I needed today. And I'm glad that it happened.
Now for an unrelated but currently obsessed-with dance and song, choreographed by the utterly amazing Emily Shock.

Desk revisited.

You may remember my recent post ondesk organization featuring the Ikea PS Laptop Workstation. Well, Dad checked it out and it was really kind of wobbly and not all that great. To spend $65 on something that wasn't exactly what I want (I much prefer wood), we decided to try to make our own.
We fretted and planned and decided on a unit about 18" tall and 20" wide. We still wanted to have a separate shelf to hold a power strip, so we left that in. But I couldn't figure out what exactly I would put on those side shelves if I was just using this for a laptop holder, so we were able to take a lot of size off of this thing. We made it about 6" deep instead of the 7.45" of the Ikea model.
We bought this beautiful birch plywood and currently have the box finished. We simply have the two doors, shelf, and some staining to do and we'll have a customized laptop desk! I'm really excited about it, though I'm still not sure how the hinges Dad got will work. He's tried to explain it to me but I guess he'll just have to show me. I was picturing something more along the lines of a simple door hinge but he got something else that was rather strange. I still can't understand the way he explained it. We're better at visual explanations.
Pictures to come!

Oh also, I had my colonoscopy today. Not something I'd like to revisit. I should get my results sometime next week. Mom got really angry because the doctor wouldn't give us anything for nausea to call in to the pharmacy before I woke up, even though we have a long history of not doing well with anaesthesia. On the bright side I only threw up once! The best quote of the day, though, was when they gave me my glasses back in a biohazard bag. I kept saying "my glasses are a biohazard!" I don't remember saying this because they put an amnesiac in my IV, but apparently I was a real cut-up under the influence. I hope tomorrow to be settled enough in the stomach to indulge in the Chick-Fil-A sandwich I've been craving since my prep began on Thursday (is there anything more boring than a clear-liquid diet? I mean, come on!).

Also, if anyone has a real killer cheese cracker recipe, I would love it if you shared it with me! I've been craving that, as well. Mmm...and a milkshake. Sigh...my poor tummy is so small for all the food it wants!

When Youtube Just Doesn't Understand

I know I've talked about Emily Shock and her amazing choreography before. She had a youtube channel with hundreds of beautiful videos of meaningful dancing that wasn't simply moving to the beat but moving to the music, that was THOUGHTFUL choreography. I marked many of her videos as favorites and would watch them when I was having a bad day, thinking about someday soon when I'll have just enough floorspace again to dance without fear of tripping or having someone look on.
Youtube has recently put a major crackdown on music in their videos. Often they mute the entire thing and show the video soundless. I can deal with that I guess, kind of devastating considering Shock's amazing musicality. But now Youtube has apparently had enough of Ms. Shock (and not, surprisingly, of several other dance channels) and has suspended her account.

I was shocked. At least a year and a half of videos are gone. It must have felt like a punch in the gut to her. I did some scrounging around on Youtube and found a few of her videos, but none of her routine to "18th Floor Balcony" or "Near to You" which are really my favorites.
I found another account of hers and there were several comments along the lines of "why did they do this?" and "don't they know your videos get me through the day sometimes?" It was like a huge online community of dancers felt this loss.

I understand completely about licensing agreements and royalties and rights and whatnot, but here's the deal: I had never heard 18th Floor Balcony by Blue October before I found that routine. I fell in love with that song. As soon as I got an iTunes gift card I bought that song straight away. I'm planning on doing the same thing with Near To You by Fine Frenzy. I had not heard that song nor felt an emotional connection until I saw the routine. Dance is an EXCELLENT advertisement because when choreographed correctly, it can make the viewer so connected to the song that they feel they must buy it. So I don't understand how these music companies haven't struck a deal with Youtube that allows their songs to be played when under certain circumstances (maybe even allowing for a partnership with itunes? I've seen a few advertisments from them saying 'buy this song!') and call it advertisement.
I know policing the music on youtube is so complicated that it might work better to just blanket cut all music from youtube...but then what's the point?

I know to people who don't have a strong connection to dance this may sound a bit pathetic, but I feel strongly the loss of those routines. They had...I guess the word would be cathartic...they had a cathartic effect on me and now they're gone. And youtube just doesn't understand.

