The meaning of life is keyboard shorcuts

I love my computers in art class... I'm having a blast. The professor is awesome, I think I'll take all his classes. Also, I'm getting involved in the Hurricane Disaster Relief effort at the UA.

My love for art is growing stronger as the days pass. It's amazing.
Also, it's amazing how somebody can make you smile for no reason. I'm not making sense... I'll get back to my business.

*UPDATE* at 10:33 pm
I haven't heard from RcR.
I met this guy tonight, hilarious!
Gas it's $3.00.

That's how it goes

In college, one seems to get very few hours of sleep during the week. And then you see me with my eyes almost closed in front of the monitor at work or school.

It seems like today it'll be one of those nights. Tomorrow, though, I'll meet with my friend Ro-Ro for an iced mocha :D And I have Comp in Arts class... I love that class and so I look forward to it every Monday and Wednesday.

I tried to get in touch with my friend RcR. He's from Louisiana and so I wanted to check on him. No luck...

I'll go now. Still have tons to do for tomorrow.

Canta y no llores!

I keep falling... I fell down today again and last Friday (well, I guess it was Saturday cause it was 1 am). I keep falling in the same way and I always land in the same position, and so, my bootie cannot take it anymore. This time hurts :'(
And the worst of all, was that today many people saw... cause it was in the student Union. It felt bad, and this piece of friend of mine couldn't stop laughing!!! You know who you are!!! Don't you dare commenting on this post!!! Anyways, I had to work late today and so I'm tired (plus my bootie hurts, did I already mention that?!). I have to go home and do homework and reading, and I really should paint.

Well... let's hope I don't fall tomorrow. The good thing is, I will always get back up!!! (that's deep... it goes beyond the thought of physically falling!)

Hispanic Heritage Month logo

So... I designed the logo for the UA Hipanic Heritage Month. I did the drawing and a nice guy at Housing digitalized it and put the color. He did an awesome job!

Here are the pics:

Excuse me. I need some attention, please!

"The meaning of life is keyboard shortcuts."

I'm already loving my Computers in Art class. I feel so great right now, I feel so good in spite of so many bitter-sweet things. Have I grown up? At least a little? I think so too.

What else? Mmmm... I got darker today after a couple of hours out in the sun. It was HOT today... really hot and humid. And I'll start writing for The Traveler soon, I get my first assignment next week. Bruises left by Monday's accident are showing by now. Also, country boys might not be as bad of a choice as I thought.

And so starts my junior year at the UA

I busted my butt this morning. As I walked into the classroom where my WCIV II class will meet this year, I slipped in some water that was there because the A/C was dripping... I fell flat on my butt. Of course, I got up quickly as if nothing had happened and I said "I'm ok, I'm ok... where did all that water come from?!" The classroom was full of people, at least 30 people were there. It's a 50 people class, but I was early. So now I guess I'm "that girl that busted her butt on the first day of classes." My pants were wet but fortunately I wore black pants today, so you couldn't tell that I fell. It was actually funny, I sent CM a text message telling her what happened and she replied "ha ha ha & so starts a new year." I mean, people know I fall all the time, but she was telling everybody!!! That's just wrrrrrrrrrong. We'll see what happens on Wednesday when I return to my WCIV II class, cause I'm not dropping the class only because I dropped... myself. It was suggested by some that I dropped the class, but I'm stronger than that. Plus, if I were to drop every class in which there is somebody that has witnessed my clumsiness I would have any classes to choose from!!!

So what I learned:
The older you get, the slower you heal. I have to be extra careful, cause I'm getting older.

J. Star, here's the definition of "crunkest"

-- Extra --
My pirate name is:
Mad Bess Kidd
Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr! What's yours?!

A periquito named Paco

ROCK Camp was great!!! I had such a great time and I have no doubt that all the freshmen that went has a blast too. I'm pretty sure my team won ("who the crunkest up in here? 'E' the crunkest up in here!") but we didn't find out because of the bus fiasco. We had to wait for over an hour in the buses because the directors were making sure that everyone was there... and this was because it rained on us when we were on the float trip. That was fun, though.

