Introducing Baby J!

Today was our 2nd appt. At the first one they ran a bunch of test. Blood, urine & pap. It was a very informative appt. but at the same time it was all very scary & new. Dr. Samudio has been phenomenal. She took the time to answer all our questions (whether they were silly or not) & even cracked a few jokes. By the end of our appt. I felt more at ease & couldn't wait to return.

Little did I know how nerve wracking the 2nd visit would be. I'm a very nervous person to begin with so it wasn't too uncommon for me to freak out a little. I just wanted to hear the heartbeat. I knew once I heard my baby everything would be fabulous.

And it was :)

On our way to the doctors office we began our first (of many) dvds for Baby J. We told him/her how much we loved him/her & how excited we were for this day & many days to come. :) It was a nice ice breaker before arriving to her office. We waited a short bit & then I was called in for another urine test & to check my . As soon as Dr. Samudio came into the office she remembered us. YAY! I'm sure she has many patients so you never know. She went over all my test (100% perfect), confirmed I'm 10 weeks pregnant w/a due date of January 6th & I finally learned my blood type. O positive. How I went 26 years never knowing this bit of personal information is beyond me.

After our quick update she said we were going to listen to the baby J's heart & next month we would get an ultrasound. I'm sure it didn't take long to find but WOW it felt like forever until we heard it. Baby J's perfect little heartbeat. I didn't cry but I could feel the relieve come over my whole body. We're having a baby!!!!

After the heartbeat she said, "let's do an ultrasound now!" YAY again! I was kind of sad when she said we'd have to wait but now we didn't. :) So we went to the next room, started up the camcorder & saw the cutest mini baby ever. Baby J was bouncing around like a gymnast! It all felt so surreal but very calming all at once. I can't describe it but after our appt. I started to cry.

We're having a baby. :)

So the larger version came out very blurry :/

The baby's head is on the left with his/her little arms crossing over. I swear w/all my might that I can make out an eye & little nose. Paul said I'm crazy but I'm the mama so I can see these crucial details!!!

Yay he loved it!

This past Sunday was Pauly's first Fathers Day. Even though Baby J hasn't arrived he's very proud of taking care of me & keeping up w/around the house. I have to say that Paul is the absolute best. When I first met Paul I loved how attentive & respectful he was to me. He'd open doors, get me a plate of food (gasp! the man serving the woman!) & even cooks. He cooks people! Thank you GOD for sending me a good man. :) Even before we found out I was preggo & was going through my weird sleeping phase (oh wait I'm still there :/) he would clean the house, take the dogs out & help out in any other way he could. I know he's going to make a terrific father & teach our baby EVERYTHING about sports. Oh help me.........touchdown? That's good? I thought that was illegal if you were underage? Oh my I have so much to learn.

The morning started off w/presents! I bought him The Expectant Father. He's been reading my pregnancy books so I thought one directed toward the daddy might help him understand why I'm psycho & cry all the time. :)

I was really excited to see his reaction of the photo w/his daddy but I didn't realize he'd be so shocked. After pulling away the wrapping he started to cry. :( awwwwwwwww it was so sweet. Oscar was so worried about his daddy he jumped up to give him lovings (lots of kisses). After awhile he finally just sat & stared at the picture. It's amazing how pictures can do that to you. You just want to stare & take in every little detail. Which of course he did. We talked about Bill, how cute baby pauly was & how much hair brother Jeff had. hee hee The ride also made some changes. It was all very nice & interesting to see his reaction & our reaction to the picture together. :)



After opening up gifts Paul made pancakes. MmmmmMmmmm I've never been a big fan of breakfast. It's always grossed me out. Apparently Baby J loves breakfast! Every morning I have to have either cereal, bagel, pancakes, you name it I want it. Doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary but a read meal before 11 a.m. is unheard of. The new craze is hash browns. Oh the glory of the fried potato. Mmmmmm



Then it was off to Barstow! Good lordy that was a long & HOT drive. We haven't been out there for so long I forgot about the miles & miles of desert scenery. We finally approached the cemetery which was actually pretty busy w/visitors. The last time I had been there was right after his headstone was placed. So that tells you quite a long time ago. I've mentioned to Paul that we should go visit but Bill was the first person (family-wise & that he was very close to) to have pass away. That's seems so un-real, lucky & truly sad all in one. So he wasn't too keen about visiting the cemetery. When we first arrived it was really sad because well it's a cemetery & two his headstone was covered in weeds & just looked a mess. :( Nobody had been there in awhile & you could tell. So what did we do? We headed to Wal-mart for gardening tools & a special surprise for Bill.

