I met people of my own kind....I met people of my own kind!

Okay, the title might sound a little weird but it's indeed true--the form of art I do (Zentangle®) is like a breed and there is thousands of us who do it. Anyhow, it's story time!

About a month ago, there was discussion on the Facebook page of where everyone is from. I casually entered mine and the next thing I knew that there was a women messaging me saying she lives in a city about 20 minutes from me; relatively speaking, right near the community college I attend. Shortly after, it turned it into a group of three because another women said she lived near the two of us then next thing I knew, a fourth said the same thing. Who would of thought I would find people (within 20 minutes of me) that do the same form of art I do? Here, I thought I was the only one. I'm going off topic--back to the story!

So, the group of ladies and I were talking about how we should all meet up once spring finally makes its presence known here in Northeast Ohio. Well, we couldn't wait for spring to finally show up because we were all sick and tired of the winter we've had so far--literally. Therefore, we decided to make it to for a couple weeks where we were all free at a Panera Bread. The day finally came and even though I was nervous, I was excited to finally to put names to faces and do something that we consider enjoyable. When we all arrived, we just hit it off from the start and had a fun late afternoon into early evening get together. We had so much fun that we decided to get together at least once a month to tangle and chat. In the end, I think we all also got inspired to try new ideas for our Zentangle creations; I, for one, tried shading and now I love it since it makes art stick/pop out more!

I almost forgot---here's a picture of the ladies and I from our first get together!

Top: Eneida and Katie with their tiles

Bottom: Trish and Me with our tiles

I have to go for now but I will try to update more than once a month on this blog--I might post something next weekend with photos of my little getaway trip with my mom and sister. Girls weekend in Baltimore! :-)

What's black, white and red all over?

Give up? It's me in my winter jacket freezing in Ohio weather...okay maybe with a 4 1/2 year Labrador retriever too..

Last week, we got our first big snowstorm of the winter season. It is nice and all but I am usually a klutz during the winter...self explanatory. Any who, I thought it would be nice to get a full day off from classes but I got no morning classes instead. In one instance, it's like "yay, a half day of school" (4 classes again this semester) but at the same time, I would of been more happier with a full day off. Who's the one responsible for college closures anyhow?

Some pictures from the snowstorm..

Top of my development, on the main intersection

How the trees looked during the storm.

A day later, I came down with a major headcold so I was in bed until Friday. When I finally felt "better" (not a full 100%), I played in the snow with my 4 3/4's chocolate lab puppy.

She's a little camera shy in this picture

Woah, Mocha.. back up a little, would ya?

She is giving me the death glare..

Have a wonderful week everyone :-)

In Loving Memory...

This blog post is in loving memory of my grandparents, on my dad's side. I lost my grandfather 3 1/2 years ago in November and recently, I lost my grandmother. Both of them were sick but my grandmother has been wanting to "go home" since she became a widow 3 1/2 years ago. Although that I only got to see them every other summer, they were a lot of fun when I got to see them. My grandparents had five kids and were married for 67 years. They also had 16 grandchildren, 18 (or 22,not quite sure) great-grandchildren and a great-great granddaughter.

I love and miss both of you so much...

Fair warning: lengthly post.

For those who read my last post back in November, I wrote about how I was going to spending New Year's in sunny Florida. Let me tell you, I had a wonderful time and really didn't want to come back (seeing as it was 10 below with wind chill factor in good ol Ohio). This trip was a combination of vacation/ soccer tournament for my sister and her team. We went down a couple days early so we can have some fun before the soccer action. The first stop on our adventure was Charlotte, North Carolina where went on a haunted ghost tour (self explanatory). Although there is not many pictures from this part of the trip, I am happy to show you some of them..

 

View from our hotel in downtown Charlotte

 

                                                    My sister, Madison, and I (sorry for the bad quality)

After spending the night in downtown Charlotte, we packed up and went to sunny Florida where it was 75 degrees the first night we were there (ahhhhh, how much I miss that). We stayed at a wonderful resort that had 7 swimming pools (7 hot tubs included in that), many tennis courts, a put-put course and they had activities for the guests (sort of reminds me of my part-time volunteering job and doing activities with the residents). After getting settled, we got a goodnight's sleep because we were heading to one of Universal Studio's parks the following day. Some pictures include:

                                                   Still missing this view!

SpongeBob Squarepants, this was from a parade we saw right when we got there

Squidward

 

A selfie with SpongeBob!

 

  After a day at Universal, majority of the rest of week was the soccer tournament for my sister and her soccer team. Unfortunately, her team did not do the greatest in the tournament so they couldn't compete for a trophy. However, fortunately, we got to spend the last day in sunny Florida at Wild Florida, which is like a zoo but you can also go gator hunting in Lake Cypress.

 

That's not all the pictures from Wild  Florida. Did I fail to mention that I got the opportunity to hold alligator? Oh yeah....forgot.. here it is. Meet Fluffy. Fluffy the Alligator.

 

 

So that's Florida in a nut shell.

 

-Lexey

Where do I begin?

It has been a crazy up and down rollercoaster ride since my last post on here. Remember way back in my last post, I was telling you about my history professor and her "mmm k's"? Well, long story short, I forgot to keep tally during the next lecture so I did on a day where I was in one of those "moods" (very spacey and more or less, wanted to go home). The result? 144 times and no further comment on that.

I also celebrated my 20th birthday on October 30th and it was a fun day with just my mom and me. It had hit me that I am no longer a teenager anymore but I am very curious to see what the 20's bring me. I don't know why, but I found some photos of me blast from the past on my birthday. Here we go...

                                                   Throwback Monday anyone?

Aside from that, school has exceptionally busy but the only thing that is keeping me focused is that I'm Florida bound for New Year's! Super excited to get to warm weather and going to Disney for the first time in a long time (16 years?)

All for now..bye! :)
Lex

"Mmm k" and voice pitch changing.... 62 tally marks later?!

Okay, before I explain about the tittle, I just want to update y'all on how my personal life is going. So far, second year at the local community college is going great so far even though I am taking 4 classes this semester (one more than the last two semesters), which has kept me very busy. I'm still interning and it has proven that I have lost my sanity within the first couple of times. Is this how the work force really is? Oh the possibility....

Okay now to explain the tittle. You see, my history class (American history in particular) is a small small class of 9 people; 10 if you count the professor. You would think a class that small would be a good thing but it is actually really awkward. Anywho, the classmates and I have been noticing (in the 5 classes that we have attended thus far) that our teacher has done a lot of "mmmk" and voice pitching  change throughout the entire hour and 15 minute lecture. So, today, we decided to conduct an experiment to see how many times she does it during class time. It started off very slow then it got more frequent as time progresses and guess how many times within the lecture? 62 TIMES!!! That would be roughly 124 times between the two days....mama Mia. We're going to see if the results are roughly the same on Wednesday... stay toon.

Now for a deep thought until Wednesday....
If you were allowed to change your first name, what would you change it to?

Ramifications and Recent ZIA work

It has been a busy couple of weeks since my last posting and I hope everyone is doing well. To begin the rambling, I have been starting to work on a 3 month (may be shorter than three months if I find a "job job" between now and then) internship at the senior citizen I also currently volunteer at. To say the least, it had been keeping my mind busy which is always good. In addition to this internship, in a just a couple of days, I will be starting back up at the community college Monday morning. Although it is kind of sad that I won't be seeing my friend (and partner in crime) Angela, I can't wait to see my other friends and pick up where we left off from the spring semester :-)


Other than my ramifications, I have been doing some ZIA work to keep my mind pre- occupied. Here is just a couple

All for now but I will post more tomorrow :-)