Dabbler Artist- With Pictures!!!

All of you know that I write. It's not something you would be surprised about. But let me tell you something only a few certain people know: I like to dabble in different art forms. As well as reading, I love art. My favorite medium is acrylics, but  I have done other forms of art as well. I'm currently working on scrap art, taking different things from Starbucks and putting them together to make a different picture.

One of my earlier paintings:

Two of my recent works:

I also like to cross stitch.

Printed:

And counted:

Now I've stumbled onto crayon art. Most everyone seems to be doing a rain related theme, if not just a simple rainbow theme, or both.

I think this will be my next project. Except it will have something to do with Game of Thrones. I'm thinking coat of arms.

I'm Straight, and I Love the Gays

First let me say this: exercise and eating healthy makes you feel great. You get more energy, feel more fulfilled, love your body, and organic tastes amazing!!! While I will never be a veggie, (Why? Because I really love the taste of meat. That's my choice!) I am committed to eating veggies with every meal! I've never hated them, I just didn't eat much of them with every meal growing up. Now that I have started to, I'm looking great and feeling better!! Also, I figured out I'm lactose intolerance and now I don't eat anything with dairy in it. It's hard, ( I really love cheese!) but when I eat dairy I get really bloated. One it's not comfortable, and two, everyone thinks I'm pregnant all the time. When it's not true, it's offensive. Since quitting dairy 3 weeks ago, I've lost a few pounds and am almost back to my normal non-pregnant looking size! I miss cheddar cheese, but DAMN this feels more awesome.

Anyways, last Sunday I went with a gay friend of mine and my best friend to a gay pride parade and rally that started out at Stonewall Inn (Where the gay rights movement began!) to a nearby park. You can see me in this video walking past at Stonewall Inn. I'm the blonde with the blue shirt that walks through the middle. Also at this point for marriage equality, I'm in the middle with blonde hair and gray scarf. You can watch a news clip on the rally and what the supreme court is doing. You can also watch a small amount of what was spoken here.

That's enough for links. Let's get to the real story. I have many gay friends, close and distant, and I support every one of their rights. I'm straight, and I think everyone should be allowed equal rights. EVERYONE. If this was 50 years ago, I'd be fighting with the interracial marriage situation the same way the gays are having to fight. I'm in an interracial relationship. I have been for almost 5 years. If someone told me I couldn't marry my boyfriend, because we had different skin, I would be appalled. Who I am with is no one's business but my own. That is the same way I look at the gay rights movement, which is now focusing on marriage.

Last week two cases were heard in the Supreme Court on gay rights. We won't know until June what the verdict will be, but lets hope for a progressive, forward thinking verdict. Here's an article from the Times about it. Make of it what you will. Humans deserve human civil rights.

I seem to be an activist. I'm fighting for things I believe in. Marijuana and gay rights are only the beginning to reforming our nation and the world. We are changing, evolving. Shouldn't the US government evolve with its people?

Things Are Happening- An Epiphany

Things are happening. The moment I decided to share something with a customer (I'm not talking about something personal... I mean something physical- I'm talking about my resume), things have been happening for me! This feels amazingly wonderful since discovering 5 years ago that I really didn't know what I wanted to do.

I had this whole idea my whole childhood that I wanted to do forensics. I had even picked out what specialty- forensic pathology, which is the person who determines the cause of death when someone dies  "suddenly, unexpectedly, or violently". They are responsible for determining the cause and manner of the death.

I really can't say where I got the idea that I wanted to be one from. I like to think it was because I would love to watch forensic shows with my grandmother in my early youth. Kind of grim now that I think of it, but whatever. I went through my childhood telling everyone that I already knew what I would be, and I would tell them exactly what it was. I didn't think I would ever have to worry about what I would do in life, because I already knew.

I was like this until I got to my first year of college. This was the beginning of my true love for music, my various forms of art, and my writing. This was when I awakened as a person, and when I began to feel like a real human being.

