From My Sketchbook: Portraits 9 & 10

Sunday Social

1. What was your college major? Did you ever change majors?

Seeing as I have only just graduated from high school I haven't had time to major in a college degree of any type yet. I'm going to be attending the Auto-Logartis college (which is a Latin and Greek mash up that means "the self study of art") and will be pursuing a degree in the arts, including but not limited to; writing, art, filmmaking, and photography. This is my own little adventure that I'm calling Homeschooled College. Since I've been my own teacher since seventh grade, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Call it torture, call it university
Arts and crafts is all I need
I'll take calligraphy and then I'll make a fake degree
- College Kids, Relient K

2. Best purchase you’ve made lately?

Hands down my moped! A Honda Metropolitan, I have christened her 'The Mockingjay' and she is my baby.

CarFromFire.com

3. Something silly we don’t know about you and go…

When I'm alone I have whole conversations with myself. I'll debate about this or that while walking outside, riding my moped, or when I have the house all to myself (and sometimes when it's not so empty, but then I end up creeping people out.)

4. Favorite Holiday?

Thanksgiving. It's a time to eat good food with the people that you love and for being thankful for what you have. There are no obligations to have to give gifts or receive them.  

Wired.com

5. The first thing you do when you wake up?

This changes with my ever changing life patterns. So many times I think yes, I finally have a good routine down! and the next week I'm doing something completely different. Literally, the first thing is also my first lucid thought almost every morning; I thank Jesus for carrying me through the night and I thank Him for the dawn. As far as actual actions go, lately I've been pretty good about getting up right away and washing my face while thinking of six impossible things before breakfast (yes, that is inspired by Alice in Wonderland.)

On Food and Four Year Olds (or somewhere around that age)

Eating out at Taco Bell while shopping, I have a burrito filled with saucy taco meat that’s supposed to be a cheesy potato burrito. The only thing is that all the potatoes have dropped to the bottom of it so it’s mostly a taco in a soft shell. As a side dish I also have a bag of Doritos. Sounds pretty good, right? Fast forward to the evening where I decide to go and help out at my church’s VBS. There’s a meal served beforehand for everyone. On the way there Mom comments that she had heard that they’d be serving walking tacos sometime. All I have in response is “they better not tonight!” And what do I find when I get through the long line of kids? Walking tacos. Looking at the people’s plates in line ahead of me, it looks like my burrito from lunch threw up on an exploded bag of Doritos. Once is pretty good… but twice? I decide to skip. One thing I’m always thankful for is the fact that when I’m surrounded by large groups of humans, I never really feel hungry. I’m always too interested in what’s going on around me. Once, while working from 4 am to 4 pm at a concession stand, I got by on only one hot dog and a few sips of water (this is mainly because they didn’t have time to serve us workers breakfast!) I was fine. Up until we got into our van heading home. My hands were shaking as I ripped open the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup that we were rewarded with at the end of the day. Best tasting Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ever.

Enough about food now. For the whole evening I was a helper for the preschooler group, which I had heard had been short on help. It doesn’t take me long to figure out who’s the most difficult one; I decide the best help I can be is to stick mainly to watching him. Everybody else seemed exasperated with him. He’d lie on the ground during the lesson and make humming noises. He’d steal way more candy than what was directed, then run in circles around the group like a little candy pirate. And whenever he felt like it, he’d just get up and go somewhere else, no matter what was happening. But honestly? I had fun watching him and chasing him down. He’d look at me, big blue eyes half innocent, half devilish and give me a questioning grin. And although I knew I shouldn’t most of the time, I’d laugh right along with him. That’s the thing with me (and why I make a terrible babysitter), I view kids as more of an entertainment than a responsibility. Most of the time I feel more like standing back and laughing at the trouble they cause, or even joining in with them! While other girls seem to feel responsible to be the temporary mother and get them to behave. It’s like I overheard my friend say while the kids were wildly throwing balls around outside; “it’s pretty funny until someone gets hurt. Then it’s really funny!” Don’t mean to sound heartless, but I gotta admit, it’s true!

