bright lights it is the color of honey and it makes my eyes look pretty. Kyle seems to like it quite a bit and I figure that in six or so weeks I’ll go red so I’d rather go from already-lighter to red so my natural hair color doesn’t suck most of the luster out of the red. Or something. Anyway, I like how it looks.

Pictures are up at pulse of the new furniture in the house and stuff from the rehearsal dinner!

Are we really happy with who we are right now?

Jess on September 7, 2008

So I’ll admit that I’ve been listening to Moneen again. Sorry. I can’t really help it too much. I just like them so much live. And it seems that they’re in that category of bands that I seem to never outgrow.

The answer to the question is yes, by the way.

Kyle and I are both starting to recover from our colds. I feel a lot better every day and he’s starting to feel a bit better everyday though he is taking longer to get back to fully functional than I did. I basically annihilated this cold with sinus rinse and zicam. I’m convinced this cocktail is one of the best for knocking out a cold. I’m also pretty impressed that I managed to keep the cold from moving into my sinuses cos that would have made for a bad time while we wait for my new health insurance to kick in. Kyle’s still asleep this morning and I’m hoping that a really long sleep will knock all of the sick out of him before we have to start a new week of classes tomorrow. He doesn’t have class until tomorrow afternoon though so he can probably be sick for much longer.

We’ve been keeping house pretty well, despite our sickness, and I really really enjoy being married, at least after the first week. One of our wedding gifts from the Bearman’s was placemats. I think Shelley will be surprised that such a simple part of their gift has made such a huge impact on our apartment, but basically, the table that Kyle painted (which I think is beautiful, by the way) suffered a bit of damage on the way down here. The damage that’s really bad is limited mostly to the leaf, however, so we were using the table in the center of our dining area as a square. Now that we have placemats, combined with a table runner, we can cover up all the damage so our table looks even better. I’ll have pictures up in the gallery later. I took a bunch last night.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 7:30 which seems to be my body’s new preferred time to rise. I’m not complaining though, it’s nice to have a whole day at my command instead of just part of it like when I sleep in. I started thinking about the few things we still needed to do around the apartment to have it exactly to my liking and decided that a trip to Home Depot was in order to get things to build the bench we had our wedding party sign at the wedding. It’s the bench that was a section of the bleacher on which we got engaged that Dr. Wynn bought us. It looks great now with it’s white legs and can hold a person but will more likely hold my purse and his wallet and cd faces or whatever in our entry way where it sets under my other project of yesterday. I made, in honor of Nicky’s coffee table chalkboard on her wall, a chalkboard out of a 2×2 piece of plywood. It hangs above the table and suits the living room well, I think. I like the graininess of the plywood and I’m hoping that it catches a little bit of chalk so it really starts to look interesting. As it is, I do not yet have chalk so I need to get going on that. I’m anxious to see how it works! Since it’s so close to the door, I included some key hooks on it so we have a place to always find out keys. Haha. I feel like such a grown-up these days.

Alright, I have a lot more to say about last weeks social engagements but I will save that for my next entry when I’m a little farther in to my reading for the week. I still need to straighten up the house and get to the museum library at one so I can get back here quickly. I’ll post pictures and journal again this evening or this time tomorrow.

Several Accomplishments

Jess on February 14, 2008

So, last night I got home from work and saw mom for the first time since Kyle and I got engaged.  This went poorly, as expected.  For one, she’d alreaedy taken her pain medicine for her hip which was broken in December so she was pretty out of it and more irritable than usual.  We talked for a little while and she got very upset that I want to get married so soon because she didn’t think that would be the case at all and said as much.  Then she tried to talk me out of because of some rational reasons like health insurance.  Eventually we just went to bed in disagreement and I called Kyle.   Mostly, I think, I appreciated her opinions but I was just really stressed out because I want to be planning my wedding and getting excited about being engaged to the person i want to spend the rest of my life with, and its hard to do that when someone keeps telling you you’re an idiot for getting the wedding part over with and moving on to the marriage part.  Also, I want to share this excitement with my mom! I only get one proposal, one ring, and one engagement and I’d be much more satisifed if mom was as excited as I am about all three… and waited a few days to get upset about the date (rather than the 18 hours or so that it took her to express concern). So last night I was pretty upset, but then today things got better.

For one, I talked to my professors about it and they all seem to be in agreement that a shorter engagement is better.  Or at the very least they expressed no concern about my getting married to Kyle so soon.  This was comforting because I think they know me well enough to judge whether or not this engagement will tear me away from my plans for studies in the future, which is another of my mom’s major concerns, and it’s good to have their backing that I’m dedicated enough to get it done.

