Doughnuts and Fleshy Things

Hello Friends,

Sorry for bailing on you yesterday. I have been trying to be consistent, but yesterday I got busy with my Improv show and partying afterwards. By partying I mean three of the Wimprov (Women of Wheaton Improv) girls and I drove to Wendy's and then watched Parks and Recreation. At around 11 PM I was falling asleep so I went home. I love to party. 

I started this post yesterday, but finished it today. I read this verse yesterday morning and it reminded me of the things that I have been wrestling with in my relationship with God lately. I drew a doughnut because doughnuts represent my person struggle against my flesh. I LOVE doughnuts. I would do horrible things for a frosted doughnut and coffee. Lately I have been becoming aware of my fleshly desires and how they get in the way of my praying and being with God. I want to be more disciplined in my food choices, sleep habits and work ethic, because I think that they play a role in my receptivity to God and the things that he may be trying to say to me. 

Alright. I am going to go do stuff now. Have a great Saturday! I won't post tomorrow, but I will be back on Monday!

Love,

Lucy Rose 

"Ugly" People and My Outfit

Dear Friends,

I give to you a graphic representation of the outfit I wore today. I have had so many people write to tell me that they wish I would talk more about my fashion choices. So, I thought I would comply. Just kidding. Actually no one asked for this. I just felt like telling you about my outfit because I was especially cute today. And you know you have to cash in on the days when you feel cute because on other days you may feel gross.

Some days I feel like the before version of Toula from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That is the only film that actually gets the whole "makeover" premise right. So many chick flicks revolve around the premise of a girl, who is kind of plain looking, who undergoes a transformation and becomes stunning. But usually on TV the girl looked great to begin with she just, I don't know...WORE GLASSES! So discriminatory.

Think back. Do ANY of these lovely ladies really look bad to begin with? Really? 

My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Before 

After

A Cinderella Story: Before and After 

Princess Diaries: Before and After 

Miss Congeniality: Before
 Sandra, you look terrible. NOT!

After: This is way better. 

The Devil Wears Prada: Before and After 

No. They look fine. Hollywood has no idea how to do ugly. I know how to do ugly.
Check out the time I turned into a man:

Yes. That is me. I was feeling baggy, slouchy and kinda down that day because Sheldon had just left to be in Italy for 5 months. So I drew on a moustache and pretended to be a man.

This is what I really look like:

Photo from: www.redandwhitekop.com

Have a great day.

Love,
Lucy Rose

(Photos from The Devil Wears Prada, A Cinderella Story, Princess Diaries, Miss Congeniality and My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

Lots of Hands

Hi Guys,

Today I have felt that this has been a day of hands. 

1) I had to have my fingerprints taken at the school district authority's office. They make you place each finger on a special sensitive tablet several times. It is not painful or lengthy. But now if I wanted to commit a crime it would be easier for me to get caught. I am going to be a teacher's aid in a middle school classroom starting Monday. I can't wait! But what if I end up hating children? What if they hate me? I would have to rethink my whole major...

2) My hands are cold all the time. They are dry and mottled and purple-y. At least they are not as bad as Sheldon's poor handies. His get crazy cracked and red in the winter. I would like to think that one of the benefits of his dating me is that I have introduced him to vaseline and gloves. I would like to take credit for that. 

3) The littlest boy whom I babysit ate Doritos on the couch today. His brothers yelled at him for eating orange chips on the nice couch. I was like, "Oh. I guess you shouldn't do that." I told him to wash his hands after eating. I realised that one of my ABSOLUTE LEAST FAVOURITE THINGS is finger licking. That to me is about the most disgusting thing ever. I don't know why. 

I hope that you have had a good week so far. Don't you hate days where you are just waiting for the end? You wake up dreading the things that must be accomplished in the day ahead. What a waste that is! But I do it every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Bye for now, Friends. 

