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Well, my previous post was uncharacteristically melancholy. So, I decided to share the happenings that go on at my barista job. There are, of course, customers who treat me like their personal coffee slave, but the people who appreciate a perfectly balanced dry cappuccino- and say, “Thank you” when I hand it to them- make the job enjoyable. Those individuals tend to share little events of their lives with me, and are much more apt to have an enjoyable conversation. Last week, a guy in his forties came through blasting Van Halen. Ordered a 20oz dry capp. not skinny. (thank goodness because fat free milk takes longer to foam) I recognized the band right away. said that “Eruption” has got to be the greatest guitar solo Eddie ever performed, and his eyes widened in shock. Couldn’t believe a 22 year old actually knew anything substantial about Van Halen. I chortled, saying my Dad may disown me if i didn’t. He told me to check out a band called “Concrete Blond.” Sassy crimson lipstick-wearing rockers. old school for sure. I think i’ll stick with the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Boston & Damn Yankees. It was nice of him to share though. Another day, a couple came through with two long-stem roses and tipped a two-dollar bill. So sweet. They got 2 16oz Macchiatos, one with hazelnut flavor. Conversely, on Monday I got tipped 5¢ in dominican republic currency… cool, but not exactly useable. When that stuff happens, i’m not sure if i’ve done an awful job, or if the customer just doesn’t want to tip. Yesterday, a woman came through in a rush. Ordered a 24oz Skinny Blackbear Mocha with whip. (Chocolate, Vanilla, Blackberry, fat-free milk, whipped-cream and 4 shots espresso) When I finished making her drink, she paid me $10 and said, “keep the change.” That’s a $5 tip! Shocked, I asked if she was sure. I couldn’t accept that much without double-checking. She informed me it was her Anniversary and that, more than anything, she wanted to share her wonderful mood with the people that filled her day. It was so kind. I wish more of our customers wound act like that- share kindness. I’m not saying i need to have a full conversation with every customer who comes through the shop, nor do i expect to receive a $5 tip for every drink i make. I just want people to mind their P’s and Q’s, and to treat me with respect. Anyways, i love creating new drinks and suggesting the good ones. Right now i’m on a cinnamon soy latte kick. It’s great because it isn’t as sweet as regular lattes with vanilla or caramel. Another one that has been popular is a Macadamia nut mocha, and an Irish cream chai. One that is good, but not as popular due to it’s name is a coconut banana latte. One woman gets a peppermint chai… I haven’t tried it yet. An artist who comes through gets a latte with almond milk and a teaspoon of raw sugar. yum. Another lady gets a coconut chai, and that one is decadent. I tend to like the drinks that have great depth of flavor with spice and or fruit and are not ridiculously sweet. i also love tropical flavors, so if your palette matches mine. give one of those a try! :)
I’m dehydrated, sitting on the worn sun-bleached red couch in my parents home, typing, and gazing out the sliding glass door, as “Arms” by Tunng languidly plays from my iPod- “Here we go again.” I’m watching the stray, lovingly dubbed, “killer cat” as it stalks a jittery fat squirrel outside. Last year it took out a raccoon- the cat, not the squirrel. It’s around 50 degrees today. in January. in Michigan. Weird, but it makes “winter driving” a lot easier. Quite a bit of nothing has happened since my last post. It feels good to be writing again though. I got a job in my hometown after graduation, worked there for three months, received an offer in Florida (which would enable me to move out of my parent’s basement, so I jumped at the chance for my independent life to begin) resigned from my current position after giving three weeks notice, only to get word from that same company, saying it was necessary to rescind the offer due to the current economy. woof. I was very sad. and I couldn’t return to the job i’d left. But, nevertheless, I can not complain. My parents have been very supportive, and I am enjoying my current job at Bearclaw Coffee Company. The management is taking advantage of my graphic design skills, and I am getting some nice resume pieces from it. I continue to apply to job after job. Someone will give me a chance to contribute to the professional world. But, for now, it’s a big proactive waiting game: apply, apply and apply while I wait to hear back. It just takes one place to say yes. One place- anywhere in the world- to be my bull’s eye in left field. Mostly, I just feel bored. I went from my hectic, joyous collegiate existence to staring at a computer screen for hours on end searching for job opportunities that fit my skills and experience level. Moreover, I have too much free-time. Which, really, does not sound bad, but I do not like having nothing to do. So, I volunteer and guest teach art class at the high