a once and future endeavor

Well, Jiva and I have done it again... We've let this blog fall to the wayside. Again. Drat. It has been a pretty busy year- that is for sure, so blog neglect can't be judged too harshly. Jiva finished her masters at St. Andrews, and I struggled to stay afloat working two jobs. We have met people and parted ways with them, and found old friends again, and generally speaking, a lot has happened.

But things have settled a little, and perhaps we a

re not quite so 'leaf upon the wind' - ish as we were a year ago. Maybe we can actually contribute to the bloggy blog again?

I won't say that it's something that won't happen

again, but hopefully three time's a charm, and this little puppy won't fall by the wayside.

So, for this inaugural 2011 posting, a little picture, to remind us of the imminent changes that autumn brings.

It's So Vivid . . .

Sunday

This morning, looking half collegiate in my nerd glasses, a tweed jacket, and scarf, and half Colorado bum with cuffed jeans, converse and North Face backpack, I hopped on my bike and set out townward. After a morning of coffee, philosophy, and LSATs, I decided to walk around. The best thing about weekends here is that the town is teeming with people who all seem to use the weekend as it was intended. Everywhere people were drinking coffee and reading the paper, children and adults alike were eating ice creams, people were buying cupcakes, going clothes shopping, books shopping, woolens shopping, blah blah blah. Anyway, it was just great. I walked down by the sea for a while and there were children in tiny rain boots playing in the sand all over the place. Things are definitely more laid back here, and everyone seems to know how to just relax.

And here's what I had for lunch - bread, prosciutto, olives, a bit of brie, and a cup of black rose tea. It was divine.

And a short video compilation of what I saw about town on a fall afternoon on a Sunday.

Cultured

I have to admit that one thing I was worried about when it came to studying in Scotland was culture shock. Ok, so that sounds stupid. But any time you go to a different country things are, well, different. But in reality, I have experienced virtually no culture shock at all. In fact, far less so that I experienced when I was first in Philly.

There are a couple things that I'm getting used to. First, you don't tip bartenders. This seems so weird to me, but I'm not complaining about it. I'm still not so sure what "top-up" means, but that damn two word hyphenate is everywhere, man. Nobody clears there own place at cafes - not even at Starbucks. The brie is really, really stinky. And multigrain cheerios taste like honey nut, which I find exceptionally irritating.

But my favorite cultural difference is that little old ladies talk to you in the grocery store all the time. And if you know anything about me, you know that I love little old ladies.

As far as students are concerned, no one is afraid to criticize people of your same nationality to your face. A few days ago I was talking to a kid who's from outside of St Andrews and was in town during the open, who in regard to Americans spending money on things like souvenirs, said to me "Your people are really stupid sometimes".

St Andrews Friday

I decided to do some splorin' today, so I hopped on my bike and rode all over. Well first, I hopped on my bike and rode to an "essential information" session for taught postgrads. One thing I've learned this week is that when they say "essential information", what they really mean is stuff you should have learned when you were ten. But that's chill. A rather hilarious kid from London sat next to me and said things like "When I hear that someone's studying philosophy, my reaction is 'Cool?'", and in response to where I went for undergrad, "Penn State! I love American College Football."

After I learned essential information all about sports and why you shouldn't go near cliffs, I went for an americano and some wifi at Beanscene. Beanscene is crazy, man. Loads of people are there every day (probably for the wifi), and the employees possess that kind of gruff meanness that's actually rather appealing.

I've decided to Maria von Trapp this bitch and teach myself to play guitar. So I went in search of one, and found several for around £25-£35. Score.

So then I went up to take a bike ride along the North Sea. It was freezing, but the tide was way up.

When you look to the northwest, it looks like this:

And when you look to the east, it looks like this:

Some First Photos

A couple photos of the first few days in St Andrews.

If I had an umbrella and pointy shoes and I were a nanny who gave children sugar with each dose of medicine, you would see me sailing high atop that lamppost.

From what I know (which isn't much), this is essentially the quad. Ch-ch-check it out. I might be wrong.

Looking out towards the sea from The Scores.

This is the building in which I'll be taking basically all my classes. 'Whaaaaa?' you say. 'Suck on that' says I.

Airport Install

This dance installation that was recently put in the LAX airport is sooo cool. And even cooler is that one of the my dance friends is in it! Now if only I had a reason to go to LA.

autumn

Did you ever see "You've Got Mail" with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks? No? Well, you're missing out on one of the most adorable romantic comedies ever -- just fyi. Never before had a movie ending made my heart so melt, and to date it remains one of my favorites.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Um... Kendra- helllllooo? Romantic comedies are for n00bs! Nobody should ever watch such wretched shit!"

And, I must say, you're only half correct. Romantic comedies are indeed for n00bs, but they are not always terrible! But this whole thing has been a digression- the real reason I'm talking about "You've Got Mail" is because I love the opening sequence when Tom Hanks writes to Meg Ryan about fall in New York. One of the things he mentions is sending her a bouquet of sharpened pencils. Isn't that freakin' adorable?

So, as wee children go back to school, tree leaves begin to blush, and the afternoon light slips away more and more each day, I am reminded of the loveliness of fall and how ready I am for the changing of the seasons. Here's to a beautiful fall, positive changes, and bouquet upon bouquet of exciting school supplies :)

polaroid art

in my humble opinion, the polaroid camera was pretty much the coolest shit ever invented. dude - electricity has got nothing on those little instant photos.

what i like most about them is how people change them to make different sorts of art. check it:

It's 4:03am

...aaaaaand I can't sleep, so why not post something on this poor neglected bloggy blog?

Today I am in Colorado.

Yesterday I was in Oregon.

Last week I was in Alaska.

Things have been a little whirl-windy lately. I spent the summer in Alaska working in a fishing cannery. It was... so different from anything else I've ever done. I don't think I could explain it with any level of clarity in this blog space, and I honestly don't think you'd be interested. So, I shall spare you the details and simply say that you should all take a tour of a fish cannery the next time you're in Alaska. When you do, and you get to the can line, think to yourselves, 'Ah, this is where Kendra spent 122 hours a week. It's a wonder she didn't shoot herself.'

Seriously, though, it wasn't so bad and I made enough money to justify having left my life up in the air for a few months. I'm even considering doing it again. Maybe it is something upon which I shall elaborate at a later date, but for now, I'm just summing up my doings.

In other news, I'm moving to PDX! That's right, Portland, Oregon. It is beautiful there and I am so excited about the rain and the hipsters and the weirdness 24/7.

I love me my Rocky Mountains, but I've decided that I need to start figuring out my life, and Portland seems like a good place to do that. So...

Here's my life to-do list for the next year in Portland (feel free to suggest additions):

-Get a job

-Buy a bike

-Exercise and take vitamins on a regular basis

-Read 1 book/week

-Develop a positive relationship with my new cats. Maybe train one to go on walks with me.

-Volunteer in the art community in Portland (maybe the PAM, Disjecta, or Gallery Homeland)

-Grow out my hair for at least 3 more months, then do something radical

-Study for the GRE, decide which programs to apply for, and start applying

-Maybe get another tattoo (11:11)

-Be zen

-Stop apologizing so much

-Get my shit togetha...

That's it for now. Or at least that's all I can think of now that it is 4:24 am.

For now, be well, be happy, be safe.

much love

Spring Break!

If you Google image search Spring Break, this is what you find:

If you were to Google image search Spring Break: the Kendra & Jiva edition, this is what you would find:

Yeah... writing a thesis sucks.

Hence, I'm writing a blog to procrastinate and bitch. But given that we have maybe one reader (Hi, Badass MC!), I'm not too concerned.

Vacay

So my super awesome murm came to visit this past weekend. Rewind like a week and a half-we had two huge snow storms, one on a Saturday and the other from Tuesday to Wednesday. So then we had two snow days in a row, and then the next day my mom came. Anyway, with so much snow piled all over Sillydelphia, and the weather below freezing for the entire weekend, we decided to walk everywhere. One of the places we walked to was the art museum.

Yeah, I took pictures of the pictures. On my phone. It doesn't get much classier than that.

There's Mom, also known as Badass MC, in profile. Way off in the distance is City Hall. We walked straight down that pathway all the way there! Actually, we walked half the time, and spent the other half ice skating and snowshoeing.

once upon a time, we started a blog...

...and then we forgot about it in the wake of our busy, busy lives.

BUT! Now it's time to revive said blog and continue shootin' the shit.

I don't actually have much to say, but I'm listening to Regina Spektor and feeling very inward today, which is sort of ironic because it is only on those very internal days that I attempt to reach out to the world. There's something strange about blogging- it's a weird way to seek some small space in the world of your own. You carve it out and put your thoughts in it, not necessarily because you want someone to come by and peer inside, but simply to put them out there.

