Whomp.

I didn't get the Marc Jacobs internship.

"What Marc Jacobs internship?" you may be asking.

Oh. Just the Marc Jacobs internship that I purposely didn't write about on the blog so that when I did get it, I could be all, "Surprise! I got a Marc Jacobs internship that I didn't even tell you guys I applied for!"

My plan didn't really pan out because I didn't get the internship.

So, now I am telling you about an internship for the first time and what I'm telling you about it, is that I didn't get it. Get it?

You want to know the worst part? I actually sort of did get the internship because they really liked me and my resume and my portfolio, but they needed me to start in the beginning of May. That is sort of hard to pull off when you don't get out of school until the end of May. You win this point, Mr. Semester.

...Thinking about it now, though, maybe using the old scheduling excuse was just a nice and easy way of saying they didn't want me without actually saying they didn't want me. That is quite likely. Burn.

Bottom line: I'm pretty bummed. I don't really want to talk about it. This week has sort of sucked. And today I got an awkward sunburn.

Sorry that I've been awfully complainy lately. It just really has been one of those weeks. I'm giving myself until Sunday to be upset/overwhelmed about/with life. And then I have to stop being such a whiny beezy.

Brightside: It can only get better from here though, yeah?

I Love Spring Break

I love how excited Spencer was to finish Winter quarter and go to California. 

I love being a creepy roommate.

I love how, even when traveling, Spencer fits in some "me" time and paints her nails at the airport. 

I love the desert views from the plane to California. 

I LOVE Balboa Island walks and I LOVE being reunited with my two sisters. 

I just love this picture.

I love having red hair one day and having an ambiguously colored pixie the next.

I love Crystal Cove and I love old friends. 

I love the cliffs at El Moro.

We ALL love La Serena. 

I love the Top of the World. 

I love when Claire falls asleep in the car after "a big breakfast."

I love Grandma Bunny. 

I love the drive to the desert. ...The second half, at least.

I love laying in the grass and laughing with two of my best friends. 

I love how excited these two were about the Seal on the dock. 

I love how she was literally brought to tears about it.

I love my B10LA friends.

I don't love leaving.

When in doubt: Bullet Point Post.

You guys know that when you see the bullet points, it means that I have exhausted all creative and interesting fibers in my body and that I, in now way, would be able to put together a group of coherent sentences regarding any topic. Well, I'm OK with bullet point posts. But. When it is day THREE of the quarter and I am already resorting to the bullet point post?! Man, oh, man. That's saying something.

The last three days in summary. Go.

