So I'm pretty much done registering for classes here at MassArt. I'm so lucky that I got into the classes I wanted. Here's what I'm up for:

Visual Language II - Alyssa's makin' short films. Booyeah!

Ancient Greek Art - Alyssa's favorite time period to study. Much more interesting to her than the medieval class she's currently in.

Drawing II: The Figure Wet and Dry - Alyssa's favorite thing to draw! People! No more still lives for her! And she'll get to paint a bit; she's missed that.

Freshman Seminar: Native America Today - Not exactly sure why I need to take a freshman seminar, since this is my second time being a freshman. I think I've got the hang of it now, thanks. But it's about Native Americans and how they're shaping the art world today. So I'm interested.

What? Only four classes? Yes. Only four classes. Because I don't need a fifth due to the way my credits worked out (for this semester, anyway), and any extra Lit. class or anything I wanted to take was filled by the time I was allowed to register. And I'm totally not taking a freshman studio elective that I already have credit for and don't need. I'll also have Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays off. WHAT NOW.

But! I still might cross register for an acting class somewhere. I miss theatre. Which is also why I'm going to join up with the Colleges of the Fenway Theatre Project in the spring (for real this time! I won't be chickening out like this semester!)

Also, I need a job. Crap.

It Made My Day

These are my absolute favorites:

This morning, i was walking down a road in my neighborhood, when suddenly i heard a very loud, epic music coming from an apartment. When i got closer, i figured it was the music from Lord of the Rings. Then i yelled “FOR FRODOOO”. And someone from the apartment yelled back “ELENDIIIIIIL!!!” IMMD

Today it was too cold to go hatless, but I couldn’t find my usual fall hat so I ended up wearing my deerstalker (a.k.a. a Sherlock Holmes hat) instead. When I got on the bus to go to class, the bus driver took one look at my hat and exclaimed “Aha! The game’s afoot!” IMMD.

About a week ago, I wrote “Once Upon A Time…” on the bathroom wall. When a returned to the stall I found the wall had been filled with a story about a dragon and a lamb becoming friends. IMMD

Today, I found that my dog had spent the entire night defending my escaped hamster from the two cats who want to eat him. I like to think that they are an adventure team now. IMMD

Recently my cat has started to lick and eat the pages out of a cook book. IMMD

Today I was not feeling well, and while lying on my recliner, all three of my dogs came and laid on me and took a nap. IMMD.

I realized that whenever I let my tiny house rabbit into the yard, the neighbor’s obnoxious great dane huts up and hides in his doghouse. IMMD

Today I saw a pigeon get pood on by another pigeon. Justice. IMMD

I had this huge bandage on my forehead because I got cut in a bar fight. I took it off yesterday and I think I’m going to have a Harry Potter scar. IMMD.

The more adventures I have, the more long posts there are. Sorry!

( I'm gonna go ahead and, uh, cut this for you guys )

I promise I'd walk him, and take care of him, and brush him, and feed him. I'd take responsibility and clean up his -ew- poop.

I promise I'll help train him. Can we get a little one? Cocker spaniels look nice. Like in that Disney movie. Mom, why does Dad want a big dog?

I promise that even if it's a big dog I'll take care of him. I'll take responsibility.

Do you promise I'll get to name him? Really?

I promise to tell all my friends that my parents got me a puppy. He is so little!

I promise to love him forever.

I promise I'll let him out to go bathroom at noon every day of the summer. Parents have to work even in the summer...so weird. So he's all mine all day!

...How'd he get so big already?

I promise to clean up all his sheddings after I rub above his tail. He loves that tons.

Can I feed him tonight? I'll put in his beef chunks he loves so much...and sneak him an extra biscuit.

Or two.

I promise I'll control him when we go walking. I'm stronger than you, Mum.

Oh...he's mad because we went out to eat and forgot his prime rib scraps. He's refusing to look at us! Grah! I promise next time!

I promise to tell him I love him every day.

I promise I'll take him for a walk after I finish my AP homework. We haven't walked in a long while. I promise to learn how to use that pesky harness that keeps him from dragging us across the sidewalk.

I promise to help him get over his every fear! Why is he afraid of the weirdest things?

Every weekend I'm home I'll give him a huge hug. And I'll tell him I love him. Just like I promised.

I can't be home as often anymore; this college is better. I'll miss you more than most humans in my life.

I promise I'll be back to say goodbye.

I promise I'll be in the room when it happens. I'll never leave you.

I promise to love you forever.

You'll always be my Sunbun, my Sunny.

I promise.

Roommate Strife

( This is too much to have on the Friends Page ) HAPPIER TOPIC TIME.

Hallowe'en
Well, we're going to start off a tad bit before Hallowe'en when Krisen and I went on another one of our "getting lost by accident because we went in the wrong direction" adventures. I seriously think we must be cursed. Or, at least, I'm cursed. We went on a 6.1 mile walk/run that should have been much shorter than that to find a gallery opening. Afterwards there was Qdoba and the Iron Pour, and Alyssa's legs didn't like her very much. That's the wicked short version of the story.

Hallowe'en itself was so, so wierd XD It entailed me missing the commuter rail train to Wellesley because of the green line, standing in South Station dressed as a pirate by myself for an hour, and ending up taking a different train to Lowell to see Téekanne. My life is so weird.

Gazebo Group Adventure #1

So Kevin has these friends that I feel like I know already because of all the stories he has told about their weekly Friday adventures starting from the gazebo at the Commons. I got over my fear of meeting new people this week so that I could attend this adventure, putting on my winter coat, comfy walking shoes, and braving the way to the Boylston stop on the Green Line.

I climbed up the short stairs to the lovely gazebo on the commons (where homeless people tend to set up blankets), to find Kevin and two others of the party:

AJ - 22. Bunker Hill Community College. Hair is almost as long as mine. Trenchcoat. Enjoys being loud, and doing things for the sole purpose of self amusement. He seems to also enjoy disrupting social order and saying disturbing things. Very touchy...physically. He picked up that I was a cat within just a few hours of knowing me, and bestows head scratches liberally. Can get too close, though.

Steve 18. Suffolk U. Shares many hilarious stories. Very happy person. Youngest of all of us. Huge backpack. Don't really want to know what was in it. It was hard to get any real insight into his other personality traits from the hours that he was in the group.

As we were sitting at the gazebo, we were soon joined by:

Bec 18. UMASS Boston. Could easily pass as a male and does so frequently, despite having double Ds. Baggy clothing, afraid of vaginas. Hilarious individual, loves puppies and kittens. Has a soft hat. Manliest person in the group. Like AJ, enjoys being loud, and also "fighting" with AJ. Has a February birthday.

We were waiting for a mysterious person named Greg who ended up not showing up, and so we left and walked from the Commons to Cambridge. We went to the Garment District, which was really neat to finally see. We kept coming across countless playgrounds, and after a fruitless search for a Fuddruckers, we ended up at the Cambridgeside Galleria getting Food Court noms.

After sitting on a cool jungle gym thing until 5:00, we hopped on a train back to Boston to check out First Fridays Everyone remarked that I was the only one dressed for the occasion (see: Artsy).

And then we went to a sex shop next to Chinatown. I'd rather not relay the details of the happenings here. Or ever again. So let's move on, this entry is getting quite lengthy. After raiding one of Suffolk's buildings and playing in its rolley chairs, we were swiftly joined by:

Alex 19. Suffolk U. She is eerily reminiscent of Channing (from Wachusett, now UMASS Amherst) in appearance, demeanor and locution, but totally different personality wise. Kind and feminine. Has a February birthday, is a Pisces to boot.

And, as a good journey usually goes, we ended up back at the gazebo. Spontaneously I slept over at Kevin's and he showed me Borderlands (one of the artistically coolest video games I've ever seen), and I helped him clean up, do dishes, purchase snacks, etc., for he owed Bec and Alex a sleepover the night afterward. I got back to my dorm at 5 this afternoon.

Any More Additions to This Flippen Long Post, Alyssa?

