She Came from Planet Z

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.

get over your fears of running with zombies! (no, I mean use the zombies to get over your fear)

How to get over your fear of passing people while out for a run:

Pretend everyone else has turned into a zombie and that they can't see you if you're running.  However, the second you stop to walk, they'll pick up your scent and be on you in a second.  Meanwhile, you are on a quest to find the special zombie key to the gravestone that turns off the zombie curse.  You have to run to it.  Run!  Run!

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! 

Christmas eve eve

This was a trip we took to D.C. about a week ago...

And the chocolate shop we spent most of our time in:

update

Early this morning I skipped my first two classes to go to the interview.  For Einstein... art high school.  And guess what? 

I got in!!!  YAAAAAYYYY!

Okay, I received a verbal invition to come to Einstein.  Which basically means, if you want to come to this school, it's okay with us.  We're waiting for the paper work to finish up.

Meanwhile, middle school is proving more and more to me how great it will be to get out.  Gossip is flying madly, circulating through me, and then jotting around again.  I think I get asked if I like "like" random people three times a week, and same for everyone else.  Hey, all I did was give him gum.

Our school finally had an art show.  I've got this.

And this block print.  I also had a little clay house that I like to call the "martian out-house", and don't particularly feel like showing it.  I'm not big with clay.  I do feel like showing these, however:

Ha ha!  There were tons of them.  They crack me up.

And finally?  New York!

We focussed on the more subdued side of New York.  This is the high line.

And Chelsea market...

meet Liza!

Well, I've gotta say, this post is pretty over-due.  Was it a week ago?  No, it was two weeks ago that I got to actually meet with another of my own kind! Liza is the author of the blog Tales From the Flatlands, which, if you were to get "all fancy", provides a delightful insight into the world of the typical pre-adolescent.  She does book reviews in Stone Soup magazine!

Oh, it was fun.  We ate brunch at a little, well, brunch place, and discussed the meaning of life and many other philosophical theories as we sipped tea and smiled smugly for the camera.

No, seriously, it was great!

The pancakes were good, topics of school and general life lingered about, and afterwards we wrapped it up with some mindless wandering about the shops.  In all, a good experience.

the swampy south part 2

 
 
 
 
And so, at this moment, the easy cheesy pie is complete.  And I have a gap in the day to sit.  Friend Lindsay is here as well... she wanted to see the tedius and incipid process (new vocabulary) of posting.  This is Lindsay:

I am writing on a blog that isn't mine. :)  farwell sweet minions

We are an odd bunch we are. 

La la la la...

Oh, by the way this is now Zoe.

the swampy south

Hello!  Okay, that was a pretty short absence, compared to other absences I have heard of, but I am unable to take the summer off.  For that one week our family was in the south, the swampy, hot and muggy south.  We drove down to Florida to visit Me-mom and Pop-pop, stopping first for a few days in Savannah, Gorgia, for some real vacation.

My past self would have seen how I casually wrote that we "drove down to florida" and would have freaked out, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had pictured.  Sure, the days were long, but all the more time to try to beat the computer at games of connect four!  Notice I said try.  Oh yes...

 
The first ever in-car paper fashions!  During a very heavy rain storm!  Exclamation point!

And now for Savannah...

 
 
 
yummy yummy yummy swamp trees.  And the buildings.  Oh, the buildings.  For the first time I actually had an urge to get out some oil paints.

 
I have taken SO many pictures.  I could make this a super-post that practically fills up the first page of the blog with picture upon picture of buildings, cobblestone streets, the swamp trees at night, palmettos...  I found about 15 bikes throughout the town just leaning against a pole with no lock or anything.  People just bike around on these artistically painted bikes and no helmets... I envy them.

More pictures to come, I am sure.

Deja Vu

First off...

 
Fathers day breakfast!  Mum and I made blueberry pancakes (from a Trader Joe's mix, of course) and gave dad a beer mug printed with pictures (mom's gift) and a "calendar" full of drawings of cats that I made.  Now don't we all seem so wholesome.

We also went to the little town in Mt. Airy.  On Saturday.

This was actually quite a trip involving a picnic at a winery with a friend from the Philippines.  Thank you for coming out!  We really enjoyed it!

And we saw Deja Vu.  I am just obsessed with these little towns and their fantasy-like funky dress shops.  This one, in particular was filled with gems and jewels and feathers beyond your heart's desire.  I'd have more detailed pictures but we (and I'm still kicking myself for this) forgot our camera and had to use J's... another thing I must thank her for.  (click to enlarge)

Yes, very expensive, but I can't get enough.  Perhaps we can find more and make it a summer scrapbook project...

Pennsylvania, anyone?

Well... every year we drive up to Toot's place....

 
Her house in itself is a sanctuary that could be featured in some artsy magazine that goggles over vintage grandma-y houses.

 
 
 
Here we are safe. 

 
That is, until the party starts...

 
 
Do wee ones perhaps need some stability, some structure?  Some structure to climb?  We understand that they like water and back rubs that are actually kind of ticklish, and undivided attention.  We understand this, and lets just hope we're up for it.

And even if we're not, well, they're not going away...

In all, hamburgers and an actual lawn that you can run through without tiptoeing or checking where your feet are constantly is heavenly. 

 
And then there's that moment at 9:30 pm when you're out of milk... oops, better run down to the Shop 'n Save.  The Shop n' Save with big red letters that illuminate the parking lot in a dull red.  The Shop n' Save that, from the inside, looks like it hasn't changed since the 1980's, and the clerks haven't either.  Except for that one college student who's overly tattooed...  Quaint and slightly unsettling music plays in the background.

Ah yes, the drive home.

 
This tart was only entertainment for a few minutes.  The rest were filled with nausea, boredom, and the occasional anxiety moment where you feel like you have to get out of the car or else.

 

And we eventually end here, at our neighborhood pool which has finally opened.  Cold, but with 90 degree weather (it's May and spring has already passed) that won't stop us.