Pinwheels just ooze w/happiness don't you agree? It was nice to spend time w/Paul & "talk" to Bill. I told him since we made him look pretty he had to watch over Baby J. Deal? Deal ;)

Can't wait to visit soon Bill!

xoxoxoxo

Not for the easily offended : Part 2

In our Visual Language & Culture class we learned about 4 different religions, Western Christianity, Islamic, Hinduism & Buddhism. We had to use at least two religions to represent & then find a way to contrast our religions of choice.

I chose Western Christianity & Hinduism.

The left side represents Western Christianity & the right represents Hinduism.
Starting from the bottom up, I chose a red pot to represent love. I feel that when we're born we're filled w/love & innocence from there we grow & begin to chose our own path, meaning Religion. As we grow we decide who we are & what religion, if any, that compliments our morals.
The images are hanging from balance beams. Ganesh is a Hindu god. Hindu use bright colors & drape gold, jewels, fruit juice, goat milk the list goes on, to show respect for their gods. If they see an image in the middle of nowhere they will walk up to the image & wave so the god can "see" them & help them reach afterlife. It's quite impressive.
I chose to surround Ganesh with glitter to represent the "glowing" effect from receiving such high praise. Ganesh even though oversized he is balanced on his tray & the ropes that are holding him up are made of gold.

Now onto Western Christianity.

To begin I made the "rope" represent the crown that Jesus wore during his crucifixion. As the Jews did to Jesus, society mocks Christianity in every day life. The balance plate is made from an Easter egg. Inside the egg is a Christmas tree & the bark of the tree is a Cross. In my eyes Christianity has become a glorified Hallmark holiday that reflects on all that has to do w/money & greed rather than faith. So society puts more effort & "faith" into Easter eggs & chopped down tress to adore with jewels & gold to pronounce that we're praising & celebrating the birth of Jesus. When in fact, we're keeping with our greed tendencies & put all effort into outdoing one another & buying materialistic items to show our love for one another. With all this negative energy Western Christianity is unbalanced & struggles to hold together pure faith. So rather than shining with positive energy the religion is consumed with dingy yellow to pronounce its fading faith.

Wherever the wind takes us...

That is, if the wind was named Miah. :/ Last week after presenting our sacred/profane piece our instructor Miah reviled that we would be visiting Downtown Art Walk & also announced that there would be a New Years celebration in Chinatown so essentially we could walk right over after the exhibit. Cool beans. Not only was I really excited about going out of school for class but I planned to bring Paul to experience the celebration with me.

Oh the experience we shared.

First off. Downtown Art Walk is the second Thursday of every month. So for a split second Paul freaked thinking he was stuck in class with us. Hee hee. Thankfully Miah had a back up plan. The plan was to visit the Murakami exhibit at Moca. Sweet! I was informed of the exhibit by Leslie & wanted to visit before the exhibit came to an end. Yay! Maybe the turn in plans wasn't so bad after all. So off we went (via Redline) to downtown. Walked a few blocks & arrived at Moca within 30 mins. Niiice. Now as we entered the exhibit I started taking in piece by piece. I'm one of those people that can't/won't pre-judge. You can go on & on about how you love/hate something/someone but I won't take anything into consideration of how it's/they are going to make me feel. In the end I didn't love nor did I hate the artwork. In my own humble opinion the artwork is overrated. It is unique, I'll give it that much. Unfortunately, for myself the uniqueness begins to drown in Murakami's repetitiveness. Not all pieces fell victim to this display. One of my particular favorites...

