home for the next year

I actually moved into my new residence hall a week ago (see my freshman dorm and summer dorm; they're not too different, other than size).  Unlike moving into my summer dorm, I had sheets already for this, and I had the help of a coworker before she went back home to get a few weeks break in before school started again.  My things are also in the suite proper this time - only two of my suitemates have moved their things in so far; our most compelling feature thus far is our growing mini-fridge farm).

Our entryway's simple; trash and a coat rack.  I'm hoping to figure out somewhere else for the bins because I don't like them there (not that anywhere else is better?)

Mini-fridge farm!  We're expecting like two-three more; stacking may be required.  Also, guess which is mine (hint: all the food is on it).

We have tables and things!  Also...those blinds.  Yeah.  Spending time untying knots is on my list...

The hall to my room, entering my room.  It looks dull, right?

Wrong.  It's fairly colorful, though I'm not yet done decorating.  I really like my dresser.

A while back, someone asked what sort of fanart I had on my walls.  I never managed to answer, being the lazy-ass I am, but here's a selection: Homestuck, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Sailor Moon.  Also, you can see part of my headboard-pride flag here.

The top of my wardrobe (wisely taken before laundry piles up...)

My bookshelf and desk.  More Homestuck is on the walls (telling me to do my homework, naturally), as well as some wall art I made from a Miuccia Prada quote that I featured in a Favorites post a while ago: "The investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? Because ugly is human. It touches the bad and the dirty side of people".  I put her name and the bolded piece in pink.  I think that as a fashion blogger and artist, as well as someone who spends too much time trying to be perfect, it's important to see things like this every day, and to think about them and examine them.  I also have some cute cards from a local festival and last year's Cinematheque Miyazaki series.  My bags are all hidden under the bottom of the bookshelf, by the way.  It's a useful spot.

The shelving on my desk, which holds all manner of useful things, and part of my bed.  That hanging rack wouldn't fit over my door (it's too tall and close to the frame), so it went on one of my spare railings, which handily stacked on the foot.  My friend memory board thing is propped up on the power strip, and I've got a world map (favorite thing eeeeeever).

And finally...

My shoes are under my bed (along with various other things).  There are kind of a lot of them, and you can't even see them all in this.  I kind of have a shoe problem, don't I?  Sigh...

If you've moved into a dorm or new place recently, how have you organized it?  How did you deal with having a closet for a room?  (Seriously, my room's about 8'x9', just barely, and that's not accounting for the inset window that takes a foot off, or the piping that also takes a foot off... It's more like 7'x8' with that stuff...)

Dior & More: For the Love of Fashion

I live in Cleveland (we're not Detroit! (for the record, this video was made before LeBron left and Cleveland started getting nicer).  We actually have a pretty nice museum district in University Circle, one of which is the Western Reserve Historical Society.

one of their buildings, a mansion they give tours of/that I want because it's gorgeous (especially in pictures taken in not-February

They have like four or five buildings they've managed to squish together - the cognitive dissonance of the different architecture styles is probably the one thing I can complain about them for, because otherwise, they're pretty nice, and they win a lot of bonus points for having a gallery filled with designer dresses.  Which is obviously why I'm writing this post, isn't it?  ;)  I think after my post about Dreaming of Dior and Dreaming of Chanel, we know how I feel about vintage designer dresses.  Seriously, though, I went there mainly to see that, although I'll have to return for their library.

The exhibit showcases vintage clothing from different eras, donated to WRHS by various figures - diplomats' wives, Cleveland socialites of days past, and even Audrey Hepburn.

Probably my favorite part of the exhibit, however, were the videos shown along with it on displays in the gallery:

The second video, for some reason, will not embed, but no matter, it's here, and interesting if you've never heard of Lesage.

The exhibit itself is really lovely.  All the dresses are enclosed in a giant glass box in the center of the gallery so that visitors walk around, and there are little informational stands about each saying who wore it, who made it, roughly when, and interesting little personal tidbits that may have been passed along with the dress, as well as discussing some of the technique put into the dress.  I loved reading those - I spent about three hours in WRHS, and two of those were spent in this gallery, so...

Audrey Hepburn dress! 

I would love to find dresses as amazing as all the ones in this exhibit, but just looking at them is at least a treat.  And it's open till March 30, 2014, so I'll probably go back there again to drool admire them more before then.  Probably multiple times.

Have you been to any cool museum exhibits lately?

WizardQuest!

There is a place, located in the Wisconsin Dells, known as WizardQuest.

It's an interactive game/labyrinth sort of thing where you figure out puzzles in order to free trapped wizards to keep the 'realms' they rule safe.  It's technically meant for little kids.  It's also the most fun thing I've done all summer.

I went with a group of friends (faces blocked out cuz, y'know, privacy.  I'd block out the school shirt if it wasn't already out where I go to uni.  I should eventually actually talk to them about whether or not they're okay with being on my blog...course I also have to tell them I have a blog in order to do that...)

My friend Nick and I left Cleveland on a Friday evening...after taking a bunch of pictures cuz we could.

Our next stop was in Indiana to pick up our friend Sarah, and then on till Chicago and Tasha's cats house!  The next morning we loaded up the car and raced away to Wisconsin, where we found interesting gems like this advertisement...

And then........WIZARDQUEST.  (After a stop in an inordinately fancy McDonald's, of course).

Highlights included the ball pit and spinny chairs and a room lit by only a blacklight with a stuffed chicken perched atop it.

I freed one of the wizards!  We only freed three of the four though, because our glimmers kept decreasing even when we had enough, which was sad. :c

Afterwards, we went shopping at....!

We purchased Harry Potter wands, once we realized they stocked them.  Naturally, I got Harry's wand.

Afterwards, we went camping.  It was an adventure to find a campground, as we couldn't find the one we'd reserved at (they listed the wrong location on their website...yeah, a major fail).  We made delicious food and had wand battles over the campfire.

And then we went to hike and swim at a nearby park, which was quite fun.

And then we departed, home-bound, leaving only the first part of our school's name in the sand (as you do).

It was a lovely little vacation, and I hope I get to do more things like this in the future!

What sort of fun things have y'all been up to while I've been out of the loop?

welp, I've returned

Thank you for the comments on my last blog post.  This has been a slightly longer break than I initially intended (oops?) but I think I needed it.  And I mean, I got an A in my class, so maybe it helped with that.  My GPA's certainly thanking me (it'll hate me when I start math in a few weeks... sigh).  Aside from papers, my life's kind of been consumed by a summer romance.  I'm clearly making up for all my very non-stereotypical-teenagery summers spent sitting in my room online not actually speaking, considering that this summer's seen a couple of beach trips, a road trip, and all manner of silliness.  Such as having wizard duels by a campfire and trying to convince our friend to let us burn a sponge (that hopefully flammable adventure's being saved for fall semester, though).

I'm still working on figuring out exactly what I want to do with this blog, precisely. I'll be posting some photo diary adventurey things over the next couple of weeks before classes start, and then some more during the first couple of weeks of classes, and then I intend to return to regular, daily updates, hopefully with a better idea of what I'm actually trying to do with this blog.

Until my first photo diary goes up, though, I present you the photo diary of Charles Xavier, who typically lives in my friend Tasha's purse, and goes places.  I would also like to register that this is one of the less overwhelmingly nerdy things in my life.  (And that all pictures are taken from her facebook, because she has an album for this).

"Charles finds his happy place"

"Charles will catch up with you all later"

"Charles enjoys the warmth against his plastic but not melting face"

Hope everything's been alright with all of y'all, and posts of a regularish nature start next week!