You see, something was missing in my life. Something that I didn't know existed. It was real human interactions. And by this I mean that I found people who would make a connection with me through learning. I could discuss my ideas without being called weird. People expanded on what I thought, they didn't dismiss it.

These feelings are wonderful to those who love philosophy, art, writing, people that are passionate about what they know and love. It was not something I had experienced before.

From that moment on, I wasn't sure about what I wanted anymore. I discovered more and more art and opened my eyes to many awesome new things. I discovered pot, fell in love, got the best dog in the world, and moved to New York City. I changed my major 4 time: Forensic Pathology, Education, Forensic Pathology, Marine Biology-Shark Research, and currently Writing- Editorial. It is writing that I have done all my life. It's not something that is brand new to me, it's something that I discovered long ago.

My parents kept this ugly old book that I had written when I was 6. I rediscovered it a year ago and read it. It wasn't terrible and crude: I started out well... but the ending was crazy. Terrible grammar, stories lead to nowhere. But it was really insightful for a 6 year old.

By finally accepting something that I've done my whole life as something that I actually do for my life has lead me to where I am now. 2 days ago I decided to try to spread word about my blog through other sites. Stumbleupon gave me 300 views in less than one hour- the amount I had before I posted my site to stumpleupon? 600. Amazing! In the last two days I have given my blog and resume to customers at work who showed a genuine interest.

One lead me to a woman whom I had the most amazing three hour conversation after I had gotten off of work. That in itself is another story for another time. But the human connection to someone I had just met was amazing! The revaluations you can have with a total stranger are always very profound. While talking to this wonderful woman, I was overheard by another lady who interrupted  us and told us very nicely that she couldn't help but overhear that I was a writer and about my ideas and she might have a job opportunity for me. I sent her an email with my blog and she responded she will read it and send me an email later about when I would be available next week.

I was so excited I felt like I couldn't contain myself! I talked faster, and my hands were shaking slightly. Not because I was afraid. Oh no. I was just so excited with life and where it was taking me!

Me! Doing something I've always loved, but never considered for a career.

Me- a writer.

12 Things About New York City: Basic Tips and Etiquette.

Today my good friend Emilie sent me a link on facebook asking me what was true. I found myself having more than "lol" to say, so I decided to write the thoughts down to share with you. Here is my assessment:

#23- In my time here, I haven't heard of or seen this scam. I will keep an eye out for it though. You will know if I hear of it.

#56- I've had a few situations like this, but not all the time is the empty car suspicious. If it is during the busy time (which is a lot), then you want to beware! I've been on an oddly empty car once during a busy time. When you got inside , it smelled like a homeless man dipped in the foulest vomit and feces that you ever did smell. Most people will change cars at the next stop. So if you see lots of people switching away from a car, (duh) don't go in that one.

If this happens during the slow time (mostly late nights), it isn't too much of a cause for concern. Most of the cars will be empty.

#35- I knew this back in Florida. It's very rainy there most summers. Every day at 2pm.

#17- OMG HAHAHA! This is true. The amount of revolving doors here is nuts! My theory is that since a lot of the buildings are old around here, they all had to have been built at around the same time, when revolving doors were in fashion.

#64- This hasn't happened to me yet, but I can believe it.

#47- Yea.... I moved here towards the end of a record-breakingly hot summer. I experienced a bit of AC Rain. It makes you feel gross because your first thought was that it might have been urine.

#76- Hahahahha!! I'm always on the other end of this- having to try to take orders from someone who is blabbing on the phone. Someone I work with will ask the person on the cell phone one question. If they don't respond within 10 seconds, they get skipped!!  I'm too nice... I ask twice.

#81- This is very true. There are loads of bicyclists here. It's faster than going by car in Manhattan during most peak hours. Many are food delivery guys. Our city would be lost without them. Don't ruin our city and their lives!