This post was originally written on 8.Feb.08. Obviously I didn't really care for the exhibit since I didn't even bother to finish my thoughts. However during our finals tonight one of the fellow adventurers shared his own re-creation of our night together. Even though we didn't join in the Chinese New Year festivities we had fun together & created a bond. These are the moments where you think to yourself, "my life is good."

Ahhhhhhh...

The smell of finals is in the air...

Teller 2

Design Process :

The background is black poster board.

I drew the mouth & cut out the outside spiral pieces from Bristol paper.

The hands were magazine cut outs.

The teeth were outlined with yellow sewing thread.

The lips & teeth were painted with Acrylic.

Thought Process :

When the project was presented to the class I knew immediately that I wanted to have a smile that formed into a droop. The original concept included blocked images of "flesh" with hands. All cut outs from magazines. After compiling the blocked images I quickly realized I hated that idea. The original thought for my mouth included a cut out of foil to represent the flash that comes from super shiny teeth. We didn't have any foil so that idea got nixed. The lips were going to be pulled down with thread but then I realized that didn't fully represent my full thought process. So that's how I came up with the end product.

I truly loved my color theory class. I took it over a year ago & still to this day (almost every day) I use the meaning of colors & their communication with one another to it's full extent.

Red : Love

White : Purity

Yellow : Happiness

Green : Growth

Purple : Frustration

Sacred/Profane Aspects :

This piece represents how I feel the world see's me. The smile is both sacred & profane. Sacred because I can gain trust from strangers & it helps people open up to me. The profane aspect is that at times it can be fake. If I'm caught with out a smile there's something terribly wrong. So to avoid constant questions I instead hid behind my smile. My smile allows people to ask & take advantage of me. That's where the title comes into place. Teller 2. So much is asked from me that there are no thoughts of "asking" & the deliberate use of telling me to do task falls off the tongue so easily that it begins to sound more as Teller 2 then Tell.Her.To. The droop that my smile trickles down to shows my hidden feelings of sadness. Through helping others deal with their problems & help make their life easier I loose myself. The swirling pieces in the background represent how I see myself. A swirly mess lost in a world of "want". The hands are others taking pieces of myself to call their own. Taking my life & making it about theirs.

Even though this is obviously a troubled piece that's where the importance of color meaning comes into play. As you can see the red is very dominant. This is because my love for my family is very important to me. My family is my life & I wouldn't have it any other way. The purple represents my frustration over being taken advantage of again & again. The green shows growth. I am determined to overcome this handicap of always saying yes. Over time & triumph I will make time for myself & my needs without feeling guilty. The white represents my morals. No matter how much people pull at me & tell me to do task for them I'll never go against my morals. As I was growing up it was assumed that I would be a high school drop out, have kids before marriage & live off of welfare. I was adamant to not let these negative thoughts pull me down. That's where the yellow comes into play. I truly am a happy person. I love life & I'm truly blessed to have the opportunities' that have been given to me & able to share it all with my family. Last but not least the gift to have met & spend the rest of my life with Paul makes me smile uncontrollably.

Final Grade : B+

In the end I'm happy with my piece & the grade I received. How can you grade art? It just seems impossible. However, I could critique it for hours on end.

I would love to hear your thoughts & critiques (good or bad) regarding

Teller 2.

I.am.Tired

I’m not just tired I am effin tired. My eyes burn & my legs are sore. I am far from my crazy club-hopin days where I got home at 4 in the morning just to wake up for work at 6. Amazingly enough I always felt refreshed. Those days are LONG gone.

This semester I signed up for two night classes one on Wednesday & one on Thursday. Each class is scheduled 6-10pm. If I’m lucky & leave on time I’ll make it home a little after 11. The traffic is non-exist going to school & home so essentially it’s the perfect schedule. I just need to adjust to the long hours. I’m rambling. I do that.

