The Lounger 5000 ™

An unexpected delivery of phone-books (from the incorrect phone book company apparently as well?) leads to exciting new seating and lounging options in the office (i.e. our home-base, the place I live in more than my room):

THE LOUNGER 5000 ™

limited availability, limited distribution. suggested retail value: $549,892.95

The Lounger 5000 can complement the style in a formal setting or add some excitement to create a more active environment. The stark, firm design provides the perfect lumbar and back support. The Lounger 5000′s versatile design allows it to fit properly in any type of décor; stack it upright for a formal party full of stick-up-their-butt people; stack it along the floor for a game night with family; put it in a circle for your yoga-chanting friends.

Durable and not-surprisingly heavy, this chaise lounge adds a more upscale look to a sun porch, deck, or patio than wooden furniture, and is easier to move around. In addition, the pieces of the Lounger 5000 can be used as alternate weights when you can’t make it to the gym on those busy afternoons.

Our furniture is sleekly designed, handsomely finished, and built to last (at least until next year’s phone books are issued). The classic style and increasing “vintage nostalgia” of phone books weather ever-changing “mobile” trends, ready for regular use for years to come.

DAY OFF: BUFFALO ADVENTURE with mz. juliet

Our day off! so excited to spend the day with my soul sister, Juliet.

Plan: adventure to the big city… Buffalo NY.

1. Breakfast: DELISH&NUTRISH. Started the day with Gourmet Erie Dining Hall Breakfast: featuring buckwheat french toast!!! “It’s buckwheat so you have to add a lot of extra syrup.”
2. Drive to the beach: SWEATY&SUNNY. we passed a beautiful peeling-paint sign, and had to take some pictures.
3. Erie Lake Beach: LOUNGE-Y&SEXY. we have matching bathing-suits (accident/fated to be best friends). the Erie Lake shore was beautiful, windy, perfect. we didn’t even get sunburned (like everyone else has this week…). so weird that the water isn’t salty.
4. Taste of India: FLAVOR-EXPLOSION. so delicious! total break from our lovely dining hall food. I learned that Juliet drinks her tea black, with no sugar or milk. She also doesn’t drink coffee. She does love onion rings and Indian food versions of onion rings.
5. AMVETS Thrift Store: BIG. I think we spent about 3 hours here. we perused every aisle. We staked out in front of the dressing rooms. We made tough choices. This I call the “Nautical-NASCAR Boyfriend” sweatshirt. Wish I had one to give it to/borrow it from. Was not purchased. A story and art piece in itself — I want to call Kenny (upstairs) and see what he’s up to. Was not purchased. We left the store with multiple onesies, dresses with potentials & plans, plain solid shirts.
6. The Mall: AHHHH&YET,PRODUCTIVE. Headed over to the next peak of civilization, the Walden Galleria Mall — to the urban outfitters specifically. Unashamed, we blew into that place under the practical mission of finding shoes for a wedding Juliet is a bridesmaid in this fall. SHOES FOUND! aaaaannnnddd… matching on-sale perfectly sized backpacks for us both!!! Left quickly after with headaches, dizzyness, dry throats, general sense of hopelessness and other symptoms of mall-itus.
7. Blue Fin Something (Dinner): PERFECT MATCH. On the drive back into downtown, Juliet said, “you know what would be perfect for dinner? Some sort of Japanese noodle, vegetable soup” at the same time that I said “noodle salad? sushi?” AND THAT EXACT RESTAURANT APPEARED RIGHT NEXT TO OUR PARKING SPOT. We both got exactly what we wanted.
8. SPOT coffee shop flagship store: NOSTALGIC&CUTIES. We went for coffee/dessert next door (our real destination) to SPOT COFFEE!! my favorite down-town hang out in Delray Beach — basically where I was everyday this winter when I lived there. They even have the same menu boards! and same cuties behind the counter! I introduced myself and the guy, Andy, said that he had just returned from Delray — that he was there when they opened up the store down there!! I didn’t recognize him specifically, but he was the same caliber of cute that I expect from SPOT coffee shops. and very friendly. Too bad I don’t really live in Buffalo. Needless to say I went back for many cups of water from Andy over the evening.
9. (pretend) BusinessLady Time: FUN&UNPRODUCTIVE. we had businesslady time: Juliet made some edits on an ad she’s working on, and I made a phone call and did some very productive Facebooking.
10. Return home: THE BEST DAY. It was the best day. so full of fun and a total transportation out of all my lives so far (NYC, NYSSSA, etc). The more I hang out with Juliet the more I love her and realize we are incredibly similar in a crazy&amazing way. So excited and a little sad that we only have 1.5 weeks left of NYSSSA. Juliet and I are already planning our next trip together, meals to cook together, futures on the west coast.back home. the air in the dorms isn’t moving and all the new yorkers are complaining about the heat. I’ll sleep pretending I’m in a Florida sauna spa.
11. Tomorrow: fashion workshop part 2!!!

light-bulb earrings photoshoot

The students and everyone here at NYSSSA love my earrings and I’ve sold out of all the ones I brought (not too many — just brought them on a random let’s-throw-it-in impulse).

Sold 2 pairs of light bulb earrings to Arynn and Malana – a fav student and fellow counselor!

We tried to do a photoshoot to document them and the awesomeness of all wearing the same earrings, but it was a disaster. You couldn’t really see the earrings at all… mostly because I move too much…. But it was fun anyways (photoshoots are always fun).