I'll post about apartment stuff next time, I promise. :)

:)

It is now 2:14 AM. It has been raining since 1:20 AM. My dog Kapu is asleep with his head in my lap. He is afraid of the storm.
When it rains at home, I have to open my bedroom door so that the dogs can lay down in the hall and see that it's alright, I'm here.
This evening when my mother and I watched the news, we saw that there would be a slight chance of rain over the weekend but not much. "I wish it would rain HERE" she said.
She got her wish!

shopping day!

Today I took one of my very best pals in tow all over the county in the few hours we had until my ceramics class (yes, art fans, I'll show pictures of a project as soon as I can remember to take my camera to class! I'm afraid that some of mine might be in danger of blowing up in the kiln).

First, the Container Store. I love this store so much. My dad used to take us there as a special treat after a trip to the dentist. Maybe we went there on useful trips, but all I remember is looking at all the stickers and gift wrapping accessories and kitchen gadgets.
I came back with the "hide 'n' sink" under the sink caddy by Umbra. I used the picture from the Umbra website because the one from Container Store is a bit bland.

I must say that I got a bit overexcited at the thought of having a place to put my hair dryer so it doesn't get all mixed up with everything. Currently my dryer lives on the floor of my bathroom or wherever I can find a place. It was on sale for about five dollars off and I figured it would work well enough to keep my hair dryer from gettng wet and stop me from dropping it on my toe when it falls out of my cabinet. My hair dryer is heavy (and not exactly top of the line either...a nicer one would be good someday).

I also came away with the Conceal Book Shelf by Umbra again. I like the clean line of just the books without the shelf. I'm hoping to put my text books on there but it only holds up 20 pounds. I'm still trying to figure out how I can keep the books off my floor. I don't want to bring in any other furniture and wall space is becoming a premium. If this works out, I'll get its smaller cousin for the few personal books I bring. Either that or I'll use my camp trunk to hold all my extra books and slide it under the bed. I guess I could mount a shelf along the ceiling but again, that's a lot of bolt holes to plug when I move out. Also my height difference would make a high shelf kind of a joke. I am hoping to bring my old psych textbooks just in case they prove useful in my papers.

"But Kate," you ask, "What about the other items you posted? What did you decide about them?"

Well, I'll tell you! The wall pocket only held one of the file folders I'm considering so it was an easy out. The file folders I decided to wait on and see if I could get them on sale. What luck that when I checked out my friend and I got 15% off coupons if we order online and pick up the item in store! I know fifteen per cent isn't much, but I'm hoping to be able to get things on sale or discounted so I don't end up spending hundreds of extraneous dollars on my move to grad school.

I'm also in search right now of a shadow box/keepsake box large enough for my shelf gargoyles. You can find all three of them on my flickr site. I'm hoping to mount a piece of wood on the back of the box to look like the ledge of a building and have them all sitting on it like proper gargoyles.

I don't know, though, I may mount them individually. The first one really is my favorite; I just don't think I got the wings right on the other two.

Gargoyles are fun to make. Why not try creating some of your own? (Go! Now! I want to see your stonerrific creations!)

Organization-Desk

Alright, here goes.

In the past I've had trouble because desks I've had placed me on the left side with extra space on the right. This works well for people who are right handed. They can type on their laptop and then move their hand over to write a note. However, I am left-handed. This usually meant I would have my laptop open on the desk and then anything else I was using in my lap. Or I'd move to the floor and have everything spread out all over the place. Ask any of my friends who came into my dorm while I was writing a paper (especially for Baptist History...documents all OVER the place). They would come in and find me, hair in a messy ponytail (or some strange assortment of braids), scared look on my face, total fatigue, scrambling to find the study I need.

No more.

First, my laptop will no longer go on my desk. We are going to put it in its own fold down desk mounted to the wall. This one is from Ikea . It is the PS Laptop Workstation and Dad's going to check it out while he's near the store.

These next few items come from The Container Store.

This is a file folder that cascades when hung on a hook. This way you can easily see everything you're dealing with. There's this option and a simpler rainbow colored one that I believe doesn't have a calendar. I can't decide between the two until I see them and the cost is the same. I'm thinking I'll get one for each class or perhaps one master file for all the studies I print off for different papers. I'm going to spend part of my remaining weeks here finding the studies I already ordered in my undergrad so I can use them if need be. I'll need everything in my arsenal for the research class I have to take in the fall.