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo anymore. I got to 4000 words, and that's where it's going to stay. I can't handle it. I'm already behind on homework. Stupid Form Study.

Jeeze, I can't wait until next Friday XD

Complete with pictures, naturally. Very few pictures, but pictures nonetheless.

So this past Saturday was my mom's birthday, so I didn't get to go to BCC that day since I was too busy stuffing my face with Legal Seafoods.

Sunday, however, was filled with comics.



Yeah, that's my loot.

( Here, kitty kitty kitty... )

This week Tenzin Yignyen, a Tibetan Buddhist monk spent five days creating a beautiful mandala in the Brandt Gallery of MassArt.

It made me realize how much I missed meditating with my Buddhist buddies. I set my alarm every morning this week so that I could go meditate with him, but somehow I slept through each one. I feel full of regret for that. I also regret not having a camera that works. I only got a picture on my cell phone on Monday, when he was just starting out. The finished mandala was so beautiful, and I recognized the chakra of life, manipura, at the center of the mandala. It was green, and had roses coming out of it. Surrounding it in a beautiful circle of color and calligraphy were the symbols for the other chakras.

Today was the dismantling ceremony.

Tenzin chanted throughout the ceremony, and it was beautiful to hear some Sanskrit and bell ringing with incense in the air. He was such a little guy in his traditional robes. Shorter than me, even, and I feel like I've met the happiest person on earth.

A lot of us got to help brush away the sand into a container, and those who chose to could follow him to the river (where about 8 beautiful Canadian geese were waiting for us and looking at us quizzically) where he chanted more and released the sand into the water. Flowers were thrown in after. It was such a beautiful ceremony, and even though I had a T-Shirt on and it was 40ºF, as soon as he started chanting when we reached the river, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I felt completely warm, like it was a sunny spring day instead of a cloudy autumn one.

I've promised myself I'm going to reconnect with Buddhism; there are no clubs here, and Tenzin doesn't teach classes here either. I did find a Tibetan Buddhist center in Brookline, called Lam Rim. It's a short walk from here, and I think the Sunday after this one I'll visit and see what they're about.

So Kristen and I decided to go for a walk together to find a Legal Seafood. She was craving a swordfish sandwich, and I would have sold my right arm for some steamers. We looked it up on google maps and it was a 30 minute walk. Yes, this would turn out perfectly. It was 5:30. We could be back in time for Kristen to finish her homework, and maybe I could go out later to the college night at the Aquarium.

Except the whole trip ended up talking four hours.

CHAPTER ONE: IN WHICH KRISTEN AND ALYSSA TAKE A FAIL WALK

Due to a wrong turn, we were walking in the direction of the MSPCA when we needed to have kept going straight, where Huntington turned into Washington (not down South Huntington; in the opposite direction). We actually were heading the right way, but then we thought we were going the wrong way since the directions didn't mention Washington Street. So after turning back, running 10 minutes back to South Huntington in the WRONG DIRECTION, and then walking about 20 minutes past where the E green line ended (legit ended...there was no train after that point), past the MSPCA, we stopped and asked for directions after we hit the exact wrong end of Boylston Street (where Legal Seafoods was said to be on).

The man basically told us we were retarded if we wanted to walk that far.

So, something curious also happened to me on our failwalk. Kristen was suggesting that we take the bus to the last T stop and then take the train back. I mentioned that I probably didn't have enough money to take the bus and the train, since I figured I had about $3 on my Charlie Card. Right when I said this, I saw a Charlie Card on the ground and picked it up, laughed to myself and said, "Well maybe now I do," hoping that by some luck there was $1.70 on it.

So we turned around and walked the 20 minutes back to the T. By this point it was 8:00. It was dark. We ran the stretch because we saw a train at the station that was about to leave. Kristen knocked on the window for the train to stop, but the woman just shook her head at us and didn't open the doors, even though the train remained stationary for a good 30 seconds afterward. Whatacunt.

So we sit down, and a woman comes up to us to tell us to pray, and that Jesus died for us, and Kristen is communicating with her and I'm just smiling and nodding because she was pretty adorable and old.

