Thanksgiving

At Theta Thanksgiving, we began dinner with going around mentioning a few things we are thankful for this particular year. My family did this when we were younger and all four of us would say the same old thing, "Family and Food," (not necessarily always in that order). Being a college student, I am thankful for those that make life just a little easier and a little more fun. I cannot say thank you enough to my mom for helping me with my finances and making it possible for me to focus on my education. Tyler, you came at just the right time. Last but not least, thank you to the Kings, for taking me in and feeding me during Holidays and offering a place for me to stay if I simply just need to get away.
One thing I have learned this year is that I have two families, the one I was given, and the one that I have chosen. I have made a few unpopular choices in my life that have unfortunately, pushed the family I was given away but in turn, I have gained a deep connection to a family that truly cares for me. I have chosen to surround myself with people that make me happy and respect me for what I will one day accomplish. I may not always say the right things and I certainly will not always make the right choices but at the end of the day, I am thankful for that hug from Mrs. King that tells me I am wanted here.

postsecret.com

I haven't posted on here in a while, I had two shows one right after another. I was Assistant Stage Manager and Choreographer for Burning Patience then just as I was getting back on track, I was Lighting Designer for the Newcommer's show for Freshmen and Transfer Students. I was given the reigns and told to go crazy.
Going into Burning Patience, I did not expect to do much past sweeping the stage and handelling the flow of backstage during the runs but two weeks into rehearsal the actors all realized they weren't too sure of the waltz. I have been dancing since I was 8 with my mom and every man who can lead. I taught the cast how to waltz and then choreographed a quick Latin Waltz number. It has been a good year.
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My secret? The best compliment I have ever recieved was from a total stranger/staff member here at the University after the Newcommer's show telling me that it was the best lighting design he has ever seen in Brian Hall. I wish YOU could compliment me like that.

Reasons I never worked "fast food."

2. Food is never supposed to be "fast," if your food is fast, its heart is probably still beating and you should put it back on the grill.

3. I walked into McDonalds the other day and could not help but notice no one was working who weighed under 250lbs. My bones are too little for all that.

4. I don't look good in hats.

5. I have microwaved enough living in the dorms for a lifetime.

6. I am a firm believer in not knowing where your food comes from isn't always a bad thing.

7. "I want A WHOPPER NO ONION!!!!"

8. I just can't imagine carrying out my childhood dream of being a McDonald's fry girl.

9. I am already too qualified with a High School degree.

10. I believe I am going to college to AVOID working in a fast food restaurant.

Oh, Pearl Jam!

After a long weekend of AICL and a night sleeping against a wheel well, I was in Physical Therapy this morning doing wall-sits as the staff at the gym was in the midst of making fun of me for not having been alive while most of their favorite songs were written and produced. Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter" came on the radio and we all stopped to ask the important question of "What the hell is he saying?!"



That all reminded me of the ever popular "Benny Lava," (see older post), but here are the actual lyrics.

Save the boobies!

While eating my strawberry popsicle with the two children I have been babysitting the last two days, I found myself in a hysterical conversation between myself and the four year old. It was at that moment in time I realized I was in a safe home. "When I grow up I'll be able to drive...and I like the pretty bird on your boobie Karen!" A sweet little unsuspecting girl and then...she's checking me out! "When I grow up, I'll be able to have babies, and make boobie milk, and no-- my brother wont be able to do those things cause he's a boy! It would be pretty funny if a boy had babies and made boobie milk wouldn't Karen!" Wow-- I suppose children these days are provided with more answers and taught at a young age where EXACTLY babies come from. I believe I was given a book and told to read it. Such sweet children.

He's Dead Jim...

I know these things are supposed to happen in threes but maybe the Myans were right and the world really is coming to an end soon...they were just off by a three years? What is going on?! Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, that guy from the Kung Fu movies, and now...BILLY MAYS?! I am at a loss for words which, we all know, very rarely happens. I believe this has to do with me going to Rochester, Minnesota. The last three times I have been, something has died no matter how short or long my visit is. The first Summer, I arrived in early June for Nisswasammen, a folk dance festival in northern Minnesota. The day after we reach the music festival, my aunt receives a phone call from the kitty hotel notifying her that her cat has mysteriously died in her sleep and without an autopsy, they couldn't decipher the actual cause of death. Inky died of an incredibly rare disease completely unexpectedly. Once Inky was dead and (God rest her soul), on the mantel in a tin can; Mary was left with Max, the reason I hate cats. When I was three, Max decided I was in his territory, hunted me, and took me down with a swipe of his paw. Max was part of a Fat Cat study being organized by Purdue University in Indiana. On top of being obese, he was an amputee with only three legs and had an enlarged left ventricle. In early June again, I came to visit, this time I was going to be there for three months. Typically, Max and I were kept separate but ever since the amputation, I could finally run faster. Mary was out of town being trained in Feldenkrais Therapy when Max's breathing began to sound funny. I had taken Anatomy and Physiology with Mr. Comenda my Junior year of High School between these two summers and had dissected two cats-- not to mention I just had enough sense to know Max's breathing was due to fluid in his lungs. I called Mary and she told me to just take him into the kitty doctor and make the decisions. I had the vet tap Max's chest three times and on the third time, we decided to put Max to sleep and end the terror. I went from hating this cat to having Max snuggle up against me as tears were streaming down my face during his last breaths. I killed both of my aunt's cats within two years. That same summer, my dog that we have had since I was three passed away from another "mysterious disease" after coming to Minnesota for the summer with me. At that point, I realized that I should take a year off. No one died that year. This year on the other hand...

