What kind of city is Iowa City when...

• All the bicycles are locked up but the unicycles aren't?
• Girls wear shorts and a winter coat?
• There are more bars than any other type of businesses?
• The best recycling program we have are the homeless people?
• Pedestrians delegate traffic patterns?
• It's not possible to make some classes in the 10 minute period even while running?
• It costs $40,000 to heat a building that will probably never be used again?

Just some food for thought.

~Until Then

Thought

Did you ever find it strange how when we were in grade school and even a little bit now in college, how students who were in higher grades than you seemed so much (I know ironic) older and wiser? I mean way older and wiser? Then when you finally get to that same grade, you don't feel nearly as old, wise, or awesome as they did. Think back to when we were all freshman/sophomores- Fox, Harms, Eric, Salem? Didn't they seem way older than 17 or 18? They did to me. They felt like adults. Then when I turned 17 and 18, I didn't feel that at all. How is that? I don't notice it so much in college anymore. They were only teenagers and we pretty much thought of them as gods. It's just a thought, or maybe it's just me.

Stay warm everyone.

~Until Then

Acceptance

I got in to Brenau about 2 weeks ago. I'm not making any decisions until I visit the campus next month. I'm slowly hating Iowa City more and more, and the majority of people around me. I'm not sure if my job and PbR are enough to keep me here. There's so much that's drawing me to Georgia. Last night Darin's mom called and gave a heartbreaking speech about how she wants us to stay close, but understands that there aren't exactly the best opportunities in Iowa. I still haven't even told my grandparents that I applied or toying with the idea of leaving. I have a feeling my grandma is going to disown me when I do tell her. I don't really see any of my WDM friends so that's not what's keeping me here. I have a feeling I'm going to leave, I'm excited and nervous. I told Darin that I'm just going to flip a coin. He told me that's a good idea, because even if it lands on the side that you think you want, you're going to flip again until you land on the side that you actually want.

Over labor day I had to go home and pack up my dad's house. It was hard and I was crying all of Friday night. Our whole house had to be repainted, and I've seen pictures on Iowarealty, but I refuse to go back in the house. My mom is going to go over and get the last of my things. We ended up throwing so many things away, that we just couldn't justify taking with us. Sure some of the things I have in boxes probably won't see daylight again for 10 years, but the fact that I know that it's there somewhere and I can go back to it is more than enough for me. Obviously my dad and I want the house to sell quickly, but for different reasons. His is money, mine is to just get it over with like a band-aid. Espresso is living with Darin and I, and so we'll see how Darin's allergies take to her over the winter once everything is all shut up. Hope to see some of you guys over breaks, hope all is well.

~Until Then

~Until Then

Damn the State Fair

~Until Then

My Reasons

This is a tad of an emotional post.

So my dad is selling our house. We've talked about it for a couple of months and it's kind of a tough subject. I've never really moved. I lived in my mom's house as a kid, but my dad's house is my house. I've basically customized that entire basement. Sure my mom's house is there, but after I moved out in 8th grade, she has since redone every room in the house. I didn't really realize how big of an attachment I have to that town home. Once my dad sells the house, I essentially don't have a home anymore. It's one thing to come home to a house that your dad owns, but doesn't live in anymore, but it's another thing to not have a home at all. I still feel like I'm too young for that. I hate sleeping there by myself, and unless Darin comes with me, I stay at my mom's. I told my dad that he could sell it when I was in Georgia, and I was in tears by the end of the whole conversation.

