A new drawing

One of my most recent drawings I've finished is a symbolic drawing. I've decided to represent my family (the siblings, anyway) with birds that parallel our personalities!
For Krista I have chosen a peacock. 

   Even the fact that a 'peacock' is the male version of the bird goes along with Krista... (for those of you who understand me.) Now, these birds are sought after for beauty in the vibrancy of color their feathers have and posses a certain level of self admiration, I guess I could say. 
For Charlotte I have chosen a Laughing Kookaburra.It's known to throw it's prey from tall trees in order to stun them (as a sort of game before killing them), and it's call sounds like a side-splitting laugh. That is so like Charlotte to laugh at other people's pain.

For Jay I have chosen a Tropical Parrot. 

There are many different kinds of tropical parrots, some of 

which are classified as 'talking.' This type is no exception. I also aimed to give this parrot an expression I believe Jay could make. "She touched my pepe, Steve."

And last, ME. Charlotte had to help me on this one. We decided on a Dodo bird. 

Her reasoning behind it is that people used to think that Dodos were rather stupid birds, but came to realize they were rather smart! I don't know how true that is, but they are now associated with being dumb, even though they have been extinct for over 100 years! I thought the connection fit because Dodos are short, wide, and look a little funny (maybe the looks could represent how I am inside sometimes).

Trying to keep on going...

It's this time in the school year that just gets to me. I'm almost finished, but I just want to quit right now! I think it's especially hard because I'm driving by myself. I moved back on campus this semester, but I come home on weekends and sometimes have to come home during the week and then back up to school to finish up the week (mostly for the doctor or whatever). It all gets very tiring! I think I need some words of encouragement! Only..... 6 weeks left? After 6 weeks I'll be home-free in Alaska!

I have, however, found some rather amusing things to keep me going. One of which is a book (a movie as well), North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I am addicted to anything related to England in the 1800's! Particularly it's love stories! Especially the stories where the girl gets swept off her feet by a handsome stranger after a couple of juicy fistfights and a terrible misunderstanding!! I first found the movie, loved it so much I just HAD to read the book! (I think it's funny that most of the books I read, I watch the movie version first.) But, ya! I'm also still reading Jane Eyre (I'm almost to the end). It's amazing, I think I'm turning into a book-liker! Who would have guessed!

I Feel I'm Getting Older.

(I think that ring's gonna have to be bigger!)
Everyone my age is getting married! Well, actually all the people my age that I pretty much grew up with are already married or engaged and some of the married ones are having kids! But now, even MORE people are getting married. Not that I'm saying I want to get married right now, too... cuz I'm not. I think I still have a good 5-10 years until that happens. Besides, the guy I marry would have to pretty special to get along or at least be able to handle my family! And my family is a big part of my life.....so, there you go! I am just feeling a little older. I could do what ever I want to!!... if I wanted to. And that's a nice feeling! I think I have crossed over that threshold of being careless and am now careful. Careful with what, you might ask? I don't know! I think just everything in my life.
I'm becoming more and more excited about drawing!! I LOVE IT! Maybe because I'm getting better and better! I'm not trying to boast, but I've finally found something that I can become rather good at! And I haven't been really good at anything. Just good at a lot of things. But most importantly I enjoy it. I think I enjoy it a little too much. I have now lost interest in any other class that is not art related. I used to try to be good at math and science classes, but now? I JUST DON'T CARE! I will say I do enjoy my geography class, however. Probably because I love to travel. Now the tricky part is finding a way to support myself (finacially) AND be able to do what I love. (left: composition of 6 different faces into 1)
Now, would you eat the moon if it were
made of RIBS?!?!?

All I want to do is draw!

All of my 'spare' time has been going to drawing these past too weeks. And when I say 'all of my time' I mean..... several hours a day, during the week. Good thing all of my other classes are not all that hard this semester! Instead of doing homework or reading  assignments for my other classes, I've been watching movies and drawing. I'm at least taking a drawing class, though. Drawing 2. It's more difficult than drawing 1 (obviously), so it's only natural to spend more time practicing, right? I'm excited that I'm getting a lot better at techniques and becoming more comfortable with the material (mostly charcoal).

There's just my Chemistry class that I pretty much have everyday of the week that is bumming me out! Ever since I've started studying art I've become addicted to being more right brained. Math/science classes don't even make it to my top 10 of favorite subjects any more. Reaching into my left hemisphere has become painful and, for some concepts, very hard to reach! 

Back to my drawing class, though! We're working on self portraits. 

Here are a few sketches 

I've done...... I know, they aren't very good. 

The one on the left I drew from a photograph of myself (this one didn't turn out too bad), but the one on the right is just down right HIDEOUS! I drew it from looking at myself in the mirror! I guess what I REALLY look like is a dead person with no eyelashes and very little hair!