Anywho, so yesterday our class had a planned trip to The Way We Wore. Along with the trip a scheduled appt to meet with Doris Raymond was arranged. Fabulous woman. Fabulous. If you ever, ever have the pleasure to meet Doris I hope that your experience is as exhilarating as my own. Through her stories of triumph & failure I was able to share a speckle of her amazing journey. She is beyond humble & willing, so willing to answer all questions. If she doesn’t know the answer she knows the person who can help you & is so full of knowledge. Book smart & knowledge through life lessons. I truly cannot say enough about her. The experience was one in a lifetime. The only way you can meet Doris is through an appointment. Appointments are hard to come by & we were very fortunate that she made the time to meet with our class. Not only did she take the time for class but after all the other students left (a little before 8 pm) Rachel (another student) & I stayed to ask more questions & pick her brain. Doris stayed with us until 9:30, until 9:30! Needless to say after gabbing with Rachel afterward I didn't get home until after midnight :/ Anywho, back to the fab Doris!

She did not once complain about our extended visit & encouraged our questions & thoughts. She allowed us to go into her “closet” which is where clients are taken to pick through the best of the best. The room was filled top to bottom of clothes, accessories, magazines ranging from Vogue to Montgomery Ward. It was gold. Pure.Gold. Going over books, websites, designers, places she’d been oh! The list goes on & on. I am just so thankful. Plus I had the pleasure of being able to afford some of the precious items she’d found.

As you can see even the poops have good taste. I bought the red knit cap, pearl necklace w/the lovely ruby accent & heart throbbing vintage Salvador Sapena pumps for under $140. That's what I really loved about her shop. Most items were really affordable. The layout of the store really has the consumer in mind. All items found on the lower level are reasonably priced. But, wow. The top floor.......I was among the greats. YSL, Chanel, Louis, Dolce & Gabbana half the names I didn't even know how to pronounce! How she finds these delicious treasure is truly beyond me. She explained a lot of it was through trial & error (bidding on pieces through auction). One of the many amazing stories she shared was one of Sonia Delaunay. While scouting out other vintage shops she came across an original (!) Sonia Delaunay hat & scarf. At the time she just had a hunch of it maybe, being a Sonia Delaunay original but wasn’t too sure. So instead of passing up the opportunity she bought the pieces for one hundred & fifty dollars. I cannot stress that amount enough. ONE HUNDRED AND-okay you get the point. Anywho, come to find out they were true originals. Sonias son send Doris a certificate of authenticity. Now, with this authenticity her items are worth more than you can imagine. But it's more than the worth. Having an original is priceless! To be known as an owner to an original piece is mindboggling.

The goods don't stop there. Through all her well sought out items Doris is very well known through the fashion industry. A list clients are constantly buying & "borrowing" items helping her name become well known & business thrive on word of mouth.

Photos were not permitted but I tried to take a few w/my camera phone. The pictures do not do her items justice nor does the website. So after the exhileratng high of meeting with Doris & drolling over her treasures I quickly hit the low of my high. Now, here I am at work trying to keep my eyes open.

Just one more trip…..I swear I can stop anytime.

Then again, there's always Tar-jay to hold back the urges...

Hello Lover...

Not for the easily offended

This semester I enrolled into Visual Arts & Culture. So far it's been an interesting debate about art in general. This past week we discussed : Chris Ofilis The Holy Virgin Mary & Andres Serranos Piss Christ. Don't click on the link just yet...

Chris Ofilis The Holy Virgin Mary

Andres Serranos Piss Christ

The discussion started based off the image alone. Without going into detail as to how the image was created and/or the artist intent we were asked if we viewed it as sacred or profane. It was interesting to hear various observations & after knowing how each image was created some views were retracted. I'd love to hear (before reading each article) how you view each image.

Assigned for this weeks homework we were asked to created an art piece (any visual of our choice) to display what we found to be profane & sacred about ourselves. I took (cell phone) pictures from beginning to start of my own piece. I have to admit as the project came along I changed my visual more than twice. A better picture with my digital camera will be posted shortly but as an exercise for myself I'd like to expose my creation before explaining my intentions.