Dog Days of Summa'

If you've ever seen The Ultimate Gift (which I had to watch a total of seven times during high school- it's apparently an unofficial piece of curriculum) you'll understand in sharp, painful detail the story I'm about to tell you.

In the movie, a snot-nosed trust fund party child is sent through this life-changing obstacle course before he is allowed access to the millions of dollars inherited from his grandfather. He's required to complete meaningful tasks like "Make a true friend" and things like that. Anyway, one of the first assignments requires the guy to build an impossibly long fence in the middle of Texas in the sweltering heat, with no indication of how long he must work or what length the fence needs to be.

I experienced my equivalent of that two days ago, during what my quaint town playfully labeled as "Dog Days of Summer" to disguise the lava-sweat bath a street full of vendors would be battling in an attempt to shimmy out some extra cash from the equally sun-suffering constituents who had, just moments before, buckled their belts and sprinkled on their makeup in their deliciously air-conditioned houses, only to have it melt off within minutes of setting foot in their lawns.

I was a vendor, having sorrowfully weeded out my closet and decided to pass on some of my most loved yet least worn dresses and jackets to the thankful populous. My sunburn should be studied at NASA, due to the incredible amount of actual sun that is still burning and raging to escape from my now leather-ed skin. I ended up with a successful turnout, having marketed my "Going to College!" sale well, but boy, oh boy did I work hard for what I got. I am now an equivalent to Mr. Ultimate Gift Guy, except minus the three weeks or so of digging a fence in Texas. Point is I've worked hard for my money, which makes the savings account it's all being dumped into that much more valuable.

Also, due to the amount of dignity I still possess, I did not photograph my tomato face. I do give you leave to imagine it, though. Just reflect on that Florida vacation you and your family took back in '05.

On a more positive note, I made a really good fresh-veggie pizza with my friend Mel.

Oh, an on an even more positive note, I got a post card from Dianne Lynch, that Lady President we all know and love!

Dude, I totally can't wait to be a Stephens girl!

love, rudi

Summer Fun!

I'm pretty sure I've explained/complained how lazy and quasi-uneventful my summer has been so far. I get a little sick to my stomach when I realize I'm wasting time (although any outsider wouldn't be able to tell since I spent an ungodly amount of time on the internet). However, I officially remedied my summer sickness this past weekend!

Two summers ago I was accepted into this amazing acting summer camp called Governor's School for the Arts and made the best friends of my life (thus far, of course).

Well, I rarely get to see them because I live in nowhere and they live in cities 2-3 hours away, but this past weekend I made a super special trip to Louisville to meet up with some of them!

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

There's a pretty funny story about this picture. We were sitting at Qdoba eating our burritos at the window, and these three ladies walked by and started cracking up and waving at us really big, making these crazy gestures. We had no idea what was going on!
One of them ran inside the restaurant and started explaining, "I"m so sorry! We were walking by and we thought you all were a poster or something! You all look like an advertisement! You all had these big smiles, eatin' your food all cute- you all are so cute! I'm so sorry this is so funny- you all looked like an advertisement- so cute!!"
Needless to say we all felt awesome.
I might send this picture to Qdoba.

I spent the first evening watching Much Ado About Nothing in the park with Kelsey and Craig (Who so graciously was my host and tour guide all weekend), two of my favorite gingers. The play was awesome mostly because it was Bollywood themed! I thought it was a groovy touch.

This is Kelsey and myself during intermission.

Here's Taylor, Craig, and Cameron. We spent a few hours in the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. We played a game where we tried to find ourselves in classical paintings. I was usually the hot lady with the big hair and an attractive youth escorting her somewhere to purchase her something lovely and expensive. Yeah that's me.

I spent most of the weekend driving around to coffeehouses to get energy while I stayed up all night giggling and watching funny movies with my dear friends, and spreading out my handy old quilt for impromptu picnics and lazing up and down artsy downtown streets during the day. It was a hot weekend, but a fun one at that.

Also, I thought this was so very nice of the parking lot.

Super sweet.

It's time for me to price items for my yard sale! Wish me luck for Saturday morning!

love, rudi

Monday is the new Sunday...

...At least it is in the summer!

I can't believe I forgot Stephens Sunday this week! I have seriously got to start remembering what day/month it is- I'm getting that Summer Sickness where time doesn't exist anymore, and night becomes day.

I have been semi-productive, though. Mom and I have decided to hold a Going-to-College Yard Sale, and I made one of my posters for it yesterday (you can totally tell I have no idea how to make stuff on the computer).

I thought it would attract the awesome people I would be comfortable selling my awesome stuff to.

Which, by the way, can I tell you how hard it's going to be to decide which of my things stay,

and which will be gone forever?

Which leads me to my first entry in "Why I Love Stephens" this week:

1) Simplifying my life. This really applies to all college freshman, as we are all responsible for cutting back on all the stuff we have and readjusting in a small dorm room, attempting to maintain as much of the 'back-home' atmosphere as possible while having space to add new life. I'm by no means a hoarder, and only slightly a pack-rat (a fact that I justify because I do, in fact, re-use many paper scraps, etc. in art pieces and thank you cards), but it's hard for me to stamp the "For Sale" sticker on many of my things. It's a tiny bit painful, but very, very liberating.

Stephens College = Freedom of Clutter

2) The Pet Dorms. Last week my family adopted some baby boys:

and I'm going to miss them sooo much.

(the one on the left is Deek Estella, and on the right is Mak Gatsby)

Luckily I'll more than likely get to know other girls who live in the Pet Dorm, and I can hopefully still get to snuggle kitties! There's nothing like having friends with cute pets- you get all the fun parts of having a kitty or pup, minus the not-so-fun parts of having said claw-monster and shoe-eater.

3) This week I've been a bit on the bored side. It's the worse kind of bored, when you have errand & chores that need to be done, but nothing fun to do and no one to hang out with. So while I glaze around my house staring at the faces that appear in the wallpaper, I also have this little knot in my stomach reminding me that I should be working on yard sale stuff, or feeding the neighbors turtles (they got fed- don't worry!), vacuuming my room, and other anti-climactic things like that.

But at Stephens! Ohhhhh at Stephens,

I have a feeling that I'll (almost) never have this type of bored blah-ness occupying my precious time. I'll have new friends to be chatting with, a new town to be exploring, a thousand new essays to write, and a billion lines to memorize (not to mention ten million pictures to snap for this lovely blog). You may think I'm being sarcastic, but I seriously LOVE being busy (the good busy, not the bored busy). I work best under stress and under a schedule, no matter how much I claim to desperately need a large helping of free-time in every day. What I really want is spontaneity- something my little town has apparently run out of!

4) I had a really good Hibachi grilled lunch in the cafeteria when I visited Stephens last. After my sorry attempt at lemon chicken and cooked onions and bean sprouts (1. Chicken should not be bouncy, 2. Bean sprouts do not go well with onions, and 3. vinegar also does not go with bean sprouts and onions), I could really use a fresh cooked and yummy meal- especially one healthier than the bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch I've become so accustomed to this summer.

5) Stephens has a really cute little post office. Once again I'm pretty sure most colleges have these as well, but I remember the lady at the counter being really smiley. I have a few friends that have agreed to be pen pals with me, and I'm looking forward to mailing off my little letters at the little post office. What can I say? I'm grossly quaint. I'm sure I'll have more to say about the little post office after school begins.

SPEAKING OF SCHOOL BEGINNING!

Do you all realize that move-in day is about a month away? Because I only just now realized that, and I'm kind of freaking out a little....

just a little....

love, rudi