So since I had just recently posted a very flattery picture of me in a swim cap and nose plug I thought i would just keep ’em coming…
here is the story of 4/29/2008
it started as any normal tuesday morning except it was alittle bit special- it was our 4 year dating anniversary. Some people might not care or remember about a day like this but to us its very special- i know wedding anniversaries are usually the main anniversary but for us its alittle different. The wedding anniversary dont get me wrong is great but getting married always seemed in the cards for us but out first date had been lead up to by lots of drama and secrets and adventure and tons of excitment. It will always be a night to remember. We went to go see silent drive play upstairs at the middle east at the second show they ever played. Followed by late night roller blading around framingham and then hanging out by the damn by school. Ok so back to the story of this tuesday… We both got up for work got dressed, I made our lunches and ate an orange and a kashi protein shake with vanilla soymilk- the usual. A kiss goodbye and we were both out the door. Now my drive to school is a very long (haha) 12 mins- but on this 12 min drive my throat started to get itchy and my eyes were getting itchy as well. Now i thought it was my seasonal allergies starting which I get very badly for about 3 weeks every May. i tried not to itch my eyes in hope that it would go away. I got to school- talked to nicole about how itchy my eyes were and if she got allergies and then off to first period i went (my graphic design class). After the morning announcements my eyes were getting extremely itchy now and my throat what feeling little tight. I mentioned it to the kids to see if any of them got allergies and they said no- not yet anyways, then with funny looks on they said that maybe i should go see the school nurse. I thinking I was ok took attendance and soon realized that i was having trouble opening my eyes and swallowing now. So off to the school nurse i went- by the time i got down the hallway I couldnt really see out of my eyes now and my throat was very tight. I started freaking out now, the nurse gave me some benadryl when everything continued to get worse she decided to give me an epipen shot because it was getting alittle to serve. Then ambulance was called and off i got sent to the hospital. Lets just say I was very upset at school followed by embarrassment as I had to be wheeled out of the school with an oxygen mask on, swollen shut eyes and lots of students staring at me as I left. ahhh haha now I can laugh.
The nurse and the principal finally got ahold of kev on his way to work and he met me at the hospital. I looked ridiculous I am sure- he said my eyes were so purple and swollen he didnt even recognize me. So we spent about 7 hours in the er- i was hooked up to an iv which i was getting fluids and steriods from. Well to sum it up I dont know what it was from – we are saying the orange (maybe pesticides) but now i have to carry and epi pen on me and have to go see an allergist.
Here is a funny video kev took:

in case you didnt hear
Kevin: what do you have to say to the orange that did this to you?
Jen: your lucky you were good tasting

this is after about 3 hours in er, some steriods and an epi pen so this was a major improvement

So my sister amy is graduating from RIT this june she majored in photography for the short of the story. She is very talented and I guess for RIT you need to have a co-op for your last credits. Anyways amy just got her co-op with the photo editor of green peace. She is going to be moving down to DC for the summer. How cool is that? I am very excited for her. Although I will miss her- I already dont see her very much. Sniff sniff

so I was watching some more of ART:21 and there was this artist named Barry Mcgee. He is I guess a street artist first then more of a “gallery” artist next. He even says when ever he does a show at a gallery he feels he needs to do that much more street art to redeem himself. I was very interested in the stuff he does because he incorporates lots of old junk and frames things in old picture frames which is all stuff i like to do. I am still torn about graffiti. I do very much like some of it- its beautiful and so creative but then i feel bad that its some else’s property. I go back and forth whether I agree or disagree with it. I dont agree with some teenage or any age person just getting a spray paint can and spraying crap all over something jsut for the shear fact of destroying something. That is stupid to me. When it has some sort of thought and plan to it and is something else thats when I enjoy looking at it and then cant decided if its ok that they just painted that on the side of a building. They make a good point in their clip (its about barry mcgee and another girl) that some people see graffiti as garbage but they see billboards as garbage (mind garbage) which I also agree with. Think of all the billboards that we see everyday telling us to buy something or look a certain way. That is as bad or worse I feel like. Hmmm?? Here are some of Barry Mcgees work…

haha Here ia a very flattering picture of myself in canada in the pool with my cousin as she teaches me how to syncronized swimming moves. haha I could not stop laughing. They put the cap on my so low that it was pulling up my eye lids. In case you didnt know me and my mom went up to canada last week to visit everyone. We got to go visit amy in rochester which is always fun and we got to see john for abit. We then headed up to the blackstones in ontario and got to hang out with my cousins and aunt and uncle then we headed to my other sisters house and hung out there for a bit- ate at a sweet breakfast place with the best crepes ever!! It was so good. Then we got to see my uncles new house- (still being built) then had dinner at the mandrian an awesomely huge chinese buffet. Then we were off to my grandparents new condo for the rest of the week. We painted some walls for them- got to do lots of indoor swimming and hot tubbing and some very informative syncro lessons. haha which i am terrible at. SO BAD!!! I think my problem was that i couldnt stop laughing.

me and laura the expert

my mom on her birthday

my cousin laura

my grandparents

So about a week ago we went to the middleast and saw piebalds last show (sniff sniff) It was such a great time. It was a great show- just alot of fun. Which is what ai think of when i think of piebald fun. They will always hold a special place in my heart. I cant believe that its been like 10 years since 1. that I was in high school and 2. started to listening to piebald. So many memories and fun times. I am going say it was alittle sad at the show- I dont think I have every been to a “last” show for anyone. I mean I def. have seen shows where now thinking about it I wont be seeing that band again but not that it was there last show. It was a weird feeling. Here are just a few photos but they arent good. They did have a sweet free photo booth set up… If you want to see some good piebald photos check out Ben Burrows Photo Blog. I do have so ok video well for a digital camera that I wll put up soon

