Ode to Coffee: a love sonnet in Italian form

Ode to coffee, the best drink of all;

Oh coffee, you are so nice!

I drink you hot or over ice.

Whether you're venti, grande, or tall,

When I get thirsty I'll give you call.

If it's me you want to entice,

Just hand me autumn's pumpkin spice,

It's my favorite drink for fall.

I even like coffee better than tea.

Baristas at Starbucks brew both with haste,

Their caffeinated concoctions offer a choice.

Each sip energizes, filling me with glee.

No drop of coffee will I ever waste,

For each sip makes me rejoice.

A letter of affirmation to mothers

Lately I have been amazed by the mothers surrounding me in my life.  I got on the computer with the intent of sending out e-mails of thank-you to a couple of wonderful women, and I still may end up doing so, but after I started thinking about how I might want to compose my writing, I was inspired to do a blog post. 

First of all, one of my most powerful influences comes from the women in my family.  I look up to them, and hope to be as great a mother as they are some day. My great-grandmother and grandmother are great encouragers in my life.  I have a great relationship with them and love them both very much.

My brother and I have severe food allergies.  My mom is amazing and cooks us a great variety of safe foods.  She also helped educate the rest of the family on safe cooking.  My aunts in particular are very aware and knowledgeable of our allergies and how to safely cook for us.  Whenever I go on trips with family, my aunts always have my back with meals.  They make my brother and I safe meals and even go as far as making us separate desserts.  Just yesterday we went our cousin's birthday party and were ecstatic to find a safe cheesecake my aunt had made just for us.  

Even out of the family, my mom's friends set a great example of hardworking mothers who really care for not only their children, but their friend's kids as well.

My family is a homeschool family.  My mom teaches my brother and I, and directs a once a week co-op for classes with other homeschool families.  One family offered their house as a meeting facility, so every week our co-op meets there to pool resources and do classes together.  These moms help teach each others children.  Some moms work, one drives long-distance to attend, another opened up their house for a free spot to meet.  Every family has a different belief system, but still are able to work together peaceably to learn and encourage each other.  I'm grateful for these moms who set a good example and devote time and help teach not only to their children, but to their friend's children too.

 I'm surrounded by strong women in my life. Moms, thanks for giving me a great support system and plenty of good examples to look up to.

Peace, Love, and Biking

Recently my bike was stolen.  I woke up one morning to neighbors pounding on our door to announce someone had broken into our old non-functional  mini van we used for storage.  Upon further investigation, we found someone had thrown a rock through the window in the night to take my bike.  Since we didn't have the serial number and I hadn't put any stickers or other easily identifiable markings on it, there was little hope of getting my bike back. 
At first I was angry, annoyed, and severely disappointed with the whole situation.  I rode my bike often, biking was one of my favorite past times.  And now it was gone.  How could someone do such a thing?  What had I ever done to them?  "Economy is bad." I kept telling myself.  "People are desperate."  Even though in my book it wasn't a legitimate excuse for stealing, it was the most probable explanation. My bike was gone now, there was nothing I could do about it.  Being bitter at the thief wouldn't accomplish anything except drain my energy. John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" became my therapy theme song.  After that I found myself singing "...Ob la di, Ob la da, life goes on, brah! La, la how the life goes on..." the Beatles chipper tune helped perk me up.  Bike or no bike, life would go on. 
Before long I started bike searching.  I tried to view my old bike getting stolen as an opportunity to start over and get a new bike that fit my more recent style.  My old bike was white with pink flowers.  A while ago that suited me fine, but now I don't enjoy pink so much.  Perhaps now was the perfect time to re-style.  I could get a pink-free bike, and this time put lots of stickers on it so it would be simpler if it got stolen.  I began brainstorming for what type of bike I wanted and visited Loose Lucy's to peruse their bumper sticker collection. 
Soon I saw a bike on Craig's List that looked like a promising possibility.  It was a Schwinn, in my mind a good brand that would hold up well.  It wasn't pink, instead it was this cool purple tie-dyeish color. As an added plus, it was cheaper than those in stores, which would leave me extra spending money for stickers and other various upgrades I may want to add.  It fit my criteria so well, I ended up being able to buy it.    
Loose Lucy's has always been one of favorite stores.  It's artsy, unique, and I know the people there. They're really friendly, and they sell awesome merchandise.  Now they also serve as my sticker outlet.  Who knew a bike could be so fun when used as a sticker collection? 
Even though the bike-stealing incident was traumatic, I got a new bike out of it without much trouble, and it was nice to start over.  The thief must be happy they acquired a new bike, and I'm happy I have a new bike serving as a sticker collection.  So we're all happy, but I guess for future reference the moral of this story is;
Keep your bike locked up tight, get the serial number off of it, and customize it so it's easier to find if it gets stolen.