This weekend Darin and I were cleaning out my room. We're taking most of my bedroom furniture to Iowa City and we were cleaning out the storage bins under my bed. I came across a box full of old birthday cards from when I was 7 and then from every year on. There were cards from friends and family. Now, I tend to keep almost every handwritten letter, card, or anything personal that was written and given to me. I've got several boxes that sit on a shelf 364 days out of the year, but I open them once a year or so and look through them, just for laughs or sentimental value. I had forgotten that I had these cards, since they were shoved way under my bed. I was flipping through some birthday cards and there was a card that said "To our daughter.." or something like that, and I opened it up and it said its cute little message and then "Love Mom and Dad." I completely lost it. I think finding those cards, paired with moving things out of my room that will never go back in there, and selling the house that I love just was a bit too much. Sure I'm okay with my parent's divorce and I love the people that they're seeing. My parents are happy! But seeing those cards that I got as a 7 year old me was really bizarre. How was I supposed to know what was to come in the future? I'm tearing up constantly as I write this post.

I don't think I'm ready to grow up this soon. I want to hold on to parts of the past. I want to be a kid again. In a year and a half my world was turned upside down without any kind of warning.

~Until Then

My car met it's match.

So I have a off road rated vehicle. We were in Fairfield yesterday and decided to test it out on a Level B road. As you can see it didn't work out too well.



My dad said even if I was driving a sedan, I still would have been stuck in the mud. At least it happened in Fairfield where there is your friendly neighborhood tractor, and not your West Des Moines $80 dollar fee tow truck.

~Until Then

Isn't it funny when you meet someone you know in a sex shop?

I do not believe that Michael Jackson is dead. I think it is a hoax. He's one of those people that was probably going to find some way to live forever. His music was great and his dance moves are legend, but him as a person I'd rather not think about.

However, I am sad to hear that Billy Mays died. He was a great man, someone to truly aspire to become one day.

PS- I bought a bag that has a cover from a 2005 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine and it was about the same time that Jackson was going to go to trial and there was a sub title about MJ trial and defense strategies. I'm not sure if that makes the bag slightly more awesome or more depressing, but it's not the reason I bought it. In fact I didn't realize it was on there until after I had bought it.

~Until Then

One Hour of Hell

This weekend Darin and I went to Georgia to go rafting for Father's day weekend. We left Friday afternoon, and we almost didn't make our flight even though we left Iowa City to get to Moline in plenty of time. Darin's '80 BMW has some problems. There is something wrong in the wiring that won't allow his battery to hold much of a charge, but this is usually fixed by plugging in the battery or getting the engine up over 55mph for over an hour. Well something happened when we went to Hannibal, MO 2 weekends ago, and it just won't hold a charge at all. So now when we want to get the bike started, we have to find a hill and roll start the bike. It's a pain in the ass, so for the past week the bike has just sat in the parking lot.

