Yay! The final project, the finale of the class .. the last meeting.  It’s been fun, right? I can tell you, this class has been the bright spot in my semester, at least compared to 2 programming classes. It didn’t go the way I had expected or anticipated, but it was horrible. It got me thinking about some pretty odd ball ideas, and help me in my independent study class as well.

Anyway, on to Kristin’s Series Finale!

My project idea was brought on when my husband and I received a phone call from a friend of ours that was out in the stick’s visiting his girlfriend. He called because they had seen a man outside wondering around and had hammered on the door a couple of times and then ran off.  They were inside trying to keep quiet so that they would not be heard.

When we got off the phone with them, I had a novel idea.  I have watched those movies a hundred times, you know the one. The one where someone is getting chased down in the house or in the woods, and needs to be quiet so they don’t get caught? Well I have come up with the solution (conceptualized of course) and a mock up for the advertisement.

My theme obviously is fear and somewhat of a solution for that fear. Here is the pdf of the mock up for the advertisement.

What a better way to describe Charles Bukowski then with his own work. A cult figure that loved his booze, women, and writing.

BEER
from: Love is A Mad Dog From Hell
I don’t know how many bottles of beer
I have consumed while waiting for things
to get better
I dont know how much wine and whisky
and beer
mostly beer
I have consumed after
splits with women-
waiting for the phone to ring
waiting for the sound of footsteps,
and the phone to ring
waiting for the sounds of footsteps,
and the phone never rings
until much later
and the footsteps never arrive
until much later
when my stomach is coming up
out of my mouth
they arrive as fresh as spring flowers:
“what the hell have you done to yourself?
it will be 3 days before you can fuck me!”

the female is durable
she lives seven and one half years longer
than the male, and she drinks very little beer
because she knows its bad for the figure.

while we are going mad
they are out
dancing and laughing
with horney cowboys.

well, there’s beer
sacks and sacks of empty beer bottles
and when you pick one up
the bottle fall through the wet bottom
of the paper sack
rolling
clanking
spilling gray wet ash
and stale beer,
or the sacks fall over at 4 a.m.
in the morning
making the only sound in your life.

beer
rivers and seas of beer
the radio singing love songs
as the phone remains silent
and the walls stand
straight up and down
and beer is all there is.

AS CRAZY AS I EVER WAS
from: Love is A Dog From Hell

drunk and writing poems
at 3 a.m.

what counts now
is one more
tight pussy

before the light
tilts out

drunk and writing poems
at 3:15 a.m.

some people tell me that I’m
famous.

what am I doing alone
drunk and writing poems at
3:18 a.m.?

I’m as crazy as I ever was
they don’t understand
that I haven’t stopped hanging out of 4th floor
windows by my heels-
I still do
right now
sitting here

writing this down
I am hanging by my heels
floors up:
68, 72, 101,
the feeling is the
same:
relentless
unheroic and
necessary

sitting here
drunk and writing poems
at 3:24 a.m.

NIGHT SCHOOL
from Dangling In the Tournefortia

in the drunk driver’s class
assigned there by division 63
we are given tiny yellow pencils
to take a test
to see if we have been listening
to the instructor.
questions like: the minimum sentence for a
2nd drunk driving conviction is:
a) 48 days
b) 6 months
c) 90 days
there are 9 others questions.
after the instructor leaves the room
the students begin asking the questions:
“hey, how about question 5? that’s a
tough one!”
“did he talk about that?”
“I think its 48 days.”
“are you sure?”
“no, but that’s what I’m putting
down.”
one women circles all 3 answers
on all questions
even though we’ve been told to
select only one.

on our break I go down and
drink a can of beer
outside a liquor store.
I watch a black hooker
on her evening stroll.
a car pulls up.
she walks over and they
talk.
the door opens.
she gets in and
they drive off.

back in class
the students have gotten
to know each other.
they are a not-very-interesting
bunch of drunks.
I visualize them sitting in a
bar
and i remember why
I started drinking
alone.

the class begins again.
it is discovered that I am
the only one to have gotten
100 percent on the test.

I slouch back in my chair
with my dark shades on.
I am the class
intellectual.

No, it’s not the latest fad …

Wait .. maybe it is, or at least for this class … lol

Anyhow, I know, bad joke. I fell off the wagon, like many, and got behind on my postings. It’s not to say I consiously did not do them because I felt bad or whatever, because even despite feeling sick most of the semester it is easier to post than it is to make it to class, trust me. It was simply those common, “Oh crap!!” moments. Can I blame it on prego brain?

Well, I am using the handy dandy recap that Beth sent out to make sure I don’t miss a past thought.  I summon the thoughts of sideways-ness and continue to blog!!

So I didn’t share my connections in class .. but who could blame me! If you read mine then listened to Brandon and a couple other people’s mine was crap! So I decided to expand on it.

 The ultrasound that I had done was to rule out the possibility of twins. We went fairly early in the morning and we were back before our employee, whom I affectionally call Lacky, was in that morning. When he came in we told him it was in fact, not twins, but triplets! He was shocked and immediately started making phone calls (as he is a friend of my husband’s as well). Shortly after that calls started coming in, in shock about what the holy hell we were going to do with 4 kids and 3 of them infants. Some offered help, some were like “dude .. that’s messed up!” lol. Don’t worry we told our parents that there was only one just in case something got back to them.

