She Came from Planet Z

half sunny half rainy

Well, the ups and downs of our remaining two or three weeks of school continue.  I, for some reason, seem to be the only girl capable of producing a glistening layer of sweat on every surface of my body after P.E.  Well, this is after real football on real fields in real humidity.  Oh, the horrors!  Poor, poor us.

Everyone is grouchy at the end of the day.  Linnie comes up and bluntly says, "Why do you sweat SO MUCH?!  You look like a GUY!  And why do you look like that?  Your face is all weird!"  We find her bluntness a breath of fresh air.  Sometimes. 

I had to color this one today as I found it appropriate.  This is one of my main fixations at the end of the day, after waiting those extra minutes in the girl's locker room, waiting for the end-of-school bell to ring.  All of us, sweaty and desperately crowding around the mirrors trying to fix this and that.  I wonder, what does the mirror see?  Well... what we see, I guess.

I took the algebra HSA today.  It was my first really long test.  It was very easy, I am glad to report, but also very long.  We all looked, just as our teacher had predicted, like we had been run over by a train. 

Other strange moments of the day: the weather is just as wonky as us kids.  I looked outside and found it to be sunny and dry on one side, and pouring on the other.  That's just annoying. 

So good news and bad news ahead.  And of the present, I guess.  I can run precisely 3.68 miles!  BUT, finals are coming.  I am not getting worked up about them.  No I am not.  Just wait until next week...  BUT right after finals comes THE END OF THE YEAR!!!

An

Good An came and let me draw her.  I can't get enough of drawing people.  If they don't mind sitting for half an hour and not moving, I'll draw anyone.  Now I just have to teach myself to stand drawing objects. 

An also drew a little cartoon of me!  It's very good.

I sold my soul to school

Guess what?  School sucks.  I know I'm not starting out happily.  But today, I wrote down "ZOE'S SOUL" on a sheet of notebook paper and gave it to O as a joke, because she believed you actually could place a soul on a sheet of paper. 

I'm not saying that giving my soul to someone would ruin a day, but I literally felt like Bart Simpson in that old episode where he sold his soul.  Crazed and anxious and evil and desperate all at the same time.  I just want to eat that notebook paper up like he did and feel that warm feeling of goodness as the paper settles in my stomach.

Also, to make matters worse, we played dodge ball in P.E. today.

Dodge ball.

Are they trying to KILL us?

P.E. is my 7th period, so I walked home with a sore chest (target spot for the mega-throwers) and low spirits with a Spanish presentation, exams, and a lost soul on the horizon.  (LOST SOUL -sob- !!!) 

Yes, I DO intend on eating more than my fair share of chocolate chips today. 

why sometimes it's just better to draw

Today was a significant day, because we had our first field trip since 6th grade.  We went to Gettysburg.  And this is my sketch of our tour guide.  This is why I bring a sketchbook instead of a camera, because I could not have photographed this.

super de duper

Super 8!  I saw that movie last summer... or was it a few summers ago?  For some reason the name has stuck with me... it's awesome.  I'd love it as a nickname.  I also love the characters in the movie.  (click to enlarge)

I found the image to copy off of on google images.  I liked how the kids were placed... and their expressions.  And also how all the colors go nicely together.

I have had a lot of self-help thoughts and thankfulness and such.  It was partly the article I saw in a nutrition thing about how sweets literally contain addictive chemicals, but it was also this book.  That's right!  Book talk!  Get reeaaaadddyyy!

This is a diary of a spunky (and maybe a little crazy?  You'll think that at first... ) teacher about her first year of teaching - in an inner-city Chicago school.  All of the kids are poor as dirt and come from troubled families.  They have a very hard time in school and life in general, with such a scary home life to come home to.  By the time I finished, I felt SO grateful to have such a healthy life.  And, maybe it was because it was late at night, promissed whoever gave me such a great life (yes, superhero cat, I'm talking to you) that I would do my best to be enthusiastic and hard-working at school, because I had it so good there. 

After that I read an article about addictive sweets.  How they contain addictive chemicals.  That make you CRAVE sweets.  So so so true.  I thought, so all it takes is mind power, eh?  Can I have a life with a couple chocolate chip handfuls less?  Come to think of it, I may be ahead of myself here.  I may be a little crazy.  I just seriously want to feel good about myself.  Because, thought this isn't true, I feel fat a lot of the time.

happy Earth Day everybody!

It's a rainy, april day.  A smoky smell hangs in the air, and along with the smell of rain, and the oatmeal raisin cookies mum baked (note: it is very rare to have spontaneously-made cookies in the house), it is heaven.