So on Friday we managed to get the bike started and took off towards the airport. We took the motorcycle with us because we were going to get it looked at and get some work done to it before we left. (The dealer is in Rock Island) About 2 miles from the Mississippi on the Iowa side, Darin pulled over (I was driving the Jeep) and he had me switch his bike off of reserve which would give him about 30 more miles. Plenty of time for us to get the bike to the BMW dealer. We hit the road again and not 2 minutes later he pulls off on the side of the road and the bike has died because it ran out of gas. Darin pushed the bike back up to the nearest on ramp and parked the bike while I turned around and went to go find a gas station. I pulled off on the same exit that he was and went looking. Ten minutes later I found one. I spent 10 dollars buying a gas tank and then spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to put it together. While all this is going on, I'm on the phone with my dad, his parents, and the dealership to see if they have a trailer to come get us, and of course this is the one day a week that there is no trailer. Go figure. I get it filled and go find Darin. As I pull up to him, there's a guy in a truck who has pulled over to help us roll start it on the flat ramp (the guy is a BMW owner as well). We get the bike filled and roll started, and finally all is looking well. I get in the Jeep and follow Darin on the ramp. He pulls off again on the side of the road, and waves me own, or so I thought. I drive another 50 feet or so and look back and he's still on the side of the road. I stop the car, get out, and run towards him. He starts running away from the bike back down the on ramp. The man is keeping the bike reved so it won't die on us. Darin has lost his glasses. He wasn't wearing his normal glasses for the bike, and apparently when he turned back to see if there was anyone merging, his glasses flew off his face. So Darin and I are on the side of the road looking for his glasses. He's no use without his glasses, so it's up to me. Darin tells the guy to just leave the bike because we have to get to the airport in 20 minutes. Oh and now it's starting to sprinkle. We keep looking for another 5 minutes or so, and finally decide to call it off. As we cross the road, I run across his glasses! Darin gets back on the bike and we decide to give it one last try. I push the bike down the shoulder and it starts! Great we still have to time to get to the airport! Darin takes off on the bike and I make my way back to the car. Now I wished the story ended here, but it doesn't. Not one minutes after I was back on the road, it starts pouring. A few miles later, I pull off on the exit and start to make my way towards the airport. While I'm driving, I get a call from Darin. He's lost, and I think that he took a wrong turn. I can't really understand him but I tell him to head back to the exit and try again. After I hang up with him, I see him driving past me in the wrong direction. Finally I get to the airport after calling him multiple times to turn around. I go inside and check our bags. The next thing I know, Darin shows up next to me soaking wet. He changes and then I lose him for another 10 minutes because I didn't know what bathroom he went to. We go through security and then ,of course, my purse gets pulled for inspection. We have 10 minutes to catch our flight. I'm in full out tears and frustration right now, and I think "What the hell is in my purse?" Then I remember that I have a pocket knife that I carry on my keys. I go over and fish the keys out of the purse. The guy asks if I just want to mail the whole thing back to me. Fine, whatever. We head to our get with 5 minutes to spare. I then remember that I have my multi tool in my purse as well. Oops. Then when we get to the gate, it starts raining sheets. You can't see five feet out of the windows. There was a rolling cart just past the window and it was gaining a lot of speed and crashed into something. There was an announcement saying that all passengers and personnel should step back from the windows, and the the power goes out. Luckily our plan was only late 30 minutes.

So the rest of my weekend went well, great rafting! I still took all of Monday off.

~Until Then

If you write a typo is that a writo?

College? It's overrated. Too much money, too much work, way too much bullshit, but yet I signed up to do it again next year, and even this summer as well as working 40 hours a week. So much has happened in a month. I feel like my life has really transitioned. I'm paying rent, working 40 hours a week, just finished up the first of my two classes this summer, and still trying to fit in a little bit of a social life. What happened? I've only been out of high school for a year now.

This past semester sucked. I didn't enjoy any of my classes, and it took a beating on my GPA. All I can say is that I am glad Valley offered all of those easy college credit classes to counter balance my grades from this semester. This college shit it hard, especially if you know what you want to do, but don't know how to get there.

My first summer class was called "Drama in the Classroom." Sadly it was focused on using drama techniques in the elementary classroom. Over the course of three weeks, we had to teach two demo lessons. The first of the two lessons was a lesson that was already written for an elementary level classroom, and the second lesson we had to create for what ever context we wanted to teach in and it had to relate to a science, math, or social studies subject matter. My lesson that I did to day was about character development. I rocked the lesson! It was the first thing in a long time that really gave me a confidence booster and motivation to continue on with this whole teaching degree thing. Sadly I ended with a god damn B+ because I didn't do review in my first lesson and that brought me down a few points. I hate it when a class is only based off of about 100 or so points.

Next semester I'm applying to the college of education. There's about a 70% chance that I'll get in, and hopefully I'll be able to do my 10 hours of volunteering at Valley. The college of education is like an abyss or a black hole. I don't really know what happens in the college of ed. I'm pretty sure it's full of spys, because they don't like talking to you if you aren't actually in the college.

In May I did my first lessons for scuba diving. That was very challenging, rewarding, and frustrating all at the same time. It's a whole other world underwater, even just in a twelve foot deep pool. It's actually fairly easy to get used to breathing underwater and maneuvering around in the gear. The most dramatic moment was when I left the pool momentarily to go switch out my tank and I came back in and headed underwater. We were given some free time to practice our skills for our open water diver. A lot of the divers were working on hovering in the pool and fine tuning their buoyancy. I look out at the deep end and there are all these strange people in scuba gear just floating in the water. It was very creepy, they all looked dead. Darin and I do our certification dive later this month. I'm so excited.

