Alice in Wonderland, Aunt Rita's Arrival, and Scrapbooking

The trailer for Alice in Wonderland makes me oh-so-excited. Premiere date = March 5, 2010, so MCAD pallies -- you better prepare to see it, too! The story has never particularly tickled my fancy as it has some, but imagination brought to the silver screen like this keeps me satisfied easily. With stars such as Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway, this movie is sure to make a commotion.


Off screen, the Julson residence has welcomed Aunt Rita with great jubilation. In fact, there was great hooplah preceding her arrival. The day before we received news of my aunt's coming, my mommy and I were debating whether or not we would move my bedroom out of the basement and into the craft room. We decided it wasn't worth the trouble, as MCAD would steal me a month later. The fact that Aunt Rita was coming, however, changed the whole shpeel.

Quickly we removed every stick of furniture and every piece of thread out of the craft room and into the living room. With a glance about the empty living space we declared a fresh coat of paint was needed. On Monday, Swimming Pool Blue was replaced by Butter Mellow Yellow, and my bedroom was now upstairs. The next few days were filled with organizing the basement, cleaning, and scrapbooking.

That's right folks, scrapbooking. I had all the supplies for the terrifying task along with 4.5 years of high school memories just waiting to be organized into the slick plastic sleeves. Easing the pain with Season 3 of How I Met Your Mother, I finished the chore 2 days, 12 episodes, and 40 (80 if you count both sides) pages later. Glamour was not the objective. I literally taped things on like I was playing Slap Jack for a million bucks. When all is said and done -- no one really cares so long as it's in a nicely organized, storable book. And I can't say I'm not happy; I've been meaning to get that done for almost two years now!

Sidenote: I've noticed that "when all is said and done" has become a bit of a motto for me. A lot of things people value in life seem to be petty or nondifferential. When all is said and done -- no one really cares, or worse, notices.

Sidenote #2: This weekend my Aunt is here and we can't find anywhere to go that isn't a restaurant or food related. Even then, most of the restaurants are chains with no real personality, not to mention the shopping around here!

With one disc of HIMYM left,
Sarah

The Bro Code, Aunt Rita, and SarahJulson.com

Yesterday I finished Season 2 of How I Met Your Mother, and, with a major cliffhanger, I've been hungering for more (until the Netflix provides Season 3!) In the meantime I downloaded countless HIMYM wallpapers and explored the CBS site up and down, which brings me to this gem: The Bro Code. You can read more about it here as well as listen to a brief audio clip from the audio book version. It was published in October of last year, but for some reason I am just now finding it. I suppose it's due to my late-blooming love of the show.

In other news, my Aunt Rita is staying with us this weekend. It's kind of a big deal because none of our relatives have ever come to visit us, besides my grandma for my sister's high school graduation 5 years ago. I've never grown up around "family"; all my relatives live at least two states away and we hardly even exchange holiday cards. My parents, sister, and I are, I think, closer to one another than most families are, so I think that's sufficient enough. But back to my Aunt Rita.

Whenever anything big is about to happen at my house, or sometimes for no reason at all, my mom gives at least one room a whole makeover it seems like. This time it was a bigger undertaking. She turned the upstairs craft room into my bedroom and transformed the basement into a huge activities room. Yesterday we painted my new room a sunshiny yellow and my dad and I moved all the shitnanigans up and down the stairs while my mom told us where to put it. I can't complain too much; it's the first time in 6 years that I've had a door on my room.

In more other news, I bought my first domain name, sarahjulson.com. I haven't fixed it up yet, but it'll be outrageously nice to not have to write down my MCAD web address for people because it's so hard to remember. The hosting part is getting me all tungled up. Where should I host my website? And why didn't someone tell me before that I can often get my domain name free if I go to certain hosting sites?? Oh well...too bad I can't return it.

Exactly 1 month before I return to MCAD,
Sarah

NPH & Sound Effects Choir

Here are just a few things I've found whilst surfing the interweb. Neil Patrick Harris is phenomenal, and now I want to watch Doogie Howser REAL bad. First! however, I must finish How I Met Your Mother, which is promising, folks. So promising.

Also, I finally figured out how to sync my Hotmail account with my Mac's Mail application. I don't know why I didn't consult Google earlier....

The past few days I've been finding a lot of spiders on me whilst chillin in my basement. Two big neon green ones, one baby neon green guy, and maybe five tiny brown ones. I was never really "afraid" of spiders before, but ever since my epic recluse episode, I've been a little jumpy. Eesh.