Outer Banks, North Carolina

I spent the week of Christmas in North Carolina instead of Myrtle Beach. That's where I thought is was.... but we really went to the Outer Banks on the North Carolina coast. Oh, well! This was just as good if not better! My Uncle Joe never spares any expense when it comes to vacations! We were all very spoiled! This picture to the right was taken at Ocracoke island (the southern tip of the strip of the islands). This is my first experience with the Atlantic Ocean! It was rather cold, however, but I didn't care! There were lots of cool shells to pick up, too!

These birds were EVERYWHERE! It was funny 'cuz when a person started to get close to them, they would start waddling away, then fly to the other side of you. Like you had an invisible bubble around you. What do you call these birds? Annoying-poop machine birds?

Our condo. Do you see 2 little people waving on the top floor? 

That's my brother

 and I. Our party had enough people to fill 2 condos. Ours had me, Jay, my dad, my Aunt Angela, Uncle Gill, Cousins Ali and Jordan. The

 other condo had my Uncle Joe, Aunt Beth,

 Beth's parents, my grandma, and my half-cousin Aiken. 

This is the Cousin-gang that went: (from left) Aiken, Jordan, me, Jay, Ali (Alex) We are at the ferry waiting to get on. This is the day we went to Ocracoke

 Island. This trip took all day... it was a long day. At least we had a kiddie car with no adults. 

The view from my room (on the 4th floor), the "suit" including a jacuzzi and king size bed! Apparently this was the 

premium spot to be (ocean fron

t view) only 2 minute walking distance to the beach. I love the beach now! 

Alex (or Ali as she goes by now, I'm used to calling her Alex), Aiken, and me on the beach right before they left (everyone else left on Christmas day but me, Jay and my dad didn't leave 'till the 27th).

Can you see the Dalphins in the water?!? There were tons of them! 

Just cruisin along by the shore! Too bad none of them actually came out of the water further than just their fins.

 Then, we all decided to played ballerina on the beach! Alex is a ballerina in Texas (she teaches kids at a dance studio) so, we all decided to join in! Jay, with is "nice line" as Alex put it.

 Aiken lifting Alex (he was the only man able to do it, from the men that were there anyway). 

And me....

The exciting thing o

f the week was when we went Hang Gliding! It was so FUN! I was only one that landed on my knees or face all 5 flights (we each got 5 tries). But that's okay! My dad wanted to buy my brother and I t-shirts so, I picked the funny t-shirt. It says "Fly Naked- Feel the wind on your cheeks" Of course my dad thought that was too inappropriate, so the comprimise to buy it was that I can only wear the shirt when I'm at home (whatever!) "Okay dad!" **wink, wink** (Left) This is the cousin clan getting suited up.

 Next, me all strapped in and ready to go! "Clear" you say when you're ready to go. You walk, jog, run and float away! 

Next is Alex flying off the dune. We didn't fly very far, but for our first time, it was pretty exciting! It was very windy, so for some of the girls in the other group they didn't even have to do anything, they just floated straight up they were so light! 1 instructor was on each side of each glider and they ran down with us to tell us what to do to fly and land properly. 

I Think I'm Addicted...

For a little over a year now, I've been experimenting with selling things online. Things ranging from photographs, hand made jewelry, old china dolls (etsy.com) to slightly damaged designer jewelry (I buy for cheap), shoes, purses, unused makeup etc. I've only been successful fairly recently and that success has come through ebay! 

   I finally signed up for my own account a little over a month ago and I've been a selling machine ever since! Well, a selling machine by my standards, anyway. Ebay isn't the best site to sell stuff (there are some extra fees when setting up to sell, and fees when you DO sell...blah, blah, blah) but it is certainly got one of the best range of people to sell to! 

   There are some things I have learned so far. I think my list would probably be a list for dummies, but oh, well. Here is my list:

1. Don't offer free shipping when you aren't selling the item for

enough money to even pay for the shipping!

2. Priority Mail is different than First Class Mail. (Priority goes faster, 

but can cost twice as much or more sometimes)

3. Do you really need to post so many pictures of your item?

On Ebay, they charge you $.15 a pic. if you have more than 1. Thinking ahead of

the cost of even posting the item takes away from your pure profit.

4. Be specific in where you ship to and your shipping rates! Someone from, oh I don't know, NORWAY could bid on & win your item that costs $8, but when you have a set

shipping rate of $4 and the cost to ship that item to Norway is at LEAST

$15, you will be in the HOLE $3. Not a good way to start out!

5. Spend a few minutes becoming familiar with your ebay account web page. 

Links like questions from potential bidders, and leaving feedback for

 people you've sold to, or bought from like to hide themselves on the page 

sometimes and can start to hurt your reputation as a seller!

