The Intuitive Reasonings of Jessica

I was recently conversing with a roommate about blogs. She shared her opinion of mine, which was that it needed updating in a form other than a post about art. To please my dear roommate, I shall bore you dear readers with an account of my day before sharing a visual treat I recently discovered.

After learning that the career I am pursuing is that of an album artist, many people have asked me what album art I like. Therefore, I have decided to make a post about my favorite album covers. Feast your eyes.

The very effective use of space may not be very apparent to many of you until you see how bad the stretched out DVD version looks:

I also really like the cover of the movie soundtrack:

It is a very simple design, but what makes it memorable is the iconic image of the Yellow Submarine. It is effective because of the aesthetically pleasing split complementary color scheme.

Isn't it beautiful?

Today I was absent-mindedly making snickerdoodles in my kitchen, when I accidentally mixed 3 T of cinnamon with my 3 T of sugar, instead of 3 t of cinnamon. At first, I was mildly bummed at my erratum; however, after adding several more tablespoons of sugar, I realized how incredibly useful it will be to have a great big jar of cinnamon-sugar in the cupboard. Now I can pull it out whenever I get the (frequent) urge to make snickerdoodles. How incredibly handy.

On another note, if any of you dear readers are snickerdoodle aficionados, come to CYA Winter Conference tonight, where all 70 of my sapid cookies are going.

P.S. If they're slightly hard, try the other plate; I overcooked one sheet of cookies.

This morning I got up bright and early for my first class of the semester--a 7:30 English Composition class (ENGL 106). My TA is a literature major. He began talking about how much he digs literature, and then expressed a desire to find out what kind of literature his students enjoy. He passed around notecards and asked us to write down our names and our favorite authors. I wrote "Nathan Alberson". I wonder what he will find if he tries to google my favorite author.

To alleviate winter break boredom, I have been reading a lot of books. Well, not exactly a lot, but significantly more than I did at school, where the literature I encountered was mostly of the text book variety.

One of these books, as you have probably guessed by now, is Catch Me If You Can. I saw the movie a few years erstwhile; however, the book is far more commoving in my opinion. Frank Abagnale is sheer genius. He spent 11 months working as a real doctor, somehow managing to get the nurses and interns to do all the work since he had no medical training whatsoever. He also worked as a lawyer for several months. To pull that off, he forged a transcript from Harvard and took the bar exam (passing on his third try).

My favorite escapade of his took place at an airport (where Frank spent a great deal of time--his favorite of his numerous identities was that of Frank Williams, co-pilot for Pan-Am. (He had no clue how to actually fly a plane). One night, he noticed that when the airport stores closed, the clerks all deposited the day's profits in a bank vault in the airport. The following evening, the clerks found Frank by the vault dressed as a security guard next to a sign that read "Night deposit vault out of order. Please make deposits with security officer." No one suspected foul play. The policemen even helped carry the stolen money to Frank's car. He made $62,800 that night. And, being the considerate crook he was, he called the airport the next morning to let them know where everything he didn't want (checks, receipts, coins) was (in the bathtub of the hotel room he had just checked out of).

The amazing thing is that it is all true. It's not "based on a true story" as Hollywood tends to be. (Although, in this case, I think the movie was fairly accurate.)

So, those of you who still have a couple more days of break, read this book! It's a pretty quick read--I started yesterday, and I'm already 2/3 the way through it.

On Thursday morning, Kara, Emily, Gandalf and I all piled into the Wegener's little car and set out on a grand adventure. Our first stop (excluding lunch, gas, and dinner) was Emily's aunt's and uncle's house just outside of Lancaster. They are old order Mennonites, and we spent the night with them. The next morning we drove around beautiful Lancaster and went to the market because Friday is market day.

Then, we drove to Kim's house in Hazleton, where we left Gandalf. He was coming to surprise her, and she was very surprised!

Next, we set out for Camp Susque, where all of the Knowldens were, except Carrie, but she isn't a Knowlden anymore anyway. We had an awesome time. Mr. Knowlden was the speaker, and we enjoyed him immensely.

The following day, Saturday, we went on a hike up a mountain with Keith and Katie. The view was beautiful when we got to the top. Then, Keith, Kara, Emily, and I all drove to Hazleton. On the way, we stopped at Keith's grandparents' farm, which was very picturesque. They had the most gorgeous barn which had been built in the late 1800's. Keith's grandpa took us on a tour of the farm on his four wheeler. The three of us girls piled on the back, and Keith sat on the front. The farm was beautiful.

Then, we went back into the farmhouse and were presented with a delightful supply of homemade doughnuts. After saying goodbye to aunts, uncles, and grandparents, we continued on our way. After visiting the school that Keith teaches at (which had the most awesome floor), we bought a pizza and brought it back to Keith's happy little trailer, where we ate it and watched Hoodwinked.

We spent the night at Kim's house. They have a beautiful home with lots of pine inside. It reminded me of a cabin.

On Sunday morning, we went to church. It was smaller than both Kara and I had expected, but very awesome. Keith made dinner for Gandalf, Kim, Kara, Emily, and me at his parent's house. Watching boys cook is amusing.

After evening service, we went to a New Year's party at the house of some people who go to the church. I never figured out whose house it was, except that they had an adorable little daughter named Naomi. I suppose I should have asked Naomi who her parents were.

Anyway, the house was AWESOME! it had a hobbit door upstairs that led out to a little balcony. It also had a gorgeous tower with a rotating top for a telescope which was not yet in place.

After counting down to midnight, we left the party because we intended to leave early the next morning. We ended up not leaving until about 8:30, but we still made it back to Indy in time for a delectable dinner of lasagna, broccoli, salad, French bread with a dessert of warm apple crisp and cold ice cream provided by mother. Mmmmmmmmmmm.