Ready to Go

Jess on July 14, 2010

I think we found a house. Hopefully. Kyle’s parents are going out to look at it tomorrow or Friday, and they’re going to make sure it’s a decent neighborhood and send us pictures of the place. This time, we’re asking for his dad to basically take photos of every inch of the house, because the last set of photos didn’t give me a very good idea of how the house went together and I like to obsess over how I might arrange furniture inside. I think it’s a combination of my career involving planning exhibits, my love of design, and my constant search for an excuse to find a reason to use Google SketchUp. Though, honestly, I’ve been designing houses on computers since MS Paint was the only software I had that could facilitate this hobby. So now that it’s a real one and I’m about to be living in it (as a renter), I’m crazy for planning.

Today, I bought boxes with the full intention of sorting through our belongings to determine what can go with us and what can be packed and then packing something. My hope is that we’ll get some things packed so that when my mom comes to visit next week we’ll be part of the way done. If I had my way, I would pack a bag and then a troll would come pack everything that wasn’t in my long-stay bag. Unfortunately, trolls are undependable. So, I want to finish packing

  • the bathroom
  • both hall closets
  • the office (except for books)
  • the clothes closets
  • the kitchen (except for necessities)

Hopefully my next attempt is more successful than todays.

Mostly, we got distracted today because Kyle was out at Levelland playing disc golf and came across a stray dog. She’s so cute! She has a pinkish collar on and apparently she’s been hanging out around that park for the last couple weeks.wpid-MediaCard_BlackBerry_pictures_IMG00025-2010-07-14-22-37.jpg We posted an ad on craiglist with a photo of her and then took her to a vet to surrender her. I wish we could take another dog, especially such a cute and well-behaved one, but with the move coming up, it would be way too much stress on Oats and Logan. As it is, neither of them are going to love being in a new house right away, but adding another animal would probably mean that Oats would never be nice to another dog. Plus, she kind of seems like she only wants to visit with other dogs but doesn’t actually want a dog sister/brother/roommate. So we’re going to follow up with the vet tomorrow and the animal shelter later to see what’s going on with this little girl. And hopefully, we find something. If anyone knows of any rescues or any people around West Texas (or the Midwest, for that matter) looking for a cute pup, let me know. She was really good with the little girl we met at the emergency clinic.

Honestly, the whole experience just made me even more ready to get out of Lubbock to a place where people are a little better toward animals. Even if you have one that your’e trying to help here, it seems like no one is willing to exert any effort. It’s so frustrating. We’ve rescued, attempted to rescue, or helped someone else rescue seven dogs in the time that we’ve been here. Isn’t it ridiculous that there are that many strays that just go unconsidered in this town?

Happy Happy Holiday

Jess on December 28, 2008

Christmas went pretty well. The week we spent ending on Christmas eve with my parents was really nice and I think I’m quite less apprehensive about our future time there as a couple. The day before Christmas Eve, I went out for coffee with Mallory and left Kyle at home so that we could visit more and because Kyle, I think, expected to get some reading done for next semester. He ended up instead spending the whole evening chatting with my mom. By the time I got home, mom decided that she actually is fond of Kyle and is glad that she had the chance to get to know him better.  While I’m still fairly bitter that she never made this effort to get to know him sooner and never trusted my judgement on the man I chose to marry until a few days ago, I was pretty well convinced that she was simply never going to accept him fully as a member of our family and that seems like a greater possibility now so I’m fairly content on that status for the time being.

We bought both of our parents digital photo frames as their Christmas presents.  Both sets seemed plenty happy with the gift and were excited to get them loaded up quickly.  We’re having some trouble getting images from our computer to the cards and may need to break down and buy a card reader.  Also, for some reason, our attempt to transfer photos from my computer to our PC at home resulted in Kyle’s jump drive becoming write-protected.  What’s up, PNY?  Get your self sorted out! So trying to set up gifts for my parents was pretty maddening… but it’ll get better.  When we bought the frames, Best Buy was bundling them with digital frame key chains that are pretty nice so we gave those to my parents and my uncle.  We figured my mom would take the keychain but my dad ended up opening that when mom opened up the frame and he was so excited to have something on which he can carry photos of his children that I think he’ll end up using it the most.  It made me really happy.  I love watching other people’s faces light up when I give them gifts!