Christmas Here, Already?!?

I was at Wal-Mart last night buying deoderant, bread, and Halls when I pass by the seasonal section and guess what they have out already? Christmas decorations! I know this happens every year, but every year I always think to myself "Halloween JUST ended! What is wrong with them!" Retailers just skip everything else and head straight for Christmas! What happened to Thanksgiving? The only stuff I saw that related to Thanksgiving was an endcap of leaf-designed napkins. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong! But the Christmas retailers and most of America celebrate is different from the Christmas I celebrate.
Speaking of Christmas, the Kansas City radio station, Star 102.1, just started playing Christmas music around the clock until Christmas day! I'm excited about that because I start listening to Christmas music around this time of year. Actually, I start listening to it around July, and then again in November. So, while I drive to school every morning I have more music choices to choose from!

Guess where we're going for Christmas!?!

For Christmas 2008 ("Christmas 2008" -Dad) My Uncle Joe is renting 2 beach houses at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and is inviting the family to come, too. Well, actually if I remember correctly he's been renting a beach house at Myrtle Beach for a several years on Christmas, but this year he was able to invite us personally (at my grandma's birthday party) as well as my other relatives (who were at the birthday party, too). And we are actually able to go this year!
I always hated it when I was younger and Uncle Joe would invite us to have fun doing stuff like this with my dad's side of the family, but my parents were always too poor, too cheap, too lazy, too crazy, too busy or too whatever! I'm so glad that I'm a grown-up now! I can go on my OWN trips.
We're going to spend about a week there. He's renting the house from December 20th - 27th. We'll most likely drive down, maybe rent a car (we must travel in style!). Jay and I are going for sure (and my dad and my grandama - Mema), Jeremiah and Charlotte are maybe, hopefully going.

Charlotte and I were planning a trip on the side (while this one was panning out) to Chicago! I was having fun playing travel agent and seeing all the cool places we could go, but then the Myrtle Beach one was finalized, so we'll go to this one instead!

I'm pretty excited for Fall Break this weekend. Thrsday- Sunday! WOW! What a long weekend! What will I do with the time?

This past Saturday was my 22nd birthday! It was pretty fun! Charlotte took a photo shoot of me (for the model in me) then my mom cooked us (my family) a really good brunch (but it was really breakfast). Then at Jeremiah's parents house we carved pumpkins (my pumpkin turned out really not good) and when it got really dark we went to Gary's Berry's and "raced" through the corn maize. It was FUN! Everyone else had a date except for me, so I teamed up with Charlotte and Jeremiah. We got second place! It took us 49 minutes to get through the whole thing. The second half was the hardest. First place went to Jay and Andrea; it only took them 42 minutes for the whole thing. Jeremiah's parents only got through the first half (you are able to quit at this point if you want to), saw us come out of the end and decided to quit because they took so long on the first half! My mom and her date, Robert, took about an extra 45 minutes. After coming out of the maize, we were able to stand in line for funnel cakes, eat them, and talk a bit before my mom and Robert came out. At least they made it through the whole thing! Fun times!!

A New Star Trek Movie!?!?

So, I was browsing online and I come across this picture of the guy who plays Syler on Heros and I'm like, "Why does Spock look all young?" Then I clicked on the link and sure enough! They are making a new Star Trek movie with a bunch of young "pretty" people! It looks like a Sci-Fi channel movie. But, maybe it's a real movie. It's supposed to come out next summer (2009).

Bad Eyes

Ever wonder what it's like to have bad vision? This is pretty much what it's like... We're learning about the eye in my psychology class right now, so it's been on my mind. Plus Charlotte's husband, Jeremiah, spent the summer working in Alaska to save money so he could get Lasik (but he can't because his PUPILS are TOO BIG!). And I just ordered another box of contacts! So, eyes have been the reoccuring theme lately. Every once and a while on the way to or back from school (when I'm NOT driving) I'll take my glasses off and just look everywhere... of course I can't see anything, not even things that are in the car with me. I noticed that staring at headlights without my glasses make me more scared of running into them. Even though the light coming from the headlight isn't that big to a 20/20 vision person, to a blind person THE'RE HUGE! And since every car has 2 headlights, it seems scarier because it looks like twice as many cars! Then I put my glasses back on and I calm down. I kind of prefer seeing with my glasses on; I get a headache when seeing without my glasses for too long.

On Vacation

So, it's been awhile since I've written anything!
This is my life right now.......

I'm hanging out with weirdo-looking blue frogs and flying in planes with them! Just kidding (only about the plane part)! I've been going to school ALL THE TIME! 19 hours and I barely have enough time for sleep! And when Baby doesn't get any sleep she looks like this.....