school I graduated from, occupy my right brain with creative endeavors, and do Mary Kay events as well. (http://www.marykay.com/jackie.kenyon/default.aspx) I realize that my problems are first-world. I have warm shelter, I want for nothing (besides a job), and I am never truly hungry. I just don’t feel my life has any purpose. My joie de vivre has been in travel and art. I still have art, but travel seems a dream. i feel stale and uninteresting without it: a foreign set of emotions. I know a lot of recent grads are dealing with similar emotions for their own unique reasons, but it doesn’t remedy the situation. We are aching to be the independent, intelligent, innovators that our friends, family and Universities nurtured us to be. That said, I am not depressed, and mirthful happenings do go on in my life. I visited my friend, Amy, who lives around the Indiana dunes. Due to the crazy weather we’ve been having, shelf ice hasn’t even begun to form on the lake, so the water still sings it’s crashing melody to the shore. We went on a little hike up one of the steepest dunes, sliding two lengths back for every step forward we attempted. With wind-burned rosy cheeks, dusted with frozen sand, we made it to the crest. The dune’s top-sands were frozen in gentle layers; the winter sun’s light catching each tiny ridge. We wondered along the crests and valleys, eventually making our way back to her place. It was a great day. That’s where the photo above was taken.
I may muse on later, but until then, Goodnight Moon.
So, it has been a full year since my return to the States. My European travels seem to have happened ages ago. I miss it, but it is time to start my adult life. College is officially over. I have a BA from Valparaiso University, and graduated cum laude on May 15th. It is a bizarre sentence to utter: I am not going back to school because i finished it. I mean, someday i would like to go back to get a Doctorate in Art History, but that won’t be for a while yet. i want to get a job to gain more life experience before i continue school. Anyways, the job hunt is hard, but i’m persevering. Every day i change what i want to do. Monday it’s “move to Florida.” Tuesday i think i’ll “go to France.” By Wednesday i’m feeling “the Windy City.” Thursday i decide to give Michigan another go-round, and Friday i throw in a wild-card: California, Texas, South Carolina, Peace Corps or extreme Sky-diver. Who knows where I’ll end up. I’m willing to do virtually anything! I’ll probably post again when i get a job…
Anyways, my old roommate Steph got married to my friend Mark this weekend. He asked her to marry him last year. i was one of her bridesmaids. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was fun. It was SO good to see my friends again. We all missed each other. Our lives are spreading us all over the United States, so the hours we have together as a group are cherished moments.
Speaking of cherished moments, my senior year was full of them. It was heart-warming to see how much my Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters grew up by taking on leadership positions and it was wonderful to be an involved senior: able to help out and participate in everything, but not to be in charge anymore. that was refreshing. i had many cool opportunities through my internship with the Brauer Museum of Art. I helped curate three shows this year, and I did the graphics for the two shows on campus. Putting together the exhibitions was a lot of work, but it was gratifying to see everything completed. My art history Professor announced the shows in classes, so there was a nice turnout to both of the campus openings. I also showed a few of my pieces this year. My Mom, high-school English teacher, and several friends came to see my work. It meant a lot to know i had their support. My art history Professor is fantastic. She organized a trip to Guatemala and Honduras to study the ancient Mayan ruins. i went because- let’s be serious- i’m a sucker for travel and passionate about art. The experiences i had there were eye-opening and life-enriching. The most striking memory i have is difficult to eloquently express: i did not realize that is was possible to see hunger through one’s eyes or poverty through body-language. At times, i found myself buying goods from families simply to help support them. I came back with more beaded bracelets than i knew what to do with. haha My favorite memory, however, is a happy one. Our group visited an unchanged town, and the local people dressed us in traditional garments and head-dresses. We walked around town and people roared with laughter. They pointed and stared and pretended to take photos of us. The picture below is my favorite. i felt like an Amazon woman. haha I also climbed an active volcano and zip-lined through the rainforest. I’m an adrenaline junkie, i think. Well, that’s pretty much all i have to say for now. In closing, my final year of college was challenging, rewarding and fabulously fun. I hope that the future holds adventures abroad, uncharted challenges and opportunities for growth both professional and personal.