Lucy Rose 

What I Ate For Lunch

Dear Folks,

Today I had lunch in the cafeteria. I do that every day, actually. I drew a picture of everything that I ate. I put my food directly onto the tray instead of using plates. I like the layout better that way. The foods touch less.

We recently had a chapel speaker talk about how egocentric our culture is. We take selflies and make blog posts and speak about the things that I am doing all the time.

A post about What I Ate For Lunch is probably the epitomization of that egocentrism.

Enjoy.

My Dog Una and the Brothers Karamazov

Dear Friends,

I hope you had a great weekend. I spent mine studying and hanging out with Sheldon and my friend Joanna. 

I just got out of my Modern European Literature class. It meets from 2:00 to 3:05 PM and I consistently have to pee at the same time every day. At 2:55 on the dot I have to pee. The problem is that I love the class so much that I dare not leave for a potty break lest I miss something exciting. 

This week we have started our reading and discussion of The Brothers Karamazov. I love Dostojevskij.  I have never studied him in a class, though, so I am supremely excited to hear our professor's thoughts on the book so far. Although I usually am not a fan of anything that compares women to dogs (What an ugly dog!"), birds ("What an obnoxious gaggle of girls!") or cats ("She's a fox!"), I feel a little bit like my dog Una when she gets excited about being pet or going for a walk. She wags her tail, which makes her whole body shake. I get so excited when I get to listen to new ideas about literature that I have either never thought of before or that confirm thoughts I have already had. But I hope that while I assume some of the excitement of my dog, I do not look that much like her. 

Today we concentrated on getting to know the four main characters: Fyodor, Dmitrij, Ivan and Alexei. As a short reading exercise to begin the study of the four characters we were asked to choose two and write a brief profiles for them in which we assigned them 1) a favourite thinker or philosopher 2) favourite way to spend a weekend and 3)favourite thing from current culture i.e. a book or band or film. I chose Dmitrij and Alexei Karamazov. 

This was my profile:

Hugging Naps

Does it ever happen to you that you are hugging someone and you close your eyes for a moment, but you don't want to open them again? You start to get kind of comfortable and your mind gets blank. You start taking a mini nap on the person's shoulder?! Sigh. THAT is when you know that it is time to stop hugging and GO TO BED.

That is what I need to go do right now. Goodbye.

Have a great weekend, My Friends.

Love,
Lucy Rose

Lucy and Luigi Super U

Lately I have taken up video games thanks to the boys I babysit. I stink at them. Like really, REALLY stink. The boys are somewhat patient with me, but they get very upset if I mess up a level, so I don't play for more than a couple minutes. I jumped on a boss today though. It was an accident.

Selfies, Gloom and Madame Bovary

Hey Guys!

School has started up again and I am busy as all get out, but I still want to be faithful to my dear blog friends. I was interviewed in our school's paper a few weeks ago in an attempt to "Get to Know Your School's Cartoonist". In my interview I told them how I began cartooning by recapping events from my day. I would draw myself in any of the situations that had been embarrassing or meaningful throughout my day. We are not talking reams of material. It was more like a cartoon here and there dispersed throughout my commonplace book.

So, I thought that I could do a series of daily "selfie" cartoons for you in the style that I used to do as a self-conscious middle schooler. I am still very self-conscious. But thank the Lord, I am not in middle school any more!

I expect to do about one a day until February.

I hope that you all are doing well. Perhaps you too are getting back to school. I hope that you have some joy in these winter days. They can seem so monotonous and bleak. I know that for me it just seems as though I am going through the motions and the only things I look forward to are sleeping at night, coffee and carbs. Today in English class we were talking about monotony and how for the modern era BOREDOM is the worst of all evils. We are reading Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert. The character of Emma is terribly discontent with her life and she dreams of a life of blissful chaos and adventure with her secret lover.