Kyle and I had some good gift-opening ourselves.  We got mostly gift cards and some DVD series and XBOX live and a PS3.  I’m so excited for the PS3 to arrive.  I basically want to play Little Big Planet all the time.  Since it’s break, I’ve been playing Animal Crossing for DS basically non-stop.  Kyle makes fun of me for it as it is pretty obviously a game for children that I love.  I want the new Wii version at some point too, though I’m not sure I’ll be as interested in it when it isn’t portable because it’s not really so interesting that I can’t still watch tv or do whatever while i’m playing.

I need to read.  I also need to go through the Nelson again while I’m back in town.  I haven’t been in ages.  Perhaps, I can find a good museum-going friend to traverse through it with me at some point this week.  I have two new pairs of boots and want to redo my whole wardrobe from there up.  I also have new jeans.  A grey-blue pair of skinny jeans at that.  Woo.  I love skinny jeans. That’s pretty much all of my news.

I would like to talk about the Christmas Midnight Mass at the Cathedral but that entry will have to wait.

Can I get a little R&R?

Jess on November 6, 2008

I added a new blog to my RSS feed which is pretty significant for several reasons. For one, it was recommended to me by Joe who is in law school and I have a theory that the reason he largely recommends boring things to me is because much of his life is spent reading things unimaginably boring so he can trudge through things i won’t touch. For two, I very rarely add foreign blogs to my rss feeds. My feed list, as you know, is all culture/art/exhibit things and the blogs of my friends. Therefore, it is quite significant to add something new written by someone I don’t know that was recommended to me by a law student. Without further ado, I’ll recommend it to everyone else too.

Conversion Diary

It’s good, it’s Catholic. It’s written by a former atheist and it is not boring.

In other news, I am in significant need of the break I am taking tonight. I feel like every night this week I’ve been running-running-running and that I haven’t had much time to just relax. Kyle is gone this weekend with debate (in California!) and I am here. But Sunday we had people over for our HBO true blood/entourage rotation and some dinner. And then Monday we went out after his class and that was somewhat of a disaster as I didn’t really want to go but sucked it up in an attempt to be life-giving and he drank too much and didn’t pay attention to my needs to go home and get a good night of sleep before going to class at 8:15 and then Tuesday was the election and Mary’s election party so we were out late. Last night we spent watching West Wing after going to dinner but around dinner we had to deal with his cell phone being broken which took far longer than it should have and then dinner made me sorta sick to my stomach so it was not as relaxing as it should have been.

The date was really nice though. We’ve been pretty nitpicky lately. Partially from spending most of our time together and I think we’re just pretty stressed about things. I’m not sure that our primary mode of relaxation is terribly compatible either. He’s more of a go-out-have-fun relaxer and I’m more of a stay-in-and-relax kind of girl. But that’s okay. I think that we’ll reach a good middle point, and I think I’ll reach a good point in which I’m fine letting him be out when I’m in. We just enjoy each other’s company so much right now that I want to spend all of my time with him. I’m sure this weekend will be good at reminding each other of that.

And I should be plenty busy too. I have thank you after thank you to finish and I have three group assignments to do some writing about. I’ll be happy when the semester is over. I’ve realized that when I sit down to blog about it, I’m a lot harder on the program than I should be. Really, I like it. Most of my professors are great and next semester we get into much more interesting topics, a lot of things that are more interpretive and less collections-oriented. I’ll feel better when that happens.

I’ve also thought about doing one of those stupid grad-student cliché blogs where i extrapolate on the questions which arise in my head during graduate classes in blog form. I’m not sure that I’m quite ready to be that girl yet. I would like to start doing a more topical approach to blogging and not always have it be just a steady journal. A little politics. Some religion. Some museums. Just a bit more activity on my part. We’ll see though.

