Sketchbook Pictures from New Paltz, August through the end of October

Hi there, here are a bunch of pictures I've done in my sketchbook since school started, hope you enjoy!

The first one is of a string of balloons we hung up, the second is the same location without the balloons. Then we had to do 5 outdoor drawings so I drew trees and then the next assignment was to draw 5 trees so there are a bunch of trees. After that we had to draw items of personal significance to ourselves from 2 perspectives each, and then use one item with something else, which is the shirt on the table with the heart on the sleeve. Finally we have my left hand drawn with my right hand and then my right hand drawn with my left :)

Oh Christmas Tree...

It kinda sucks that Christmas is only once a year. Now, I only say this because I have divorced parents, and as a result, I have to travel on Christmas. When I was little we would just all go over to somebody's house and they would have to get over themselves. NOW though, I have to take the train on Christmas. I get a nice batch of singing and dancing and overall cheer on the train though, but still.

When I was 16, I went through the time tested train ride to my dads in Brooklyn from my moms in the city. So upon arriving at my dads, I cover my eyes and run into my room. Without turning on the lights, I take off my pants, throw on pajama's with penguins on them (My christmas uniform) and lay down under the covers. A few minutes later my dad walks in and yells "IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!"

"OH MY GOD YAY!"

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

"MERRY CHRISTMAS DAD!"

I run out of my room to the tree in the living room and we gather around with my sister and step-mom. At this point, she was 2 and a half months old. You can imagine how excited how excited a 2 year old, barely aware of her own hands, was for the pairs of socks and Legos she got. Yet with every present "LOOK LOLA! A T-shirt! OOOOOOOOH!" (I shouldn't mock though, because it was a cute t-shirt, I know, I bought it). And what you may ask was my big gift that year? A Led Zeppelin t-shirt. It kinda kicked @$$ and with the CD I got with it, I was jamming to Led Zeppelin and watching old videos of them all night long.

Now, this might not seem like, much, but honestly, my family is pretty tame around the holidays. I avoid the giant Chrsitmas party that everybody goes to Chicago for, and I just spend most of the day eating cookies and laying in bed. I am ever the rebel and Christmas proves it.

My Auto-Biography

From the prompt: How would you start your auto-biography?

Growing up, I always wanted to be older. Being older, I wanted to grow younger. Reaching a close, I wanted to stand still. Through all of this, I knew who I was, who I still am until that fateful last breath. I am a child at heart, a man at mind, and a realist in the world around me. I have lived the life you dream of, where you accomplish your goals, fall in love, and change the world. Since I was a child, I knew that I could die at any moment and yet I could die happy if I did. A life of no regrets, a life of little fret, a life where if I want hard enough I can surely get. Guided through the fog without the aid of a guide dog I have managed to keep a constant stream of joy flowing throughout my life. Born a boy, died a boy, that’s my story. But if you skip to the end you miss all my struggle and glory. I have seen the world and yet here I remain, as I have stood for years gone by I will stay the same until the day I die.

My story today doesn’t start at the beginning. How am I supposed to keep you entertained with stories of poopy diapers and golden childhoods where I couldn’t possibly do anything remotely wrong… No no no, instead I start my story in high school, the four years where I became who I am today. It took me years to see it, but I was in fact quite egotistical as a child. I mean, I had every reason to be. I had a family that loved me, a ton of great friends who I got to see everyday, and grades that were quite good but I didn’t have to worry about being perfect all of the time. Then came middle school, where shockingly everybody didn’t fall in love with me. I know, right? But alas, I didn’t know then that I was a fool, and middle school soon led way to high school and I found out the hard way.

High school didn’t start very well. Why, you may ask? Well, I never really wanted to go to my high school. It was the fifth school on my list of applications and I only went there because I knew some people who went there and it was in the neighborhood. Naturally, I didn’t get into my other choice schools and ended up going to the lovely School of the Future. Don’t get me wrong, I love School of the Future, NOW. But I remember that it scared me at first. Before I attended high school there, I visited the school on a tour and I was afraid I wouldn’t get shot or something if I went there. Preposterous, I know, but I was 13 then, so my eyes didn’t see things quite right.

On my first day, I made snap judgments during an assembly for our entering 9th Grade, our class of 2010. Oh yea, by the way, my high school had a middle school in the same building, under the same name so a lot of my grade had already been classmates for three years. Back to orientation now. We had to walk around the room with a bingo board full of questions that we would ask people to get to know them. I looked at my classmates, made snap judgments. Told you this, but I just want to catch back up. So I looked around the room. Loser, cool guy, class hotty, class clown, everybody you could think of, I found in that room of a hundred.

The first couple of periods that day we got to know each other more in depth. I thought this was my time to become an individual, to find my place. I tried to be funny, and well, I failed miserably. You see, the class clown was in my class, and there was no way I was going to overthrow his reign. I liked the guy though, so I couldn’t even try to be a jerk to him, I had to get along. Ugh.

Working from a Prompt: A Hard Days Night

From Creative Writing Class on 10-06-2009

Today was the toughest day of my life. Nothing was different then it usually is, except that it took an eternity to pass through. Have you ever felt like all eyes were on you? Me neither, but today they may as well have been. I feel like I'm the new poster on display in the classroom that everybody notices, and some even comment on. A simple reaction to a complicated action has shifted the polar balance of my own isolated world.