CHAPTER 2: IN WHICH THE TRAIN ARRIVES, ALYSSA IS CONVERTED TO JUDIASM/CHRISTIANITY/ISLAM AND THEY REACH THE AQUARIUM

Then the train was there, and we go around, and I scan my regular Charlie Card, and, well fuck, it only has 80 cents on it. I take out the Charlie Card I found on the ground, hoping with all my heart, because I only had a $20 bill besides that and I don't think the lady sitting there was too keen on making change for my sorry ass.

The Charlie Card I found on the ground happened to be a monthly pass for the month of October.

Fuck. Yes.

Long story short, we take the T to the sea. We enter Legal Seafoods. We stand and we order takeout from a grey haired man named Ibaachen who complimented our smiles, and chill out by the lobster tank. Figuring we're getting to-go, I forgo my precious steamers and order a cup of chowder instead. Kristen orders her swordfish sammich. All is going well.

CHAPTER 3: IN WHICH KRISTEN GOES TO THE BATHROOM AND ALYSSA IS SADDLED WITH OBLIGATION

So Ibaachen was a pretty cool dude. He seemed to have a good sense of humor and an accent that would puzzle the best of us. I looked at the couple at the bar eating steamers with envy, and Kristen went to go wash her hands.

Ibaachen takes this moment between taking orders at the bar in front of the kitchen to make talkings with me. He comes up to me and says something confusing about not charging me, shakes my hand and such, asking my name and where I go to school, etc. Then it's all like "Oh! My eight year old daughter loves art!" [Kristen returns from the bathroom at this point.] "She does not like portraits and faces, no. But trees and houses and mountains, yes!" Smile and nod, sweet deal. This man is adorable. He shows me a picture of his daughter (named Caroline. I was expecting Klavdia) while he takes another order, and continues leaving us parts of our order.

"Would you like to meet her sometime?"

LAWLWUT. Teach an adorable 8 year old bony strawberry blonde art for funs? Yer darn tootin'. So I said sure, and I gave him my number so that he could call me when she got out of school. (I hope to god if we're meeting anywhere it's inside the Legal Seafood, because I ain't going to no Boston household, adorable 8 year old Caroline or no.) Aaaannnyyywwaaaayyy.

He gives us the check, and he didn't charge me for my chowdah. Which turned out not to be a cup, but a freaking goblet of chowdah. And he gave us another cup sized one. Chowdah for life. That's like a legit pint of Chowdah sitting in the fridge right now. A free legit pint.

So after that we did stop in the Aquarium for about ten minutes for college night, I got to see my cosplayer friend Kristen for a minute, and some penguins, and I was content. We got back to the dorm at 9:30ish and gorged on delicious food.

My legs are jello and they hate me.

THE END

Facebook has been known to start problems. This is the first time that I have been so adamant about something from a status. I will omit the name of the speaker, because you will probably look down upon her for the rest of your life (if you know her), not to mention it will make her look like a complete idiot.

What her status said:
"If anyone thought 'Obama has no interest in being a dictator..' Here is proof that you are a moron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrsl8o4ZPo Nazi Germany....Here we come. Welcome to Communism/Totalitarianism"

What I responded with:

"On behalf of myself and my friends in Germany, this is the most offensive thing I have ever read from someone I know.

I take personal offense to comparing anything happening in the United States right now even close to the same level as what was happening during the reign of the Third Reich.

This was completely tasteless of you and I am heavily disappointed that you would even see twenty-first century America as being close to that level.

I've been to concentration camps. I've seen flayed human skin hanging up on walls because Nazis enjoyed collecting tattoos. The pictures of piles of glasses and teeth. I've seen the ruins of human ovens, the meticulous and systematic plans of genocide. I've been shocked to silence by these things I have seen. And I know enough about the current human condition that modern Western culture will never stoop to that level again.

So don't you ever be so impudent and ignorant to compare life as an Amercan under a Democratic president to Nazism."

I refreshed the page soon after, to see that she had deleted it, thus solidifying my win.

