Calling all bloggers!

Because his bodacious and righteous seesters (yes, those were the adjectives I decided upon) are bloggers, my "Big, Lil Bro" or just little brother Zach, has decided to join the blogging world as well! Whoop!

Welcome to it! I hope you will continue wow-ing us with your magic, man ;)  (inside joke only he will get)

You can find his recent and future ramblings at: http://talesthroughawakeland.blogspot.com/

Check it out...if you think you're cool enough. love youuuu <3

I Love Music

So about a year ago, the monitor on my desktop broke. This wouldn't sound like an issue because I also now have a laptop. However, while purchasing a laptop I had in mind that I would ALSO have my desktop (plus my funds were not great last fall). So I decided on my little HP mini. It has served me great thus far, but I have been refusing to dl any music onto it because it contains all of my thesis stuff. Although I have a better sense of computers then say....grandma, I still cannot visualize how much said number of gigabytes of memory really means. Worrisome that my music would take up too much space, I have just been starting a list on my phone in memo pad titled, "Music to DL." I have started quite a collection of titles and lyrics from songs I have heard on the radio, or on tv shows, on pandora, or in random places. Luckily, this xmas my parentals were kind enough to provide me a gift card to best buy to finally purchase a new desktop monitor. For the last year I had been planning on trying to find a used monitor, as I thought it would do just fine....however, it always managed to slip my mind when out perusing. Needless to say, without this gift card who knows if I would have ever gotten a monitor. So... "Go Mom and Dad!"

I have previously been relying on others to make me cds and introduce me to songs instead of searching for and finding them myself as I did BBM (Before Broken Monitor). This has been a fun experience too because I have been enjoying music that I normally wouldn't think to download. BUT, now that my n e w monitor has been up and running I have been searching for all of the music I have compiled and downloading it like a crazy person.  Over the last year my phone list has been edited - some of the older songs that I got tired of because of the radio were deleted, or songs that I did not write enough info about to be able to actually remember what song it was, were also deleted. There were some, however, that made it through.

My music taste has changed drastically over the years, but I have always been a fan of a little bit of everything. I am always the worst person to ask "favorite artist" or "favorite kind of music" questions to. I just never have the same answer. My typical answer is that it "depends on my mood." Which really is true. And even then, it changes. Either way, my appreciation of different sounding music and acoustic styles have grown tremendously as of late and I think I would like to explore more into the indie genre a bit. I think I love it cause not only can I sing it (which is always a plus since I love to belt out a good tune), but its the kind of music that I can see myself listening to while driving alone in my car - windows down because the sun shining through has heated the whole car. Mmmmmm. I cannot wait til summer.

Off track I have gotten. Back to the music.

It has always been a huge component of my life. Back in the day on those Saturday Cleaning days (as a child we cleaned the entire house on Saturdays and were not allowed to do anything until it was done) we used to pump the tunes through the house. OR, my sis and I used to come up with dances to songs while we did the dishes in order to get through the process. OR, riding in the car to WI or back to VA...what do you think we did for 24 hours? OR, my dad blasting his "oldies" and beating on the steering wheel and your legs while sitting in the passenger seat. OR, sitting in the car with lacey in the high school parking lot not wanting to go home quite yet, but not really wanting to talk, and playing songs that would speak for us. OR, writing my own music since I was about 13....I don't know exactly when it happened for me, but it has always been there for me. It just makes me feel better no matter the circumstances. It is like that friend you can ALWAYS count on. I just L<3VE it.

That my friends is why I want to share it with you. I decided I am going to have featured artist or song posts on new and old music that I have come across that has made my day, or is stuck in my head. These will be tagged "I Love Music"...pretty original, right?

Either way - Enjoy!

Art 4 Friends

An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.  ~Andy Warhol

I love giving away art. There is something so vulnerable about it, but yet, so satisfying. Perhaps it is because I am one for receiving the thoughtful, simple gestures as opposed to the grandiose and material things people often give away. I don't know if everyone loves to receive these types of gifts as much as I, but, unfortunately those close to me - because of low funds, and my understanding of an ideal gift - better get used to it. I enjoy giving someone something that you really put your time and heart into. Something that you envisioned specifically for that person. I don't know about you, but I cannot think of a more personal gift. This is why over the years I have started to do just that. The next couple "art" blogs I would like to post will feature some of the pieces that I have created for others close to me. 

Today, I will highlight some drawings I have done for my friend Isaac. 

Perhaps a slight synopsis of our friendship is also needed...