This is one of their wall pockets. I'm hoping they'll be big enough to hold my file folders. If not, then I don't know that I'll have a use for them. These are made of canvas and will help me get things off the floor and the surface of my desk. I also have a desk organizer (what are they called?) with two spaces for paper and three compartments in the front for pencils, pens, what have you. I got this at Ross the summer before I left for school, and I think I'll put mail in it (in and outbox).

This way, hopefully, my desk can stay clear and be available for reading. Clutter is the enemy of my brain functioning.

Organization-Time Management

Alright, I guess I'll start with the very first thing I was worried about: time management.
If you check the timestamp for this blog and note that I have to be at work in seven and a half hours, you can see that this is an area I lack discipline in. During my undergrad I was often behind on something or unprepared for something else. Also, not sticking to a strict bedtime leaves me drowsy and sluggish and altogether imbecilic.
I know that for my time in grad school I MUST work to keep myself organized and manage my time. If I don't get enough sleep, I won't be worth anything in any one of my classes. It's amazing to me that I functioned at all in school considering the level of sleep I lacked. It only makes me optimistic about the potential I may have on a full night's rest.
Enter the Payne Publisher Academic Time Master Time Management System. Looks normal, right? A basic planner. BUT LOOK! Each week is laid out at a glance on one page. ALL SEVEN DAYS are listed, whereas most planners like this leave out Sunday completely (and honestly, Sunday is often a day I use for homework). The top column has the goals for the day and then there is an hourly schedule from 7 AM to 7 PM. At the far end there is a column for goals for the week.Then there is a monthly planning calendar for each month and a yearly planning calendar as well. I've been pretty good at keeping a calendar so far so perhaps this will work for me!
Also, my mom was cleaning out closets in her office and found a large markerboard for four month planning. It's a bit of an eyesore right now but maybe it will fit in once it's on the wall. If not I'll figure out how to beautify it! It has one of those ugly gray plastic rounded corner borders. We'll see. It's growing on me, I think. It will definitely serve my purposes as far as making sure I read/researc/write on a schedule. Primary in importance for this will be making sure I get enough sleep.
Next post: Organization-Desk!

Pre-nesting

Whenever I'm about to move to a new place (new dorm room was really the only experience I had with that) I get really excited about planning. REALLY EXCITED.

And living in my own dorm room with no room mate for three semesters really gave me a chance to see just how much I could make of big, white walls, small space, and what I had. It is a deep source of regret on my part that I did not photograph my dorm room from my senior year in college. I think I had the best room in the whole building. My windows faced south and west (yes, windows on TWO WALLS) and my bed was in a perfect little pocket next to the A/C unit, my papasan chair fit perfectly, and it was all well-lit by three beautiful lamps. When it was clean and all in order, it was such a haven. My girls came in at the beginning of the year and said 'Oh! This is so beautiful! It looks like an apartment!' I DO have pictures of my first dorm room I had all by myself (and I was quite proud of the arrangement). Someday I will take you through the "Room Tours by Rufus" that I put together for a friend away at the Disney College Program (where she met her now husband!).

I'm hoping to recreate that effect with my apartment room. The trouble is that now I have to work with a larger bed (a full size instead of twin) and I haven't seen the space. In fact, the only thing I have to go on is the apartment's layout on the website. Soooo....being the incredibly industrious woman I am, I took a screen shot of the layout, copied it into paint, and rearranged the furniture conveniently arranged in the original layout. I got quite my favorite room in all of the layouts because my closet will be in the bathroom (no wet footprints on the carpet and extra wall space!) and there are two windows, one in the room and one in the bathroom. (Light! I crave natural light!) So, I have eight possible arrangements and will proceed to bore you with the details.

Internet security has reminded me that posting a blueprint of my apartment might give a bit more accessibility than I ever intended. Sooo...I'll just post my room!

This is the original layout of my room. I don't think that it provides for optimum floorspace. Plus I don't like having my desk by a window

. Imagine poor grad student Kate sitting at her desk watching the undergrads play sand volleyball or swim in the pool or play basketball. I don't know which one I'd see from my window, but it makes me sad to think I'd see that and the green trees and everything while trying to focus on child development. Or worse, research. That class will kick my butt this year!

This next one has the bed by the window. Much better. Problem: bathroom door looks like it won't open all the way with the dresser there.
Okay, now my head is going into the window, the dresser can be used as a nightstand, and the desk has its own wall. I don't know, it looks a bit cramped, yes?

Hmm, even more cramped. And awkward. Not to mention, if I want a TV in there (still debating) I'll have to use another piece of furniture to put it on. No TV in bed, insomniac rule #1. And this...well the only option is to put it right on the dresser and stare at it. Not good.