Earrings are still available for purchase here on my Etsy shop. Keep in mind that orders won’t be fulfilled until after august 1 — but feel free to buy now and I’ll send them as soon as I get home!!

family dinner

last week we had a counselors-only late night family dinner. we all planned special foods to bring to this potluck/break from dining hall food. I decided it was a food-art challenge: make a delicious and unexpected dish made entirely from foods (borrowed?) from the dining hall. I added later that I wanted it to be mostly vegan, and I expanded that I could get the ingredients from anywhere on campus, but not buy them.

ENTREE: Garbanzo Bean Gazpacho with Cucumbers and Grapes.

(stolen goods)

Soup Stock:

1 baggie of mushrooms/carrots mix (from the salad bar)

1 baggie red onions (from salad bar)

6 celery sticks (from the condiments bar)

5 oil-spread/ butter packets (from condiments bar)

1 bay leaf (take from on top of another dish in hot-bar; optional, probably not advisable)

salt & pepper (shakers on table)

3-4 cups of water (from tap)

 

Soup:

1 baggie garbanzo beans (from the salad bar)

red pepper flakes (from pasta bar)

2-3 cups full of soy milk or milk (from milk machine)

1 baggie sliced cucumbers (from salad bar)

1 baggie red grapes (from fruit parfait bar), sliced in half

1 spoonful / serving of plain yogurt (from fruit parfait bar)

 

Process:

 

1. Create veggie stock: saute onions in butter with salt until browned. Add celery (cut up), mushrooms, carrots. Saute with spices until very cooked. Add garbanzo beans and brown slightly. once all ingredients are thoroughly cooked and browned, add 3-4 cups of water, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. [NOTE: for more refined soup: do not add garbanzo beans to stock. Simmer stock, strain out vegetables, then add garbanzo beans.]

2. After removing pot from stove and cooling to room temperature, blend the soup in a blender. Add enough milk to blender to smooth out the soup and make less thick. Return the soup to the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

3. Before serving, add sliced cucumbers and sliced grapes to the top of the soup, do not stir in. Diners have option of adding a spoon-ful of yogurt to their soup for extra tang and smooth-ness.

I think everyone liked it! I didn’t exactly tell everyone what was in the soup and they were silent as I served it. BUT! once they tasted it, everyone was surprised how good it was! especially because it sorta turned a weird color from the stock process.

DESSERT: Morir Soñando (Die dreaming) popsicles

Ingredients:

1 cupful of soymilk (from the milk machine)

1 cupful of orange juice (from the juice machine)

cinnamon/nutmeg mix (from the starbucks next door)
4 packets sugar (from the coffee bar)

10 coffee stirrers (from the starbucks next door)

 

Process:

1. mix milk, juice, cinnamon, sugar in a bowl until sugar and spices dissolved.

2. pour into an ice-cube tray

3. break coffee stirrers in half; place one stirrer half in each ice cube mold.

4. freeze for at least 4 hours. Serve cold.

OTHER DELICIOUS FOODS WE ATE!!

• sweet-potato hashbrowns (by Rylee!)
• swiss-mushroom and goat-cheese-tomato quiche (by Rylee!)
• home-made pizza bagels (by Narooz!)
• swiss-chard stirfry (by Jordan!)
• orange-cinnamon rolls (by Juliet!)
• Key Lime Pie (by Danielle!)
• cookies & chocolate espresso beans (by Hooper!)

totally delish 11pm (after the students go to bed) dinner… lovely nysssa family time.

forms of communication: signage

In different contexts of my life I communicate differently and using different mediums. It’s crazy to move from one (office) world of email/skype/office phone heavy communications to the (personal) world text/personal cell/facebook/twitter communications to the (nysssa) world of SIGNAGE.

If you don’t have a sign up, no one will know about it. signage is crucial. It is our only means of communicating. and the craftsy-ness just oozes out without even trying. Especially when the only available materials are construction paper and glitter pens.

transplanting

JULY = barbeques (my fav), summer trips, tank tops and short shorts, bathing suits 24/7, pure essence of summer. for me this year it means a total shift in my BusinessLady pursuits and work at Creative Time and a jump into the New York State Summer School for the Arts counselor position — accountable for ten amazing 16 and 17 year olds having an incredible month and have a great space to live and expand and make great art. I’m here for the month as a counselor/ RA for 80 high schoolers selected to be part of a state-run summer art school. My friend Juliet from Elsewhere has been involved for 5 summers so far, and it was pretty easy to get me excited about it as well.

WELCOME TO FREDONIA. the land of walmart, tops food store, the upper crust bakery, and the big dipper soft serve shop.

June 29 I rode the magical Staten Island Ferry across the bay, saw some Creative Time art as a send-off along the way, and was greeted by the JRNYR filled with friends old and new. Juliet, Narooz, Rylee, and Jordan were my traveling companions, all having traveled from wherever our normal lives were to jump into the NYSSSA summer. Juliet and Rylee have been working at NYSSSA for so many summers before, Narooz worked there last year, and it was the first summer for Jordan and I. Together on our road-trip across the state of New York we formed THE VANIMALS!!!

And after a day of driving through New York and Pennsylvania without hitting tolls, making one pit-stop at the legendary Wegmans for dinner and snacks, we arrived in Fredonia 12 hours later. I moved into a dorm! It smelled just like the dorms at Hampshire. It was the same eerie feeling of moving into an empty room before everyone moves in. It was the same dorm furniture and showers and dining hall food. Same group excitement — door tags, checking keys, making a million signs for the hallways, having endless meetings.

I am working with an incredible crew of lovely people. We’ve only been together a week and it of course seems like a month already.

I love being here. I love being back in this environment, having daily meetings, being in a committed close team working tirelessly on a zillion projects and programs. I’m excited to get to know and empower my students to challenge themselves and create amazing artwork. It’s been a shift from being an RA for college students… but it’s great. So grateful and excited that I could pause my New York City life and take off for the country…!