Amazing Things June-November

Hi everyone,

As it’s finals week at SCAD again (my last one!), and things are a bit busy, I figured I’d pass along more highlights from my Amazing Journal:

I've been having fun making tiny journals

June 16, 2011: Today we went to the National Postal Museum and it was so kitschy and pathetic. In the middle of an exhibit on the Pony Express, there was a random Hotwheels car on a shelf in a glass case, totally unexplained and irrelevant.

June 23, 2011: Today, at a documentary film, I learned that author John Gantos smuggled a vast amount of hash into New York, got 1 1/2 years in prison, and then became an author for children (Rotten Ralph). Quote of the night? “Whether you’ve gone to prison or not, everyone’s had a bad day.”

July 4, 2011: Today, at Smith Mountain Lake, it was raining, so we drove to a little shopping center nearby. As we were pulling in, Rachel said, “I’m going to find a fudge shop. These kind of places always have a fudge shop.” I told her that with those words, she’d pierced the core of American culture. About five minutes later, we saw a big sign advertising a fudge shop.

July 10, 2011: Today, right before we processed down the aisle at Katy’s wedding (!!!!!), we noticed a small silent boy crouching in the shrubbery watching us. It turns out he was a guest, but none of us knew who he was at first.

July 21, 2011: Today Rachel told us about how for an undergrad science class, she had to buy a lab coat. One of her friends told her that LifeWay, the Christian bookstore, sold them at the back of the store. So Rachel went there and asked if they had any lab coats. They looked at her as though she were an idiot and said, “No...”

July 29, 2011: Today, at Fiddlefest, Rachel, Jamie, Sarah and I were hit on by this kid who claimed to be 21, was really into talking about acting and his Eddie Murphy impressions, and kept bringing up state capitals awkwardly: When he found out Jamie was from New Mexico, he said, “Are you from the capital, Santa Fe?” When he found out I was from Washington, he asked if I’d been to Olympia. Our friend, Richard, also apparently was really into spelling bees in high school.

July 30, 2011: Today in the airport, I overheard a man talking on his cell phone. All I heard was, “I saw you called. I was talking to King Richard.”

August 14, 2011: Today, just to confirm all the stereotypes about Northern Idaho, we saw a sign advertising a 24 gun safe. I don’t know whether to be relieved that 24 guns could potentially be kept out of the hands of kids, or whether to be alarmed at the prospect of someone with 25 guns. Where is that last one going to go?

August 20, 2011: Today, Mackenzie told Divi and me that someone who was giving a tour of the WSU cadaver lab to a bunch of high schoolers decided to play a joke on them and put some hummus in a cadaver before they came and then proceeded to eat some of it with a chip in front of everyone. He was fired.

August 29, 2011: Today I had ice cream and peaches for lunch with goldfish [crackers] for dessert. I love being a grownup.

September 9, 2011: Today, we went to a thesis show that had McDonald’s for the food and it had a ketchup fountain for the fries.

September 12, 2011: Today, as I was running at Forsyth, a man wearing bright green shorts, a running top and a sweat band thing that may have contained headphones passed me and as he did, he sort of panted/squeaked “Peter . . . Pan . . .”

September 14, 2011: Today in my Materials and Techniques class, there was a guy named Matt Jackson. He has a sister named Sarah and a dad named Gordon. WOAH.

September 28, 2011: Today, thanks to Becky, I had a legitimate reason to say “I just picked Carl Kasell’s nose.” I love being in art school.

September 30, 2011: Today, Jasmine and I went on this gorgeous wooden ship docked by River Street. It turns out the people who sail it are part of the community of rather creepy Christian hippies who made that delicious bread we bought in San Sebastian [when we were hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain]. They knew exactly the place we’d gotten the bread and they gave us the same religious pamphlets the other folks had given us.

October 9, 2011: Today, at church, the Savannah-area church we prayed for was Faith Primitive Baptist. Seriously? Someone thought that was a good name? Even something like Faith Ancient Baptist is better. This just conjures up images of cavemen pounding their chests and grunting, “Me Jesus loves. Bible say so.”

October 13, 2011: Today I read about a man in Wenatchee who totaled his car when he ended up driving the wrong way on a street. When police asked what had distracted him, he said he’d seen a pterodactyl.

October 20, 2011: Today John Rise [the professor I’m TA-ing for] told me he used to shoot hoops with Bob Dylan. I asked if Dylan was any good, and he said no.

October 23, 2011: Today at the Block Party at church, we had grownup bouncy castle time. It was perfect! It was exactly what a lot of us needed, I think, and it showed me that there might actually be some value to Becky’s and my idea of trampoline church. (It was nice, by the way, to be counted as an official grownup when deciding which session of bouncy castle time I got to be in!)

November 3, 2011: Today, I took two pain pills and all of a sudden got quite zonked. I basically fell asleep at the table, felt like I was going to throw up, and when Becky asked what flavor of milkshake I’d like, I told her, “Oh, milkshake would be good.” I went upstairs and promptly fell asleep for two hours.

Have an amazing week!

Sarah/Mouse

ps: Thanks for all the wishes for a speedy recovery from my surgery. I am doing much better, and reached a milestone this weekend when I could finally shower without plastic wrapping and double bagging my foot and holding it at an angle outside the shower so it wouldn’t get wet.