Also, I called the church so that I could figure out what needs to be done to start setting a date.  They said I’d need to be a registered member so I went there and got that taken care of so we can get on to the date-setting part.  Hooray!  When I got there a group of high schoolers followed me in.  I figured they were like a church youth choir or something getting back from a day of singing valentines.  But then when I told Dolores that I was there to register, she asked if it were a joke.  I said no… and then i was like “oh… they’re not with me.” so she asked what they were there efor and they said they had a singing Valentine.  We all went into the back room where the Father Jon was meeting with some women.  They sang “earth angel” and there was a cute dog who is apparently named Joseph.  Father said “Joseph knew that one cos I sing it to him every night.” which made me smile and know that this is the right church and the right priest for our wedding.  Dolores then told him that I had just shown up to register to be a member and so he stood up and shook my hand and said hi and I explained that I’d been attending for a few years but hadn’t really thought to register but I just got engaged and they told me that I’d need to be registered.  And he said “oh so I’ll be seeing more of you, then?”  It made me super happy.  I’m excited to sit down with Kyle and Father Jon and figure out all the ins and outs of the sacrament I am about to embark upon!

The Wedding Date

Jess on February 13, 2008

When Kyle and I initially talked about getting engaged we made mental plans to have a short engagement and aim for August or December of 2008 based on what the church could do. When mom initially gave permission for the proposal, she was under the assumption that we’d wait to get married for four or five years, basically, until I was done with grad school. Obviously, this is causing a bit of tension at the earliest stages of the planning process. So I thought I’d make a list of some of the reasons that I want to have a wedding now rather than later… in no particular order of importance to me.

1. When Kyle and I discussed whether or when we would get married before the engagement, Kyle said he would rather get married before we start our lives together because he feels like it’s something we just wouldn’t get around to doing if we already experience the benefits of married life, less the tax incentives.

2. I don’t like long engagements. I think they’re silly and they ruin the fun and the excitement. Also, friends who have had long engagements seem to forever postpone their eventual wedding. I think engagement is like a strange purgatory where it’s a little better than dating but not as great as marriage. Engagement exists for two reasons: 1) marriage is something people must spiritually and emotionally prepare for and 2) weddings take plannings.

3. I’m looking forward to a marriage. I want that.

4. Very few friends will have to rearrange their schedules or their position in life to attend a wedding in Topeka this summer or winter. Only two members of the proposed bridal party live out of the Way Greater Kansas City area. This is not exactly the case of the proposed groom’s party but their is currently a massive potential for carpooling from the St. Louis area where Kyle goes to college which will not exist in four or five years. Even if it can be argued that we are likely to fall out of touch with some of our guests in the future, the majority of the people who will be invited in the future will probably be from wherever we relocate. Therefore, instead of having a massive number of guests forced to buy plane tickets to attend the wedding of a local couple (if the wedding were still to be held in Kansas) would be inconviencing and unnecessary. It’s good that the wedding is in-town or a short drive for most of our guests right now.

5. It is paramount to me that I get married in a church I actually attend. For the past three years, I have regularly attended mass at Assumption in Topeka. It is certainly the parrish in which I feel most at home. As Kyle and I relocate in the fall, we will inevitably attend services and become a part of the community of a church in the area of our relocation. Likewise, I will request that a wedding four or five years from now occur at that church outside of Topeka.

6. Even if we were to get married in a Topeka church, we’re not going to live in Topeka at the time that the wedding would be planned. This would mean that my mom would have to take on the bulk of the wedding planning with the fun things like picking out dresses and the like being done from a distance without her involvement. I cherish the opportunity to spend several afternoons at different bridal stores with my mom until we find the perfect dress for me on my wedding day. I think that being apart means that this will be unlikely if not impossible. Both because my mom will not want to take on the role of wedding planning due to her already too busy schedule and because I would feel bad placing that burden on her, Kyle and I would almost have to do what my other friends who got married in Kansas when they lived elsewhere and hire a wedding planner. That adds a lot of cost. Cost is bad.

7. When I’m four or five years older, most of Kyle and my friends will be professionals with actual jobs and incomes while Kyle and I are likely to remain in our financial situation until we’re both out of grad/law school and employed. However, our friends who are not in similar economic situations are likely to appreciate the corners we cut in terms of cost as much. Further, I’ll feel a lot of pressure to add things to the wedding that I wouldn’t have now both because I’ll have been thinking about what I want the wedding to be like and because I will feel like I need to impress people who are well off.

8. Kyle and I want to own property together and it’s easier and safer to do that when we are legally recognized as married.