#43- While working at my Starbucks store, if you are on bar, you can always feel the air come in when someone holds the door open. If you aren't holding it for someone else to exit or enter, don't be the butt munch who causes everyone else's discomfort. It's rude, and ain't nobody got time for that!

#58- True. We don't give a shit... about your picture. In fact, we like to bomb them! Hurry up and take the damn picture! You've got three seconds at best.

#72- This sucks. You'll be texting your friend about whatever and you get completely cut off from the world until you get above ground again. Oh well, time to play Temple Run!!!

#97- I'm not much of a heel-wearer (I love them, I just never wear them), but even I know that heel bearers always make extra special sure to stay away from anything that isn't solid concrete: grates, sewer covers, dirt, bricks/cobblestones. Avoid at all costs! Besides being late, you can break an ankle!!!

Urban Love

I've fallen in love again, but it's harder to explain this time. I haven't fallen for a man or a woman, but an entire city. This city makes me feel as no other has before. Within it, I feel alive and vibrant. Anything I could ever want or need is at my beck and call. These feelings stir deep within me, the city awakens a beast that I never knew lied dormant.

How can I go back? To the little place I once knew, now that I know of this magnificent world?

How can anyone ever go back, to the miserable mundane happening that they call living after they've fallen in love as I have?

This love of mine has a new name. It is one that I call home.

The City

Day turns to night in the blink of an eye.
Everywhere there is life,
The very air you breathe is energy.
You could walk forever, but never look at the same face twice.
It's its own world, as if it could exist in the same state, forever in perpetual motion.
Passion for life is within every step, and inspiration is never out of sight.
The very buildings hum with excitement emitted from the bodies alive within.
The people, vibrant. Nothing is strange to see.
Anything you want is there for you to have, all your wishes can be achieved.
The flow of people stirs the mind, pushes it into worlds that might not have been discovered.

You wonder how you ever felt alive before this.

She Loves the City

I think I figured out more to why I love this city so much. After recently seeing parts of it that I hadn't seen before, I've had a realization that everything I love so much is the product of human creativity and ingenuity. While I marvel at the force of earth created things like those I see In the serene Central Park, what attracts me so much to the urban culture is the humanity of it. No matter what, the knowledge that my kind has made all of this possible is awe inspiring. I see humans that posess the capability to coexist with each other in what is a mostly beneficial way.

I feel that if someone doesn't understand this feeling, it is because they haven't been influenced by an extraordinary experience of human force.

They are like new seeds, not yet planted. For the moment they lay dormant. But once given the chance, they will spring to life.

Have you ever felt strong feelings for a place? Not a person, or a thing, but a place. Something that cannot be moved? A large, or small, area of land? Your favorite childhood place?

I never completely understood the concept of loving a place like some people love their countries. It goes without saying, but I don't love my country. I don't hate it either. I'm merely apathetic about that. I have had a growing sense of my country, and from that sense more respect and some small feelings. Nothing that I would move mountains for.

Then I moved to New York City.

I had my doubts about moving to the city at first. I was leery of the crime, mostly. Then I started thinking about it. I had never been. How was I to know what the crime was like there? What I hear on movies doesn't make it factual... it just makes for good entertainment. So I decided to move here before I even saw the city, because I like doing things like that. I wanted to see where the wind would take me.

The moment I stepped out of the airport and into the fresh air it was as if my whole life just started over again. Everything around me was vibrant and bright. Before even stepping onto the ground with my own being, I knew I was meant to be here.

It was love at first sight. I never wanted to leave.

I had to, to come back and plan the move, but I swear I left a piece of me behind. Well, I did, I left Luis because he was starting work, but I can't make this sound terribly romantic. That's not the point!

The point is that I became enamored with the city and now it stirs deep emotions within me... patriotic ones. I am loyal to this city. I love it so much. It fills me with awe and wonder.

"The city is my church"- The Vacationers



I've found my god.

If It Affects You, Don't You Want To Know About It?

While being my usual self today, I was watching the video from the latest post on facebook from NORML.  That video is this:

Or click here.