• Speech- extremely exuberant teacher. Some may say "flamboyant." The jury's still out on that one. 
• Fashion sketching- I'm either going to love or hate this class. Maybe a little of both. Definitely a little of both. Classmates: Very fashiony. 
• Monday night felt naked without an 8 o'clock date with Chris Harrison. Emily, come quick!
• Loving the 11am start time of my classes. With the craziness of this quarter, I think that that may be the main solace in days of unrest. Had an amazing quiet time. 
• I'm going to make that more of a "thing." Quiet time, I mean. I know that this is not an original thought in any way, but I need to do it more. Ok. It's been decided. Quiet time is going to be my new pre 11:00 AM "thing."
• Started off yesterday right. Dirty Chai and a lemon bar at Back in the Day Bakery. Two reasons. 1) Dirty Chai's are my fave. 2) It was Spencer's Birthday!!!! The big 2-0. This is the one that forced me into identity crisis, remember? 
• Starting your day off with a lemon bar and coffee is not good for Julia. Especially when Julia doesn't eat anything else and then expects to wait until 4:30 when classes are over to eat again. Not gonna happen.
• Urban Ethnography- get to work with a local abandoned school in an impoverished area. (Think Mini St.) So excited about that. Our professor often stops in the middle of thoughts and makes full eye contact with one student. No speaking and no facial expression with no explanation for about 15 seconds. This intrigues me. Maybe a social tick? Does that exist, Kaitlin? Diagnose her. A little bummed about the fact that the book about the Mole people was dropped from our syllabus. Lots of caffeine induced shaking. From me. Not the Professor. 
• Google Mole people.
• Let me clarify: In case you were concerned for my well-being, due to the fact that I am highly allergic to citrus and was eating a lemon bar, rest easy. My friend, Susie, just eats the lemon part and I just eat the shortbread part. It's a collaboration. 
• Necessary food break at Foxy Loxy. Chicken taco. Delish. With class from 11-4:30 and a 20 minute break, this is going to be the quarter of brown paper bag lunches. 
• Made the realization that I may not be getting credit for my Urban Ethnography class. That's really not gonna fly with me. 
• Had some time to kill, so I headed over the administration building to check and not only was I not getting credit for my class, but I had not paid for this quarter of school. Oops. 
• Both problems are being sorted out. 
• Apparel 1- Teacher is very calm. Too calm. Like he knows. Classmates: Very Fashiony. Homework: To take one single thread out of a piece of muslin, one inch from the edge. He said to expect this to take a three or four hours. And then he laughed. He does know. 
• Went to the bookstore/supply store with Susie immediately after class. There were 8,000 other people there. Spent a truckload of money. Wanted to cry. Didn't. Success. 
• Forgot to pick up Spencer from class. Happy birthday, Spence! 
• Came home and wrote a four page list. The list of all lists. The list I've been training for my whole life. Taped it to my door. 
• Went to dinner for Spencer's birthday at Miyagi's! (Think Benihana) Our server's name was Roy. I missed the shrimp when he threw it at my mouth. So did Frances. Made the realization that the only option for Frances Russell when it comes to career choices is working at a hibachi grill as a chef. We asked if they were hiring. They said she needed to cut her hair. She was ok with that. 
• Had a really intense tooth ache for 5 solid minutes. And then it went away. Unexplained. 
• Came home. 
• Homework.
• Slept. 
• 7:40 wake-up call with Frances and Claire. 
• Today is Wednesday. 

JT

I'm planning on only listening to James Taylor today. And probably tomorrow. And maybe for the rest of the week. If you know me very well at all, that will be all you need to know to point you to exactly what kind of mood I'm in.

By the way- classes were good. My suspicions that this quarter will be hard were strongly confirmed (hence the James Taylor) and I am now going to take a beat and make some dinner.

It's all going to work out.

It's Spring Quarter.

Good morning, friends.

I am back in Savannah and today marks the beginning of Spring Quarter. I don' think I have ever been more nervous for school in my life. This quarter, like last quarter, I am taking an extra class, but this time, all four classes are going to be extremely labor intensive.

Spencer, Claire and I got back in Savannah on Saturday night and spent all of Sunday grocery shopping and moping around and discussing the fact that we are not ready for the quarter to begin as if talking about it would somehow change anything.

We also found out some bad news about our house last week. The owner wants to rent it to us, like she had said, but what she didn't explain until recently was that as soon as her house sells, she's giving us 60 days to move out. This is a major bummer. And a major hassle. Her house, which we learned is in an unfinished track home development, may not sell until next year or it could sell tomorrow. Or, worst case scenario, it could sell in the middle of the summer when none of us are here. Sort of like a Russian Roulette of Rentals. Oh, dear me, this house, I tell ya.

And on top of all of this, at around 6 o'clock yesterday, I started to feel sick. My stomach apparently doesn't want the quarter to start either. To make a gross story short, I was up all night 'tossing my cookies,' as my third grade teacher, Mrs. Walsvig, used to say. No fun.

In effort to not make this the most self-pitying post I have ever written, I will say that I think I am going to like my class schedule for the next 10 weeks. I have every morning free until 11, but some of my roommates have 8AM's. I have found that I am quite a light sleeper, so them leaving around 7:40 every morning will motivate me to wake up and then I have a few hours everyday to kick around and read my Bible, Blog, and maybe exercise. I said maybe.

Please pray for me today. I am not feeling too collegiate at the moment.

On flight WIFI

Hello from 10,000 feet! I am currently on my flight from Santa Ana to Savannah by way of Atlanta and they have wireless Internet on the plane! I have been on flights with WIFI before, but this is the first time that I have experienced it first hand and, I gotta say, I feel pretty fancy. Me and my iPad have caught up on some reading, listened to Pandora and now, getting some blogging in! I feel like I'm living in the future. "WELCOME TO THE 90'S, MISTA BANKS."

