My God, He's Making me Draw!

My art appreciation professor assigned the class it's first hands on project for the semester. It's a 100 point project and it's due one month from today.

We have to take an advertisement, full face shot, and reproduce it in pencil in the naturalist style. Then we have to do a series of panels, where we take our reproduction and add abstract elements, then after completing 8 of these panels, we are to redo the original naturalism drawing in the abstract.

I draw stick people remarkably well.  That is the extent of my talent.

Happily, Dave said that we can use a grid to do the work, as long as the grid lines don't appear on the finished product.

Today I hie to Hobby Lobby to buy artist pencils, since the work can only be in black and white. The skillful use of eraser and smudging can provide proper shading, etc. It looks to be an interesting project.

Yesterday, it rained cats and dogs. I, as a consequence to having to walk about campus, spent the day in wet shoes. I hate having my feet stuck in wet shoes. My feet were all pruney when I took them off at home. I digress, while I killed time in-between classes, I got to meet a few of my fellow students, all younger than me of course, and we spent a couple of hours just hanging out and talking about anything. Surprisingly, three of the young men were musicians, and even though they are about 19 to 20 years old, they all appreciate Rush! They are also surprisingly conservative in some areas, financial in particular.

The main reason they are doing their core work at the community college is because of the cost of higher education. Marcus, one of the guys I was talking with, made a good point when he said that it made no sense to pay triple or quadruple the tuition for math, when he could save the money. He will transfer his credits to the 4 year he wants to attend, once his core is done. He will still have to borrow, but this way he is borrowing less.

Very sensible of him.

I am really enjoying talking to the kids I meet on campus. Thus far, they have been polite and engaging. They all think it rocks that someone my age is starting a second career. Last semester, after I made friends of a sort with a few girls, I even got asked advise about boys. Yesterday I was asked about how to get ahead at the work place...then we talked about music, art and professors who suck.

The real treat is when one of the music students breaks out his instrument and plays. Last semester I got treated to many an impromptu guitar performance, yesterday was the violin. On Monday, for the Chinese New Year, there were dragons and drums.

I am really enjoying school and sometimes I regret not going when I was much younger. Sometimes. I don' t think that I really would have appreciated the experience back then.

I do now.

COOTIES!!!!!!!!

Fuck, fuck, fucketey fuck....the 11 year old has head lice. Oh joy! I just looooove school days.
The last time I dealt with head lice was when my eldest, who is now 15, was 5 or 6. She got lice from her daycare center. Three days later, after three treatments with Nit, I had to resort to smothering the fuckers with half a jar of Blue Plate Mayonaise.

Her hair stank for days, inspite of numerous shampoo's, and it was a messy job. Not to mention the fact that Blue Plate Mayo, when bought in Texas, is very pricey.

Hopefully I won't have to resort to the Blue Plate treatment with this child; her hair isn't as thick as her sister's. Fingers crossed.

And Fuck ALL, if I'm not suddenly itchy!!!!  I know it's psychosomatic, but HELL!

Where's the scotch?

At any rate, there go my plans for tomorrow; I am making my special meatloaf (thanks Rachel Ray) for my friend Claude and his wife. They just had a baby, and I finally get to meet Baby Claude this weekend, when I go to New Orleans. I'm bringing the meatloaf for dinner, since poor Christina and Claude are pretty much sleepless. She breast feeds, which means she's up every TWO BLOODY HOURS! This is why I didn't breast feed, but that's an entry for another day. Maybe.

Claude is the fella who introduced me to my fiance. Claude and I grew up together, practically. He was even a boy friend of sorts for a short time. Anyway, his best friend, and best man at his wedding, Mike (my fiancee), is a cop here in Houston. He, Claude and I went to the same high school together, we hung out with the same crowd, he dated a chick I was on color guard with; we probally passed each other in the halls a zillion times. Yet, we never met until this past September, when Claude gave Mike my number and we talked for hours. The rest is history, and for another blog post.

So, to get back to the point, Claude's lovely bride of 10 years gave birth to the cutest little boy, and Mike and I are going to see them this weekend. I remember how tired I was after giving birth and how thankful I was when friends and family brought home cooked meals. Life savers those were. Hence the meat loaf, and not your average meat loaf either.

Pictures and reciepe will post tomorrow. 

I'll just get the daughter up early, knock out the fucking lice, then do the meatloaf...after I sterilize the kitchen, scrub myself down with a loofa in a hot bath, wash ALL of the linens in the house, and knock back some mommy juice to get rid of the psychosomatic lice that are crawling on everything.

Homecoming!!!

I remember Homecoming weekend in high school, and this year I have a Freshman.  Back in my day (the 80's, YEAH!) we wore school colors and voted for the court. Being from New Orleans, it was a bonus if the weather was "Fall" like, and today in Houston, it is!

Not much has changed, except where the homecoming mums were once reserved for the homecoming court, they are now "the" thing for all of the students. There is a half day of school today and a pep rally (naturally)...my daughter's first homecoming pep rally.

I still can't believe I have a child old enough to be a Freshman! Or, how expensive those damn mums are!