 Anyhow, we still run into people a couple of times asking, a week and a half later. It adds a little humor to the story, but still not all that great .. lol

Well, I hate doing this. I don’t like reviewing classmates assignments at all. I have no problems reviewing my employees work and telling them exactly what is wrong or right, but when it is a peer that is on the same level that I am it makes me uncomfortable, and because of that, I am refusing to actually give my peer an actual grade. I will however comment on the project and effort but will in no way assign a grade as I absolutely think that in no way is it my place to do so.

My peer review was LeTasha and I think she was done what was asked of her. I saw the project and I could make some obvious assumptions from what she did, but I guess my gripe would be that she didn’t defend it as much as I would have liked to have heard. Everyone can pull their own opinions, but my perception of the project was suppose to have a person meaning to them. In fairness, I do not believe I described mine all that well either. (Just so the Pot is calling the Kettle black)

In otherwords, I would have just liked to have heard more about the project in her words.

A photograph can connect a family, a city, and maybe even the world. This morning I went for an unplanned Ultrasound to rule out the possibility of twins and to make sure the baby was healthy since I have been having so much difficulty with this pregnancy. So for connections assignment, I am submitting a picture from my ultrasound. It can be looked at many ways and connects us all differently.

My husband and I connected as we watched our second child for the first time. My son looked at it and at first said the baby was scarey then changed his mind and said the baby was scared because it was stuck. The grand parents will all ooo and awww together connecting in a way that only a grand parent can. Any how is that? By spoiling them rotten just to be sent home to be little nightmares.

Another way, and slightly upsurd way is that there is a supernatural connection. An employee of our company took one look at it, and he seems to think that I am going to have the first alien baby! Even since he saw it this morning he has been talking non-stop about xfiles types of things. I think he feels some connection to the weird and bizarre, but hey, what can you do.

Something I spoke about with Beth over the weekend for our Independent Study was how a photograph means something different to everyone not just because everyone has a generally different opinion but also because of people’s different experiences. For example, if I hated children, or was a woman who could not have children, I may resent the photo and think it is absolutely retarded, and wish the Mother would put the god damn thing away. If I had had a miscarrage not too long ago, I may also resent the picture, or be extremely jealous. It might hurt my heart to even look at it because it brings back hurtful memories.

Everyone is different and connects differently. I am sure there are people in this class that are bored to tears with this blog, or are like “Shut up about your damn pregnancy” and that is your right, but there are others (perhaps some moms, aunts, or uncles in the class) that may bring back some fond memories. 

I connect not only to this picture as my child, but a physical connection for 5 and a half more months. My husband also connects to this baby in a physical way wishing that I wasn’t feeling sick and complaining all the time. LOL!

So I did not do the assignment the way Beth would have like but attempted, a little late in the game and did something that I have not done in a long time. I took 3 or 4, 1 hour blocks (after my son went to bed, before I had to take a shower and start heading that way myself)

If you know me, you know that I haven’t seen my mom or her parents for nearly 7 years, and I was very close to my grandparents. My Nan (she didn’t like being called Grandma because she didn’t want to feel old), quilted and made teddy bears for craft fairs and for order. Every morning she would spend a couple hours working in her work room, and when I was there, I would play with the half made bears and the closet full of fabrics. 

She taught me to quilt, and it was always one of my favorite past times. When I was pregnant with my son, I got very jittery .. wanted to do hobbies, something that was productive and here I am again. So I started a quilting project, and while I work on it, I remember every little thing you would say to me. Her secrets to the perfect stitch .. complimenting colors in the patter ect.

That is one of my many blisses, but one I had forgotten and found again.

To be honest, I did not pay much attention to this movie. I can’t remember for sure whether this was the movie with this cartoon beginning where when the light hit him he turned to a tree or something (nice graphics btw), or the one with all the quantium physics people talking or if that was the same movie or it not at all.

To continue to be honest, I feel asleep for about 20 minutes of that movie, but not necessarily because the movie was boring .. but just because of how exhausted I was. Now to contradict myself, I did find what some of the people were talking about interesting but can’t recall what that was, so obviously I didn’t take it in very well.

This post has more to turned into a rambling of, I was paying attention but wasn’t, and slept. I do remember the little cartoon, but again, am not sure if that was the same thing. I think the adventure and turning to a tree has many different stories to interpret, and I also think that it depends on what day you catch a person.

I cannot get anything done today. So much work, so much unpacking and packing, dinner, homework, test, project, time with my son …..

There are just not enough hours in the day! 

Today was much .. and I do mean much better than yesterday. Of course just about anything is better than changing a tire on the side of the road in downtown indy in 18 and falling degrees.  Have I harped on that enough?

Because of that, I did have to waste half of my day getting it fixed.  But anyhow, a change of subject.

 We moved into a new house over this last weekend, and I am still feeling very aprehensive about it.  Why? Because the house is still on the market (we are renting) and can be sold at any time.  So I am sure you are wondering why we rented a house that is still on the market? Well, it boils down to we needed more room, we didn’t want to leave Martinsville just yet, and this is the only house we could find that was even close to what we were looking for. We also figured it would make our current house, which we own, a little more appeasing to the market in our area.

Other than the fact that I have not been feeling well for a while (which I have been too preoccupied to even think about), things are going fairly well. A fairly uneventful day, hopefully will have more to work with in the rest of the days this week.