We Interrupt for this Important Message

The weather had been brewing up a threatening storm all morning. Occasionally, the grey canopy above would get a rip in its seams and the rain for gush forth for several minutes before calming down.

Working under a strong wooden structure with a good roof, this didn't bother me too badly; only the worry that this weather could cancel the upcoming parade in the evening.

We had been working in the food booth at the city fair since ten in the morning. Now it is nearing the end of our shift and a few people for the next shift have arrived and are helping too. But business is slow so we mostly stand around and talk.

That's when it goes off; a low, menacing humming noise, coming from every direction.

I look around, confused, trying to locate the source; my thoughts are is that a tornado siren? If it is, it's not like one I've ever heard before.

Or it could be an alien invasion, and the frequency of the pitch would render us all unconscious soon. Then we'd all be sorted through and the choicest ones would be taken as food, like fattened calves are chosen to be butchered (guess who shouldn't have watched Signs when they were thirteen on New Year's Eve?)

Everyone else around me has the same puzzled look on their faces. For a moment, no one moves. Then, almost simultaneously, everyone else pulls out their cell phones. My friend grabs his out of his back pocket; Mom fumbles in her pockets for hers.

A flash flood warning, sent to every single cell phone at the exact same time.

"That was weird!" I comment, laughing out loud. Everyone else laughs over the incident as well.

Check these pictures out on my Flickr account: *TheDayDreamer*

That Question

“And you’re at least fifteen?”

Yup, that question that I’ve been asked at least three times now. That question that I dread… and a question you’d think they wouldn’t have to ask so much, with my date of birth right on the papers their holding.

And overly honest me can’t keep from clarifying

“Well, actually, I’m seventeen.”

The confusion comes across their faces for a moment. Yeah, I know what you’re about to say;

“If you have a driver’s license, you don’t need this moped permit.”

I state the fact quickly, smiling… or at least trying to,

“I don’t have a driver’s license.”

Another moment of confused silence.

“But you’ll be getting it soon-”

“Actually, I don’t want to get a driver’s license right now.”

Words and phrases like ‘not right now’ and ‘not yet’ are things I’ve learned to add onto my more shocking statements to help humans digest them a little better. It’s a lot easier to explain how a moped is more economically suited to my stage in life right now than to explain my reasons for not wanting to drive a car ever.

 

This dialog exchange is more or less what I’ve had to go through three or four times in the process of getting my moped license. But despite this and a few other road bumps, I’ve finally gotten it!

Yes, my moped only goes 30 miles an hour. And yes, I’ll be exposed to the weather. And yes, I most likely will not be able to ride it in the winter. But it is completely worth it!

Artwork by Terry Dodson

From My Sketchbook: Portrait 6

Here's the sixth one I've done! And yes, the postings are out of order. But does it really matter?

Nope.

A Late Mother's Day

May 13: Three Gifts Found in Your Mom

1. When she reminds me not to get upset over something Dad says

2. When she talks with others about my ranch eating habits and includes me in 

    the conversation as I walk by

3. When she tells me I don’t have a fever with such certainty that I believe her

This really should’ve been the prompt for Mother’s Day, oh well. Just because I feel like doing something different I’ll write this post in poetic format (that doesn’t mean it’ll rhyme, or sound good; it, most likely, will not, but it’s fun to write all the same!)

Of Mom

When Dad talks worry

And concern for my safety

As if I’m a little girl

Young and too hasty

She reminds me to breathe

To not get so angry.

And when I’m as stubborn

As an old mule

Mom speaks to my logic

And helps me break through.

When visitors are over

And she tells of my oddities,

Such as eating ranch on everything,

And she includes me in,

So I’m not a ghost

Walking by on the wind.

And when the fears come

Of sickness and fever

She feels my forehead

And declares that I’m fine

So strong, I believe her.

When fancies take flight

Leaving heart racing,

Fear filled thoughts,

My Mom is the logic;

The head to my heart.

Image Credit: Erica's Edge