So I've left Des Moines behind, I've moved to a new city have all new friends. I'm one year older, one year closer to doing what I want to. Is it worth it?

~Until Then

Red Without Blue

If you have about 80 minutes to kill, I suggest you check out this link. It's an interesting documentary about twins when one decides to change his gender.

"I don't think of them as my children, I think of them as young people I know."

~Until Then

A quick update

Today I woke up late and didn't have time to go eat breakfast, so Darin picked me up on the bike and we stopped at a gas station. I ran in and got a couple of donuts and drinks. As I was headed to class I thought to myself, "That bastard never gave me any change." Then I thought, "I never paid for any of this." I told Darin that we needed to turn around and go back. I felt terrible, and I can't believe that I actually forgot to pay for something. I went inside and told the guy what happened. Luckily he was laughing about it. He thought I had left the store with some napkins and didn't see that I had drinks in my hand. He told me that it happens more often than not, and that I was nice to actually come back and pay for them.

Also, for the past week I've secretly become a surrogate mother to two baby ducks. Purdy (the yellow one) and Percy (the brown one.) They've secretly been living in a bin in Darin's bathroom for the past week. Darin's mother's side of the family is huge (70+ people) and they have a Easter get together every year. Darin's family is in charge of providing entertainment for the great grand kids and they usually go to a farming store and get a handful of baby ducks and chicks for the day. The ducks and chicks then grow up on the farm that his family has. They're pretty much the most adorable things I've ever seen. It's almost like having children, except you can keep them in a box and you give them up after a week (we're taking them down to Fairfield later today.) They swim around in this 5 gallon bucket we have, and last night we let them swim in the bathtub.


Oh this summer, I will be in Iowa City. I think the Des Moines chapter of my life is pretty much done, so it's kind of weird to think about. I've grown up there my whole life, but now most of my friends are gone and my dad doesn't live there anymore. I'm getting an apartment next year, so if you're ever in town and need a place to stay let me know!

Also, plans are in the works of a motorcycle trip in August! Darin and I are going up to Canada and then making our way back down into Michigan to see my neices and then back down to Iowa City.

Hope all is well, and it was great seeing those of you last Thursday. Maybe I'll see you all again for "Grapes of Wrath" next month?

~Until Then

I Got Stuck

Yesterday I got stuck in an elevator, I was only stuck for a few minutes, but I was the only one in the elevator. I'm not claustrophobic, but it definitely startled me for a bit.

I'm moving off campus next year, I'm really excited about it. It's only 2 blocks away from where I live now, and it's super cheap and also super awesome! I'm moving in with Darin, and I couldn't be happier or more excited for it.

I hate my classes this semester, they're killing me. They're no fun, not even my theatre classes. I feel like they all talk about the same thing. Why can't I just graduate and do the teaching myself. Can you home school college yourself? I don't know.

I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with my improv troupe. I've got a riff with one of the current captains. He's running it poorly but is being a jerk about it. He basically wants people to quit if they don't like how it's run. He want's the best quality show (which is understandable) but not if it drives a division between the group. First semester, there were 7 new people and we were told that all of us would be performing by the end of the semester, and that happened, but it was really shitty. The captains told us that we would be introduced over the course of three shows, because some of us were more stage ready than others. Well the first two people were introduced into a show right before Thanksgiving break, fine and dandy. Well now it's time to get more people in, but oh wait- the captains fucked up and one of the shows that they were going to bring people in was actually a special show where my group only got 30 minutes of stage time, so they didn't bring any new people in. So they ended up throwing the other five of us into the last show before winter break, and it was terrible.