Let's rewind the tape, save the date, today will be the day I can't forget, the day I can't regret because all of the hard work payed off tonight. The moon shines on me and I can't help but smile at the amazing cliche unfolding in front of me. I know better than to fit the cliche, so I smile and relax, letting it overwhelm me. My joy is extreme now, and it reflects off of my teeth and spreads to another. This is the way every night should be, they should all be this easy. But is this easy? I catch my foot before every step, making sure it is carefully placed on the foundation being built. No, this isn't easy, but when I look back on the day, the million little things that I had to struggle with just to make the motions, this is easy by comparison by far. Walking through the halls, sitting and talking, even just going out to lunch, all of it was near impossible to do without being ambushed or assaulted by a rush of people I have never met. Making it through today unscathed was a miracle on ice, something I thought only happened when Disney charged you admission fees. Turns out they don't own everything yet, I can make my own movie after all.

Back to tonight, back to the moon. Let's go back to the future, which can't come too soon.

So this might have been the best weekend I have had in a very long time

Man this weekend was one I will not forget.

Friday: School, normal, nice day. Talk to a cute girl, do good in class. Normal stuff. My best friend comes by after school like he does every friday. Me and my other friend go to his house and we have a typical friday, playing video games. We play Halo, hang out, and then get pizza from our favorite pizza place, La Pizzeria, on 31st and 3rd (Best pizza, and that's the truth). We go back to his house and I call home, as does my other friend, and we ask if we can stay over, to which both of our parents say yes. It is now 9 0'clock. Around 11, we are all bored and have to make the unfortunate call back home to ask if we can go home instead of staying over. I go home, stay on the computer for a bit, and got to bed.

Saturday: OH BOY. Big day here. So I'm supposed to go to my friend's party today around 5-ish. I take a shower, go to the card shop, get her a card, and I get myself all pampered and ready for the party, taking about an hour to make sure I look my best. I get on the train, take it to the party, get lost walking for 20 minutes trying to find the place, and eventually a search party comes out to meet me. I felt soooo cool, except that the cute girl from yesterday (friday) was part of this search party, so I felt much better. The second I walk into the party, I look around and only see my friend's family and I turn around and go back outside.

A couple things I feel I should mention. First off, me and this girl kinda almost had a thing once, and she has liked me for the last two years since it happened. The second thing, I only came to the party because this cute girl was going. None of my other friends were going and to be honest I didn't want to have to deal with the girls family because I know she has talked to them about me in the last two years.

SO, me and the cute girl (Let's just call her Laura so it's less confusing) start talking and then the girl who's party it was (Let's call her Gonzo) gets upset, because I walked in and out of her party right away. So she sends her friend out to get me (Let's call HER O.J.). She tells me to go inside so me and Laura go inside and we talk with Gonzo and we have some fun I guess, except that neither of us is digging the music, or how excessively loud it is considering that nobody is dancing and not that many people are there yet. So we go outside for a while and we talk and then before you know it, it's been like 2 hours and we decide to go back to the party, to go get Laura's sweater. We walk to the door and surprise we were kicked out! Turns out, Gonzo doesn't want us back in there since it's clear that we only went to see each other. Then she changes her mind, saying that I'm welcome to go back, but not Laura. I side with Laura though, leaving the party in our tracks.

The next few hours have too much happen to write it all, and frankly nobody cares. Highlights include blistered feet, bongo drums, throwing a phone, and ripping open Laura's leggings. Eventually I ended up walking her all the way home and we said goodbye with a hug. Perfect night, everything went great that I needed to. I go home, and turns out that Laura is still awake, we talk online, say goodnight, and I go to bed.

Sunday: Well at this point I'm sick of talking about all of this pointless little detail chatter, but basically thanks to this wonderful blog I just made, Laura asks me about a story and it leads to the revelation that we both like each other and can't wait to see each other tomorrow. Cue music, roll credits. Perfect weekend, everything I wanted.

What I See

From creative writing class, on Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Climb through darkness. Stumble on a step. Push my way through a red door. Blinded by the light.

Is this just a normal day, a normal Tuesday walking to the roof? Or have I been reborn, with a whole world of opportunities open to me. Looking around, all sound is drained from my ears, all smells are blocked by a suddenly clogged nose, my tongue seems to become a lifeless blob. All that is left to me are my eyes and my hands, to observe and report. I try to move my mouth, to talk, but all I say is nonsense. I give in and except the inevitable truth that this is me now, that I am fated to only observe and record for the immediate future.

I look up and see this bright new day, this new chance for me. Everything I see is a possible future for me to embrace. I see my future helping a hurt friend, hiding his feelings behind a paper thin smile that wavers in times of trouble. I see us talk, grow closer, but I misstep and it leads to a round of fisticuffs. I see my future with a girl I have yet to meet, a friendship growing, and finally she becomes a person I can confide in until the day she dies, a victim of her own misfortune. I see a lifelong acquaintance becoming a lifelong friendship, becoming something eternal so I can never forget her. She advices me, accepts me as I am, and makes me a better person through her wise words. I see a love hiding her face, delaying what cannot be stopped, the inevitable pairing we will form and a bond that lasts all year, proving to be magic, the love I cannot deny, that I remember all of my life, for it was my first true love.

But am I just crazy? Has nothing truly changed, was I ever reborn? A simple smile makes me re-think everything, the future, the past, all that makes me who I am and everybody else who they are. My mind overwhelms my hand, ready to break due to the surge of ideas scurrying around in my head that I cannot write down nearly fast enough. I settle down, calming myself to try and be reborn again, but this new rebirth is superficial, too little too late, my thoughts now run a different course, my new friend is now a new lover, my lover is a mere bystander to my life. My future is hurtling towards me as my life draws to a close quickly and abruptly. I feel fear as I realize how everything will be different in an hour, in a day, and in a week nothing will be the same for me, even myself.

Purpose

So basically this is for when I really just feel the urge to write something about myself and I don't want everybody to see it but I want people to see it I guess. I have a lot going on in my life right now, so I'm sure I will have something to put up here soon.