This morning was a little rocky, as leaving Newport always is, but I learned today that saying goodbye is easier when you are traveling with friends who are funny and can quickly distract. This is a much more favorable option to saying goodbye and then having to sit in the terminal alone with only your grande vanilla latte and memories of a wonderful childhood to console you. Believe me: its brutal. Yeah, maybe I did have a moment of weakness with some soggy eyes and delicate whimpers when my mommy gave me one last hug, but I would say that today went fairly well in comparison to other goodbyes. There were no sympathetic stares from strangers or snarky jabs from unfriendly security guards. A welcomed change.

Claire and I are sitting together in row 38 and we just finished watching 3 episodes of our new favorite show, Shark Tank. It's addicting. We are also polishing off the bag of snicker doodle cookies that I forced my mom to drive 20 minutes out of the way buy me when we were at the mall yesterday. They are also quite addicting. Apparently, I was enjoying our time more than Claire because she is zonked out on the tray table next to me. A few minutes ago the gentleman sitting next to her tapped her on the shoulder to offer her a blanket and it startled her from her slumber so she whacked him in the arm. It was awkward. I was laughing. They were not. Pictures later.

Spencer is in row 21 in dreaded seat E. AKA the middle seat. I hope she's alive. Floghts alone can change a person. Only time will tell.

Well, that's all for now. A whole Spring break wrap up is on the horizon later this weekend, but Claire is awake now and hungry for more Shark and snicker doodles. It's like traveling with a baby: Eating, sleeping, and hitting the passengers around her when she gets grumpy.

Wish me luck.

Hi.

By request of Grandma Bunny and Nicole Riha, I just wanted to say, Hello.

I am still alive.

I am still in California.

I cut off all my hairs.

I am heading back to Savannah on Saturday.

I have had so much fun being home.

I have had so much fun showing my roommates my home. (Minus Oli. Who I have dearly missed.)

I am not ready to leave.

I will probably cry at the airport.

I am not ready to start a new quarter on Monday-- let alone the hardest quarter thus far at SCAD.

This might have been the longest sabbatical from blogging I've taken in the last two years. Weird. I miss you guys... All my blogging friends. Is that weird to say? Well, it's true. I have been taking lots o' pics with my phone. When Spring Break is over, we will resume our regular programming.

I'm in a melancholy mood. Can you tell?

AY-YI-YI!

Tomorrow (technically today at this point) I am going home to Californ-I-Aayyy!!!!! I am so excited, I can't sleep. But I need to. Because at 5:40 tomorrow morning, I am heading to the airport with some of my bros and we are flying through the crystal skies to the best coast. I am too tired and too excited to form any more cohesive sentences about the thrill of the trip, but there will be more to talk about in the coming days. Get ready. We is a-comin.

Running on four hours of sleep.

Last night I slept for four hours. And it wasn't because of finals.

Yesterday afternoon, after a long span of blank computer staring, I barricaded myself in my room and finished my paper. It came to me like a thief in the night. Quick and sneaky. I was sitting at my desk for 2 hours and before I knew it, I had a whole essay about my house and my roommates. This is becoming a pattern, yeah? Sitting in Foxy Loxy: paper about Foxy Loxy. Sitting in my house: paper about my house. I think I'm on to something.

I pressed save and just like that, finals were over. Surreal. And wonderful. I was able to close out the night by going to a candlelight choir service at a local church with Spencer and our friend Lindsay. It was beautiful. And sitting in the dark church with the soft glow of the candles around us and the angelic voices echoing around us singing hymns was such an experience. And a perfect way to praise God for all he has done for me this quarter. And-- ironic-- there was a (literally) three minute sermon in between two songs and it was about the checklists of life and being able to feel closure in you life in the Lord. It was almost funny how appropriate the message was.