While serving my time as an Athletic Training Student at UMD, I worked very closely with the football team. One spring, and two summer/fall seasons to be exact. My senior year, as with the year prior, I showed up in August ready for fall camp. It was always interesting seeing the baby freshman - all shy and obedient, and hearing all of the stories and rumors about the new transfers. All I was really told was that this Isaac character was supposed to be "pretty nasty" (which for all of you who do not speak fluent college football player, that means he was supposed to be really good ). Some returning players had apparently seen his highlight videos on youtube and were impressed. Naturally, the AT staff hearing about this footage, had to check it out for ourselves. Well folks, I guess these guys were right - he was pretty sick-nasty. Needless to say, the football season went in the right direction. Thousands of yards and a National Championship later, the season ended with a bang. Throughout this time, I was able to form a pretty good relationship with majority of the team and a closer one with some athletes that had been injured (It is pretty easy to do so when you see these people everyday for 5 months straight). However, Isaac was never really injured that year. It just so happened that he lived about two blocks away from my house. Us both being avid supporters of public transportation (except for when the bus shows up 10 min early or 10 min late), we ended up catching the same bus home almost every night. For anyone who has ever ridden the bus, you know how awkward that can be. It is a relief when you see someone you know riding the same bus. This way you don't get stuck sitting with the person who sits with their legs SO spread that they take up their own seat and half of yours, or the art student who has that HUGE black bag full or supplies, or that smelly guy with 5 teeth when your nose just happens to be working extra well that day. Needless to say, if we happened to see each other on the bus, we decided sitting next to each other had to be better than the aforementioned options (unless of course you had a cold, in which smelly guy with 5 teeth didn't seem so bad). Now not knowing Isaac he came off as the strong, silent type. You know, that guy who walked around with his ear buds in trying to avoid stupid petty conversation. Me being the complete opposite, able and pretty much willing to talk to anyone who will talk back, was not sure how to approach some of these rides. Do I try to engage in conversation? Or do I allow him to continue jamming to his ipod (which now being friends, I imagine was full of Gavin, Sara, Missy, and John...which is probably not at all what I had pegged him for)? I do not fully remember, but I imagine some rides were filled with one or both of these options - mostly including the chit chat option. Regardless, I am not exactly sure when Isaac and I really started to become better friends...but I don't think it was really until football was nearly over. Again, I cannot exactly remember how it all played out, but I believe our "best friend" status actually started after this drawing: 

I am pretty sure the conversation that had prompted this drawing was that Isaac had jokingly said he wanted a picture of himself like Vince Vaughn's portrait on Wedding Crashers. I want to say I actually looked into it and could not find a picture of it to go off of, and so I settled upon this. I believe that sometime close to xmas break I emailed him to tell him the picture was done... Idk if I had done the leave your phone number trick in the email, or if he had initiated that...but regardless, the number exchange had occurred. After this, we talked on a pretty regular basis...which means everyday. ha. Many movies and rock band sessions later, the bond of "holy pants and shirts" was made. For those of you that don't own our cd, that is the name of our kick-ass rock band (sidenote: yet again, another Wedding Crashers reference...hmm). 

Our friendship has remained close despite the distance. Throughout this time we have been able to stay afloat mostly via text messages and someecards. I was even able to make the journey north to see him and the other bulldogs play in the post-season the next two years. Besides those two occurrences, our hang out time has been minimal. Hopefully this will change soon, and visits can be more of a regular occurrence. The second drawing (of which I am actually still in possession of due to my forgetful self not bringing it to D-town the last two times I have been there!) was supposed to be a birthday gift. I was once impressed with this drawing, but a year and a half later, I am not so sure it flows quite like I had imagined it to once. Anyways, I will let you decide:

The beginning stages

Throwing in some guitar

Now adding in some pieces of paper with lyrics from two of his favorite songs... and...

Voila!

Finished product.

Well, that is the end of the story of the art for Isaac. [Oh, by the way buddy, if you still want this drawing let me know...and when you come visit this summer you can have it ;).]

I guess it is about time that he receive another piece...perhaps a painting. If you have any suggestions my dear, let them be known. I have enjoyed making you artwork, and would be honored to continue to do so if you so chose. 

There you have it folks. The story of two crazy kids becoming friends over a silly drawing. I guess weirder things have happened. All I can say is, I am glad that I pursued this art endeavor. So thank you brain, hand, pencil, national championship, wedding crashers, and Isaac for giving the inspiration for this drawing. Without it, I am not so sure how close we would have become; and that my friends, would have been a tragedy.

