April is almost over! As of right now I am one presentation, one music project, one paper and one exam away from graduation, and I am so happy that the craziness of April is coming to an end.
When I saw that Jenn of ClothesEncounters was going to be having a closet sale at the Davis Flea market I thought it would be a nice way to get away for a little while now that things are finally calming down. So Estrella and I took a baby road trip today and ventured out to Davis.
We totally fell in love with it! I've never questioned my decision to go to Mills but walking around town had me questioning why I never checked out UC Davis. When you walk around Berkeley everyone is wearing at least one item of Cal gear, but Davis wasn't like that at all and it was so nice. To be fair, we stuck pretty close to Central Park, but overall it seemed like a really nice place.
Yesterday was my birthday! As you can see from the picture I snapped with my phone, it was a beautiful day. It was actually the first time since I turned 17 that I had to go to school on my birthday. I went to Coachella on my 18th birthday, my 19th and 20th were on a Saturday and Sunday respectively, and last year I turned 21 in Amsterdam. (Which you can read about here)
Wednesdays are my busiest days, it's pretty much non-stop from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, but I had a lovely day. One of my coworkers surprised me with some candy and a rice krispie treat, JT embroidered me a beautiful quote, and Estrella painted me the amazing watercolor painting that is now my header! After class/work Ali, Estrella and I walked to get Thai food at this place we just discovered three blocks away from campus, which was delicious. It was also my first time in long time that I didn't have a social media site reminding everyone it was my birthday, which made the calls & texts I did get that much more special. All in all I had a great day, and I'm continually thankful for the love I'm surrounded by.
And now the countdown begins! Today is officially one month to graduation!
One of the more exciting things about living on a college campus towards the end of the semester is the flurry of artistic events that happen in the last few weeks of school as everyone is presenting their theses.
Last weekend my friend JT's senior art exhibition 'Spontaneous Order' opened at the Art Museum. It wasn't a solo exhibition, so I knew a few other Studio Art seniors who had work on display, but in my humble (and biased) opinion JT's work really stole the show. All of her pieces were embroidered; she embroidered a take-out box, a cup of noodles, a writing exercise book, and a text piece translating a phrase from Chinese to English with Google Translate. The detail is incredible and I was so proud of JT and so happy for her. Of course, the other work on display is also amazing, and if you're in the Bay Area I highly encourage you to come check it out.
I am often completely blown away by the sheer beauty of the things my friends create, whether I'm looking at JTs art, or listening to Estrella's compositions or hearing Ali sing. I'm so lucky to be surrounded and inspired by such amazing ladies.
I thought I'd talk a bit about music, since I haven't really done that on this blog yet. I love music, but I have a tendency to stick with what I know. Mostly what happens is that I find various tracks from artists that I like and I play those on repeat for forever, or I buy an album that I fall in love with and play on repeat for forever. You see the pattern here. I also have a tendency to buy/receive cds and then not listen to them for years, and a prime example of that would be Bright Eyes.
In like 2005/2006 when everyone I knew was going crazy over Conor Oberst, my friend gave me a cd with the Bright Eyes discography on it and I NEVER LISTENED TO IT. It wasn't until much later, like 2009 that I actually started listening to some songs when they'd show up on shuffle and I didn't actually sit down and listen to the entire thing until around 2010.
I don't know if this will really make sense, but I don't think I was ready for Bright Eyes when I was fourteen. Songs that I skipped over then are now some of my all-time favorite songs, and I'm able to appreciate the lyrics and the raw emotion so much more now. So even though sometimes I want to punch my past self in the face for missing out on this, I guess it's better late then never right?
If you haven't heard anything by Bright Eyes before, my favorite albums are "LIFTED or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ears to the Ground" and "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning". If you happen to check them out, or have heard them already let me know what you think!
And let me know what other music I've been missing out on.
