andave's place

Yours truly is a money-making young lady now (I'm just waiting till I feel old enough to call myself 'woman!' )!

I've been doing babysitting for the past month for two different groups. One is MOPS, Mothers of Preschoolers, and the other is Wellsprings Moms, a Bible Study for Moms.

I've been getting paychecks from Wellsprings regularly, but I got my first paycheck from MOPS today.

It had deductions for Medicare and Social Security. For some reason I find that hilarious.

But I'm saving up my paychecks to buy a laptop for college. My only dissipation is a song from iTunes every weekend or, occasionally, a cd from Amazon.

Ok, enough of that. What do you think of my new profile pic?? I found this painter, Carl Spitzweg, as I was searching for a painting to write an essay on.

He's my newest favorite painter. This guy is brilliant!!! His pictures are full of dry witty humor that has me beaming.

Here are my favorites.

The Bookworm


The Poor Poet


This guy has the right idea, doesn't he? But I'm afraid I don't know his name...


I'm calling this one "Fiddler on the Roof"


Speaking of art, in my English class at the local college we're discussing an essay by John Berger on art. A week ago, as we were reading, my professor came across the word 'chiaroscuro.'
"ch-k-tchi-kchi..." she started.
"chiaroscuro." I said. (kee-ar-o-skyoo-ro)
"Thank you!" she answered. "Say it again."
Once, twice, thrice.
"Class, say it after her."
Two three times, we got it all right.
"Now, what does it mean??" was her next militant question.
"The play of light and dark."
"Good! Beautiful!!"

I don't know if that merits a , a , or a , lol!
Definitely had geek repercussions there, at any rate .

As if that's not geeky enough, last class we split into groups to talk about our upcoming essays. One guy had gone to Italy a few years ago and had seen some of the famous artworks but he had forgotten their names.
I knew every single one of the paintings he was talking about, both title and painter. One of the paintings I only knew the painter, but I did know the picture.
Honestly, I was a little surprised at myself. He'd describe them vaguely and I was able to name-toss. "Hieronymus Bosch! Botticelli! Goya! Michelangelo!"
weird...
But on the other hand, it did confirm something I already had an idea about:

My art appreciation class professor was BRILLIANT!!! I mean, I took this class, I dunno, a year and a half ago, and I still remembered all that?? Down to the definition of chiaroscuro?
(In my defense, I do so love a good word! )

Thing is, the first day of the class I thought I got a gorgon. He established who's boss in a hurry! No one dared cross him. It was obvious that he knew what he was talking about though, so I decided to stay.
I am so glad I did! Throughout the whole semester he thawed out until by the last class he was laughing and joking and poking fun at the students as he talked about what he loved most--ART!

Cheers, Professor Thiel, may your love and dedication to art and teaching never ever grow less!!!