Observant

Etymology: curious, related to cure, once meant "carefully observant." Maybe a tonic of curiosity would counter my numb hand and drive my absurd mind to think in new ways. Absurd, by the way, derives from a Latin world meaning "deaf, dulled." Maybe life drawing will provide a therapy through observation of the ordinary and obvious, a means whereby the outer eye opens and inner one. Literally. This class will be a view into the body. And my view of the body will soon become a view of it's anatomy within. I will learn how the spine twists and turns and how it creates the core of our being. Drawing had become a little redundant and expected, but now, with a new figure and a new mindset, it has become eye-opening.... inside and out. Life seems ordinary and obvious because we experience it everyday. But life is truly beyond ordinary and obvious. We are here and breathing, and our body moves and reacts and grows through a will of its own. The body is not ordinary. It is extraordinary. I am now curious about the body. I am now carefully observant.

Today

Today was the first day of drawing in life drawing class...and I forgot my supplies. But my boyfriend came to the rescue with my forgotten tote bag and I returned the borrowed charcoal pencil to a friendly savior. For some reason, as we were waiting for the model to come out, I was butterflies in my stomach nervous. I think I was nervous for the model or something. But once she was up there and in the first pose, I relaxed. I didn't see her as a fellow student, I saw her as a tool for the advancement of my learning. She was something to draw and see and experience.

I did a painting in high school of a human back from an old anatomy book. I was a originally an anatomical sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. But it was curvy and beautiful and ever since then the back has intrigued me. The way it bends and curves and the way the underlying muscle becomes tight beneath the skin is mesmerizing. Amy said the first thing we would be learning is the spinal column and I couldn't be more excited. I am now more excited for this class than any other I have taken.

Food Invention

I invented a great recipe the other day, it doesn't have any particular measurements besides the rice, but it's easy to make. Here are the ingredients:

- Coconut Milk

- Soy Sauce

- Thai Tom Yum soup mix (if you don't have this you can just use ginger juice and some lemongrass)

- Rice

- Can of Straw Mushrooms, drained

-Broccoli, cut up into bite size pieces

- Water

- A few pieces of a white fish, like tilapia

- Spicy seasoning for the fish

- Olive Oil

First, start by getting the water boiling. I only made a few cups because this was a meal for 2, but you can make as little or as much as you like. This applies to all the amounts of every ingredient, as little or as much as you like. After the rice was half cooked, I put the coconut milk in a medium sized pot on medium heat and began to add the soy sauce. You want the color of the sauce (once mixed) to be a pale brown. Again, as much or as little as you like, but the soy sauce adds salt to the coconut milk, so if you like a lot or a little salt, it's your decision. Then I added a tablespoon of the Tum Yum Soup mix to this mix, which is like a paste. Once the mixture gets hot, the paste will dissolve and give the mixture a slight reddish tint. Then add the can of drained mushrooms and allow them to cook in the mixture, let the mixture heat to a boil. While this gets hotter, steam the broccoli in the microwave until tender. Lastly, prepare the fish with a dusting of spicy seasoning and place in a hot pan with a small amount of olive oil and cook until no longer translucent and browned. Now that everything is cooked and ready, prepare it in a bown by putting down rice, then the broccoli, then a piece of fish, then a heaping spoon of the sauce with mushrooms. Enjoy!

Today

I bought a book with a collection of photographs by a guy named William Eggleston - his pictures send me into a complete tizzy. They bring more surreal exaltation to what only an idiot might refer to as mundane southern Americana than any other photographs I've ever seen. I yearn to be there immediately: Greenwood, Huntsville, Knoxville, Montgomery, Memphis, anywhere any of the photos were taken. I want to live someplace sluggish and normal, near a truck-stop where he (whoever he'll be) and I will eat grits and drink coffee every morning. I want a little house with honey-colored walls and grandma looking furniture from the seventies, maybe an organ in the living room, a cheap painting of a saint above our bed, and Formica countertops in the kitchen. We'll pretend we're Baptists so we can go to their church on Sundays and hear the choir sing. He would be a writer, and I'd work as a waitress. Pudgy, perspiring men will give me an extra dollar tip because I'll wear my uniform a few inches too short, but that's as far as they'll push it because the whole town will know about him and me. We'll be recognized as the lovebirds - the sappy couple who hold hands, kiss, and never mow their lawn.