First, I must ask you to completely disregard his t-shirt. Yes, it does say "Chick-fil A-holes".  While the whole "Chic-fil-a" fiasco last year with the big shot of the company coming out to say he does not support gay marriage and neither does his company is still fresh in many people's minds, I can happily say that it is no longer relevant. It was getting really annoying. And I'm pro-equality. I don't care if you let people marry themselves!! Hey, if it's true love, who are we to say no? 

Har har.

Continuing... I want all those who watched/will watch this video disregard his shirt because that's not the focal point here.

What is the focal point?  I'm so stoked you asked.

The focal point is something that I believe in as if I have never believed in anything in my whole life. It is marijuana and our fight to legalize it. 

There are really so many things I could, and want to say about this topic because it fills me with such a fervor to think that this is something illegal. But because I want to keep these short and sweet for everyone involved, let me just say this tiny thing.

What do you think of the legalization of marijuana? Do you agree with what's in this video? Do you think we are doing it right?

And after you answer those questions, I ask you to do a little research on it. Norml is a great place to begin.

So, I was my usual self today, and I started thinking.  Now that I live in New York, I see a lot more homeless people than I have in other places. Now, in no way am I saying that I've never seen homeless people on a regular basis, (which I actually did in Florida while working at Starbucks, but that would be a whole different story), but never so many that I do now. So, seeing homeless people isn't a brand new shocker to me, in fact, it seems not out of the ordinary. I've only lived in NYC since August and I don't feel I've been here long enough to be desensitized to seeing so many homeless people, but I still feel the same way towards them as I have before.

I don't see a lot of homeless people, but increasing from 1-2 on a regular basis to 5-6 is a drastic increase. Shouldn't I feel more of something for them? I should also state that my feelings before to them weren't negative, they were much more of indifference. I don't feel as much sorry for them, as it is a feeling of resignation for them. If they behave like civil people, I see them as no different than someone who has a home. If they act obscenely, I see them the same way I see people who have homes that act badly: I look down my nose at them. (Yes, I do know some of them have mental problems, but some do just behave badly because they feel they can, or they want whatever attention it will give them.)

This lead me to wondering: why do I feel that? I used to feel ashamedly sorry for the homeless. What changed my feelings towards them? I think the catalyst started when Luis and I visited the Dominican Republic in May for a wedding. There we saw real poverty. The kind of poverty not even the homeless I've seen have. Those people had homes. They had homes in a third world country. Some of them were magnificent. I saw an apartment that was a whole entire apartment floor. It was a house in an apartment.
Then those that weren't magnificent were dismal. Seeing the rift between the two classes felt like seeing an epiphany.

It informed some part inside me, and it is the informing that can't be undone. Easily being able to see who was rich and who was very poor was a very weird realization.  From what I have seen while living in America, most of our citizens are middle class or above. Not all, but most. Since there are so many above the poverty line, the distinction for us isn't as clear cut as it is in a third world.

 It blew my mind.

There, the poor were terribly skinny, poorly clothed, and lived in shambles; while in America, most of our poor have at least one meal a day, are decently clothed for the weather, and are still working members of society. This doesn't happen in third world countries nearly as much.

Even though the thought of our homeless in America might be depressing, they are way better off than some who have homes in third world countries.

Think about that.

Thoughts on Racial Topics

Being my usual self today, I decided to spend a bit of my time relaxing on my day off. Sure, I have lots of stuff to do, but I believe in taking a bit of time each day to spend for myself. It keeps me much more sane than I should be. Today I decided to spend that time watching an old film. I really enjoy films before the 80's because they can give me a different view because their films are written and shot from a different perspective than today's movies.

Today it is Superfly that I'm watching. A mostly black film from 1972 that deals with a cocaine dealer wanting out of the "thug life", as the description on Netflix says, and what he does in hopes of achieving that. The thing that strikes me first is usage of the word "Nigger" by any kind of person, white or black. I also noticed this in another film from this time period called "Sugar Hill". 

