Stuart Art Collection

One of the many reasons that I love the UCSD campus is the Stuart Art Collection. It currently consists of seventeen works of art including....

Vices and Virtues

Stonehenge (The La Jolla Project)

The Bear

And Sun God

Right now, they are in the process of installing an eighteenth piece entitled Fallen Star on top of the Jacobs School of Engineering and I think it is awesome. It is a 70,000 pound house based on a cottage in Providence, Rhode Island. From what I understand, it is a commentary on the concept of home and the idea of displacement.

What it's looking like right now.

What it will look like completed. It will also include a rooftop garden backyard that will be open to the public.

This Week In Crafts

My first crafty endeavor this week was holiday flags. We ended up with three strands hanging across our living room. We also made handprint turkeys that are hanging in the window. It's starting to look a bit like a carnival out there.

Next up on my list was Christmas stockings for the suite. With some Christmas tunes and some help from my designated elf, Jillian, I was able to make it through all of them in two days. I love how they all turned out. We're all planning on leaving each other little holiday notes in our stockings as well as candy and our secret santa gifts. Ivy got into the spirit by going out this morning and buying some candy, which is officially the first of our stocking stuffers. 

The Bernie

Just in case you're curious how the young'ins are dancing nowadays, I thought I would introduce you to the Bernie. It is a peculiar dance where you "move it like Bernie" inspired by the film Weekend at Bernie's.  As you can see from the video, some people Bernie with more pizzazz than others. I'm still working on developing my own personal Bernie style. We try to Bernie in our suite at least once a week. 

Operation 18 Candles

In an attempt to kill some more time before finally posting the pictures of my paintings, I thought I'd post pictures of our second in-suite birthday. Jennifer officially became the last of us to turn 18 yesterday, so in celebration, Valerie and I walked to Ralph's to pick up a delicious chocolate cake. We ended up having to wait to eat it until almost midnight, but it was absolutely worth it.

Zipcar!

I've been getting a lot of slack for my lack of posting lately, so Valerie and I were sure to document our day today so I had a reason to blog. This morning we decided to book a Zipcar to take to Home Depot to get a board for tap dancing, lunch, and Target to grab some groceries. Here's our day in pictures!

Zipcar driving.

Lunch eating.

Home Depot Buying.

The Triton

I spent the majority of my day (approximately seven hours) in the common room today working on this new addition to our window. I was so worth it. I love how it turned out. I even signed and dated it, which I hardly ever do.

The Anchor

Painting the anchor in the middle of Revelle Plaza seems to be the thing to do. As of late, it has been painted with something new almost every night. So last night we decided it was time for Atlantis to claim it. It turned out pretty awesome if you ask me. It will probably be gone by tomorrow, but at least we've got pictures to document our glory. 

The beginnings.

Making my mark on the anchor. I was responsible for the "Never give up!" on this side.

I was also elected to write "Believe," "Revelle," "UCSD," and "We Love Arvin" on this side. I'm proud of my work.  

Black's Beach

We walked down to the beach today to lay out in the sun for a few hours. Most people down there were surfing, so the beach itself was almost completely empty. It was so peaceful and relaxing with the sound of the waves crashing that we all ended up falling asleep, and getting pretty sunburned. It was worth it.

The Secret Cookie Service

We had heard talk of a little something called the Secret Cookie Service here on campus, so tonight we decided to try it out. It started with a call to a number where we got an answering machine instructing us to state the number of cookies we need and the drop location. A few moments later we got a text saying that the drop would occur in approximately ten minutes. True to their word, a guy in a suit and sunglasses showed up at our door shortly after with a brief case full of homemade chocolate chip cookies handcuffed to his wrist. He came in and chatted with us for a while and took some pictures before heading off to his next assignment. He was so nice and the cookies were absolutely delicious. It's safe to say that we'll be calling the Secret Cookie Service quite often. 

This Week In Photos

Sabrina, Jillian & I

Getting serenaded by Valerie.

Free Time

I've had a pretty good amount of free time thus far, so I've been painting fairly often. Unfortunately, I've run out of space for my paintings in my room. So I've decided that if I can't paint for myself, I'll just have to paint for others. Right now I'm working on a Marilyn Monroe painting for Valerie. Up next I've got a bird on a branch for Jillian and Audrey Hepburn for Sabrina.

Urban Dictionary

When we moved into our dorms, we each had a sign on our door that said, "Never forget who you are or what you stand for." So, we decided to look our names up on urbandictionary.com, print our definitions, and post them on our doors under it. Here's the Urban Dictionary definition for Justine:

Where We're From

Last night in the common room we all got together to make a map of where we're from.  We all have ribbons that trace our family history and meet up here in San Diego. It's pretty cool to see how diverse our hall is. 

Chick-Fil-A

Jillian and I experienced the wonder of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches for the first time last week. Luckily there's no Chick-Fil-A within walking distance. They do however give out free ones at a lot of school events. You know who to blame for the freshman fifteen. 

Atlantis: Home of the Valiant

Last week we all worked together on decorating the common room of our res hall (Atlantis) to make it a little more fun and homey. I was commissioned to draw our official Home of the Valiant logo:

The Beach Round Two

We decided to go down to the beach again last night to see the red tides one more time before they went away. I found this video on Youtube today that does a pretty good job of capturing how amazing the glow of the waves looks at night.

Bioluminescent Tides

Yesterday morning we hiked down to the beach to see the glowing bioluminescent tide. I couldn't get a clear picture, but it looked a little something like this: