something to get behind

evolution | real beauty

my new place

sorry for the lack of posting. Intermittant access to internet at my apartment has made the essential internet things come to the top of my priorities. I will post news in the very near future; but for now, pictures of my apartment!

Uptown girls apartment

It is a wonderful place.

A great weekend. Mark came up from Branson. Friday night we went to an artwalk with Sean, Nicole, and a friend of Nicole's. It was in downtown KC. Not much what I would consider to be great art, but a couple interesting exhibits. Also, there were these cool street performers playing with fire and eating fire and breathing fire… quite astounding! Pictures here.

Apparently I sprained the cartiledge in my chest this weekend too. Painful. Unexplainable. And really weird.

Saturday, I gave my first haircut.



I was quite nervous, but it was rather fun and it came out well I think. Mark is happy with it. Yay!

Shopping at cargolargo! A most brilliant store. Incredible bargains!

Dinner date with Mark on Saturday night. New restaurant called Houlihans. Good food.

Sunday, my new church. Great sermon about holiness and love of the brethren from 1 Peter 1.

Lunch with my folks and Mark at Wabash BBQ. Simply delicious. I love bbq!

Church again (a new perspective on Psalm 139)and back to the count til school starts.

I really like weekends sometimes. Only one more.

yesterday, a happy day

Happy birthday to my darling niece Maggie! She turned 2 yesterday. (I did remember yesterday like the good aunt I am.)



New pictures soon I'm sure.

a delectable find

During a short trip to Branson as a surprise to Mark, I stumbled across this beauty on a store window. The words are a bit confusing; yet, the lettering was perfect and so ornate. The colors rich and well treated. Oh! It was a beautiful thing to behold. Why don't we do things as this anymore? Makes me want to open a shop just so my signs can be artistic elegance such as this. Who wouldn't buy from a store that displayed its identity (even a gun buying existence) in such a dignified manner?

how did I stumble on the coolest design studio?

hello faithful few who check my very sporadic posts.

My job at the River City Studio turned out to be a longer venture and a very time consuming project. This will be the end of my second week and I've been told they want me around for at least another week or two. I'm thrilled. It's almost too bad I have to go back to JBU middle of August. This place is incredible. It is situated on the second floor of a building at the edge of downtown KC. It is right on the river, hence the name, and just down the street from the River Market. I have yet to venture there, but I plan on it (today decided to rain cats and dogs). Speaking of cats, there are two cats which live in the Studio: Yoda and Melia. My dislike for cats has decreased greatly while working here. They really are rather cute and funny and sometimes just plain darling. Unfortunately, I am allergic to cats so they cause me some discomfort through the day. I think I've finally figured out the right amount and mixture of allergy meds so my days have become more tolerable. I'm determined to work here as long as they want me and no cats are going to deter that. Yoda is a tabby cat and he can be quite feisty some days. Melia however is gentle, fat and meows a lot. I'm on lunch break and she is right now, sitting on my desk, in between my arms as I type, determined to get some attention. They shed like crazy! All my clothes are covered with hair when I leave at the end of the day.

The studio itself is awesome. It's a really old building with creaky wood floors and and open ceiling so you can see all the wire work, tubes, and planks. There aren't any enclosed offices but lots of cubicles in a pretty unorganized fashion. The cubicles are all different shapes with different cuts on the top and the walls are all different bright colors and have segments of frosted glass cubes in them so if you look at them as a whole, they resemble an artistic rendition of a cityscape. There are two areas of lobby-like places with small rolling armchairs and weirdly shaped tables. Also, the "conference room" is near the front of the office and is just a stretch across the room of several tables put together with rolling office chairs around them. It is "separated" by a couple cubicles on two sides. Also, all the cubicles have white erase boards and gray cork randomly put in them so they blend in to the area but there is a place to put stuff and write notes. Other features are a kitchen area which has 2 microwaves, a fridge, counterspace, sink, mini-coke machine, and a tall table with stools around it. The other major feature is the lighting. There was an article about them online and the architect dude who did the lighting I think. Find it here. The atmosphere of this place is really creative and edgy.

On a minor note, I have yet to do any design work, and probably won't. They hired me as the intern for one specific project and so far I've worked on that which is a massive web research job (compiling over 530 hyperlinks with descriptions) and I've scanned over 200 old WWI photos at the Liberty Memorial. I've enjoyed listening in on meetings, watching the main designer and the web people battle their deadlined projects, as well as just be in contact with professional designers every day. One of my favorite quick jobs was filing a pile of their copies of projects they've done. It was so exciting to look through them, get a better feel for the work they actually do and what they can put out. I also answer phones a lot, which I rather enjoy amazingly enough. The work of an intern sure can be tedious and boring, but wow! the experience of being a part of this studio is absolutely worth it.

I really love design. And I'm really going to miss this studio.

a little time to chill

Well the weddings went off fairly smoothly I think. A little stressful in preparation and setting up, but all in all, lovely.

Favorite Amy & Dani weddings moments:
•getting Amy ready in the hotel room. (Actually, it was more like watching Amy get ready for me as Dani did her hair and Amy did her own makeup and I just took pictures)
•taking off my shoes at Amy's reception
•hanging out with Erin and taking a hot walk with her around a block or two.
•wearing a fun red dress
•hanging out with Mark, Noah, Cade & Marcia (it was so great to see C & M although somewhat strange that they are married!)
•staying in a hotel with Emily & Erin and playing cards til 1am with Nathaniel & Sam
•seeing the Jernigan family in action once again and feeling warmly loved by them, especially Hannah & darling Glory
•crying through all of Dani's wedding (perhaps not a favorite moment but definitely memorable)
•laying around & talking with Dani the night before Amy's wedding
•becoming a pro at making corsages & bouquets
•being with friends and laughing a lot

Pictures of Luke & Amy's wedding are here. and Israel & Dani's wedding pics will be up there soon too.

In other news, the interview went rotten. I don't think he wanted to be there interviewing and he waited til I was there and talking with him to tell me that there aren't any job openings with them. I'm not sure why he wanted to interview me when there isn't anywhere for him to put me. He also seemed rather multi-taskish during the whole "interview," taking a phone call and acting bored a few times although he ended up doing most of the talking. Well, I'm sure I learned something anyway and the experience will be handy sometime in my life.

In better news, I have a very short-term job starting tomorrow morning at 9. The company is River City Studio and I'm doing a small research project involving a website. Sounds pretty simple, but possibly time-consuming. Honestly, I'm just excited to be doing something out of the house and to be able to meet and work with some designers on their turf. Who cares what I'm doing! It should hopefully be a great experience and I'll at least make a new friend/contact in the design world.

Also, I have discovered a really cool church. It is called Northland Reformed Church and they are about 5 minutes from my house. I stumbled across them while coming back from taking Erin to the airport. They are a small congregation—probably about 50-60 people—but they are really genuine and kind. I really enjoyed the service Sunday morning and found a great deal in the sermon that I couldn't stop thinking about during the day. I also met some very nice folks who talked with me about different topics, most especially what brought me to a Reformed church. I really like that their questions were very geared towards faith and not normal small talk/being friendly jargon. My dad and I also went back last night and he was greatly impressed by them too. The pastor even followed us to the lobby, remembered my name and kept a good conversation with my dad. It is so strange how these things happen when the summer is almost over. A job and a great church all in one week. As always, God is faithful and always in his own time. Wahoo!

more more more

Wow, these past few weeks went so fast. Recap:
Not much going on. Enjoyed being with my family and hanging out with beloved Nicole for hours a week. Chatted and chilled with Luke, Ryan, & Allison quite a bit and had a couple great cups of coffee (one with Amy and one with Galina). Also had an intense doctor check-up. I've been having weird heart episodes lately, something that is irritated randomly by caffeine (randomly I say because it isn't always and sometimes isn't related to it at all.) So, got an x-ray, an EKG, and had several things of blood taken. [apparently my body doesn't react really well to that. Almost passed out and definitely started dry heaving. Mmm… lovely experience.]

Last weekend was Julia's wedding. Very delightful. Pictures here.
Hooray for Julia!

Now I'm off for Siloam Springs. Amy and Luke get married on Saturday and Dani and Israel on Monday. I feel like I've been packing for hours. Lots of pictures later I'm sure. I get to see Erin this weekend too. [And Mark!]

Also, tomorrow morning I have a job interview with an ad agency in Springdale. I'm greatly looking forward to it with a very nervous stomach. More about that soon too.

Now I must hit the road.

who would have thought…

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

one down, three to go

Cade & Marcia's wedding: a beautiful event this past weekend in Dallas. My travelling companions were Noah, Michael Cureton, and Mark [all groomsmen]. The trip was marvelous: humorous, quick, and full of loud driving music.

Favorite moments:
1) Thursday night arriving late to the rehearsal dinner and then sprinting through the mall 2 minutes before it closed so they could try on their tuxes.
2) Cade & Marcia wrote and sang a song together in their wedding. It was sweet and humorous.
3) dancing at the reception
4) bowling Friday night after the wedding [and doing terribly!]
5) singing loudly to Beatles songs in the car

Pictures here

so I'm a typography nerd

Recently ran across this specimen of typographic beauty. This gorgeous piece of work is humbly displayed above one of the entrances of the no-longer-elegant Sears store. Just walking under this window sign made me think of all those old movies with the perfect little department stores and the neatly dressed salesclerks in A-line skirts, and I suddenly wished I hadn't forgotten my little white gloves. Why did Sears ever change their logo?? The new version is so much more hideous now that I've seen the old one.

time slowly going by

well, if we were going completely by my blog, it would seem that I either never left for break, or never came back. Neither of those are true. Break was great, very relaxing and full of movies and laying around. The last few weeks of school were fine as well. Fairly insane as always. I completed my portfolio and did the big show. It was actually very fun and I gained a lot more confidence because of it.

Now, I'm at home.

Time goes by very differently at home. I have 4 weddings to make it to this summer, and in between those, I'm really hoping for a job. Things aren't looking up at the moment for one. I've contacted so many companies and everyone really takes their time on getting back with me. The only high possibilities are ones where people I know found out I was interested and started talking about me. It is great to know people, I just hope something actually comes of it.

While I pass the times between e-mails and phone calls, I've been trying to clean my room. I have so much junk. One of the downsides of my family is that we all were taught to save things and be sentimental about them. My room is just full of stuff I really don't need and probably don't care much about. Realistically, I think this could be my last full summer at home and that kind of worries me as I do not want to do this cleaning out when I'm actually trying to move out. So, I'm at least brushing the surface now. I can't help but think what my room would be like if I lived in a different culture.

So, that is an update on my life. Seems pretty dull, but it is my life right now. I look forward to the weddings especially as I'll get to see some of my favorite people. Nicole comes home in 3 days. That is something to look forward to as well.

Oh, I also bought a cd yesterday, Sophie Milman. Really great recent jazz girl. Liking it, a lot.

so much to do

spring break begins in about 27 hours. I can't wait.

disposable plate schedules

today is a lovely day. the weather site told me it was going to rain today, but I still haven't run into any drops. I'm wearing green. I love that color. I like this day.

I have a lot to do this week. One professor of two of my classes is gone and I'm sure that was intended to give me more time, but somehow I have more to do than time for it all. I was thinking back to elementary school days when I used to take a disposable plate and section off time in the day. I used to color different sections and write what those times would be used for. I was always really good about giving breaks especially if I got something done before that time slot was up. I began my organizational skills early in life.