Take that, ignorant bitch. Life experience prevails over your foggy view of history and its terms.

(Also, props to Connor for presenting valid, calm, logical arguments and points. And for sticking up for me.)

And what a week it has been.

Roommates
I was very, very excited to meet my roommmates this year at MassArt. I knew we would have a common interest so we would get along wonderfully, despite 3 of us being cramped into a room made for 2.

Danielle: She's a first-time freshman and seems like a very cheery, hyper girl with a Bostonian accent. She proved her immaturity to me, however, by picking a fight with me the day we moved in. ( Story Time! )
I think she needs to get used to living with other people. The first day I learned that she was used to her family doing everything for her. We'll see with time how she changes, if at all.

Kristen She's a transfer sophomore from American Academy of Art in Chicago, and is originally from Detroit. She is so lovely, and is always serene and smiling. She's almost the mother of the room, and is a good calming agent. She is vegan excepting seafood (and chocolate, apparently) so now I would feel bad if I ever made cookies or cupcakes. She loves to cook, though, and makes a great walking partner. I think I've found a great friend in her, and I look up to her and the art she creates. She's an illustration major for a reason. Her favorite thing to draw is birds.

Both of them have birthdays this month! Ahh!

Artists' Residence, Room 813
Did I mention the three of us are being cramped into a room made for two? Yeah.
It's actually a pretty awesome room, as far as furnishing and setup goes. I would gladly, gladly live in this room with one other person. It's an epic room with a kitchen and a bathroom and I get to clean and cook and shop for food, and I have a damn good time doing it. (Wow, inner domesticity/Katya showing through here much?). I'll be posting pictures as soon as I go grab an sd card reader, so that I'm not risking anything with my dying Casio corrupting my files.

Orientation
I enjoyed about half of orientation. I did go to 2/3 of it, to be fair. I just got sick of going through something I'd already done, and being around people fresh into a college experience. My orientation group, unfortunately, was unenthusiastic and somewhat rude. Suffice to say, I met the Maggie Schmidt of MassArt in this group.
I did get to have lunch with my foundations adviser, whom I will lose after this year once I declare my major in the spring. He is a very nice man named Juan Ormaza. He's from Ecuador and is totally wizened by his life and all he's seen. I can just tell that he has a lot to teach us young folk.
I signed up for the Colleges of the Fenway Theatre Project. I'm a little wary; there doesn't seem to be much interest and I wonder how good this will be. No one I know has expressed interest either, so it's hard to do things alone! If not this, though, there's always yoga at Wentworth!

Classes
Literary Traditions: One of my two sophomore level classes! If any of you have had Mrs. Nicastro from Wachusett, it is definitely a Nicastro-level and -esque class. I've already read the first book, Gilgamesh, and we're also reading Sappho, Ovid, The Canterbury Tales, Dr. Faustus, The Oresteia, and</i>Macbeth, the last of these I've read before. I might keep at least half of these books.

Drawing I I actually switched out of my initial drawing class from one taught by a man that I felt I couldn't deal with. It wasn't the workload (okay, well it may have partially been the workload), but it was moreso his attitude and constant bitterness and negativity and swearing and yelling and telling us we suck. My new teacher is a wonderful woman from Salem whom I cannot wait to learn from. She is very positive and has a lot to give to us, I think.

Visual Language I This class seems like it's going to be mixing Photoshop with lots of abstract stuff. This is going to be really interesting, because I'm not used to these kinds of ideas. (If only the professor didn't talk the whole five hours!)

Form Study Haven't had this one yet! Not till Friday! It's going to involve 3-D stuff too! Will update!

Medieval Architecture: Castles and Cathedrals: The other class I haven't had yet! To be updated also! I'm looking forward to it! It sounds really interesting: A survey of major monuments of European architecture from the Early Christian era through the Gothic style. The class will also explore the place of architecture in urban and rural settings, the importance of pilgrimage for the transmission of ideas, and the translation of monastic ideals into buildings.

Boston
Does this even need a section to explain its awesomeness?
And how much it misses Bryanna Scalley?