A scary sight, huh? Well, actually it's not that bad. Even though I look and FEEL like that, I'm actually quite funny! My brain gets let loose and I respond to questions like this:

"Kezia, where did you get those scissors?"

"From my box. Where did you get your face..... from the trash?!"

or

"Wow, Kezia this is a good pizza sandwhich! Good thing you chose for us to come eat here."

(in reference to my large boobs)

"Ya, that's because Baby's got ESPN!"

By the way for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about when I call myself 'Baby', that is what my sister Charlotte and I call each other. We commute to school together (an hour and a half each way, 5 days a week) and old kid nick names ends up popping into our conversations when we talk to each other and about other family members. When I was little (since I'm the baby of the family) everyone called me 'baby' instead of my real name for the first few years of my life. Other nick names we use are 'Cha-cha' -- in reference to Charlotte, 'Ta-ta' -- in reference to Krista.... and so on.

I now have about 50 nick names! So, I've gotten used to people calling me whatever they want and I'll pretty much respond. Especially since my first name, Kezia, isn't the most common name in the world. People have trouble remembering it and/or trouble pronouncing it.

Some things my other siblings are doing:

Krista is going to drive a school bus... WATCH OUT EVERYONE! KRISTA'S DRIVING A BUS! At least this job we have convinced her to keep, so GO KRISTA!

And as far as me and school..... let's just say I'm glad the weeks are flying by (they have been flying by so quickly!!) because if I allowed myself to slow down I think I might EXPLODE! I know that may seen contradictory, but I'm on a pretty good roll with my grades and everything right now and if I slow down, I'll just get lazy and not do as well.

It's like I'm rolling down a hill! I can't just STOP rolling! It would be harder to stop than to just keep going!

Can you imagine rolling down THIS hill??? -->

Today, I got off work and came over to visit Krista, Jay and Will as usual. I then, as usual, stole one of their computers to get online and check my email, upload stuff to my blog etc. During all of this, Jay was making dinner and Krista and Will went shopping for some food, seeing as it was a very nice day today; lots of sunshine (so much sunshine it got REALLY warm inside the store at work today). Sunshine around these parts is rare. ANYWAY, when dinner was ready Krista cattle-called everyone to the dinner table to eat. I yelled, "Hang on a second!" I wasn't quite done with uploading all of my pictures. When I was done, I joined everyone in the kitchen. It was an unusual sight! The kitchen was clean and everyone was sitting down and eating at the table with a song from "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou" playing in the background. As I began eating, Krista and I started singing along with the song and before we all knew it, we were all singing in harmony to the song. It was pretty fun! It was so fun, I ran to get my camera to video it.

That was a VERY long explination of why this video is so funny and cool, but in case you are forgetting, you're in Kezia Wonderland, so everything is a bit off kilter here!

Billy's Cruise to Alaska!

ALASKA!! It's a cruise ship! Since my whole family came up to Alaska to work for the summer, why can't Billy come along, too?!? Billy wanted to to take a cruise ship up here, but...... that was a lot of money for a puppet. So, my mom sent him in a priority mail box full of lots of food!! My mom also made him a 'tourist outfit' so he would "blend in." We took him out for his first tour of Skagway the other day. He got to see a cruise ship, and some Fireweed flowers, and he got to call his mom on a payphone! Pretty exciting for a puppet!

Billy also gave us a tour of the nearby flowers; what they're called and the history of them. Of course his descriptions didn't make any sense, but then again, NOTHING Billy says never really makes sense. That's why he's so funny! Here is a video of that.....

(right, a very artistic picture of Billy and his fresh-picked yellow flower tucked behind his ear.)

Billy's outfit consisted of a 'hand-made' Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and a red visor hat. We walked from Krista, Will, and Jay's house, through the ally and down State Street to 1st Avenue. We were walking on the sidewalk so, we were able to look at lots of flowers, weeds, and really tall grass! We also saw 4 cruise ships docked and Billy even got his picture taken with them. Jay filled in as his 'vacation buddy.' They posed for pictures together in front of the cruise ships!

"It's a cruise ship!"

"Hey!"

"Yummy yellow flower thingies!"
When we got to 1st Avenue, we walked towards Alaska Shirt Company (where Charlotte and Jeremiah work) and got a picture in front of the building! Right on the side of the building were 2 payphones! Billy thought while he was there he might as well call his mom to tell her all of the exciting things he saw in Alaska! Here's a video of part of the conversation before I ran out of battery juice...

After talking to mom on the phone, we went into Shirt Co. and talked to Charlotte and Jeremiah while they were stocking. We couldn't record anything inside the store due to merchandise rules; not to mention my batteries were dead. It cheered up their day a little to have a visit from "Tour Guide Billy Baloney!"

Jay's Webcam

Jay got a new computer and we had fun playing with his webcam!