That was back in the days when I made my sister's bed for her too… for fun.

catch up time

Hard to believe I haven't updated since New Year's. Sometimes I just get so busy, and other times, I just don't really care to sit down and think of what I would like to say. I should though. So I will now.

The past month and a half or so have been very up and down. Biggest highlights would be that I'm working on my portfolio this semester and in the process of applying to 2 companies for possible design internships this summer. I've been really dragging my heels on actually applying—waiting for all kinds of encouragents and go-aheads from stable people in my life. Truth probably is that I'm scared to actually finish the applying process. Such a vunerable position to put my stuff out there and ask for someone to give me a chance.

Another highlight is that I get to talk to my sister every week via skype, which if you haven't discovered this service, you might want to. That has been a great blessing as I miss her input in my life and just hearing her voice sometimes is comforting. We've tended to talk about silly things lately, rather than do the catch up "how's this and that." I miss coffee dates with her and watching Saved by the Bell reruns and laying on her big double bed with a heating blanket to talk about what's coming for us in life.

Another very exciting thing that happened this month was that I got to see my great supervisor from Spain, Kristin. She popped into KC for over a week and I went to meet her for a couple days. It was wonderful. We had a marathon of Caryn and Kristin time, hitting up Borders twice and drinking several cups of coffee while diving into deep conversation about missions, design, God's will, etc…. It was a great blessing to see her and hug her. God is very faithful with the people He brings in and out of my life. I look forward to the next time Kristin pops in.

Thinking of God's faithfulness brings to mind the sad event that has changed the past couple weeks of my life. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write of this, but it is a part of my life and more than anything do I want to share how incredibly merciful and faithful God really is. I very often forget that and I very often don't mention it much for silly fear of sounding fanatical and super-religious about God. I'm working on that fear and trying to learn this realness that I so desire to come out in my speech. This event that I'm talking around is the passing away of my grandmother. She died February 6, almost 2 days after I came back from KC. Although my family knew it was coming, it was quite a blow to me. I was so blessed to randomly stop in and see her on that Friday that I went home to see Kristin. I spent a little over an hour talking with her and telling stories from school and listening to my Grandpa's preaching stories. That last time with her was so precious. I didn't like to admit it then, but on the drive back to school, I knew that was the last time. She had kissed me with a look in her eyes that said farewell. Sounds incredibly made up and fanciful I'm sure, but I know what I saw and what I felt and that's all the really matters to me. Sparing all the rest of the details of this, that week was tough and I began to learn to grieve. For closure and to be there for my family, I flew home on Sunday and attended the funeral and dinner on Monday then came back Tuesday. It was quick, but it did me in. I've been exhausted all week. I'm very thankful for that time though. I got to see all my aunts and uncles on that side (7 and their spouses) and I was able to see some of my cousins whom I hadn't seen in years. Our family is huge and some of us are closer than others geographically and relationally. I'm sure anyone who comprehends the entire paragraph that they are reading is wondering how this relates to God's faithfulness. Well, for the past 6 months, my Nana has gotten increasingly worse in her lung disease. My family has been praying that God would take her quickly. She has always hated doctors and more than anything would hate being put in a hospital or a home. My Grandpa also wished to see her go peacefully as the pain was so great for her and his heart to watch her die. I remember on the drive back to school praying through tears that God would be merciful and take her immediately. I've never prayed something like that before, but it was answered a day and a half later. She went peacefully while my Grandpa prayed with her.

I've never felt like God needed to do something to show Himself faithful, but when I needed it to be vibrant before me, He was. Now I'm playing catch up with all my classes and homework as well as becoming addicted to naps. I've succeeded in taking 2 naps every day since I got back. I guess I'm just recovering from emotional whatever this is. Sleeping is good however. I'm going to close this now, since it has become immensely long. It's my fault for not writing in so long. So, until next post…

happy happy new year

I can't believe it is January 1, a new year. This is 2006, the year I will be graduating. At least near the end of it I will. I feel like I should make some resolutions; but none have come to mind. Perhaps later, now… pizza!