Side note: Sugar Hill was an awesome movie about a black woman who summons zombies with the help of voodoo and how she uses them to take revenge on those who killed her man. 

Seriously. One bad ass film.

So, to get back to my point, the use of the word "Nigger" wasn't always deemed a negative thing. That makes me wonder two things.  First, is this now changed perception because people began to become more tolerant and wanted to avoid negative stereotyping? And second: If it was not that, does this mean that it wasn't a negative term, so much as a dividing term (much like we still call white people... well, white people)?  If so, why aren't white people offended by dividing terms? No one's ever upset me before by calling me a cracker. In fact, it really makes me laugh. 

So am I the tolerant one, or am I just the insensitive one?

Thoughts on My Younger Self

So, being my usual self today, I started reflecting on the past (mine), and found myself going through the things I had done or said when younger, as if they were clips being played on You Tube. One thing I had to think about is how my perception of people has changed. The example I thought of was how I used to think that everyone who did "drugs" were bad. You can ask why.

Why? Because it was instilled in me and I didn't know of any other terrible scenario than the ones I were taught. That's not the main point I'm making, but it is important to think about.

Now, my views are that you can't judge people for one aspect of their life. People need to be seen as a whole, multifaceted gem, that has very good qualities to very bad. I can use this in an example that would be suitable to my own life: Just because someone has read/seen the Twilight Series, and LIKES it, doesn't mean that they have no literary taste.

As much as I have a strong dislike (some might say hate) for Twilight overall, everything about that series (i. e. they were written poor, she has no range of vocabulary, the plot lines don't always make sense, etc...), I have to admit that some people can like the movie/books and still be productive members of society.


"I really hate that."


That's what I'd say if I was trying to make this a joke. It's not. I can still have respect for people who like Twilight, as much as it kills me to admit it.


So, this is killing me.



Anyways, the point I was trying to make is, that now I'm older, I can see people for their many qualities and "judge" them with that instead of one "negative" quality.  And yes I say judge because everyone does it. Judging is not always bad.

Therefore, I no longer think that do "drugs" are automatically bad people (actually, I've been thinking that for years, but that's besides the point).

Thoughts About the Pope

So, I was my usual self today, and sat down to eat my usual bagel after work and watched some TV. This time it was Chelsea Lately from Monday, December 3rd (two days ago). I sat on the couch, eating, watching this blonde British gal, who kinda reminded me of a skinnier Adele, talk about how the Pope is getting a twitter account, and the 85 year old Catholic leader is supposed to start twittering in 2 weeks. There is a scheduled date for it too...

My first thought is about this picture of him, was that why do we have a Pope that in every picture that I've seen of him, my first thought is that he looks pure evil? Surprisingly, the bad picture of the tv screen that I took makes him look WAAYY less evil. When you see those wrinkles in HD, it's terrifying.

See what I mean?

Naturally, my second thought was, how the hell is this 85 year old man going to know how to use a computer so that he can tweet. Unless he is one exceptional dude, I really think that he's not going to know how to use it. My grandmother is about the same age, and she doesn't even know how to check her voice mails on her cell phone.  Love you Grandma.

Apparently, a "young Cardinal" is going to be tweeting for him. 

Third, nice pun on the church not needing to do any more reaching out to young people. That was classic. 

This story was a goldmine of hilarity.

Thoughts of a Mattress Commercial

So, I was my usual self today, and I sat down to watch tv while I was eating my lunch, after I get home from work. I ended up watching an American Dad episode that was currently playing on TBS. I happened to watch one of the commercials, which I don't normally do. It was a commercial for Sleepy's Mattress. It was the weirdest mattress commercial I have ever seen. You know how mattress commercials are always so low-key and soothing? Well, this one made you want to have a dance party.  It felt so bizarre watching it. Especially the middle with the beds going back and forth.

Or Watch here.