Michael Jackson
Farrah Fawcett
Billy Mays
That man from the Kung Fu movies (he died during some kinky sex game...now what have we learned?!)
Caroline Victoria Jenson (my great-aunt)
Dawn's aunt

They are all dead Jim, just dead.

Richard Feynman plays the bongos!

"...and I am going out sleepy, too."

"I suppose I came into this world sleepy, and I'm going out sleepy, too."
-Caroline Victoria Jenson

My aunt passed away last Thursday in her sleep at the age of 92. She is six years older than her sister and my grandmother, Norma Jurisson. My mom, grandmother, and I drove down to Kansas City, Kansas this week for Vicky's funeral. I hadn't met my cousins on that side of the family so the trip actually made for an interesting family reunion. Vivky will be buried in Norge, Virginia on July 8th.
Our family handles death in a very interesting way I suppose. When my grandfather, Jaan Jurisson died, with a sandwich in his hand from a massive heart attack, we all gained a sense of humor to carry us through rough times. Tradition and our ability to be labeled "cheap" with absolutely no guilt whatsoever forces us to buy caskets "one up from welfare." When my grandfather died my uncle Karl, my mom and dad went to the funeral home where the man kept attempting to go through his sales pitch for the ridiculously over-priced pine boxes while Karl and mom kept walking past the caskets crossing their chests with their arms asking "how would this look?" My father, I can guarantee, was truly embarrassed. I can see his bald head turning cherry red right now. The morning of the funeral, my aunt Mary and my mom were in the bathroom getting ready when they heard a "BOOM!" My grandmother was in the kitchen finishing up a few things. Mary looked over at mom and quickly uttered, "You go check." Mom responded with, "You're the doctor, you go check." What was said next would be considered the punch-line of the joke, "But she's MY mom!" Anyway, Mary and mom went to see that THEIR mother had fallen in hopes that she wasn't dead too. Grandma was face-down on the tile floor. She attended the funeral with two black eyes and a squished nose. Grandma told people at the funeral that she and her husband got into a fight and she won.
My grandfather never believed in cut flowers for a funeral, what was he going to need cut flowers for when hes dead!? Therefor, his wife and children brought a single green plant with no flowers on it to the funeral and placed it next to his casket. I can only imagine the thoughts running through his friend's minds when they saw the lone plant his family had brought to the party.

On another note, I have been reading a book titled, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" about Richard P. Feynman, a physicist born in 1918. Feynman had an alternative way of looking at life, he won the Nobel Price in Physics and taught at Caltech until he passed away in 1988. The book is a series of short stories from his point of view about getting into trouble and experiencing life in "all its eccentric glory." Feynman "traded ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr, cracked the uncrackable safes protecting the most deeply held nuclear secrets and accompanied a ballet on his bongo drums."



Maybe through reading about such an open-minded, free, person such as Feynman, we can all learn about living life first and worrying about death later.

The little lady upstairs

I am sitting upstairs at my mother's school, Knoxville Montessori School, once again writing to you. I used to attend here when I was just a tike and it makes me giggle...yes, "giggle" realizing that now here I am, years later, assisting my mother with minions like myself (at one time). I hope I have grown up since then, I sure am taller, the metal slide I burned my butt on year after year is not quite as tall as it used to be and my feet drag when sitting in the swings or hanging on the high bar. I am convinced the yard equipment has all shrunk and I have kept the same 4ft 11.5in tall stature I had till I was in 9th grade. I still remember playing house in the old barn structure in the middle of the playground under the old oak tree we used to sit under while in trouble. That structure is long gone and that tree is a mere stump replaced with the building addition for the Elementary. Chalkboards for the wee ones attached to the side of the building have replaced the crumbling blacktop I was stung by my first bee on and earned my first scars near. I used to bury nuts for the squirrels to find and sing the Capitan America songs while running around as a chicken minus his head. My less than perfect but always beautiful art of my once conventional family hung in the office engulfing the walls and air conditioning unit. This place brings back many special memories that will always bond my mother and I including multiple time-outs and bottom beatings--maybe those aren't the best of memories but I am sure if you give me time I could think of a few better ones! I love you mom! Haha! At the end of the day, it is wonderful to be back in Knoxville, seeing past teachers, and most importantly, seeing my mother every day.

