lost in familiar places

3 weeks to go, my friends!

And one of them is THANKSGIVING week. 

Unfortunately I think it's going to be a really hard few weeks simply because I don't want to do a single thing. 

Writing papers just doesn't seem that exciting anymore. 

Thanks, but no thanks.

I'd rather pet my beautiful kittens. 

We really love them to pieces...and obviously can't take enough pictures of them. 

So this is basically a post to let you know that I'm still alive and procrastinating all of the time. 

That's why I'm on the blog instead.

I'm also just trying to stay afloat.

It's a miracle if I can wash a few dishes these days. 

Though I DID make some very comforting cheeseburger soup last night.

Feels like it's taking all of my strength just to get homework done.

I have a multicultural paper to write.

So right now I'm going to gird up my loins and make some paper-writing magic happen. 

facepainting

Happy belated Halloween, ya'll!

I wasn't planning on dressing up this year, but my friend Holly said I should do a little something creative because we were planning on attending the De La Buena/ Hood Smoke show here in MKE. Holly works with me at Express Yourself MKE and she and her husband sing and play piano for De La Buena, which is Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz music. It was an awesome show and fun to be with friends. 

I have always wanted to try out a candy skull design, which is a traditional Hispanic celebratory practice for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on Nov. 1. I still have the pictures of the festival in Guatemala. But I didn't want to use cruddy cheap paint that cracks and sucks the moisture out of your face, so I asked a friend of mine who does a lot of theatrical face painting. She recommended a costume/theatre make-up shop downtown, so I splurged on some black and white. It took about an hour to paint. It was so much fun and I was sad to take it off at the end of the night. The make-up was worth it too. I had to be careful not to smudge it, but it looked just as good at the end of the night as it did at the beginning. The picture above is my practice run. The picture below is what I wore to the show. I actually liked the design from the first run (typical me!). I had to be careful to make sure I could replicate the design on both sides. 

Other than that...

Study, internship, study, internship...

I'm done with my midterm stress bomb and have transitioned into the beautiful, pre-end-of-the-year lull. 

I am not "out of the woods" yet, but compared to my midterm, the rest of the semester looks glorious.

Quite a bit of reading and writing to do, but it's nicely spread out. 

98 hours of internship to go.

1 weekend class to go. 

4 weeks of class to go (not including Thanksgiving break). 

By the way, Ben and I are super-excited to have his sister Emily be with us for Thanksgiving this year. 

Can't wait to cook, explore MKE, and lazily hang around the house with her!

I have a very dreaded annotated bibliography that will require A LOT of reading and writing during Christmas break....but I have 6 weeks off so it shouldn't be an issue. 

Ben and I are going to a Yonder Mountain String Band concert tonight.

How I've missed the bluegrass music!

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE SO CLOSE TO THE END!

I AM ELATED!

Best wishes in your final weeks without extreme snow and cold!