Oh, how nice it would be to make an entire graphic novel colored this way.  Oh, how nice it would be to actually have a plot for a graphic novel. 

Yesterday, it was sunny.  Also heavenly.  And strangely summer-like.  I fear the great heat that may attack us when it's actually summer.  Anyway, I felt like being someone else for a few minutes and raided mom's closet. 

Ha-ha-ha-ha HA.  Oh so sweet and innocent.  This was the best shot mom got after my attempts to spin and look girly and young and weightless.  Which is a fun feeling, if you can accomplish it.  In real life I'd be sweating in the buttoned-all-the-way-to-the-top shirt and would have already taken off the skirt out of annoyance. 

No, I have NO idea what I'm doing fashion-wise.  But hey, if you have a blog, and use it to put of pictures of yourself wearing clothes, then you are officially an online genius, right?  I most certainly think so.

warmer weather wardrobe water wednesday? no... it's friday

Well, I'm finally doing something good with my clothing catalog obsession. 

I quickly sketch some of the models on the pages, and leave the outfits blank.  Then, when I feel like coloring, I um... color!  It is amazingly fun and I am just as obsessed with it as I am with clothing catalogs right now.

I only draw girls... and that annoys me.  But then again, I always only draw girls.  I guess, in today's world, they're the only ones wearing pretty much any color or design. 

  Yeah, this one is a little crazy.  As you can see I am yearning for a modest two-piece swim suit (does not exist) 

Weather is warmer.  Much warmer.  Our P.E. flag football unit makes me want to write descriptive sentences of our 7th period:

We, in two teams, form lines.  We squint across at each other on the line of Scrimmage, forgetting the next step as the white light deepens the red of our sweaty foreheads.  When our eyes aren't glued to the coveted football, they hang low, soaking in every neon blade of grass as our tongues become ever more dry. 

the trip

Hi all!  Here are some Prague sketches (click to enlarge):

(at Cafe Calma... that was very calm.  Probably one of my favorite bits of the trip)

(documenting people)

(documenting drinks)

(at Cukrakava Limonada... or as dad says "supercofee lemonade)

(and the last night out... at an italian restaurant on a boat.  Woo hoo!)

Oh!  Oh!  Here was a neat part of the trip - this is an elevator.

Scary, huh?  Very fun, too.  Find many more pictures on my mom's blog here.  It was truly an exciting trip.  Thank you, Aunt B, Uncle P, and little O! 

hello again, spring!

And hello all!  I have crazy vacation tales and pictures, which will come up in the future.  But now, cherry blossoms!  Woo!

closer...

closer...

too close!  Back up!

Ahhh... there we go.  A shockingly blue sky.  But yesterday, that actually was the color of the sky.  And I was going to have a very happy photo of the pretty pink and green and blue, but then my friend and I had to have a cherry blossom petal fight.  And that is very important.  (OH, the wholesomeness)  I actually wanted to paint this, with acrylics or something, but we do not have those.  First painting urge, here.  Either way,

cherry blossoms!

spring!

happiness!

more style quest thoughts

Once again I find myself yearning for a style of my own.  Or something with clothes.  Something about clothes.  I want to own clothes maybe?  I don't count the clothes I own as clothes.  They're just sorta... shirts and pants.  Not style.  Why do I want style?  Is it that I want to accomplish that clean, crisp "I've got my style down pat so there" appearance?  Maybe one just has to really care about clothes and really search for every last little detail.  Or am I just rambling on too much?  Yes I think so.

These girls are supposed to be modeling clothes for a clothing magazine.  I'm slightly against clothing magazines and specific companies because I like the idea of finding clothes in weird, small independent shops or thrift stores like all cool people on the internet do.  Still, I have a small obsession with catalogs.

About the catalogs.  Every morning while I eat breakfast I re-read clothing catalogs that were sent to us in the mail.  Some were sent months ago, and some I've read every single morning for a couple weeks now.  My favorites change.  I don't know... I like how the clothes are described in detail.  I like reading all the phrases used like, "Jump into spring" or "stretch your legs".  And now, whenever I look at a catalog not in the morning, I get hungry for cereal.  

Though "I get hungry for cereal" is such a wonderful ending, I can't help but mention a few of my style inspirations. 

Angela Chase from the TV series My So-Called Life.  This series, by the way, is one of my favorites.

April Ludgate from another TV series called Parks and Recreation.  Also another ultimate favorite.  For some reason the characters make me like the clothes even more...