The Thick of the Moment

Jess on October 11, 2008

I officially feel like a graduate student. I can’t seem to really get ahead, but I feel like I’m treading water quite well in the program. I’ve already had my first test and round of papers and I have another coming up this week. I’ve also apparently not blogged in forever. i’m going to have to fix that. I think I’m too reliant upon twitter to relay my daily goings-on. It does a pretty good job of that, but really, I think I should write more complex things about my life.

Thursday I have my second test in the class with the hardest professor. Or at least, the tests are hard. She’s probably one of my favorite professors because she’s so interesting and I learn a whole lot but her tests are more stress than they’re worth, I think. I got a solid B on the last one and that’s a good start to the semester so I hope I do better on this one to continue that trend. I also have a paper due next Sunday night in a different class which will probably be labor intensive but not that difficult.

Meanwhile, I have a huge group project in every class and trying to stay ahead of that is sort of difficult. I think since we all have the same classes we’re pretty aware of how we need to stay on top of this so that the end of the semester isn’t hell. Also, I think all of the projects are pretty manageable, time just goes by so quickly it seems.

I’ve been handling homesickness pretty well. It helps that I’ll be home a week from Monday for a conference and get to spend a night or two with my family. And it helps that I have Kyle here and things. It was really, really bad between when I took that test and when I got the grade back mostly because Maco had to be put down back home which made me really, really sad. He was one of my favorite dogs that my parents fostered and while I knew he was really overweight and therefore in poor health, it didn’t really occur to me that the last time I said goodbye to him would actually be the last time. It made me think about how being here means missing out on a lot of moments with my family (and the dogs) and that made me question my decision to come here in the first place.

For that reason, I’m not quite sure what my ideal scenario is for post-grad school. Ugh. Hopefully in the nearish future I’ll get all of that figured out but at this point I don’t really know that I want to move somewhere to do law school or a phd right away. If things work out though in a really clear direction that would be great. I just miss my family a lot… and my friends too but I know that by the time I’m considering returning to Topeka/Kansas City they’ll mostly be spread all over the country again for a while and who knows where they’ll end up living.

I feel like I have a good group of friends here though and that’s making things a lot easier. I like a lot of the museum science students and I’m glad that we’ve finally gotten to know each other well enough to let our guards down and show our real personalities. I also have some friends through Kyle or through whoever that I like. It’s nice to finally feel like I have an assortment of people to call when Kyle is out of town or to make plans. and hopefully the more time I spend here the closer we’ll all get.

Alright. We’re attending a potluck dinner party tonight and I have to start rolling sushi so that we can go. And then it’s back to studying and hopefully finishing all of the thank yous this weekend. Man, having a wedding before grad school is absolutely ideal until you have like 200 cards to write as class really gets going. I’d recommend against that part. But marriage is awesome! So I can’t really complain.

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.

We all need a little more room to live.

Jess on July 7, 2008

I’ve spent this weekend in Blue Springs with Kyle.  Mostly, we needed to get stuff done for the wedding.  IE, we had to finish printing our invitations which we are very close to being done with.  All we have to do is print the response cards and then we are done, done, done.  We had to delay it because I needed to buy more gold paint from paper-source to get going on that.  As long as I was ordering something over the internet, I figured I should probably order some extra bulbs and extra screens, so now i’m good to go for any future gocco projects.  hooray!  i’d really like to maybe try some screen printing projects that involve more complex design.  i really like some of the digital art i’ve created over the years and i bet i could create screen prints of that without too much difficulty.  i’ve always worked with layers, and that’s basically what gocco printing is.  just layers, and layers, and layers.  i should try it out soon.

i’d also like to start taking photographs.  i’ve been lusting after some cameras that are somewhere between what I have now and an actual digital slr.  the thing is, i know that i wouldn’t take classes or at least, i know that i would not want to put the effort into having an actual slr until i have a good feeling about a regular camera that’s just nice.  i don’t want to think that i could see things a certain way and take photos a certain way and then get a camera and find out that i’m not that good at it.  so i think it’s probably worth just an investment in a really good “slr-like” camera, that’s the newegg classification.