Also, I was hipnotized! I don't remember much... it's slowly coming back, but I still don't remember much. My friends were telling me that I was just out, they said that I looked all relaxed and that I didn't even wanted to do what the guy was telling us to do. They said that they hipnotist told us that we had a bird in our hands and that he asked me what kind of bird it was and I said it was a "periquito" and when he asked what its name was I said "Paco." Julie said, "B, I knew you were gonna start speaking Spanish up there! I knew it!!"

I still don't know what happened. I just know that after I woke up I felt really good, like I had slept for a while! I was so refreshed :) Let's see if the memory comes back!

Classes start tomorrow. It'll be a great semester and I'm ready to pull a 4.0 and do some amazing things on campus!

Friends are priceless

I've learned that true friends, among other things, are always willing to stay on the phone with you for more than an hour EVEN when they are using their anytime minutes on their cell phone plan.

I was talking on the phone with three friends of mine last night. At the same time... we managed to have 2 conference calls going on at the same time because my phone wouldn't let me add a third call to the conference. So El Chino ended up calling Gaby, and connecting her to my call, which I had already connected Aaron to -Great explanation, I know!-. Anywayos, we're all in different States, we're all with different cell phone companies, we're all in different time zones, but we share some good memories together and so everything else didn't matter.

We went to high school together in San Salvador. Oh yeah,"el colegio"... Liceo Getsemani. We've changed SO much, and well, that's good... I'd be worried if we hadn't. Anyhow, my point was that it was very nice talking to them. El Chino -whose name is David, but we never call him that except for when he's in trouble- is crazy, always teasing me with the Figure Drawing class I took about a year ago. I don't know why I told him! Now every time we talk on the phone he asks me if I've been drawing nudes lately. El Chino is definitely one of a kind, thank goodness! Aaron with his clear memory, reminding us of stuff that made us laugh really hard... and other stuff we would rather leave behind. Aaron just came from El Salvador about two weeks ago, he came to visit his dad. He gave us the update on everyone's life. And Gabriela -Gaby- supper sweet and nice, as always. She's so cool. She missed our last year of high school, because that's when she moved to the States, right after the earthquake that shook our lives apart.

We talked about getting together sometime soon, but we decided that we'll think about it -and do some research on plane tickets or driving time-. It's crazy: Gaby in California, El Chino in New Jersey, Aaron in Maryland, and me... in Arkansas. They said something about meeting "somewhere in the middle." It just happens that I'm the most "in the middle" that we have right now, but I don't know that they want to come here, I'd rather go somewhere else :)

And well, that was it. It's nice to know that despite distance, time and all other things that we've gone through -that usually mess up friendships- we're still friends. I have to say, those three years I spent at El Colegio are unforgettable. We did some very stupid things, and we went through some tough experiences. But, oh, how much fun we had and how many true friends we found. We were so locos :)


Here we're going to our Salida Evangelistica. It was in 2001. Wow~ time flyes. We walked for about 30 minutes from where the bus left us to the little school where we took the piñatas and the cool skits we performed ;)


Yes... I was a clown. This was in 2000 for another Salida Evangelistica.


Here we're coming back from the Salida Evangelistica in 2000. El Chele was sick and nobody knew... he's in the lower right corner. The one with the eyes closed. We were all like "Chele! What the heck? Why didn't you say anything?!" and he said "I didn't want to ruin our day." Awww... Chele loco.

I want to see these people again. So badly. One day, one day when I make a lot of money I'll be able to go back to my Patria and visit all my good friends. I'll also go drink some coco helado and piña coladas at Rene's house :)

Friends are better than ice cream --> MUST SEE

Some look for the truth, I was only looking for gesso...

Man, I have been looking for gesso all over Fayetteville and Springdale and I have not been able to find a store that has it. I didn't check Hobby Lobby, they might have it but if they do, I know it'll be overpriced. It's enough with overpriced gass for now.

I went to wal-mart and didn't find it... then went to home depot and they didn't have any either. That's when I knew I was in trouble. I bet they have it at that store on Dickson St.

Anywayos, I have a month to get from 5 to 10 paintings. I know, what am I doing blogging?! well, I need to find gesso first! I'll keep looking tomorrow. I still haven't found the library books either. And I don't know where my Nora Jones CD is!!! I was going to tittle this post "where's Nora Jones?" I don't think I lent the CD to anyone... but sometimes my mind just goes blank, like now.