Now we've come to this semester, and rehearsals are really shitty, but our one captain won't get his act together and unify the group. Our troupe is already exclusive because we hold auditions, but now with this whole "quality" issue, we're being divided into two other groups. I no longer have fun doing improv, and I hate going to rehearsals. I've become completely self conscious again, and I hate that. I feel like I'm being judged constantly, and that I (and a few other members) are secretly trying to be persuaded to quit. Fuck this.

So yea, All State is this weekend, and I'll see you all there if you're going.

~Until Then

Three words- Counter weight system!

First off, happy New Years and a belated happy holiday season. I didn't really have anything worth writing about, beyond a sentence or two on Facebook. Before break, I was offered a job through the Division of Performing Arts at U of I. I work on the electrics crew doing generally the same stuff I was caught doing in the auditorium at VHS; but now I get paid (by the book) to do it. The only downside was that I had to cut my break two weeks short to come back to Iowa City and work 40 hours a week before classes started, but if I enjoyed doing it at Valley, then I didn't think I would mind doing it here. Also, there really isn't much left for me in Des Moines. My life has shifted to Iowa City, and I think that this is where I'm going to be this summer as well.

It's now been a week since I started the job, and I absolutely love it. My boss is like a way younger (but nearly as sarcastic) Mr. Borstad who swears just as much. I'm the youngest one on the crew, but that doesn't bother me. Everyone just seems to click and works well, as well as goofing around once and a while. Everyone just looks like a techie, acts like a techie, talks like a techie, etc, it's awesome! I don't work nights or weekends, unless I'm doing board op for one of the shows. Not only do I work in the theatre department, but I also work in the dance studio, and the occasional operas. Unfortuneatley, due to a large amount of water this summer, Voxman and Hancher are still inoperable, so the operas have been moved about througout the rest of campus or downtown Iowa City.

I still can't believe that I have this job, and probably won't believe it until I get my first pay check. I've got a job doing something that I love and am good at. I get paid to be techie and show up in grungy jeans and a sweatshirt. No one cares what you look like, there is no dress code, or formalities; just show up and do the work, and don't be a jerk about it. I can pick when I work and for how long I work as well.

I loved what I did at Valley, even though I would bitch about it a lot, I really enjoyed it. The concerts, plays, meetings, or whatever else needed technical assistance really fascinated me. The auditorium at Valley will always have a place in my heart, I know every knook and cranny of the place and didn't mind spending hour after hour there doing stuff. Now I'm here and I've got a whole new place to fall in love with. I've gone from one theatre to four theatres, Space Place- dance theatre in North Hall, Mabie theatre, Thayer theatre, and Theatre "B"- all in the Theatre Building. Each theatre is completely different in set up, and each has it's own system of complex cats and grid systems. I now have four booths to call home and chill out in. Also, these performing arts divisions have money. That means no more "A" frame ladders, we now have Genies for each space. No more "just grab what lights we do have", now it's "put the 50 extra lights up in the gallery", or "get 15 36 degree Source 4's and 23 26 degree Strands". We've got lights that cost 10 grand and gobos and gels like you wouldn't believe. Every show has a lighting designer, which means every show has a lighting plot which has to be put together in a specific order. We've got Master Electricians and a crew of 10+ people, not 3. I've got a black box theatre, 2 thrust stages- with one of them being a beautiful main stage with a huge show (4x the size of Valley's), and a proscenium stage with a beautiful dancer's floor. There's prop storage like you wouldn't believe, and it's all organized! The two things that I like most about this job, is A) we don't have to scramble for lights, headsets, boxes, or cabels and B) the counter weight system in Mabie with a 52' fly space. I've never worked with a fly space or a counter weight system. No more having to spend twenty minutes cranking down the electrics and 40 to crank it back up. No more having to get the entire BD and BDT together just to hoist the scrim back up to the batons. It takes one person, just one person. No more fraying ropes and impossibly heavy curtains. It's incredible!

I really do love my job and I'm so fortunate that I found it so soon. No more kitchens for me or depressing off campus jobs. I do what I love and what I'm good at. It's incredible.

~Until Then

PS- Who's going to be at Parent's Night on Friday?