Passion and Projects

One of my very best friends, Jacob, and I were having a lovely coffee catch up today. This is one of my favorite things because it does not happen often that we get one on one time together, though I see him almost everyday. We have gotten to the point that we catch up for the first thirty minutes or so and then spend the rest of the time speculating on life, sharing our views on important issues (well important to us), and just in general having a good time. Today I shared with him my quickly intensifying feeling of needing to do something with my summer. It is June 1st. I work approximately 6 hours a week, walk for an hour or so most weekdays, and spend the rest of the time reading, surfing the internet, watching tv shows online, and the evenings just hanging out. This has been the perfect summer. I’m getting ansy. 

Speaking of which, how the hell do you spell “ansy” anyways. Is that a made up word? No spell check “pansy” is not the word I’m looking for, nor is “tansy” which brings up other questions altogether. Oh. It’s “antsy.” Who knew? Yea that makes sense. See, I’m already growing as a person.

Anyways. I have all this time. Time, that elusive thing that no one ever seems to have enough of, something that I certainly bemoan during the school year. But here it is summer. What to do? This is perhaps the last time in my entire life where I will have this problem, and I sort of want it to go out with a bang. I have been mulling this around for a few days now. What to do? I actually do believe that it is imperative that I find out “what to do” because by not knowing the solution I have come to realize that I am slightly passion-less. What do people associate me with? Quirky idiosyncrasies?  I want more than that. I feel that I am a passionate person, but I just seem to be missing my focus. I doubt I am the only one. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that most of the population, or at least us stressed out Americans, have the same problem.  Ugh how privileged to even worry about such a thing! And truly I am grateful, let me just put that out there. So I have the privilege, what do I do with it? It frustrates me because I feel that if I decided on something, I could probably achieve most anything. I am creative enough and dedicated enough to make a valiant effort resulting in something that I, at the very least, will enjoy. But what? Decoupage? Crochet? Croquet? Oil pastels? Basket weaving (I am a good swimmer…)?  I wish they had wood shop! Heck, if you know my dad you know that I have a wood shop in the basement of my house. But that’s in Columbus. Still lamentable that I let that slip out of my reach. I could make our house a chair for next year! That would rock! Both meanings. Alas. No guitar (though I would love to learn), no chorus to join, no dance lessons to continue. When I was younger I had a little kids pottery wheel as well as this cool loom. Yea, I was that kid.

That’s just it. Jacob and I realized that there are not that many creative outlets for individuals. There are the umbrellas of Music, Art, and Writing. Music is pretty hard to do without an instrument, and also hard without a teacher. Art is expensive and hard to get started. Writing. Well I never really consider myself a writer. Jacob is a writer. I chitchat in writing form. Oh I could Hate on things. I could explore Athens and the internet and write up wonderfully witty and naughtily nasty remarks  on, let’s face it, just about anything. But who needs more of those types of blogs?

What I need is a project. Nothing too big and ambitious that I will feel overwhelmed and just quit. But nothing too small that I get bored. I am reminded of a movie I just saw- Julie and Julia. It’s a slightly boring movie about this woman, Julie, who writes a blog about making every single dish in Julia Childs’s famous French Cookbook. More than the movie itself, I really loved the concept. This woman, Julie, happily married and with a job, needed something to be passionate about, needed something to make her feel Individual in the best sense of the word, which, I might add, in the end made her more connected than anyone might imagine. I find myself in similar waters. But I already cook. Albeit not anywhere even close to as well as Julia Childs, but I can definitely whip up something special (Thanks, Mom!).

So I went about finding a project. First I checked the course listings for summer classes. No, I would not enroll officially, but if there was some interesting class, I would definitely be ok with dropping in. Not a single interest sparking one. Really, why do summer classes have to sound so dull? How about local classes? Flagpole! Well there’s Yoga…and Yoga…and Yoga…and tai chi. Also, belly-dancing, which I admit sounds pretty great. Only problem is that I will be out of town a lot in June and it’s expensive. Stupid money! There are one or two art classes, but once again, expensive. Thanks for nothing Flagpole. Google! Google will surely have some advice as, after all, they control half the world, so why not control my summer? Really Google? Telling me that crayons are not just for kids doesn’t help much. My trusty 36 pack is in my desk right now. I know about some crayons. These are just things to keep you occupied for the afternoon. Or thirty minutes, really who comes up with this stuff? While buying a metal detector sounds, um, thrilling, that’s not really what I’m going for. Here are some of my favorites. I couldn’t resist:

• Collage your car into like the coolest most outrageous thing on the road —Like totally wow! Wtf?
• Draw pictures of yourself as a barbarian— Because looting and raping is humorous. Good one!
• Get a plain shirt and decorate with ribbons and rhinestones—aka “bedazzaling” I know another place that’s become popular with rhinestones…
• Get some glitter glue—- that’s it. Just buy it. Oodles and oodles of fun!
• Have a business card made with your name number and a fake vocation: Like astronaut, race car driver, etc. — colleges love this one! Ps- there are no more astronauts. Suck it kids.
• Explore the dark side and make some Vampire Art— coming soon ARHI4870

WAIT actually NO! NO!

THIS is why I can’t do anything productive. The internet is riddled with these types of things. They are just too ridiculous to not tear apart. And believe me, that wasn’t even close to the end. Sorry for making you go through that. The least I could have done was repost a Cracked article.  X that tab out.

What have I accomplished? Well, without the resources a lot of things are out of my grasp right now. But maybe I just haven’t thought about it in the right way. I have decided to start a minor project. I need to pick out my favorite Italy pictures so I can print them. I also want to reread my Italy Journal, which I admittedly have been nervous to reread. I wish I had someone that would just sit and listen to my stories. Other than this, which I have wanted to do for awhile now, I haven’t come up with much. Maybe I’ll bust out my Italian egg tempera paints and create, well, something. Nothing needs embroidering like last summer either. Or does it?! *Looks down at Mitika’s borrowed futon*  Interes- no just kidding.

My creative juices were flowing there for a minute. But now I think I just have creative blue balls.