other than that, i’ve just been enjoying the weekend.  the fourth was good.  we had a bunch of people over and partied.  mostly, kyle stayed sober and i partied.  and duker was going to fight a cow but then got inebriated and did not fight the cow, which is too bad.  because i wanted to see him verbally berate a cow.  instead, he yelled about buck o’neill on the back deck for a while.  hopefully, the neighbors aren’t too upset.  luckily, this is the suburbs and everyone goes to sleep early even on the fourth.  even us.

saturday, we slept in a bit and then printed the rest of the invitations and then kyle cleaned the house and we went out with shaw and phil and rachel to the power and light district.  it was nice and there were bright lights which were pretty. and i guess i get that it should be a hot-spot of kansas city.  especially if you’re from out of town.  but i’m telling you, it’s like a power suck, draining all of the idiots out of the places in kansas city where i would really want to go.  so that’s cool.  and the brewery and restaurants and whatever are fine.  but if i’m going to spend that kind of money on a night out, i’m going to dave and busters.  skee ball + trivia + alcohol.  delicious.

i think the best thing about this weekend is that it really calmed a lot of my recent fears about us living together, i know it will be fine. but i think i felt a little bit better about the idea last summer.  mostly because all of the semi-living together that we do now is in the context of being guests in our parents houses and that’s just stressful.  so this weekend we had the chance to hang out and live our lives with some space outside of the room we share when we’re here.  i’m sure it will change, hopefully, but i don’t always feel incredibly comfortable just wandering around his house, esp. as i’m only here a few days a week.  i need a lot of room to live and sometimes i feel like i’m being too antisocial or like it’s weird if i just hang out downstairs while he sleeps.  and othertimes i feel incredibly awkward being forced to socialize because he’s still downstairs.  i’m not sure i can fully explain it, but basically, i’m just very, very ready for us to have our own space.  and this weekend confirmed, for me, that the only thing i want is a place to live with him.

we watched definitely, maybe tonight.  it was pretty good.  as i said to a friend, “it wasn’t THAT predictable.” and that’s true.  i didn’t necessarily see the ending coming until twenty-five or so minutes before it got to the ending.  i also think it got me thinking.  mostly about some things that i’ll only share in a poem or to myself.  i guess i just think it’s weird that someone would marry someone who was not the great love of their life.  i mean, whatever, it’s a movie and a romantic comedy and whatever.  (spoiler alert?:) but for sure, if i thought there was anyone else who i would rather be with if they would just have me, i would not be marrying kyle. and i sort of think the movie made it seem like there was someone else he would have preferred to be with. it also got me thinking about the things that we keep so that we can keep just one piece of someone.  but that’s what the private entry or the poem will be about.  and it will be obvious that that is what it’s about, if i ever get around to writing it or thinking about it.

i’m back at the internship grind tomorrow.  woo.  excitement-time.  the thing is, i think tomorrow i’m just doing sort of odd jobs and tying up some projects i worked on earlier in my internship.  and unplanned days aren’t really my favorite part.  but it’s not like two weeks ago we could really sit down and make a long plan of what i may or may not be doing today.  and i had last week off because everyone in my office was gone.

Another slow week, waiting for the arrival of July

Jess on June 27, 2008

I am in the worst mood for some unknown reason.  I even have reasons to be glad like Kyle is in town tonight and I have a clean room to go home to because I spent all afternoon working on it.  For some reason, there is not enough time in the day and there is too much time until the summer is over and I get to move into an apartment with Kyle who will then become my husband.  Maybe I’ll cheer up soon.

My mom and I are still getting along really well so I hope that keeps happening.  It’s nice.  Every evening when she gets home we sit outside and chat until it’s time for me to go to work.  It’s this sort of getting along that I’m really going to miss when I move away, but I’m sure we’ll keep in touch on the phone and things.

On the brightside, I no longer think that staying at home would bring on bouts of depression which is a big plus because I’ve mostly felt that way for my entire life.  There is a chance that three days without a whole lot of structured things to do is like my critical point where I feel like I have a lot to do without feeling like I have too much time to do it.  We will see, I suppose.