Anyway-- after the service (around 10:00), I downed a latte in about 10 minutes. This is bad for two reasons. 1) I shouldn't be drinking coffee at all because of how intensely it affects me and 2) I shouldn't even be NEAR coffee after 4:00 in the afternoon. Bad news. Moral of the story, I couldn't fall asleep until 2 in the morning and then, lucky me, I woke up at 6.

The best part is, it didn't even bother me! Post finals Julia is as cool as a cucumber because where there is lack of sleep, there is time to make up said lack of sleep. When I looked at my phone and saw that it was 6:05, I just laughed to myself and thought, 'Oh, pah, isn't that silly. I only went to bed 4 hours ago! No matter. I'll sleep eventually." And then I just sat in bed and smiled.

So, after I came back from dropping off my writing paper, I took a nice, long, guilt-free, celebration nap on the couch.

When I woke up, I went to my critique for Fashion Design. Ahh, yes. The end is near. I am very sleepy right now, but it don't matter. I'll get to bed eventually.

That is all I have to say. I'm going to go smile some more.

And the Finals Beat Goes On.

I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, I crossed 4 things off my list. FOUR! WoOt W0oOT. I finished my Intro to Fashion Final-- we had to deconstruct a women's suit and turn it into something new. 

Here is the School Bus/Mustard/Sunflower colored suit...

And this is what I came up with! 

I think Spencer rocked the socks off of it and made it look way better than it actually does. I was a little panicked about how it looked on the hanger: lifeless and very yellow. And then Spencer graciously took time out of her crazy finals schedule to let me do her hair and makeup, shove her feet into my small shoes and be all model-y for a little while. Seriously-- thank you so much, Spencer!

Slowly but surely, things are getting done. But, I'm not out of the woods yet. I still have to finish my math final and my writing final. The writing final that I'm still avoiding. The writing final that I still don't have any ideas for. Yep. 

I'm going to bed now.  

AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.

Moments after I ran out of my mocha (a tragedy), my phone rang.

It was Spencer with the best news I've ever heard in my life. She said that someone had called her and left a message saying that.....

drumroll please......

SOMEONE PUT AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE AND WANTS US TO STAY AND RENT IT!!!!

This is, quite literally, the best news I've heard in quite a while. Frances and I just about peed our britches. We were still in Foxy, though, so we had to keep it on the DL. But we didn't do a very good job. People were staring.

So, naturally, the obvious thing to do is to make a video to document our excitement.

I think it is clear that I still haven't gotten much further on my paper. 

I'm fresh out.

Guys. I'm out. I have run out of good ideas. Anything original, anything new, anything interesting packed up all of it's bags around week 8 and left. Here I sit, at my routine table at Foxy Loxy, staring at a blank page. I have a writing final due next week and I got nothin.

You may remember this happening once before. Same table. Same class. Same blank page. In that case, I was able to beat the system and I decided to write a paper about Foxy Loxy. I just started typing about what I saw around me and the conversations that I heard and before I knew it, I had a full fledged seven page paper. Clever, yeah? And it turned out pretty well, but that tactic, now used and old, cannot be redone and I am, again, left with a blank page.

Maybe I should write about this mocha that I am drinking that is literally revolutionizing everything I thought I knew about hot beverages. Or maybe I should write about the man sitting at the table next to me. He is similar to the color of my mocha and I think he is very good looking. Maybe I should write about the fact that even typing that sentence just made me blush. There's something to that.

Also, let me just take the moment to point out that I have written this whole blog post with ease in about 6 minutes without even one pause in the rhythm of my fingers to the keys, other than to take a few gulps of this mocha. Why?

I think this blog is becoming a place for me to come when I am avoiding homework. Please see the last three weeks of blog posts as evidence.

I don't hate it.


UPDATE: 5 minutes later, I have finished my mocha. And now, there is nothing good in this world.

Finals are kicking my butt.

 

I'm sorry I've been a little slower on the blogging lately. For the past week, I have been in finals mode. I feel like I have been working non-stop on papers and projects and gaining no headway. There have been way too many days lately where I look back and I know that I was working on homework all day, but wait-- it's midnight and what have I actually gotten done again? Ugh. The worst.