It smells like rain...

It's been raining hard and so it's smells nice outside. I like the smell of rain, a lot. Do you know what I'm talking about?! The smell that you feel a couple of minutes before a big storm it's about to start... and the first few moments after it has started to rain.

I've been avoiding the translation I need to work on. I've been doing some other things instead, like arranging my books on the new bookshelf (well... new for me, anyway). My mom found this really neat bookshelf at a yard sale yesterday. It's just like I wanted it. So I got busy. I still have a bunch of books around my room, the bookshelf wasn't big enough to hold them all... but the place certainly looks better than before, when I had books everywhere.

I've also been playing with some images, trying to make a Warhol-like image. That is because I found a Warhol book from the school library and as I looked at it, I kind of got inspired. This is what I ended up with (at least the one I liked the most):

I'll go do the translation now, I have to finish that today. Plus, I have to find two library books that I seem to have lost...

I go for the strawberries!

I love strawberries.
I was at the SIL today and they had food leftover from BJ's good-bye reception, so as always, I found myself going for the strawberries instead of things like chocolate cupcakes or lemon pie (although I like lemon pie a lot!). And I thought about it for a moment, right after grabbing some strawberries I thought to myself "I always go for the strawberries."

Reflection time is so important, isn't it?

I had a great conversation today with PM. Awesome. And I wish I could say more about it, but I'm still thinking over all the things that were said.

Anywaysos, I was Thai-frustrated today. I was supposed to go for Thai with my supervisor, but she had to go check on her mom because the lady called her that she didn't feel well. I really wanted Thai today... I hope Mrs. S is better now. So I came home, ate a sandwich and took a nap. A three-hour nap. I woke up at 5 pm. I guess I needed that. And well, that's all for now. I have some things I need to do:

- finish the translation for the Children's Safety Center
- figure out which class to enroll in, since Media Law is not a freakin option this semester (bitter about this)
- work on the HH Month paintings
- write a thank-you letter
- reflect

I think that's about it, although I'm sure I'll think of something else I need to do while I'm working on these things... it always happens.

It's raining models!!!

So far, three people have offered to model for me. Two of them are very serious... one of those two people is my aunt, the other one is a friend. The third guy has been saying that he wants a portrait ever since he found out I like drawing and painting. He said today, "B, you need to do a portrait of me," and then I told him that I could use him as a model at any time... he opened his eyes and smiled big... I was serious, I don't know if he realizes that.

Anywayos, (I've been saying that lately... usually followed by a silly "that's Spanish") something else happened today and I got a kick out of it. My good friend AM is part of the Hispanic Heritage Month planning committee and I've been asked to be a featured artist, my artwork would be in exhibit at the Multicultural Center at school; and today when I saw AM he asked me if I would just put up some of the same paintings I have at the gallery now and I told him that I would make new ones, that I'm already working on that. In response to that, he said the funniest thing "just make sure they're a little Hispanic." I was cracking up and I said "A, I'm Latina... so everything that I do is Hispanic... that's how it goes. Even if I paint dolls, they would be considered Salvadoran dolls!" I like him a lot... he's hilarious, especially when he tries to be so politically correct. When he does that I just smile and say something in Spanish... and then he remembers it's me... and he chills.

Oh, friends are priceless.

And two of my friends are leaving next week on Monday. I'm going to miss them so much. Today was the good-bye reception for one of them. That's life. People leave and they stay in one's heart and mind. Of course I'll keep in touch with both of them... are you crazy?! How could I NOT keep in touch with them?! But I'll miss the hugs and everyday little things. I'll miss the smiles and the good talks.

That's it.

Textbooks, time & sleepiness

I'm sleepy today. I've been reading, painting, and doing a lot of stuff lately to get ready for school. I've been looking for my textbooks online because it'll be cheaper to buy them online. Textbooks are SO overpriced. It's all thanks to the textbook mafia... don't mess with THAT family!