This is her dream:

Behind four galloping horses, she and her lover had been faring for a whole week towards a new land, never more to return. On and on they went, arm linked in arm and uttering never a word. Ever and anon, gazing down from a mountain top, they would descry a splendid city with domes and bridges, and shipping and orange groves, and cathedrals of white marble with storks' nests in their airy towers. And the pavement would be bright with bouquets of flowers which women in red bodices would proffer as you passed. Bells would be ringing, mules whinnying, and the soft strains of guitars would mingle with the plash of fountains whose soft mist, lightly wafted, brought coolness to the piles of fruit heaped up in pyramids at the foot of gleaming statues that smiled beneath their canopy of spray.

Wow! That is crazy! Imagine all that happening to a person constantly. It sounds exhausting. Even so, at this time I am tempted to similarly spend time in day dreaming myself out of dreary winter in Illinois where I do the same things every day. But I think that the Lord has things to teach me during times of sameness. This is a time when I can be faithful to pray and faithful to rise in the morning with a word of praise even when I want to sleep longer.

I pray that you may have a good winter! I hope that my silly cartoons can bring a smile to your day. Or maybe just a cheery spot of colour.

Love,
Lucy Rose

Keepsake Album Day 15: Friendship Bracelet

"Boubínský prales" by Josef Váchal, woodcut

Dear People,

The camera on my phone that I usually use has been missing
along with my phone, so I took this beauty with my webcam. 

This is a wacky photo of a drawing of a friendship bracelet given to me by two girls who were in my cabin at a camp I counselled at in the Czech Republic between my first and second years of secondary school. The camp was pretty bad. It rained for most of the time, we had terrible food and not enough of it and our facilities were disgusting and decrepit. The reason that kids chose our camp was because it was the cheapest one in the Republic. Our program was poor and the directors did not care what went on at the camp.

It was a gruelling two weeks. But they were vital for me. My best friend Barbora was another counsellor and we bonded through our time at the camp. And I came close with three girls from my cabin. Two sisters and their friend. The younger sister was named Lucie and she worshipped me. Her sister and friend were about 13 years old and they became very close with me as well. We helped each other survive the horrific camp. After the camp ended I kept in contact with the girls by writing messages on Facebook every few months. I remember how we said a tearful goodbye and I promised that I would come visit them in their town several hours away from my own. I remember one of the girls saying mournfully that she knew that would never happen. Her disbelief that we would ever see one another again stayed with me. It felt like a challenge. I was determined that I would eventually visit them. 

I did. It took three years before I finally had some free time and money to take the three trains and two buses to go to their town. They had changed a lot. The older sister and friend were 16 and Lucie was 12. I met their mother who welcomed me like another daughter. I stayed two days and a night. We went bowling and had dinner. We walked around their city and visited a gallery with work by a wonder Czech artist called Josef Vachal. I loved seeing the girls even though it was hard to find things to talk about when we hadn't seen one another for years. I felt so responsible for them during our time at camp and it felt like an important thing to visit them and show them that I still cared about them and valued them. 

So this is the bracelet they made for me at camp. I also have a beautiful teacup that their mother gave to me. It was their grandmother's. I have it packed away somewhere, otherwise I would have drawn it here. 

This is the end of my Keepsake series for now. I am leaving the Czech Republic to return to school on Sunday. I hope that I can continue blogging when I get back to school, but it always gets crazy. I might not be as prolific. 

Bye for now, Friends!

LR

Keepsake Album Day 14: Two Books From Patrick

Hello People,

My life has changed completely. Today a man and a woman came to take care of me and Isaac. They said that they would come live here and take him to school and to doctors and stuff. They said they would take over all the responsibility that was formerly mine as a single mother! 

Ok, yes, they were our parents. They finally came back! Yay! It is so different to NOT be a parent. May the Lord bless me with children some day if it be his will, but I pray that single motherhood never be my lot. 

The Lord helped me and Isaac get through this week. It was hard but we made it! By the end I was even feeling like I would be able to get into a kind of routine if we had had a couple more days. 