Hello all,
Yesterday I got a membership at our local pittsfield library- I was very excited. Other than it smelling weird in there they had a great cookbook section and craft section. I took out these 7 books: 1. A hiking guide to the berkshires 2. The Hobbit 3. An Orgmai Quilting book 4. Home Craft Project book 5. A book on making things with felt 6. Home decorating book on color schemes and 7. Training for a marathon book. I took them out to look at when I am up in canada.
Yeah so I am leaving for canada with my mom on saturday for the week. I have my spring vacation and since kev has to work I am going to go up with my mom and visit everyone. I am very excited but a week is the longest we have been apart in I dont know how long. We are going to stop in Rochester and see amy and then off to my aunt and uncles to see them and my cousins and Jordans kids. Then we will be bouncing around seeing other aunts and uncles and my nana and staying at my grandparents and then staying at Carrie and Joels. I love seeing all my family- its the best. Even if kev wanted to come though he couldnt know because he doesnt have a passport- He better get one soon!!

So I read this article in Rolling Stone a little while ago on Jack Johnson and I really just like him more and more. Say what you will about his music- I can understand if people arent into it but you ahve to respect the guy. He is like the least famous famous person. He is never in the news. He wont tour for more than a month at a time because of his wife and kids and he wont tour at all if its surf season in hawaii. He records his albums in a 100% solar powered recording studio he built- He prints his cd cases on recycled paper. He just seeems like a geniunely cool guy. I just like that he seems true to who he is and where he grew up. I do like his music alot. I mean I cant listen to it all the time but it will always remind me of driving along the coast of hawaii with the windows down- its makes me feel all warm on the inside.

I was listening to NPR the other night and there was some guys on there talking about how we lose a certain percent of cognitive abilities by the time we are a certain age and he was then referring it to dementia- but then he keeped calling people “demented” as he further talked about what percent of cognitive abilities we lose. I mean i guess Demented is the right term to use but it sounded really funny to me. He was like “they are extremely demented” blah blah blah demented. He said it like 20 times in like 3 mins.

so we headed out to Mama Iguana’s in northampton for some margaritas and burritos after the opening and then some rock’n bowling. Oh yeah!! I love bowling. Some people on the other hand have quite a hatred towards it. Hehe however, that person was a great sport and I appreciated that she played!!! Here Mike is giving some lessons. It was a good night!

Here are some pictures from the opening. It went really well. I felt proud- it came together and looked really good I thought. I even got interviewed for some easthampton art show on their local tv station. haha. That was very nerve racking and embarassing. I dont like doing things like that- Thanks to everyone that came out. I really appreciated it!!

The title for the show…

Pages from the graphic novel I made

art made from our old silk screens (eric and erin look familiar??)

my parents and kevs parents-

me and laura…I am so glad that she came!! SHe drove all the way from long island

I made this for erin- I had to borrow them back. Thanks

my old bird cage and my box book

So funny story. So I wrote about how I was changing my eating habits and eating from local farms with pasture finished meat because of this radio interview with a local farmer I had been listening to a couple weeks ago. Anyways, then jess recommended this book to me: The Omnivore’s Dilemma- Which I was planning on going and getting and then today in the teachers lounge this one teacher was talking about how she was reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. So needless to say we got into this very long and great discussion on it. I must go get this book!

hello all. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Things have been going good. It has finally started to feel a bit like spring- and I am loving it. I have been able to go running twice this week outside on the rail trail. I have missed it. Its weird its this very love hate relationship. I of course hate running because its very hard and a consistant mind game to keep going but then I find times where I am just enjoying myself so much and the struggle of it is enjoyable especially when its beautiful and high 50’s and the first time you have been able to be outside and not freeze in about 6 months. I love the rail trail by us- its the best.
I also love hulu.com you can find like any tv show to watch. Its great.

So I have decided that I am going to start buying only 100% pasture finished meat from local farms. Read more at www.pasurepride.com and www.eatwild.com. I respect people who are vegetrians and amy who is vegan- I personally dont have a problem with eating meat but I am however very grossed out by the large corporation aspect of it and what goes on with that. I want back to basics.

My art show opening is tomorrow. I hope it goes good and there is an ok turn out. I have a feeling its just going to be me kev and my parents. hehe nah at least laura and erin and mike and beth and erica will be there too. Thats at least 7. whooo hooo 7

I have been watching alot of the pbs series art:21 lately and I hate when artists have to much to say. Everything has to mean something- I think that is crap. I liked this one interview with a photographer named Sally Mann. She was talking about how she took a picture of a dog bone once and liked the way it looked so decided to take more pictures of dog bones and then she ended up having a gallery showing of her dog bones and people (cynical postmodernist she called them) were like “oooh dog bones what do you think they mean??” She was laughing at them like “cant art be for fun”. And I agree with her. Yes somethings have meaning- but you know what I think, most of the time it starts with an idea but the finished piece really just came out of what looked good based around that idea. I dont think there has to be a reason why you put a green stroke in the corner other than the reason that maybe it balanced the composition and it looked good. I hate BS about art. It drives me crazy.

ok there is my rant.
I am going to go watch SNL shorts on Hulu.com now
peace

I want a snowy owl as a pet.

and is it wrong that that MTV show Rob and Big makes me laugh out loud? Its so freakin’ funny!