On another note, I need to learn how to manage my time better. With one of my friends we've talked many times about the need of a time-management class... Anyway, I'll stop here. I'm sleepy... zzZZZZ

Truth hurts when it's not pretty

There was an article in today's MN newspaper about Hispanic enrollment at the UA and the community college. Well, the reporter had some mistakes in the article and so I believe she'll get in trouble. She had a grammatical error, but that's insignificant when compared to misrepresenting facts or somebody's opinion. The reporter interviewed some students that are participating in a summer program at the university... they'll be college freshmen next fall and the majority of them will attend the community college with plans of transferring to a four-year institution in the future.

The point of the article was that the university administration needs to do a better job in recruiting Latinos and to point out that so far, the community college has a higher enrollment and retention of such population.

My sister happened to be interviewed for the article, and she happened to be misrepresented... well, I was upset. In my fundamentals of journalism class there was something that my professor couldn't emphasize more: always check your facts. Apparently the reporter didn't do a very good job on this and that's how I got a call from University Relations. The person sounded upset and wanted to get in touch with my sister to "fix" the "misinformation" given in the article. Well, the article pointed out a weakness of the administration. That in Salvadoran Spanish is called "estar picado." There were huge mistakes in the article... but those mistakes would not get half of the attention they got if the article hadn't touch RIGHT where it hurts most...

At school there is a lot of talk about diversity. A lot. But there's not much action following the words... And that was pointed out in the article. It hurts... truth hurts when it's not pretty.

Lesson: always check the freaking facts... especially when you want to mess with "the man."

New painting & a happy bday!

This is the painting I made for Chris' bday. Happy bday, niña! I hope you have a great day and I hope you liked my version of "las mañanitas" this morning.
Hey... don't you love when other people title your paintings?! No?! Me either!!! This one is untitled, and this morning it was called "The sunflower girl." I would name it "La mujer en trenzas" or something like that... but it's untitled. I don't like "The sunflower girl." What kind of name is that?! It makes me think of a little girl in some school play in which she had to dress like a (you guessed) a sunflower.

Funny quote (that has nothing to do with anything):
“These new kids, they never last. Sooner or later they all... stop lasting” - Joey, from Friends.

YES!!! OIL PAINTS!!!

I've been painting this weekend and I read a lot yesterday (please note, the new "currently reading" section on your right). I started painting for a friend of mine whose birthday is tomorrow... due to my despistada state (only true Guanacos know that despistada means I'm broke) I cannot buy her something really nice, plus she's been asking me for a painting since... well, ever since I gave ATS a painting. I don't like when people request paintings, mostly because my mind goes blank and then I think my brains out trying to come up with something that person would like... so it makes the whole creative process a little less enjoyable. SO when I get a request I just say "NOOOOO!!!" and run away... oh, wait! no, that's in my dreams... what I actually do is smile and come up with something funny intended for that person to forget about the painting. Well... that didn't work with CM... and I tried it so many times!!!

So I thought "hey, it's her bday!" I called her to ask what she wanted for her bday... I knew what she'd say and she said it "I want a painting!" I could actually hear her smile after she said that. Yes, you can hear when people are smiling on the phone.

Anyway, I hope she likes the painting.

And well, the kitchen/dining room/my art studio is full of my stuff right now. Paint, brushes, paper, canvas, etc... I went to wal-mart one of these days and found an easel, it was nice and it was like $10. It wouldn't last forever but it would help me... and I couldn't buy it, again, due to my despistada state. With school starting in a couple of weeks I can't spend any money on anything or I'll regret it BIG time later.

Hey, once again I went off on a tangent. I wanted to write about last night, when I was taking a little break from painting. I was a little tired and I sat down on the sofa and I looked at one of the paintings I did for class this Spring... it's the only one I don't like because the still life set up had this little glue bottle that just drove me nuts. So I was staring at the painting and thought about how I would love to be able to paint with oils at home so I could somehow fix that painting or just paint over the thing. And then it happened... I thought "Hmmm..." (yes, I thought that) and then I just got up when to get my paints (OILS!!!) and my palette knives, I put some paper on the table and then started painting over that ugly still life. What came up was an abstract piece that I like better than the still life. In less than 10 minutes I had a new painting... in oils!!! I quickly got rid of all the paper I put on the table and cleaned any marks that I had left. Then I made a sign that says "No tocar - Fresh" (Don't touch - Fresca) and left the painting on the kitchen floor. I know it'll take FOREVER to dry, so I hope nobody bumps into it... I would not be pleased. I must say, I am very glad I finally got rid of that still life. My mom got mad, she said no to ever do that, not to ever paint over anything ever again. But the thing is, that painting would be a pain on my artsy butt had I not painted over it.
Here are the before and after:

Please note the little glue bottle on the right (the first painting). THAT little thing was the one that I didn't want as part of my record. The new painting looks better than it does in the picture... just remember that the digital camera I'm using is a joke. It was like $40 at wal-mart a couple of years ago. I think it was 2002, actually.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I didn't mean to write this much.

Artist Reception pictures

Here are the pictures of my artist reception on July 25th.


This is in the Anne Kittrell Art Gallery...


The food was good and it looked nice...
A lot of my favorites on that table, including coffee!!!


This is one of the paintings I sold.
Untitled. Acrylics on paper.


This is T.Vo and Sara Hillis (right).
Sara was the one responsible for putting everything together for the show and the reception... THANK YOU SARITA!


This is "The Two Berthas" Oils on board.


Latinas leaders in the community...


This is Janet and her husband. They bought one of my paintings...


This is "My Fire" one of my favorites...


Friends having a nice time...


More friends and my two uncles (right)


Professor Coustaut bought that painting on the back.


Here is the first "SOLD" I wrote!!!


Here is Margarita "Maga" and the Univision cameras, getting ready for the interview...


Luces, cámara, acción!!!


This is my expressionistic self-portrait. Another one of my favorites...


Dr. Watkins from the J-dept with my friends from the MNews...
They are both UA Jour alumni.


This picture cracks me up! I'm with Adrain and D Richmond.
I don't remember what Adrain was saying... but THAT expression is worth a million!


And... here are some pretty flowers that we had for decoration :)

Sara took all the pictures (except the one she's in, I don't know who took that one). She has been AWESOME... I'm very greatful. It was an amazing experience, and this will probably be the last time I talk *much* about it, because I figure you all are tired of reading about it, already. :)

Anyway... time to move on... next step: NYC!!! :P

Done with CHEM

I'm free!!! I had my last Chemistry class today and something unexpected happened. After about 35 minutes of lecturing on Aminoacids or something, the professor said, "well... that's all. No test tomorrow, that's all I have." I had to take a second to clear the mess in my head, and said to myself, "Did he say 'no test tomorrow'?!" Oh man! I was so happy!!! No final and I got an A in the class... very nice!!! He put away his things (his book and notebook) and then left saying "see ya later alligator." My classmates and I hung around for a little longer and talked about the situation... it was so weird. But then again, he does things like that... we never knew what he would come up with the next second. Crazyness.

Anyway! I'm free!!! Now I have to go do my things... I have a lot to do today, but right now... I'm singing Gwen Stefani's "Holla Back Girl." Oh yeah... I'm in a WOO-HOO mood, people! :)

On "De Todo Un Poco"

"De Todo Un Poco" is a TV show in the local Univision station, it is conducted by Margarita "Maga" Lund. And well... I just saw the special on my exhibit!!! :) :) :)

Today at about 6 pm a friend of mine called me that she saw me on TV and said that she liked my art, and then she told me that the show airs again at 10 pm... so there I was, sitting in front of my TV at 10 pm sharp... Ooohh... I couldn't stop smiling!!! The whole 30 minutes was on the exhibit!!! It was like reliving the whole thing :D :D :D

Maga interviewed my sister, my mother, Ana - a Latina community leader, Yolanda - another community leader, and me :) And all the shots were nice, wow... there was a lot of people there... A lot of different people. I received an email from a lady friend of mine, she's a student affairs professional at the UA; it was one of the most touching, wonderful messages I've received in a while... and she mention the fact that the group in attendance was very diverse... I didn't notice until today, I was watching for that on the TV show... but really, I saw my friends. And that's what made it such an amazing experience, I was surrounded by many people I love and that have supported me since the very moment they met me. I'm so thankful for all of them... I'm so blessed.

So if I had come down to cloud nine... I'm up on cloud eleven again!!!