Is the Pen Greater Than the Sword?

I have always thought the pen is mightier than the sword. The sword is a physical weapon that damages the physical body, but the pen touches the mind. The pen is mentally strong and capable of much hurt or healing internally, whereas the sword is an opposite.  The sword is a physical weapon useless internally, but strong externally. Both are implements of power, to be wielded with maturity.

If the pen is greater than the sword, does that suggest internal strength is greater than external strength? Say the pen represents internal power, and the sword represents external power. Under this mindset, it makes sense that internal potency be greater than external potency. In conclusion, I would say that yes, internal strength is greater than external strength. And logically, anyone who believes in the pen more than the sword would almost have to believe in the potency of internal strength over external strength, if the pen represents the internal and the sword the external.

Contemplating the previous, I encourage you to draw your own conclusions. Is the pen really mightier than the sword?

Haiku

Haiku is an art.
Syllables are important,
But beauty counts too.

Poems are beautiful.
A haiku is a short poem,
Ruled by syllables.

If you write haiku's,
Be careful with syllables,
Make words poetic.

And just remember
The different forms of art.
Remember because;

Haiku is an art.
Syllables are important,
But beauty counts too.

Rainy Days and Art...

Last night was quiet, except for the soft pitter-patter of the rain. It was the perfect atmosphere for art.  The silent stillness of the day suggested painting.  So I took out my supplies and started brainstorming. 

Since I took an art class at USC recently, I have been inspired by self-portraits and interested in attempting to create my own. So I chose a picture of myself to use as a guideline for inspiration, and traced a basic outline of my face to transfer onto a big piece of art paper.  I had a decently large stack of old magazines to "recycle" into my art, so my original plan for my portrait was to collage my whole face.  But after pasting down the scraps for my hat and facial features, I realized I would need a bunch of scraps in very specific colors to get my skin tone and hair to my satisfaction. That's when my collage idea turned into a mixed media plan.  I love the flexibility of mixed media.  Since I'm somewhat new to doing portraits, being able to use anything and everything to create a loose self-portrait was peacefully enjoyable and unbound by the restrictions of focusing on one technique.
I used oil pastels for my skin tone, then gently rubbed chalk pastels over it in hope of blending the colors together.  My shirt and the butterfly are colored pencil. I painted my hair, and for the background I tore masking tape to my liking before painting over it.

I have always liked rainy days.  They are almost always relaxing and the atmosphere they provoke usually inspires me to do art.

More Fingerless Glove Action

A couple of days ago I went to a program at RCPL called "Knit and Crochet in Public" with The Woodland School. It was fun to the extreme to relax while knitting and crocheting with my yarn-savvy friends. I haven't been knitting or crocheting as much lately, but the program and my friends inspired me. Last night I was playing around with yarn, simply practicing different stitches and trying to come up with a new interesting technique, when I had an idea for lacy fingerless gloves. It took me a little while to come up with a pattern that was satisfactory and fit, but after trying several things, unraveling, and trying again, I had designed and finished one glove. Earlier today I started deciphering the pattern that I had somehow failed to write down for future reference. It didn't take long, and using the first glove as a guideline, (I could recognize most of the stitches,) I made a pretty accurate duplicate. I have always liked designing things, especially clothing, so these gloves were an awesome project and I enjoyed making them thoroughly.