That reminds me of a ReSpektor song... but then again, what doesn't remind me of a song. "Got a soundtrack in my mind all the time" or so she says.

Anyway, I'm writing this right before lunch with all the winds of the gods on my fingertips, so excuse my hasty thoughts and probably spelling errors. I just wanted to check in. Update our blog to the new year, the new decade, the new day in my life.

And I wanted to share a picture.

Also, I'm thinking of shaving my head... but don't tell anyone.

School's Out For the Summer. Not.

Ah summer.  Is ending.  What a drag.  Here's a random selection of snippets from my summie-sum.

I went hiking only once during the two weeks that I was home in Colorado.  But we saw a moose standing literally 20 feet away from us.  He (she?) looked at us and then walked away.  Clearly we didn't look very scrumptious.  Also, we saw this lake.

Capogiro has the best lattes ever.  They even make little designs in the foam on the top.  One day, I got a heart.  That was the best day ever.

Tons of preptests.  The LSAT can suck it. 

Was the fruit this year better than normal?  I don't know, but I ate a lot of it.  And it was sinfully delicious.

I went to the flea market in Clark Park once.  It's basically a random assortment of crazy shit, including lots of VHS tapes.

Also, I got stopped by these people three separate times who asked me if I was aware that the Bible says there is both a father God and a mother God.  They said that I needed to come study with them because I wouldn't be able to find where it's written in the Bible by myself.  One time I talked to them for 40 minutes and told them they were employing copious amounts of logical fallacies to prove their points.  They didn't believe me.  My mom thought they wanted to steal my organs.

People Watching

I like people watching.  Especially when you're in Vatican City and most of those people are nuns and monks.

Statute Showdown

This image is vaguely related to this post.

An attorney that I'm working for this summer told me this hilarious story about when he was in law school.  Apparently, a couple of students were fed up with how serious all of their fellow classmates were, and during finals they decided to enter the library through opposite doors, dressed in full cowboy regalia, and have a fake shootout.  The defeated cowboy was dragged out of the library by his feet, leaving a trail of fake blood behind him.  All of the students studying in the library replied by briefly looking up and then returning to their books.

Aren't law students awesome?  Although, I can't say that Penn undergrads wouldn't do the same thing during finals.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

zen master

wait, what?

I didn't go to Penn's university-wide graduation, but I did watch the webcast.  Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, was the speaker.  As is to be expected, his speech was peppered with technological references, one of which was Wii's.  Penn's resident gossip column, Under the Button, tweeted the ceremony.  According to them, when Eric Schmidt said "waiting in line for Wii's", it was closed captioned as "waiting in line for weed".  Man, that's rich.

This is the end, my only friend . . .

I write this as an exercise in catharsis.  Tears stream down my face with each click of the keyboard, threatening to destroy my harddrive and my precious, precious files.  My friends, the Celtics have lost.  Their post-season run has come to an end, and with it, my every ounce of happiness.  While I loved every minute of KG's suited(!) sideline coaching, I can't help but think they might have made it a little bit farther if he weren't injured.  I'm pretty sure Leon Powe was missed as well.  

Ok, so it's not that bad.  The Nuggies are still in the running.  What was it that Mark Cuban called them?  Oh yeah, thugs.  Baller.

John Legend, I love you.

Tomorrow's Commencement for Penn's Class of 2009 is preceded by the myriad graduations for the individual schools of the University.  Graduation for the School of Arts and Sciences (the College, for those "in the know") was held tonight.  The only reason I risked ruining the enigma of a Penn graduation a year prior to my own expected graduation date is because John Legend was the speaker.  So I went because, well, I lurve John Legend.  For reals, for reals.    Sadly, he did not sing.  And though it would have been ridiculous if he had, I still had a more than faint glimmer of hope that he would.
Look at all those bottles of water under the students' chairs.  Now I know where my tuition money is going.

Johnny Boy gave a pretty sweet speech.  But honestly, I can't remember about 2/3 of the inspirational things he said.  I do remember that the crux of his speech functioned on finding the truth in the world, but somehow the last part of his speech transformed from a celebratory homage to the graduates to a condemnation of the Bush administration and a commentary on the waning economy and housing market.  It was relevant, yet kind of weird and preachy.  But whatever, he's still my homeboy. 

If you look closely, you can see that the closed captioning under the image of John Legend speaking says something about insomnia.  Yeah, I don't remember ever hearing that word.