On top of all of this, I am also in the midst of applying for summer internships and working out the potential of maybe studying abroad in the fall. Both very exciting things that are morphing into overwhelming things and then into scary things. I need to keep reminding myself that they are, in fact, exciting things.

Today marks the 7 day countdown until all of this is over.

Next Wednesday, I will be flying HOME to California for a whopping ten days!!!! I honestly cannot wait. Bonus: I'm bringing a few aliens with me! Spencer, Frances and Claire are all coming too and I can't wait to show them around Newport and all of the awesome things (read: food) that I have been talking about for the past two years.

I just allowed myself a nap for the first time in weeks (record length sabbatical) and when I woke up, two hours had passed! What? Yikes. Maybe I needed it? Now, I'm trying to wipe off the sleepy and get my study back on. Proving to be challenging. I have refreshed my Facebook page way too many times in the last 30 minutes. An embarrassing amount. 

I'm going to give you guys a list of what I need to get done. It won't seem like a lot. And it won't make any sense to you, but I need to type it out. Bear with me.

Deconstruction Project
Designer File
Finish Dreamweaver
Personal Essay
Revise Memoir
CSM Application
CSM Statement of Intent
Other four things I'm forgetting

Can it please be next Tuesday already?

Radiohead

Do you guys remember when this happened last quarter? I was blonde and Frances was crying. Good times.

In case you don't want to watch the whole video again, and have forgotten what happens from when I made you watch it last time, it basically just showcases the simultaneous elation and combustion of one Frances Russell trying to buy Radiohead tickets. After a brief moment of panic when it looked like we weren't going to get to go, myself, an admitted Billboard top 100 fan and all around Country Music listener, was able to wrangle together three tickets for their show in March. Had I ever listened to a full Radiohead song through? No. Did the fact that there was no real sing-a-long-able chorus in any of their songs kind of confuse me? Yes. But, my iPod and I are open to growth and maturity so I welcomed the idea of upping my cool factor by like 100 points and going to the concert. Plus, any concert with two of your best friends is fun, right? Right. Win, win.

Well, on Thursday, we went to the Radiohead concert in Atlanta and it was wonderful.

After shoving some clothes into our backpacks, we set out for ATL at around noon. Before we left we made sure to take some pictures of us being extra extra cool to get us in the right mindset for all of the extra extra cool people we'd be around later at the concert.

I made sure that I did not completely abandon my pop roots and made us listen to "Party in the USA" radio on Pandora for at least 50% of the drive. We braved an intense downpour on our way there that was actually so bad that we had to pull over for a few minutes to wait for the worst of it to pass. Spoiler: we survived.

After a quick pit stop at the mall (unsuccessful, but 100% necessary due to the fact that Savannah is highly lacking in that department) and an AMAZING dinner at JCT Kitchen, we found our way to Phillips Arena.

As we waited in line to get into the venue, it became clear to Claire and I were just visitors in this world of Radiohead die hards. Meanwhile, to our right, Frances had found her Mecca. It is really hard to explain how much Frances loves Radiohead.

They came on TWO HOURS after the promised start time, which, I guess, is just something that cool bands do, and put on an amazing show.

Here we see what Frances looks like when she's having a good time.

With two encores and plenty of long jam sessions, I would say that it was a highly successful concert. Frances remarked that they played mostly new stuff (or at least off the last two albums), which was a shame considering that, apparently, their earlier stuff os also great. 

Due to the fact that I only know one song out of their whole catalogue, I did not notice. 

We left in high spirits. I definitely felt cooler. And that I understood something about the world that people who hadn't gone to the concert clearly didn't. Like, I was apart of an elite club. But it was so elite, that it would never really describe itself as elite. 

Wait-- I just re-read that paragraph. The fact that I said "we left in high spirits" wasn't a sneaky sneaky pun/subliminal drug reference, just to be clear. I really just meant we left in a good mood... Promise, Mom. 

 ATLANTA BONUS: On the way home the next morning, we stopped at a Trader Joe's that might have been as exciting for me as the concert had been for Frances. There were mixed emotions of joy and sadness as I walked through the aisles buying all of my favorite goodies. Joy: Because I love TJ's. Sadness: Because I knew I couldn't stay there forever.