Here is my Keepsake Album contribution for today. It is a drawing of two books that my older brother Patrick gave to me on separate occasions. He knows how much I love graphic novels and illustration so he got these for me at a shop in Providence that sells such books. 

The first one is Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey. It is a huge selection of works by a guy who created a lot of strange, noir drawings and stories. Some of my favourites involve giant macrame which haunt elegant Victorian homes and lurk in corners. 

The second is called The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It is without words and is a lovely combination of fantastical and normal. I also love his book called Tales From Outer Suburbia. 

Keepsake Album #13: Vintage Dress and Yet More Babysitting

Hi guys,

I've gotta get to bed. I have been waiting until the last minute to do these posts everyday and so I have been going to bed kinda late.

I received an amazing gift this Christmas. My parents asked me what they could give me that would be helpful. I told them that I would like a Wacom drawing tablet. They didn't really know what that was. I told them it was a tool that would help me do the cartoons for the Wheaton Record. It turned out that my dad had actually been given one for free by a friend several months ago. But my dad hadn't been using it because he had no idea what it was! It is exactly what I was hoping for. I also have Photoshop now! It is really exciting to finally have these tools. I hope that I use them well. With great software comes great responsibility.

Anyway, here is some of the first work I have done suing my new tablet and software. Just a little doodling. Sorry it is so small. I haven't figured got it to fit well yet. Enjoy!

For my Keepsake Album today I drew a dress that my mother bought for me when I was about 15. We were in Prague for a short visit. I had been very distant and deflated for a long time and we went into this vintage clothing shop. This dress was hanging up on display. We fell in love with it, but the woman said, "Yeah it's beautiful, but one one can fit into it!" I did. It made me feel so pretty with it's waist-cinching belt and beautiful full skirt. It even has tulle in it to make it poof out more! My mom told me a while later that she wanted to buy it for me because she hadn't seen me smile for a long time and she was willing to buy me a pricey dress if it could cheer me up a little bit. 

I still have my dress. There are unfortunately few occasions on which to wear this lovely garment. Summer picnic? An extra in Dirty Dancing?

"No one puts Baby in a corner."

Keepsake Album #12: Bead Box and Grandma Jean

Good Persons,

Yesterday I was having internet woes. Today the internet miraculously works. I guess it just needed a good night's sleep. 

Here is what I drew yesterday for my Keepsake Album. It is a box of beads that I received from my father and my grandmother at least eleven years ago. They were in a place called Galena together and they picked out a selection of special beads for me to use in crafty projects. I have pretty much used up all the original beads they gave me, but I still like to use the nice, blue cardboard box. 

My Grandma Jean is no longer living. I feel like I did not have a good opportunity to get to know her. I started to learn more about her after she was no longer around to get to know in person. She was originally from New York state. She went to Mount Holyoke. She and my grandfather adopted my dad when he was several months old. She was a grade school teacher. We have some of the things she wrote about Dad when he was a baby. She would keep very detailed notes about different stages of his development. They were keenly observed and had a playful and humorous tone. She was an avid watercolorist. She valued good etiquette and I am sure would have felt quite comfortable in high levels of society. She and my grandfather kept many pieces of art all over their Kansas City home. They collected beautiful objects and pictures from all over the world. 

We spent one last Christmas with Grandma Jean. She found a hamster plush toy that sang a song if a button was pushed or a string pulled. The hamster was dressed in Kung Fu garb and the song that emanated from it was Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting in a high pitched "hamster" voice. It danced. Grandma Jean thought this hamster was the apex of hilarity. She was reserved and had a dry sense of humour, but she could not control her laughter when the hamster was dancing. We didn't really understand why this was so funny to her, but we enjoyed watching her laugh. It exactly hit the spot for her humour. 

Malfunctions

Hello!

I am having some phone and internet troubles. I can't upload my photo today. Hopefully I can do it tomorrow!