Guess I never really thought about it before

So this weekend I was introduced to an enlightening experience. Deaf collegiate athletes. I mean, it is not that I ever really thought it did not happen and definitely never thought anything against it; but, I guess I just had never really thought about it.

While working a 12 hour day of covering Division 3 softball  (::sigh:: what a long day), there was a team from Gallaudet University. Now if you do not know, this is a university in Washington DC that is primarily made up and focuses on the education of deaf and hard of hearing students. [Here is their site if you are interested in finding out more: http://www.gallaudet.edu/x47919.xml]

During undergrad, I took a course in ASL and learned quite a bit about the deaf community. It found it to be a fun language to learn and overall the class was pretty interesting. I always find it interesting to imagine your life in a different way; particularly for this topic, not being able to speak in English in the class really allowed me to do so. 

ANYWAYS, back to this weekend. There were a few times I, as one of the practicing ATs on staff for the day, needed to communicate with the athletes and coach of this team. In the end, it came down to written English, or by lip reading. I was a little upset that my ASL days were too long ago that I froze when trying to even think of simple words and phrases...so much for that education. I had never really considered some difficulties that would exist in communicating with an athlete in the deaf community before this weekend...but, there are definitely some that I could foresee occurring if you do not know ASL.

Although written communication can be efficient for some tasks - like figuring out how to tape someone's wrist (ie, which direction does it hurt? do you throw right handed?, etc) - I could see it becoming a nuisance if you needed to explain an injury or if you needed to use more than one sentences to communicate. The other form that was used was lip reading. Now this I have to say was crazy impressive. There was an athlete who was injured, and the coach was reading my lips and then signing to the athlete. Although impressed with the ability of this coach to be able to be that connecting link between myself and the athlete, it was sort of like playing the game of telephone. I did not know if he was interpreting everything I was saying correctly 100% of the time - obviously, if he really didn't understand me he displayed a look of confusion, or asked me to repeat myself - but with any indirect communication there is always room for some errors. Through both situations, we were able to get through them alright. I did not really see the situations arising and so I might have been taken off guard and uncomfortable at first. Hopefully this did not rub off and did not then make any of the athletes feel any discomfort.

This team also was playing down on the fields that I was covering, and so I got to see them play. I really got sucked in to watching them communicate on the field and in the dugout. I just found it all so mesmerizing. For me it was hard to imagine playing softball with no yelling seeing as I was a loud mouth player back in the day, but these ladies sure did make it work. There were a few things observed that seemed to be a challenge - like calling off fly balls in the outfield, or even any type of cut-off situation - but even with those yelling in the English language, there are errors seen with these tasks.

Everyday we go through new experiences. Being exposed to this one, makes me think... if I were ever exposed in more of a everyday setting, how would I communicate with an athlete if they were deaf or hard of hearing? Honestly I think that I would invest some time into learning more ASL. Especially learning the signs that pertain to the body and would be helpful in everyday communications with this person. I think it would be a unique learning experience for both parties and a pretty neat one altogether. I am so glad I had the opportunity to work with these athletes and coach this weekend. It was not only an eye opening experience but a challenging one as well...and you know as well as I that it is always good to be challenged a little!

A Good Feeling.

So the back story:

Back in undergrad I had this Program Director. I refer to him as Papa Gear. I went into his office everyday whether to say hello, to bawl my eyes out, or even just to shoot the sh*t (This story is only rated PG). The way that his office was set up, he had chairs that were facing the edge of his desk. While visiting, I would sit in one of these chairs and prop my feet up on his desk. I never thought that it was a big deal until one day I walked in and his office was moved around a little. His desk was a little further from the chairs. Without a word, I scooted my chair closer so my feet could take their normal position. He laughed, and then explained that the reason he had moved his desk is so I would NOT put my feet up there. Me being me, I laughed, and said something to the effect of.... whooops. Sorry. (As my feet stay on top of his desk).

The reason I bring it up is because I emailed Papa Gear today to be a reference for a job. Naturally, he agreed. He also said, and I quote, "My desk does miss your feet propping up on it though. It thinks of you often." (insert AWWW here). 

It is such a simple little gesture, but it made my heart feel warm and a smile appeared on my face. As of late, it has been pretty hard for those things to occur. So thank you Papa Gear, and I challenge you all to send someone you care about a small gesture that you know will make them smile.

love&laughter