Kyle and I officially move on August 15.  We even have an apartment number already! Yay! 203B!  For some reason, I’ve gotten impossibly excited after figuring out what apartment will be ours.  Maybe it’s related to being able to finish the wedding programs, hah.  I still need to discuss it with him, but I think the plan is for his parents to go with us when we first head down and help us move in the furniture and basic things and then for my mom to accompany us, Logan and the wedding gifts when we head back on Labor Day after the wedding.  It should be a good time.  And I’m excited to get there.

Also, this past week I have been very good with money which is good because I am on a budget.  Go me.

Here's your future

Jess on June 11, 2008

I got word on Monday evening that I am officially admitted to Texas Tech’s museum science program. Now I need to decide some things. Basically, I need to decide by December or sooner whether I want to do all of my correlative courses in history or art history or what. It’s sort of hard to say. I’d like to get into those courses quickly because I find that I tend to better mesh with historians than art historians. Although, I also really like the museum people that I’ve met so far in my internship. Of course, they’re contemporary art and not anthro/history/traditional art museum people. Also, it looks like Tech isn’t really teaching any graduate level courses in African history, or really any undergrad ones either though that doesn’t matter. Plus, they don’t have an actual art history masters program. This is fine, cos they have courses in art history at the graduate level and I don’t need enough of a course load to get a terminal degree in art history. They offer a masters in art education which requires plenty of art history courses so I can basically take whatever art history sections interest me as long as I only care about the west (this is basically true of all art history as art history is way behind regular history in realizing that something happened outside of the european tradition). So I’m thinking about taking intro to feminist thought course and then some contemporary art history. They have a graduate course on basically the art profession in its current state which I think would be super applicable for a career in museum law. It’s also possible for me to take courses through the law school on whatever strikes my fancy. I’m pretty sure that art and museum law is cross-listed in both programs which means that there isn’t necessarily a lot of courses that would be worth my while. Especially as law courses seem to be somewhat or completely impossible to transfer I think it would be better for me to just take mostly electives in art history or history or some other field rather than taking classes that I would essentially need to take twice.

I am pretty much elated to be in. It’s nice because it guarantees that I have something to do in the fall and I no longer have to say that I’m only like 95% sure I’m going. I also feel good that my official admissions decision came without any strings being pulled. Although kyle and i had offers from both Joe and the chair of the comm. department at TTU to pull strings for us, it turns out that will not be necessary because I can go to graduate school on my own merits.

I’m so excited to start school, now. I just want to get to Lubbock. We also got word that we’re good to go on the apartment down there and they are willing to pro-rate our rent for August so we don’t have to worry about paying full price to only live there half the month. Our current plan is to quit work by August 8 and then move there the following week. This should give us some wiggle room if we need to stick around for things like cable to get set up before we have to start class on the 25th and then fly back on the 27th to get married on the 30th. Oh blast.

Returning to the fold

Jess on June 8, 2008

So i’m back from the mountaintop that was the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy of 2008.  It was pretty awesome!  We got rained out of the ropes course which made me sad because that’s my favorite part and I had vowed to jump off of the pole this year, but the Hunger Banquet was facilitated better than I’ve ever seen it done before and the culture walk was also really great.  I really like those two activities and I think for the most part the kids were far more open to things and their emotions than they have been in years past.

In what turned out to be good news, Kyle and I got a phone call in the middle of the week that we could not get into the CEE session that we wanted which was a weekend in July but instead had to go to the one this weekend, thus we went. It was fantastic. We both got a whole lot out of it and we both think that it was worth a whole lot.  Basically, I think anyone considering marriage should consider going to an engagement encounter, through whichever faith… or they should even have them for atheists.  i learned so much about kyle and about myself and about us and what it means to be married this weekend.  i really feel like our relationship is really wonderfully different from when we started the weekend…  it’s much better, we love each other more, and we’re  more capable of open dialogue.  I’ve never felt so close to someone.  And I like that this relationship we’re putting so much effort into.  It’s things like this weekend that confirm to me that we’re different than our past loves.  And that he is exactly who I should be with.