Love you!
LR

Keepsake Album Day 11: An Antique Book and More Babysitting Adventures

Dearest Blog-Pals,

I am still babysitting my little brother Isaac. Yes, we have three days left of our Lucy Babysits Nonstop With Occasional Appearances by Paul Hugh Extravaganza.

Here are some stats to recap the experience so far:

Temper Tantrums:
Isaac: 1
Lucy Rose: 1

Episodes of Crying:
Isaac: 6
Lucy Rose: 2-3

Dishes Washed:
1563

Dishes Currently Unwashed and Sitting in Every Room of the House (Yes, there were dishes in the bathroom for a period):
7568
(actually Paul Hugh is currently downstairs listening to cool-people-music and washing them for me. Thank you, Hugh!)

Amount of Cheese Eaten By Lucy Rose:
2 large blocks of Eidam

Number of Items of Clothing Belonging to My Mother That I Have Been Wearing While She is Gone:
10
- Flannel pants
- Soft Drape-y Sweater
- Another Soft Drape-y Sweater
- Yet another Soft Drape-y Sweater
The list goes on…Exploring her wardrobe has made my time as a single parent more enjoyable.

I do honestly feel like a single parent. Except I am an unemployed single parent. I also am only doing this for a week…So, it's actually quite different. BUT I do have a newfound respect for the single parents of the world. They have to do such a hard job all by themselves. Being by myself has been the hardest part, I think. I think that if I were really a single parent it would be all I could do not to fall into deep sadness and desperation. Isaac and I have been praying daily and reading our Psalm continuously. I am trying to bring these feelings to God. And I believe he has helped by lessening the load a lot in a few key areas.

(Want to see a totally sappy, but pretty cool video about being a mom? Go here.)

Because I do not want to wallow or leave you all feeling depressed by my above comments, let me make a new Thankfulness List.

The Small Mercies of My Time With Isaac So Far:

1. Only One Tantrum: Isaac has been known to really go nuts. Yes, he had a tantrum in which he cried uncontrollably, but it could have been much, much worse.

2. Paul Hugh: The Hugh has been around when he can be. He has washed several loads of dishes. He let me go for a run-walk for two hours on Saturday. He is a good pal.

3. Playing in the Snow: It snowed all day. There was deep, lush snow when Isaac and I got home at 4 from school. On a whim we took the sled for a spin, made a snow angel a-piece (Isaac: "I wan tot stomp all over our snow angels!" Lucy Rose: "You absolutely may not, young man!") and built a snowbeing. What is a snowbeing you ask?  Disney has bought the rights to snowman building and the words "snowman" so it is now illegal to express the desire to "build a snowman" without copyright infringement. Isaac was detained for several hours after he sang a few stanzas of the song in question. I tried to stop him, but they have an advanced tracking system that detects the use of the words and copyrighted songs. Kind of like how in the seventh Harry Potter book the Deatheaters rig it so that anyone who utters the name "Voldemort" can be immediately tracked down and attacked.

Wow. That bit took such a strange turn. I just wanted to say that it was a special and fun time in the snow. Back to my Thankfulness List!

4. Homeland: Yes, the TV show. I started the second season and watch it when Isaac goes to bed. Claire Danes is keeping me afloat. I love her. So cool! She is such an ugly cry-er. I really respect an actress who is not afraid to get real and cry ugly in front of millions of viewers.


5. This Blog: I do not have much energy or tie to devote to create endeavours right now. But I feel a responsibility to you, my insole blog reading companions, to keep blogging because I promised I would, doggone it! It gives me something creative that I have to do every days and it allows me to have a little structure in my days.

6. Prayer of Friends: I have a lot of people praying for me and Isaac. Maybe even some of you who are reading! Thanks.

Alright folks. Now its time for me to get my Keepsake Album photo up and them I will end this intensely long post.

Goodnight, Dear People!

