Really Thankful Lately

My first two years at Riverdale were sort of tough/self-isolating socially, so I made great relationships with the adults around me. haha! I’ve been SO aware of how these people are always looking out for me and still have my back. There are many and I want to show just how many of the adults at Riverdale are special to me. I don’t think I should call anyone out, and I think in this instance quantity means quality (in general), so I’m listing initials:

• S
• M
• N
• C
• H
• S
• C
• M
• S
• W
• M
• B
• R
• C
• K
• R
• E
• Y
• S
• J

Seriously super thankful to have so much support and people who want to see me SMILE.

 

p.s.- Oleander, your speech touched my heart.

Friday, 1/28

We had a game at Poly. For a such a tough game all the way in Brooklyn on a Friday night, we had GREAT energy and an awesome game. Of course, I messed up in the very little time I was on the court (which pretty much happens every game when I even touch the court), but I let it go little sooner each game. No time for frowning! And everyone else did so well.

We play Poly home at 4pm on Monday. BE THERE.

^caught Morgan on the way to Poly. So sweet.

Snow Day #3?

Very nice.

I didn’t much except get a haircut. But I know that a whole bunch of people went sledding in Central Park again.

It takes me way too long to read Shakespeare and then I forget everything. I usually leave ILS homework for last because it needs to be fresh in my mind for the quiz, but I think I might have to switch things up and save Shakespeare for last.

I just put one of Jinexa’s prints up in my room that I took from her. I put everything possible up in my room: a museum of my life.

I have to get more specific for my senior project proposal, which is actually really difficult when it comes to this gender variance topic. In order to really get this, Ms. Mackenzie has given me this great talks on just looking at art and finding “kinship”, art that has the same meaning or message that I want my art to have. So everyday I do some research and look at images that relate to what I’m going with the gender topic. Yum.

Brett and I are getting together to this weekend to keep each other company while we start out ILS papers. This could either help us stay focused or do that opposite. We shall see… :)

Mad love to Kelvin.

We’re a Funny Bunch of Kids

 

Second Semester Beginning

I’m really excited for second semester. I didn’t really think to be excited, but I know this because I was full of energy after receiving my schedule, so I made the connection. I’m happy to be taking Shakespeare with Wellington. I actually really don’t like Shakespeare (don’t hurt me, Becky Goodman!), but I think that may change with this class. The only other change is switching math teachers, but that’s okay because I feel really close to my new teach and had my best year of math ever with her sophomore year.

I still have five academics and an art—same amount of free time I had first semester, but it’s okay.

 

   

I had to do this.

LAST FULL DAY OF FIRST SEMESTER TOMORROW.

Midterms next week, and then we’ll be second-semester seniors. Not that things will be different or anything…

It’s true; 1st semester flew by.

Splattering Paint

I spent all of my afternoon (until practice) in the art building today, bonding with Caitlin, who’s ALWAYS in there. She’s working on a sweet project that involves paint splattering, AND SHE LET ME SPLATTER PAINT FOR THE FIRST TIME!

And that’s not all. I saw the result of putting one blank surface over an already splattered one—a super cool texture, like veins on leaves, and great color mixture. I’ll spy on Caitlin tomorrow and get some photos.

Oh, and remember my new freshman bestie? I bumped into him again, and he brought up our pretend ice-skating hang-out that we started planning that one day. I played along, and he said something about how great the food was. “I know! That was so much fun.”

Flashback to Fall Days

This snow day was not exciting as the first one. Snow seems to lose it’s cool when it stops snowing and is just on the ground and diminishing.

But again, I’m sure there were many smiling faces.

 

Remember fall?

More Snow Day Hype

Nice.

First Snow Day

I like to imagine all the smiling faces this morning. I was beaming and called Lorraine so that we could giggle with excitement together and let out all those sighs of relief. I had been up since 4am studying and had coffee, so going back to sleep wasn't going to happen and didn't until last night, which is why I'm posting this Saturday morning.

Snow Day was much needed, and I would say that is a truly universal feeling.
Over break I did a lot of reading and research for my Latin American Revolutions final paper; I started writing. It's on the casta paintings of colonial Mexico (and other places), which attempted to label every single mixture of race in order to show Spain that there is some order and control. There are more reasons for the paintings and it's popularity as a genre. I'm relating this focus on categorizing race and skin color to how Latinos, and more specifically Dominicans, define their own racially-mixed identity. This is SUPER interesting and I can relate to so much of what I'm reading about. Anyways, visually, there's a huge contrast.

Here's a visual for casta painting:

http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/laberinto/fall1997/graphics/pl7.jpg

And here is what I believe says a lot about how Dominicans feel about race in the United States. I had to specify ("in the U.S.") because the mentality is different in the Dominican Republic and more similar to the casta paintings in terms of skin color. This is a print from the exhibition at the Dominican Studies Institute that I dedicated a post to earlier this year:

http://theuptowner.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/miguel_print2.jpg

You see? All whole bunch of different people of different races and skin tones versus one person defined by all these different shades of color. It won't be easy, but I'm thankful for having been given the freedom to write a paper like this. Thanks to Ms. Morales and Profesora Keller for helping me with research materials.


I also went to the Met. I'm obsessed with the place and just like being there. It's weird. I need to explore other museums, and Anneliese (who I call "Joey".. don't ask. It's not even that interesting) is forcing me to. The MOMA is our next stop. At the Met, the John Baldessari: Pure Beauty was our favorite exhibition.

Then, I came home and watched Being John Malkovoch with my friends. Strange movie...

Now, I have tons of work for the weekend.

'Till Monday :)

New Bestie

Today a freshman asked to be best friends. SCORE.

Also,
just a couple of minutes ago, I decided to create a Life To-Do List for myself, except I want a much more creative name than that. First on the list? LAUGHTER YOGA.

Melting Snow on the Football

and meanwhile, there's all this hope for a snow day since we'll be getting more at the end of this week. Haha, of course.

Anyone else see that heart?

Piano Guy and What my Hand says

Today I spent my almost three-hour free in the art building working on some stuff, and I was very pleased to hear someone using the piano on the second floor. I don't know who it was though; I didn't want to invade any of his artistic privacy.

Written on my "paw" today:

Time Stand Still: Before ILS class officially started, Ms. Eskin was telling us how great this play is. I want to see it. (-runs and transfers this to a post-it.)

46, 111: Oh, this is great. While taking a break, I went into Mr. Simon's office and explored his mini-library. Such a great collection, and I found three books for inspiration: one of photographs of Alvin Ailey (Dance Company) dancers, another photo book on female athletes, and the last one titled "Girl Culture" with more photography. 46 and 111 are pages in the Alvin Ailey book that I didn't want to forget.

Fischer: Because I need to really get on reading Impressions lit. submissions and I also need to put the rest of mine together. Ms. Fischer is our faculty advisor, so that's where that comes from.


I must say, I'm glad that this habit of writing on my hand is coming to good use.