Friday the 13th. & stuff.

While by most accounts I am an incredibly superstitious person, I personally have nothing against Friday the 13th. In fact, I am a huge fan of the number 13... I like all numbers that include, add to, or can be divided into 3, as 3 is my lucky number. I have an OCD-esque affinity for odd numbers, and 3 is my favorite one of all.

Now, let me tell you why this particular Friday the 13th is particularly wondrous. Tonight, the Moon, the star Spica, and SATURN will form a triangle in the sky, and for anyone with binoculars and/or a telescope, Saturn's rings will be easily viewable. I leapt eagerly out of bed this morning when I saw the sun and bright blue sky, crossing my fingers in hopes that this blessed spell of weather will last into the evening, allowing me to view my favorite planet. Seriously, it's worth it. I remember the only other time I saw Saturn's rings, when my dad woke me at 3:30 am in 4th grade to peer on my tip-toes through our telescope. It's an image that has stuck with me so intensely that I can still picture it like it was yesterday.

In other night-sky-news (just in case you are not oddly space-obsessed as I am), in the early morning about 30 minutes before sunrise, you can see 4 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter, respectively) rise over the eastern horizon before the sun appears. It's a truly remarkable spectacle, one that will not occur again until the year 2056. If you have an unobstructed eastern view and the desire to see something especially rad, I highly recommend waking up (or, if you're like me, staying up) to see this at least once.

And in unrelated news, here's what I've been up to lately:

I went to visit my sister in Seattle. This is a life-size chess set on the roof of her building. Needless to say, I was incredibly jealous.

My fried Jay came down to visit for our birthdays. I was obsessed with finding an Etch-A-Sketch, so we went on an adventure to Target in search of one. When we couldn't find it, we settled on a Lite Brite instead. The above was our first lighted work of art... if you can't tell, it's an UN-birthday cake.

Jay, me, Brittany and Shae out celebrating how old we are. We got Shae to wear a dress, which was unprecedented and amazing. Everyone in this picture is wearing clothing of mine, which is also awesome. Dress up is so fun!

Also while at Target, Jay and I picked out a Last Supper jigsaw puzzle. The above is what we finished the first night... I haven't gotten much further since she left. Please note Jesus to the right side of this photo. I talked about this puzzle so much that my friends Brittany and Kate burst out laughing when their prof showed a slide of this painting in their Dress & Society class at AI. I received pictures and messages describing the situation, and let me just say that I am incredibly proud that while I no longer go to the school, I am still able to create harmless disruption as I enjoyed doing so many times before. Here is the picture Kate sent to me:

I tie-dyed this saddle pad for my horse, Jimmy. He likes it.

ALSO, I am proud to say I finally came up with a formula for water-resistant sidewalk chalk. I have tested it, and I think I finally got it right. Above you can see part of the process, where I make a mold out of tinfoil to hold the chalk while I bake it. Don't ask me how I eventually came up with this method, it took many test runs as well as both an advanced level of stupidity and an incredibly easily-amused disposition. While I will not divulge my top-secret method, I will give you this hint: I used honey as part of my binder. I am sharing that because I came up with it thanks to PRINTMAKING! The water-soluble ink we used has a honey binder, and while it IS water-soluble... anyone who experienced this special ink will understand that it takes a little more than the equivalent of a light rain to get it off of ANYTHING.

I also painted a lot. This is what I found when I went to look at the time. It made me laugh.

Also, a blanket fort was made in my apartment consisting of horse show blankets and my bed comforter. Don't even try to pretend that you're not jealous.

And last, but certainly not least, my dog was again dressed up as a shark. Also, I painted his toe nails blue. His expression pretty much sums up his feelings on the situation.

In conclusion, here is something that I recently realized and which I think is pretty funny: HECK is a combination of HELL and FUCK. It's officially my new favorite word.