Dad: I saw your new hair
Me: And how do you like it?
Dad: Hmmmmmm
Dad: Do you like it?
Me: I do!
Dad: It's different
Me: Yep, but it feels better if that makes sense.

He didn't say anything else about it, but it doesn't really matter, it's already cut. XD; I told him I was going to grow it out, just not long. And I might decide after I've grown it out some that I really just love rocking short hair. It feels so good not to have to really think about it. Like, I wash it every night and take a few seconds to throw some water on it when I'm away from my room, but it's not hanging, and it's not brushing against my neck. It's just kind of up there and... invisible? Unimportant? I don't know. Something. I don't feel it. I like the fact that I don't feel it unless I run my hands through it, unless I want to.

Also, just got done co-washing it, and decided to try running the comb through. It took a little bit of work, but I got it through the whole TWA. (I've said that means teeny-weeny afro, right?) It was definitely easier to pull it through this time than last time, and I haven't been combing it, so I'm sure the more I work at it, the easier it'll get. This is also the second night I've been back to MY hair products. I couldn't bring them on the plane with me (I was about to pack them and Heather reminded me that the TSA agents would throw them out for being too big, and Shea Moisture stuff is freakin' expensive!), and had to make due with the nasty-smelling hotel conditioner and just moisturizing my hair with water... which, to be fair, is the best moisturizer, so it wasn't all bad.

Looking at swimwear for the cruise. I have a top already (a women's tank I got the year I entered Juniata). Not sure I'm ready to wear the binder around the fam yet. They wouldn't understand. Right now I'm just looking to cover myself up, so I'm looking at board shorts and a shirt to wear over the tank (which, by the way, is black/white striped, and I'm really tempted to replace that, too because it's loud). I wish I'd done this while I was at home, I could've tried things on. :/ I didn't think about it, sadly. Not that I ever like the way I look in swimsuits, anyway. I always look awkward as hell because of all the curves I don't want. Now I just have to kind of measure myself and hope for the best.

I had a mini-rant here about Caitlin, one of my ceramics classmates that went to NCECA, but I deleted it. Long story short, she's an obnoxious immature brat, and I think Johnathan and I trying to explain the concept of gender neutral housing to her (which he lives in, I was SUPPOSED to be living in before they changed things on us, and which Caitlin flat-out refused to accept because she can only see what she thinks a straight couple would do--pretend one of them is trans and move in with their partner) helped us bond. Johnathan's not actually in a ceramics class this year, but he was in Wine in a Vessel with me last semester. We didn't really know each other then. On the second plane ride back, we talked pretty much the whole way home. He's cool. And thankfully he's not a senior this year! So many people I know are leaving in May.

Went to Prof. Escuadro on Tuesday, even though I'm not part of the group that HAS to go to the optional math class because they have less than 80% in the class. (It seems like there might be two guys and that's it. I was there to go over something, two other girls were there to ask a couple questions, and we all ended up leaving, but the guys stayed behind.) I needed help determining the formula for a line. It's been EONS since I had to concern myself with that, whereas pretty much everyone around me's done it within the past year or so, so everyone was getting it and I was kind of lost. He worked with me one on one and walked me through the process, and I slowly got it. Now I could probably do it in my sleep. XD Glad I went. It was the one question on the homework that I couldn't even begin to answer, and I showed him the trendline I got from Excel, but like I told him, I could just do that, but I wanted to know HOW to get the line.

So yeah, that was done, and I think my standing with him increased a bit for showing up when I didn't have to. He wrote something on my attendance index card while I was there.

SO GLAD tomorrow's Friday. I need to make a Weis run. I'm out of breakfast foods, out of milk, and I've been meaning to get cheese, because I have a mini George Foreman grill just lying around waiting to be used. I want a grilled cheese sandwich like you wouldn't believe. I'm also hungry at the moment and toying with the idea of heating up a lasagna. I'll have to get a few more of those, too. The cafeteria never has lasagna. Every once in a while I want some cheesy goodness. I hate the microwave, though--it never seems like it cooks the lasagna enough (although that could just be the cheese failing to melt the way I want it to), and the last time I made one, the microwave actually shut off on me. I guess there's a safety cutoff or something. I'm hoping that's it. It completely shut down. It came back on again after a while.

Screw it, lasagna. I'm starving. I don't think I've eaten enough today or something. I only had one actual meal today. (I was down to about 174 lbs this morning. Wanting desperately to reach 170 just to prove I can without the cause being side effects from antidepressants. ^^; The next step is going to be working out, which will most definitely mean either waking up early and going to the gym, which I have yet to do because I like to stay up until two in the morning, or zumba twice a week in VLB, which I haven't gone to yet because I get lazy.)

We ran out of gray stonewear at the ceramics studio, so progress on our vessels has been halted this week. Instead, Bethany gave us the task of making bowls for the school's Empty Bowls project. They do it every year; they were making bowls when I came to visit in February. Students/townspeople come to the studio to throw or hand-build bowls, and they're decorated, and then they're brought to the soup kitchens and people are fed soup in them. Those that get soup get to keep the bowls. This year the food pantries of Huntingdon (and probably statewide) took a huge budget cut, so they really need all the bowls and donations they can get, which means Bethany's trying to get as many people to make bowls as possible. So we weren't wasting a day, she told us to make five hand-built bowls or three wheel-thrown ones, whichever we wanted. I tried throwing on the wheel today. Holy CRAP, I can't do that. I fail terribly at it. I don't know. I think the introduction of an automated tool in the process threw me WAY off. So anyway, I remembered what she told us about making pinch pots and built five bowls by hand. I hated the process the first time, but it came pretty naturally to me this time. I did have to redo a couple, because they got too big, but they came out pretty well. I had so much fun with it this time, I might make more. I'm sure if I ask her if I can make some more, she'll be cool with it. There's something right about building straight with the hands, not with a wheel. Could be because I suck at the wheel, but I feel better working with my hands and manual tools.