And finally, my cousin sent me an email (received via my newly furnished Mail.app) with a link to a mega choir making rain sounds with just their hands and I got to surfing around and came upon this video. I'm a sucker for those choirs. In fact, choirs have always weirded me out a bit. The fact that everyone's mouths are moving at the same time and, when the choir is pro, they sound like one voice. Eesh! I get megatron creepy chills. For some reason marching band doesn't weird me out as much. It feels more mathematical. Am I saying choir is an act of God? Well, I don't know about that. But it's just as amazing! hahaha

HarryPotterHarryPotterHarryPotterohandmegandjaclyn'sbirthdays.

Woo for Harry Potter 6! 'Twas an exciting day/night. We got our red baseball tees in around 2 pm and Janessa dropped them off at my hizzle for Quidditch designs and such. After much debate on the back typeface, we started printing everything and cutting it out (with many trials and errors, might I add.)
As we were in a time crunch, mi madre helped me iron on all the shenanigans and we were done in no time. They looked awesome too! So the gang arrived at 9 and we all changed into our matching Quidditch uniforms.

When we got to the theater, there was already a growing line stretching to the back of the theater. Luckily, we had a spot saved and we skipped over about 100 crazy fans. As we passed by we got many compliments on our jerseys. Satisfaction!

Hot and bored, a few of us went to get snacks and drinks from the QT gas station down the road. When we returned, the line was moving quickly, so we hastily ran into the theater, drinks dripping everywhere, and ran to one of our five saved rows of seats. It took us forever to figure out where we were all sitting, but eventually we all found a spot and we settled in. I was sitting with DVS girls, and what more do I need?!

The group next to us decided to get up and move, so there were four magical seats open to my left. A lone black woman came up the stairs and asked if she could sit there, and of course I said yes. She was a thrill. During the movie she had the best comments. Crackin me up ALL the time. But there was still a seat next to me that was open.

Soon enough, there comes Jena Wight and her sister Joelle up the stairs, lookin for a seat. HECK YES she is sitting next to me. And that is how the JaNaSa was unintentionally reunited at the HP6 Premiere. We got to talking and she mentioned she needed a guitar player for a coffee shop gig on Saturday, and now I'm doing that! I'm kind of nervous because I don't know like half the songs she wants to sing, but hey, we'll figure it out. :) The other half of the songs that I do know include hits by Damien Rice, Ben Folds, Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Mraz, and Michael Buble. It's an oddly wonderful combination, just because i know it'll please the audience without getting too terribly poppy and cheesy. But I digress!

So we had to take pictures, of course, thus we got the team together and did a few shots. One of my favorites was the Miscellaneous-DVS pose. I think my friends and I adore group names... Anyway! We wanted to show the numbers on our backs, so we all turned around. Due to our extremely close proximity to one another, we didn't really know what to do with our hands. We started jokingly clapping them above our heads (like Dumbledore in HP5) over and over until we were automatically in sync. We didn't realize how much attention we were holding until the whole audience was looking at us and started laughing and clapping with us. It was hilarious and slightly embarrassing. I felt like a cheerleader for 2.2 seconds. Shwew!

The only other big thing that happened at the HP6 Premiere was the surprise intermission. About an hour into the movie, when Severus and Minerva were about to scold Harry, the film starts sputtering out of control and then burns up and sizzles on the side of the screen like melting cotton candy! The audience started screaming and my black lady neighbor shouts, "NUH UH THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN," (which was the same thing she shouted when Ginny tied Harry's shoe on the staircase....) So we were all laughing and jokingly (sort of) screaming at the people in the booth. I mean -- you can't refund HP fans' tickets, that's just a travesty! So the staff came out and told us it'd be about 5 minutes til it was one. A bunch of people took a bathroom break and we had a recap of the first hour. I texted Fowler in Colorado, whose movie hadn't started yet, and explained my outrage. Oh goodness. It was an intense moment in the movie too! Sheesh. Such a good night.

In other shenanigans, I celebrated Meg and Jaclyn's birthday with the girls the other night. We went out to eat and had a grand time. At one point Jaclyn spat out her birthday ice cream across the table, showering Jayme in salivated dessert. Our sassy waitress came, saw us all laughing, and left in a huff. Hahaha that was the best time she could have possibly come. After the meal, we stole Meg a balloon and drove home in Jayme's van, listening to old hits from artists such as Destiny's Child, TLC, and Journey.

The end.