Keepsake Album Day 10: A Plastic Pterodactyl and Babysitting Adventures

Dear Friends,

Whew. I am quite tired. It is 11 PM. I have been babysitting my littlest brother Isaac all day. This is the first of 6 days we will have together. I feel like I am getting a taste for what it must be like to be a mother. Although I have tons of experience with children through babysitting, nannying and teaching, this 24 hour thing feel different. It is kind of exhausting to be linked to this person ALL THE TIME. I have to be on the ball the whole time. I have to know where he is and what he is going to eat for his next meal.

This after noon I posted a photo of the lunch I made for him on Instagram. As I did so I chuckled at how that nicely edited photo made me seem like this amazing put-together super woman who can make beautiful food and cal my snap a photo of it. Anyone looking at my picture cannot see the clutter of pencils and pieces of a snowflake making operation that litter the table mere inches beyond the frame. No one need know that I got lunch for Isaac at 1:45 instead of 12:30, because I had car trouble and shopping took too long. My photo doesn't show that the peanuts I gave the boy were very high in sodium but I made him eat them anyway because the canned soup had no noticeable protein in it!

Well our first day is done. I will post my keepsake photo and then collapse into bed. Did I do anything cool or productive today? Um…not really. I mainly just made sure we got meals.

I did have two or three interesting babysitting ideas that I implemented. They were not major, but they were cheery enough to take some of the edge off the fact that this job is hard for me and they helped Isaac to look forward to things.

1. I chose a Psalm form the Bible that has the same number of verses as days that Mom and Dad will be away. Psalm 128. I printed out a copy of it with different colours and fonts for each verse. In the morning every day I will have him sit at the table and quietly decipher each verse while I make breakfast. Later as we eat he will read it to me. This idea offers us to have some scripture to start our day. It has Isaac sitting still so I can work and it provides a regular type of structure, which is something that both he and I thrive under.

2. Balloons. We went to this cheap-o store called Kik to look for a swim suit for his school swim lessons. We didn't find one, but on a whim I bought a package of balloons. This was a stroke of genius. Not only was Isaac able to spend like 5 whole minutes figuring out how to blow it up, but once he had (I tied the end up) he happily spent a good 15 minutes playing with it in his room. Hallelujah!!!

3. Kolrabi and cookie cutters. For my late lunch I prepared some raw kohlrabi. I cut it into thin slices and used a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. It was funner to eat kohlrabi shaped like angel Christmas cookies than plain old circles. I think they even tasted better.

These are kohlrabi, in case you did not know what that was. 

My Instagram photo. 

As for my keepsake album for today I am afraid it's rather hurried. My photo is not great (not that my photos have ever been stellar!). It is just a little pterodactyl that a friend of mine gave me a while back. I kept it as a sort of good-luck charm in my wallet for part of high school. I know what you're saying, "Good luck charm, Lucy Rose? Really?" Really. I kind of hold on to things like leaves and trinkets that remind me of things or people. I guess that's the real reason that I have started to keep this album! To sort of get all these thing into one spot so that I don't have to hold on to them so tenaciously. 

Pray for my strength tomorrow. Day two of babysitting awaits. 

Love,

LR

Keepsake Album Day 9: Assorted Earrings

Good evening, All. 

For my entry into the Keepsake Album today I have gathered up several earrings. They are all earrings that were given to me as gifts, but that I haven’t been wearing recently. I do not dislike them, but my aesthetic has been rather simpler of late. I have been wearing very little jewelry lately. My ears have become sensitive to non-precious metals. Goodness. How awfully pretentious does that sound! 

“Sorry, my body can only touch pure gold. I am allergic to anything that costs less than 20 dollars. I can’t bear to hobnob with riffraff such as copper or, God forbid, tin.” 

It’s true though. My ears start to itch and hurt when I wear most earrings. 

Anyway! These gifts were very kind. They were each chosen for me specifically. Some fo them were even handmade! 

Thanks to all of you who have gifted me with earrings in the past. I am sorry I cannot wear them right now. 

Love,

Lucy Rose