Get your lighters out, now lets rock.

...Alright...I am done...but these kids are AMAZING?!

Are you?

King.

Most influential? Really?

I was dismayed to discover while sipping on my fancy-over-priced lemonade at the campus Starbucks, now titled "the only place Karen can study Starbucks," that Time Magazine has crowned 2009's Most Influential Person as non-other than a man named "Moot." This 21 year old started a website like flikr.com or photobucket.com as an image based bulletin board called 4chan.org. The website may get around 13 million hits a day but is it just me or did we just vote in our very first BLACK PRESIDENT?! Oh oh! Maybe Oprah should be 2009's Most Influential person for helping young women in Africa to raise their voice against crime and poverty. Even a better idea-- what about hunting down the person or animal who's body mutated the regular flu making it the Swine Flu and make THEM The Most Influential Person of 2009?! As much as I am on the internet blogging, reading the news, chatting with friends on facebook.com, or taking long walks on the beach, I somehow was left out of the loop on this one. The most entertaining thing is the fact that this "Moot" character doesn't actually like to get his picture taken...just find the irony in that one.

Go Green!

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Happy belated Earth Day everyone, did anyone plant a tree? If you haven't had a chance to plant a tree...just go hug one. Happy Spring!

"The pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing." -George Orwell

failblog.net

I am sure most of you have seen this site but...damn.

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Suck it-- rain!!!

I am in Columbus for the weekend, it has been a wonderful trip so far. The kids, Dawn, and I went to Hybanks park up off of 23/High Street for 2 hours to skip rocks in the river, play on the kid structure, meet new people, and walk a few 10th of a mile. The clouds kept rolling in and it wasn't until we started heading back toward the car that it began raining cats and dogs. I miss them already just knowing that I am leaving tomorrow to go back to Bowling Green for the last few weeks of school.
The Summer plan so far is to work in Knoxville wherever I can, odd jobs, babysitting, dogsitting, old-peoplesitting, housesitting, anythingsitting... I am looking forward to seeing mom more often and exploring more of Knoxville.
Anyway, we are watching Twilight tonight and just relaxing after a great day outside.
Suck it--rain!!!
Peace.

Oh what an idear!

True dumpster divers!

In theory...I suppose it isn't a bad idea...at least it is eco-friendly! I will stick to my granola bars and oatmeal for breakfast fresh out of the store each day.

Spring Cold in Chicago

Alright now...

Oh boy has it been a long time since I got on here and wrote anything worth reading but I guess I should let you all know what is going on with me any not to mention my mother.

Spring Break was awesome, I went to Chicago and came back with a Silver metal from Curling Nationals. I saw the Bean, rode the giant Ferris Wheel on Navy Peer, saw Watchman in one of the largest Imax theatre in the nation, and ate at the world famous "Bubba Gumps!" I made it back to Bowling Green for one day and had to turn right around and head to Cincinnati for the week. The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Conference was amazing and extremely intimidating. There were some amazing students whos drawings and ideas blew my mind.

This past Friday morning I picked up my new knee brace that, fyi, is incredibly hot, painful, and black-- preventing me from wearing any brown or navy blue. I will be wearing this brace every day for a month while attending therapy 2-3xs a week. I would appreciate everyone crossing your fingers for all of this to work so I can avoid surgery.

On to something a bit scary, my mommy spent a week in the hospital after a CAT scan showing a "spot" on her lung and heart. She was admitted into the Mayo Clinic for emergency surgery to remove the spots, luckily they could do everything through a small incision on her chest apposed to rolling her over and going through her side. The doctors removed the spots not knowing whether they were cancerous or caused by Histoplasmosis. Histoplasmosis is (as it was explained to me), pretty much everywhere, most people will have it sometime in their lives and if she had never gone into the hospital, she would have never gone through all this. On her way back from Minnesota, she drove through Cincinnati where we had lunch and got a chance to catch up, thanks ma' for scaring the shit out of me. Don't do it again.

I suppose that is all, I hope everyone is having a wonderful end of the semester!!!

Congratulations PJ and Molly!

Out on the beach, PJ FINALLY proposed to Molly just before Nationals! Hopefully the rock on your finger makes the rock in your hand go the way you want it Molly! Congratulations you two.

Dar Williams, "I will not be afraid of women"