Captain Bluebear and Harry Potter

I'm currently reading The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear as seen on the left. It's an adorable tale of all the adventures this bear takes, including sailing with the mini-pirates, learning how to speak from waves, and falling into a feasting trap by the Zamonian Gourmetica. There's a lot of imagination involved and constant, clever foreshadowing. What initially drew me to the book was all the delicate pen illustrations inside. It's about 700 pages and each one is a savory delight for the eyes. Even the way some of the words fall on the page are unusual, similar to that of The House of Leaves. It's not just a book, which is why I've come to love its author and illustrator, Walter Moers. You could tell he put great thought into the way in which the reader would handle and interact with the book itself. On my cover the quote on the left is a bit different; it says, "Equal parts J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, and Shel Silverstein". That sums it up quite nicely, if I do say so myself! I don't know if this is the best book of all time, but it's one of the funnest books I've read in a while!


In other news, the countdown for HP6 has begun! This week my friends and I are watching one movie a night at each of our houses. I get HP & the Sorcerer's Stone at my place Thursday night. We're also going to be making our own Quidditch team uniforms for the premiere. I think I'm a chaser? Or was it keeper...well. I'm totally stoked regardless! I love being a nerd sometimes. It makes for a lot of nerdy fuuun! I already know who I'm sitting by too! Janessa and Erin. Sigh. No offense MCADians, but I'm way happier to be seeing it here at home than in Minneapolis.




In other news, we got another new roommate. According to her facebook she's 32. I don't know. We'll see...Maybe we three will go through the entire wait list. Justin said a lot of older applicants end up finding their own place and cancel.

Poor Legs

Coraline

I just finished reading Coraline! I got a signed copy at Neil Gaiman's lecture last year in Minneapolis and hadn't read it after all this time. It was a quick read, but very engaging. I particularly adored its illustrations. Something about them just made me swoon.





It's probably that good old hatching and tiny pen look. I'm a sucker for it!
Now to see the movie!

Besides reading that today, I rode my bike, took a walk, watched Ice Age: The Meltdown, and watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which, might I add, was surprisingly wonderful. It was one of my favorite story lines, where the main character goes through a life-changing transformation, followed by a series of uncanny events. That may be a reason I adore Harry Potter so much; nothing beats his trip through Diagon Alley where he is (and we are) overwhelmed with unimaginable realities.

Sigh.

I think I may go try to draw some Coraline-esque sailors!

Changing My Ways

A lot of my thoughts have been consumed with condemnation and negativity lately, therefore I have decided to make this an extremely pleasant post.

Let's start with the date today: July the Third.

1. I woke up at 6 a.m. to go fishing on a mother fucking pontoon boat with my parents and some family friends. We vigilently casted until 8 p.m. this evening, withstanding both torrential rain storms and ethereal sunshine. I caught my first (reasonably sized) fish, a catfish named Clyde. At a wopping c. 16 inches, Clyde was purple and full of personality. He was the only (reasonably sized) fish caught all day, and so I graciously released him into a delightful little cove. Side note: A lot of sandwiches were consumed today.
2. 'Tis Kizzy's Birthday. She's down in Florida partying with some of my favorite loved ones. I love her too, even her both sides.
3. Second Christmas is nearly here! Only 1.5 hours until July 4th and the thundering outside can't be distinguished as Weather or Fireworks. The smell of sulfur fogs the air and my nostrils breathe with delight. Ah, yes. The Fourth of July. Where friends and family burn massive amounts of coal and ketchup bottles become endangered species. It really is the ultimate American holiday.

Other Spectacular Spectaculars:

1. Last night was game night, and what seemed to be a fruitless turnout evolved into the best of all game nights. It was a Regular, something that has been irregular this summer. The Julson basement was once again full of 06ers (and an 05er...and I guess me, an 08er?). Visiting from Dallas, Texas came our freshly-squeezed Katelyn Nichols, and from the nearby-yet-oh-so-far-away city of Springfield, Missouri came Abby Grote, bringing extra delight to the party. Also joining us was Jayme McClellan, Jaclyn Dwyer, and the ever-elusive Jessamine Endaya. 'Twas my favorite of all 09 game nights, filled with laughter, fear, and racial stereotypes. I missed that fun so much. And I think it defined home for me a bit, in a sense that I now know what I missed about Blue Springs whilst at MCAD.
2. The news is finally in! My roomies for the 2009-2010 MCADian school year are Sara Fowler, Marissa Lundin, and a Linnea Stephan (unknown but cool so far!). As requested we shall be living in Apt. 305, building 2550. I would like to take this time to welcome wood floors and arched doorways into my life! Hello gorgeous living spaces!
3. Sarah Julson Art finally hangs on the walls de Steamin' Bean coffee shop. Not only that, but one was sold the very next day! To begin with, I am festering off high school work, but in the mean time am producing new work that I simply want to do. My goal is to be ready for the art sale so when the time comes I can sit back and relax. Let's hope my butt gets in gear!

Feeling Severely Optimistic,
Sarah