We should have new clay in the studio by now, so over the weekend, I'm going to build the vessel up some more. I keep forgetting to take a picture of my progress so far. It's looking pretty good. I can't wait to get to the top and figure out how the hell I'm gonna fix it if it needs fixing, though. There's one girl that's got hers almost done, I think, and she's at the point where she's got a huge hollow structure, but she's had to take the paddle to it a few times to even out the sides. I'd be scared as hell to do that. I keep thinking it'd be so easy to hit the structure too hard, and next thing you know, HUGE crack. Worst nightmare, that. It takes way too long to build that stuff up because of all the waiting inbetween.

Emma had to start hers over. She was making a box (I'm still floored by the fact that everyone else is making these cool/crazy things, rounded shapes, cones, etc., and she's making a box--reeks of laziness to me, but Bethany accepted it, so whatever, I'm not the teacher), and either she left it uncovered, or someone uncovered it and didn't cover it back up, so hers almost completely dried out. She couldn't work with it anymore, and I think she set it down somewhere and it actually broke apart. She's now made a new template and a new base, out of red clay since we had no gray at that point. I guess all this weekend she'll be in the studio. She spends a lot of her time outside now, and she's hanging around with this guy. She said something to me a week or so ago about having a boyfriend. (Mind you, she HAS a boyfriend already, in Ithaca, but she's probably going to break it off with him. She's not too into him anymore, I think.) Her being preoccupied = me alone in the room = happy!introvert. XD;;

Bad thing about next week: Two tests, one in religion and the other in math. (We get a review day for math, no such thing for religion.) Good thing about next week: FALL BREAK! Mom picking me up! Seeing family again! PUPPY! Yeah, I'm excited. :D I'm sad the break's only four days long. And one of those will be a travel day, because I've been forced to take the train back to Huntingdon. It's cheaper, and Dad would have to drive me back here if someone did drive me, and the old man can't do that, hehe. Driving me down is one thing, but having to drive the four hours back, with no one else in the car with him? No. So, I'm going to spend the first couple days at the house. Marcia's coming up there to pick up a puppy as well, and I think on Sunday or Monday, we're going to head back to Brooklyn. This is good, since there was a story I'd written that I thought I'd put on the external HD, but I hadn't. It wasn't even on my flash drive. I know I did this. I have a feeling I put everything on the smaller HD, and then decided at some point to bring the 2TB with me (because, why not?), which did not have everything on it that I wanted. This has been irritating me, because I've wanted to draw something from that story and can't quite remember the details of what I wrote. Like, I do, but there are little annoying things that escape me. XD;;

If only Follicles was open on Mondays. I could get my hair retwisted. It needs it. I actually haven't washed it since I've been here. That's partly because Roger said to go as long as I could without washing it, and it hasn't been itching at ALL (is my hair maturing? Maybe...), and partly because I'm afraid that if I wash it, my hair will be frizzier than ever and I won't be able to fix it... and some of the locks will unravel. Not completely, but enough to bother me. And for that, I'd rather wait. This also sucks, because it means going until December without getting my hair retwisted. I'd say November, but the break doesn't start until Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I wouldn't get home until, at the very earliest, 6pm that day if I took the train. I'd have to go STRAIGHT there, after a six-hour train ride. Hell no. Not worth it. So, mid-December it is. Maybe I'll wash my hair this weekend. Maybe.

Oh, and someone (a Hetalia fan, but that's slightly irrelevant) has come up with the idea to have an International Dance Day next year, on June 3rd, 4pm her time (in the Netherlands)--10am EST. I might spread the word about this. No idea if it'll actually go on, but it might be fun. And I'll be back in the city by that time, I think, so if the Hetalia fan group in NYC got involved, it could be fun, and it might make up for me missing Hetalia Day this year because I'm in the boonies. XDD; (I say I think I'll be in the city because there are plans for a 10-day trip to Germany, after classes are over, I believe. We'd be giving presentations to German students. The most important thing, though, is travel! I think it'd be pretty cool. Other than England (and only a small piece of it), I have seen nothing of Europe, and I really want to. And who knows? I might decide I want to study German, after years of saying I never would. And then I could study abroad there. Well, money situation permitting. I still don't know how much THIS trip will cost. I could be getting my hopes up, but damnit if I'm not gonna try to go.)

And I'm going to stop typing this now so I can eat! The lasagna smells so good~

... and damnit, LJ's down. Will post this up whenever.

Paper on William Blake and Pierpont Morgan: A

Midterm portfolio: A

I was one of only two people in the class to get an A on their portfolio, and Prof. Mayer REALLY liked my crosshatch drawings. She said they were beautiful. And then she said, "Well, I think I'll give your portfolio an A. And here's your paper. A. Be humble in there." Inside I was absolutely freaking out. ^_____^ She and I talked about why I'm in school, and she said since I have a job I can experiment with classes. She said I should take Intro to Design (which I have to--it's required for the major) and Color Theory if I'm not sure what I want to do yet, since those two classes have much to do with the others.

A, dude. I am super happy. Totally makes up for me second-guessing myself on the psychology homework we had to turn in yesterday and finding out that the part I crossed out actually should've been in there. Haha, as it is, Prof. Vianna's probably going to ask me what happened with that.

NaNo writing is going well. Should get lots of writing in on Friday, when the boss will be out. ^_^ I should call up Follicles tomorrow and see if I can get my hair done after work Friday. I don't really feel like it, but it needs to get done... and I actually cut my hair shorter the night I last got it done (think I mentioned that...), and I have a feeling it needs to be evened out. ^^;