9. I do not want to cohabitate. I think it’s bad for a relationship when done outside of marriage.

10. I would rather not continue to flirt with the risk of a shotgun wedding.

11. One of the ways Kyle and I plan to save money on this wedding is by cutting costs on things like engagement photos and dj-ing by employing the efforts of friends looking to build work experience or a portfolio or who are just interested in helping us out.  We’re likely to not have this diversity of connections when we’re not fresh out of undergrad.

oh, em, gee, RINGS!

Jess on January 22, 2008

Even better concrete inlay rings than the one’s I previously gushed about.  I like the 7-days ring at 22designstudios.com.  Also, if you go to Mirca Maffi and click the “she” box and then click the fourth little box that appears on the left you also have a really effing awesome ring.  PRETTY.  I want to be all tied up with silver ribbons on my hands every day.

Setting the summer sun on fire (with molotov cocktails)

Jess on August 3, 2007

I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am to be behind the wheel of my own car again. It’s a 94 grand prix. Which means it’s not the cutest body style of a grand prix ever but it’s in great condition and I’m excited to take it lots of fun places. Place 1 being the salt mines with mr. roger losey-face. place two being carbondale a lot to see my boyfriend when he gets shipped back to illinois. place three being minneapolis where it looks like i’ll have to take a new direction to visit friends and see the school. and a whole lot of other places that i’ll think up later. like wisconsin. Anyway. It’s pretty badass. And according to all calculations, it gets pretty excellent gas mileage… so I’m excited about that as well. And it’s comfy. Soon, it will have my cd player in it… which of course I’m unbelievably happy about. Very good stuff!

I told Tyler I’d work in Lawrence tomorrow night instead of Topeka so I 1) get to work at a different store and 2) i get to leave for kansas city on sunday right away from lawrence, which means i get to see kyle a day earlier than I’m used to and I’m excited about that. I’m hoping to drag him out to superbad on sunday so i can nurture my silly crush on Michael Cera. I was very happy to learn today that Michael Cera is 19, though just barely. I’d been half expecting to learn the object of my unrealistic affections was only 17. Which would be devastating.

In celebration of having my new car, Roger and I went to the Kemper today. He rode shotty cos he actually fits in this car. I should’ve made him ride in the back so he’d realize just how much more space he now has… but I didn’t do that. Because I was being nice. My mistake. Anyway. The Kemper is my favorite art museum. Probably not ever. But close because it’s so small the exhibits are always changing and it holds my attention more than a permanent collection. Not that I don’t go to the Nelson like 50 times a year or anything… but I’m just saying. If I were Lady Kemper and my husband bought me the museum just to make me happy and give me something to do… I’d be happy. Today, the big exhibit was called Phantasmania. It featured pretty sweet art which was all a reflection of our existence and globalization and capitalization and other things. Like how you shouldn’t fish for sharks with your penis (I PROMISE YOU CAN SEE IT HAPPEN THERE IT IS WEIRD AND AMAZING). So these were some of my favorite artists.

Dan Attoe makes art like this:
Dan Attoe, Accretion #26
On the art, he has littler pictures which have words like some sort of word map. It’s awesome. An owl told us about how there was a fucking bubble in his fucking brain. I liked it a whole lot. And it was also interesting to hear this pair of older women say over and over again that it reminded them of a waterfall they saw in Colorado (we were looking at a different painting than the one i posted). It was pretty much awesome art. And I think he’s talented… and clever with his wording. It’s sort of bizarre. And we all know i’m into the bizarre.

Also featured is Angela Fraleigh. She makes really awesome huge art that’s these really sensuous paintings with large paint spills on them. And it makes it look dirtier and like there is an aching. She also names paintings like I title poetry… drawn-out and rambly with no capital letters… so i appreciated it.
Angela Fraleigh, that i may somehow take on the weight of your sadness
The above painting, “that i may somehow take on the weight of your sadness” was actually featured in the exhbit. it’s beautiful. and it’s really big in real life. i really liked this stuff a whole lot. but i love paint-spills, don’t i. and i like collage a lot. and this sort of draws on that. it certainly tells a story… but in a different way than most artists.

And THEN there was art by Jonathan Pylypchuk who does this awesome stuffed animal type creation which seems to me like something you’d see at the grassroots art center or somewhere. it’s awesome. and i wanna make things similar to it but of course i have no talent. here’s an example:
Jonathan Pylypchuk, I miss you, danger, and all its elements
They’re cute in their own way. At the museum, his piece is a whole village of people and animals that look a lot like this guy and they have these wooden shanties. it’s supposed to resemble a ghost town or a place after a natural disaster says the plaque next to it. So awesome.

I recommend you all go see it. If only cos it means going to the kemper.