I'm working my way toward my senior thesis, and I'm slightly adrift. I have no idea yet as to what I want to do for my show, so I'm trying out a few things in an independent study to see if anything grabs me. As part of this, I'm guest-blogging on the Fibers department's blog this semester. I may copy pasta my posts here, or I might just link to them; I haven't decided which. It'll be very weaving-heavy, since that's what I'm working on.
In other school-related news, I'm terrible at drawing and therefore hate Drawing II, even though I really like the teacher. I do get to draw dinosaurs every week, though, as part of an ongoing sketch assignment, so there's that. Speaking in public terrifies me, so Speech class isn't going well so far, but at least that's only once a week. Art Since 1900 isn't bad, though, because we get to study most of the artists I like. But at least I get to weave, so there is an up side to this semester.
Stay tuned for posts about my struggle to make up my mind!
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Blue Brontosaurus
I've neglected the blog, as I'm wont to do. Sorry about that. I even have a draft saved from last summer's Artsy Fartsy series, but I'm not going to update that just yet. I promise one of these days I'll finish, but today is not that day. Instead, I want to tell you about something exciting that happened to me this past weekend.
I was disappointed that my finals interfered with MDSW this year, and as always, Stitches South fell just a few weeks before that, so I couldn't attend that, either. So my friend ZC invited me up to visit her just outside of Chicago and go to Stitches Midwest with her. Of course I jumped on that offer! I'd never been to Chicago before, and the only Stitches event I'd attended was South, which is apparently the smallest of the four they hold.
We had a great time at the market Friday. Saturday we were joined by a mutual friend and then followed that with dinner with several people from a certain Ravelry group. I got some ChiaoGoo needles, which I quickly put into use Saturday afternoon and hope to review soon. I also picked up a skein of Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga in Fluorescent Millipede (I might have a slight addiction to Cephalopod. Shhh, don't tell anyone.) and a skein from Twisted Fiber Art, which I'd never seen before. I'm having a hard time deciding what that skein is going to be, so I may just have to design something new for it. It's not the only yarn that needs to have a pattern designed for it, but the other one I'm planning is still in the brewing stages, so we'll see which one comes out first.
Sunday, though. Man, Sunday. When ZC invited me up, I started researching things to do in Chicago. Number one on my list, obviously, was to have some real Chicago-style pizza. I can honestly say that it was fantastic. We even had it with my favorite topping - spinach! But once I found out that Chicago was home to one of my favorite creatures, I just had to go see it. That's how we ended up at The Field Museum.
When we arrived at the museum, I immediately headed to the Evolving Planet area, and its Dinosaur Hall. When we turned a corner and I could see the apatosaurus excelsus through the doorway, I literally could not contain my excitement and began jumping up and down. I had never seen one in person before.
Sorry for the quality, but ZC was covertly snapping pics of my reaction with her iPhone, so this is what you get.
To understand how I felt, imagine falling in love with something at four years old, knowing you can never see a live one, but still loving it fiercely. Imagine planning your future career around it. Yes, at four years old I wanted to be a paleontologist. Now, carry that love with you for 29 more years without ever having set eyes on an actual specimen of the thing you love so much. And then you finally, finally get to come face-to-skull with it.
I was in love.
In awe.
Overcome.
You can tell by the photographs.
At long last, I got to "meet" a brontosaurus. Somehow, I managed not to cry. I'm not sure how. It was touch and go for a minute, there.
I wandered around the Dinosaur Hall for at least a half hour, based on the timestamps of the photos ZC took of me. I could have stayed there all day. ZC's husband pointed out that if I were to take part in one of the "Night at the Museum" events, I wouldn't get any sleep because I'd be staring at the apatosaurus bones all night. He's right. I was entranced by it. In the photo above, you can also see a stegosaurus in the background. That was always my second favorite, followed by the triceratops. The Field's Dinosaur Hall has all of these and more. It was magical.
The Field Museum hypes up SUE, who is "the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found." But in my opinion, SUE's got nothing on this baby. That's probably just because I never felt any affinity for the T. rex. SUE's pretty cool, after all.
It didn't even occur to me until I was writing this up that my hair is also currently blue. Therefore, you get both the blue and the brontosaurus part of my blog name in one photograph!
I'm just hoping I can keep from crying next year when I am planning to attend Convergence in Rhode Island and make a quick trip over to Connecticut to visit the only specimen that can accurately be called brontosaurus.
I was disappointed that my finals interfered with MDSW this year, and as always, Stitches South fell just a few weeks before that, so I couldn't attend that, either. So my friend ZC invited me up to visit her just outside of Chicago and go to Stitches Midwest with her. Of course I jumped on that offer! I'd never been to Chicago before, and the only Stitches event I'd attended was South, which is apparently the smallest of the four they hold.
We had a great time at the market Friday. Saturday we were joined by a mutual friend and then followed that with dinner with several people from a certain Ravelry group. I got some ChiaoGoo needles, which I quickly put into use Saturday afternoon and hope to review soon. I also picked up a skein of Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga in Fluorescent Millipede (I might have a slight addiction to Cephalopod. Shhh, don't tell anyone.) and a skein from Twisted Fiber Art, which I'd never seen before. I'm having a hard time deciding what that skein is going to be, so I may just have to design something new for it. It's not the only yarn that needs to have a pattern designed for it, but the other one I'm planning is still in the brewing stages, so we'll see which one comes out first.
Sunday, though. Man, Sunday. When ZC invited me up, I started researching things to do in Chicago. Number one on my list, obviously, was to have some real Chicago-style pizza. I can honestly say that it was fantastic. We even had it with my favorite topping - spinach! But once I found out that Chicago was home to one of my favorite creatures, I just had to go see it. That's how we ended up at The Field Museum.
When we arrived at the museum, I immediately headed to the Evolving Planet area, and its Dinosaur Hall. When we turned a corner and I could see the apatosaurus excelsus through the doorway, I literally could not contain my excitement and began jumping up and down. I had never seen one in person before.
Sorry for the quality, but ZC was covertly snapping pics of my reaction with her iPhone, so this is what you get.
To understand how I felt, imagine falling in love with something at four years old, knowing you can never see a live one, but still loving it fiercely. Imagine planning your future career around it. Yes, at four years old I wanted to be a paleontologist. Now, carry that love with you for 29 more years without ever having set eyes on an actual specimen of the thing you love so much. And then you finally, finally get to come face-to-skull with it.
I was in love.
In awe.
Overcome.
You can tell by the photographs.
At long last, I got to "meet" a brontosaurus. Somehow, I managed not to cry. I'm not sure how. It was touch and go for a minute, there.
I wandered around the Dinosaur Hall for at least a half hour, based on the timestamps of the photos ZC took of me. I could have stayed there all day. ZC's husband pointed out that if I were to take part in one of the "Night at the Museum" events, I wouldn't get any sleep because I'd be staring at the apatosaurus bones all night. He's right. I was entranced by it. In the photo above, you can also see a stegosaurus in the background. That was always my second favorite, followed by the triceratops. The Field's Dinosaur Hall has all of these and more. It was magical.
The Field Museum hypes up SUE, who is "the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found." But in my opinion, SUE's got nothing on this baby. That's probably just because I never felt any affinity for the T. rex. SUE's pretty cool, after all.
It didn't even occur to me until I was writing this up that my hair is also currently blue. Therefore, you get both the blue and the brontosaurus part of my blog name in one photograph!
I'm just hoping I can keep from crying next year when I am planning to attend Convergence in Rhode Island and make a quick trip over to Connecticut to visit the only specimen that can accurately be called brontosaurus.
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