First post of the decade (sad, huh?)

So I just realized that I haven't posted anything all decade! (Sounds worse than it is, doesn't it?) Actually, I didn't just realize it--I've been aware of the fact for a while, now. But since I have the day off of school (thank you, George Washington) I decided to do something about it today.

It's been kind of a busy semester. Chris and I are both taking classes, and he's working full time(more on my own unemployment later), so we don't tend to see a lot of each other except on weekends. This past weekend was a particularly good one, though. It was Valentine's Day yesterday (which I've noticed is a much better holiday when you actually have a Valentine), and we celebrated by making homemade risotto and steak. Yummmm. Chris gave me flowers and chocolate in the morning, and I made him chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon, and it was a really good day. I also finally started using my Wacom tablet that I got for Christmas. I mean, I'd played around with it before, but I really had no clue what I was doing. Finally, though, I looked up a tutorial online, and realized that I wasn't treating it enough like painting--the process goes a lot smoother when you pick out a color palette and combine colors by varying opacities. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

I guess it's a self-portrait, since I was going off of a picture of me. It's not really done, and I definitely hurried on the shirt, but that's probably as done as it's going to get. I guess it's not bad for my first tablet project, though I'm going to keep practicing--I definitely need to use a little more contrast.

I've also been taking a photography class. Luckily, I got my Pell Grant this semester, or else I probably couldn't have afforded this class--the teacher wanted us all to have D-SLRs, which are about $500 at their least expensive. Kind of ridiculous for a class with students who will probably never take another photography class again, but it is a good investment (better than a textbook), so it was kind of nice to have an excuse to buy one. It's been a good class, too--somehow, photography seems so much easier now. Here's some of my pictures:

These were done by shining a bright light through Jones soda bottles with the wrappers taken off. The assignment was to focus on color. It was fun to do, though apparently there's a Jones soda shortage going on--I had to go to five stores before I found one with even a semi-decent selection. Most stores didn't even have any. What's the deal, Jones?

I should probably mention that this is not our faucet. It's the faucet in the girl's bathroom of this random building across from Wyview that used to be an Albertson's, and is now used for bookbinding and other art classes. It's a pretty sweet faucet.

I don't really have a lot of drawings to report this semester, since my only drawing class is figure drawing, and I don't know how you'd feel if I was posting pictures of girls in bikinis and guys in Speedos. Figure drawing, as it turns out, is really hard. It doesn't really help that it's a 3 hour class from 7-10pm, either. I am getting a little better, though--I've been practicing by watching episodes of So You Think You Can Dance and pausing them to get cool poses to draw. I've also been drawing my own face a lot by taking pictures of me with the laptop camera and drawing off of them. It's kind of fun.

Recently, I've been learning to crochet. I even made myself a happy yellow scarf, pictured below:

Chris didn't think I'd ever finish it, so I finished it in less than a week. Turns out, I work best when trying to prove someone wrong. Go figure. Now I'm working on a scarf for Chris. This one's taking a little longer, since it's striped gray and navy, and I've had to learn how to change colors. I don't know if I'm doing it right, but it hasn't fallen apart yet, so that's something, right? I think I'm going to learn how to knit, too--there's this yarn shop in Provo, and the ladies there will teach you how to knit and crochet for free if you buy your supplies from them. Pretty cool, especially for a college student with a limited budget.

I'm not working right now, though I've been trying to find a job. It's been over a month with no success, though Brick Oven Pizza is looking really promising--my cousin works there, so I have an "in," which is about the only way to find a job these days. I'm really, really bugged that I even have to look, because I am not supposed to be unemployed right now. Last November, I decided to start looking for options aside from Pita Pit where I was working--mostly because they were overstaffed, and partly for other reasons--and I found out that Zupas was hiring. I interviewed, and was hired, and they told me that they'd start me the week after Thanksgiving so I'd have time to put in my two weeks notice at Pita Pit. So I did, and I stopped working at Pita Pit--and then Zupas put off my hiring date. First they said it would be in December, and then they told me that it'd be after New Years. So I went in at the beginning of January, and they said, "Oh yeah, we decided we couldn't hire you after all." Gee, thanks for telling me. Like I said, though, I'm really hoping for Brick Oven, and if that doesn't work then I have a possible in at the Sweet Tooth Fairy. That's been my major stress this semester, though. I have been typing a bit for my parents to promote the Reading Teacher's Plan Book, and that's been something, though I really would like a steady job again.

Well, that's about all I can think of to talk about. Basically, Chris and I are doing great, and we hope you are, too! So... ciao!