12.16.2009




This is me. This is me with one semester of graduate school under the hypothetical belt. In real life I would never actually wear a belt, most likely for two reasons: my hips are more than sufficient for keeping pants on, and two, I haven't actually worn pants in probably 8 months, I don't know why, but they make me really self conscious. I don't know if I've ever divulged this, but I had serious issues with clothes when I was a little kid. Serious as in my parents had to cut the elastic and every possible thing that could have in some way been considered "tight" out of my clothes. We're talking underwear, the wrists of sweatshirts, tags, the tubes of socks, and definitely no headbands or high waisted pants. I only wore two things, no matter the season: My striped swimming suit and my pink dress with the ice cream cone on it. One day in a blizzard, my mom relented (once again) and let me wear whatever I wanted (I'm secretly way more stubborn than many of you may think). I still remember very clearly sitting out on the front porch watching the snow in my swimsuit. I remember being quite pleased with the whole thing. The fake green carpet on our covered porch was plenty comfy. The meter man came by and thought my mom was being neglectful and called the social services on her. My poor mom. She was only being kind and letting me use my agency, which I thought I deserved at far too young an age. She had to explain to the people that came by the house that I was indeed well taken care of, and quite privy to snow, even in a swimming suit.

The second picture is a drawing I did in my three hour final today. I seriously doubted my place in academia in those three hours, I was bored out of my mind. What were we doing all this for. So many presentations. So many presentations. And I didn't even do that well on the paper I spent dozens of hours on. Apparently I have great and innovative ideas, but am lacking in my MLA formatting ability. Damn following rules. Can't I just be creative?

14 comments:

Britt said...

"Can't I just be creative?"

Seriously! People love their rules and order. Let's flip this world upside down!

We love you guys! Congratulations on rocking the insanity of graduate work. Can't wait to see you soon hopefully; we'll be back from VA on Dec. 26.

emi. said...

i'm having the same problem over here...

darcie said...

one down...3 to go? i can vouch for the pants situation. what would they look like if you chose to wear pants?

zlb said...

oh my dear. congratulations. and damn all those MLA APA formatting rules. they are the bane of my existence.

Bayley Brook said...

*In replacement of pants, you DO wear skirts/dresses/leggings.* Just clarifying.

Sofia D. Hoiland said...

You can do anything and change hearts and minds as are the Mary Poppins of Provo,.

Sofia D. Hoiland said...

Wait, if you are in the creative writing program you have to study and format yourself into formats? What happened to creative agency?

ginni said...

If you like podcasts, I follow one by Grammar Girl. It's helped me so much with formatting. I think she also posts a weekly video cast. Super helpful, and they're only 15 to 20 minutes each. In the meantime, I like your drawing of the overhead projector. It's almost like I can imagine you sitting there with your cheek on your palm, staring through the professor, peripherally observing the projector. So productive.

ginni said...

PS: I know noone wants to hear this, but I think formatting is a very powerful tool. When you come in to town we can chat about it over hot chocolates.

kate said...

mla is the death of civilization

joojierose said...

ashmae! can i just say that i have always hated wearing pants? way since preschool - i cried and cried when my i had to wear jeans for softball practice. what, you can't play softball in a skirt? haven't you all seen "a league of their own"? :)

anyway, i think it's TOTALLY normal to prefer skirts/dresses to pants. in fact i think it's awesome!

and congrats on being done! merrrrry christmas!!!

Caitlin Carroll said...

I have the same pants/waistbands/underwear issue. In fact, I didn't wear undies at all until I was forced/chose to by covenant. Now I have to roll them down and sometimes I pull them until most of the elastic is stretched out of them. I can't stand things to be tight on my body. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me cringe.

Jennifer said...

i actually love the hair, despite the wildness. my hair has been short for about three years now, and I can't get past the "middle-stage" in order for my naturally wavy/curly hair to grow out.

Joseph said...

So, this is maybe too analytical on an un-analytical point, but aren't girl's swimsuits sort of tight feeling? Maybe not, there is no waist. We should have gotten you into gymnastics. Can you see I'm thinking hard about your posts?