It’s been several months since my return to the States. In that time, I completed a Public Relations Internship at the Field Museum in Chicago, visited my Grandparents in Wisconsin, and learned choreography for ‘Step in Time’ and ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’ My friend Patrick asked me to be the ‘Mary Poppins’ to his ‘Bert.’ It was a crazy fun way to finnish up the busy summer. Classes at Valpo have started now, and it is very odd to be back on campus. I like it, and I love seeing friends again, but I’m having quite the time getting back in the swing of things. My schedule itself is awesome and terrible. I have all ART classes: YAY! The bummer is that I don’t start until after noon every day, and I don’t get done until 9pm half of the days… I think it’ll be okay though, because I have Painting, Sculpture, Web Design & Blogging, 19th Century European Art, and Renaissance - Modern Art History. It’s a sweet set of classes at crummy times. So, really, I can’t complain. Well, I may write lovely things later, but it just depends on homework… Actually, with classes like those, I don’t mind doing homework this year. ;)
Photo: Patrick Ross as ‘Bert,’ Me as ‘Mary Poppins’
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Monday, Em and I packed and cleaned our room. took down all our posters, maps, letters, and postcards. I took a final walk through the city centre, and when I came back, it was time to go to our Pub meal at the SIN with our Professors. I was happy to be able to talk to Professor Griffiths and to be able to say goodbye. Em and I turned the music up LOUD and danced like maniacs in our room. Kristi joined us. I wasn’t ready to leave, but, boy, was I excited to see my other friends and family again!!!
Tuesday morning, Andrea, April, Emily and I walked to Castle Hill to watch the sun rise. It was COLD, but I’m glad we did it. When we got back, I showered and got ready to take the bus for our flight home. While I was in the shower, I silently cried. didn’t bother to stop myself. It was such an odd sensation: five months had gone too fast, and at the same time, felt slow at times, but now it was over. Tomorrow morning I would wake up in America… that sentence felt so foreign. Kim- my youngest sister- and my Mom were going to pick me up from the airport, and though I was anxious to see them again, I just couldn’t shake that incomplete feeling. I’d done so much, yet there was still more to do, but we had our tickets for our flight back home, and our time was up. I don’t mean to make it sound like I didn’t take advantage of my days there- I certainly squeezed in as many additional activities as possible including trips to the market, college visits, performances, independent films, and lunchtime concerts- Cambridge just has so much to entertain! but I digress. At any rate, I got out of the shower, got over it, and got on the bus. Our flight was delayed when we got to the airport and so we sat… for hours. but that was okay. Abby played with Kristi’s hair, we prattled on, played silly ‘car games’ like patty-cake and the alphabet game, and confessed what we were most excited about going home for, as well as what we would miss the most from England. One universally agreed-upon topic was a food: pasties. We were really gonna miss those ‘hand-held pot-pies.’ haha Eventually it was time to board, and Brian and I were seat buddies. We watched ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and then read books, slept, and ‘chewed the fat’ for a while. Brian is great.
After sitting on the tarmac for half an hour, we de-planed, went through customs, and were greeted by faces full of anticipation when we walked through the international arrivals gate. Beleaguered, I lugged my suitcases and backpack past the customs security guards, and looked up. Mom’s eyes started tearing a bit when she saw me, and Kimmy gave me the tightest hug I’d gotten in a long time. When we let go of each other, she looked at me curiously and said, “You shrunk.” “Naw,” i said, “You just grew up.” and Mom, overhearing us, gave me a hug and said, “You certainly have.”
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