Now this one...my head is RIGHT on the other side of my room mate's door. I have no idea how active she is but I doubt I'll stand for that very long. And my desk is back by the window. And I kind of have an idea using the walls on both sides of a corner for my desk. Because the room is small, I am going to have to employ a lot of wall storage.

Now here are three options with the dresser taken down and put under my very tall (and will be taller with my 6 inch bed lofts) bed. I have a telephone stand that functioned as a printer stand senior year that can be used as a TV stand...televisions are so ugly. Anyway, its drawer and cabinet will afford me extra storage and it has a very small footprint...maybe four square feet.


I also have a papasan chair that I have carried with me to each of these rooms I've had by myself. I intend to take it with me for reading and TV viewing so I don't tell myself I can do either of those things in my bed or at my desk (except for the reading part...I guess I can do that at my desk). I'm hoping with one of these plans that it will fit in. My room mate says it should fit fine. If not they'll put it in the living room. It already has a few jury-rigged mends in the frame from my drowsy clumsiness, so I guess I can take any more damage it incurs in the living room.

I think I like the middle layout without the dresser. With the desk on a different wall I can divide the space up and I'll definitely have the wallspace I hope for. Plus, my bed will be on an outside wall so I don't have to worry about unwanted noises from room mate. Well I will...but only a little.

Next post: my desk plan. Laptop solutions, organization plan, and pretty pretty pictures.

In the Pasture, Julien Dupre

I love this painting. The movement, the way the cow's ears make it obvious it's interested in something WAY on the other side of the field, the hapless milkmaid, the wooden shoes, everything.
About a year before I started this blog, I was thinking about going to seminary to get my master's in counseling so I could counsel at a church. Asbury Seminary seemed a very good choice and they invited me to a preview weekend. Mom and I packed up, I took my first (terrifying) propeller plane ride, and we made our way to scenic Wilmore, Kentucky.

Readers, if you are feeling a bit down on America, if you feel like perhaps you need to hie yourself to another country whose aims at progress are not constantly encroaching on rural beauty, take a trip to Wilmore. It was early April and it was freezing, but the grass was so green and there were stone fences everywhere. The hills rolled on and on, and I fell in love with Kentucky.
Sadly, an hour or two on campus convinced me that I was not Asbury material...or it wasn't Kate material...we just didn't mesh and I don't know why.

We spent a lot of time driving around. We went to Berea, the state's folk art capitol (love love love love love) and on our last day we drove around Lexington. We stopped at Transylvania University and took the obvious Dracula pictures. Then we found the Kentucky State University art museum and I saw this painting. Well, actually, I think I saw it on the promotional street lamp flags outside. Anyway, I spent the whole weekend looking for a souvenir worthy of such a beautiful trip, and a poster of this painting, carefully packed in a tube and carried on just in case, which I proudly displayed on my dorm room wall all year long.

It's coming with me to grad school, of course, and though I have a tiny tiny room, I'm determined to find wall space for it!

I love my class...

This morning I had five children in my three-year-old Sunday School class. While I was waiting for everything to get settled, the four boys developed a game. They had about five baseball-shaped soft rubber balls in a coffee can and dumped them into the net of the little basketball goal. Then they all scattered to get as many balls as they could and put them in the coffee can. This game was impressive in and of itself. The great thing, though, was that when they were picking up the balls, if one of them didn't have a ball to put in, someone else would give him one. And then they all took turns dumping the balls into the net. They all put this together by themselves without any adult input whatsoever. I heard not a single fight break out and no feelings were hurt. It touched my heart and I was SO proud of them! After all the balls were back in the coffee can, whoever held it would point to each player in turn and say "You won!!!"
This is why I'll be so sad to leave them.

I love some things...

Twig and Thistle
Folding Trees
Mint
Nest Decorating Designs
Indie Fixx
Some Girls Wander
Creature Comforts
Great Full Day
Can we tell that I've been thinking about decor in my new apartment these days? And...clothes. I always think about clothes. It's a consequence of being petite: finding well-made things that fit kind of turns into an obsession. These sites offer me the head-tilting, drool-enducing, gutteral-sound-producing photography/creative eye-candy that I seem to crave more and more these days. Like a drug, I keep adding to the list.
By the way, have I mentioned that Sur La Lune Fairytales has a new blog???