I've been so neglegent to this blog.
Oh well.
My mind has been everywhere lately but here, and I think that's a good thing.
Once again, my life is strewn about... in boxes, bags, in trunks of cars, and under beds.
It's really hard to focus on right now- but what I want is so close I suppose I shouldn't even bother speculating...
A totally cool thing happened today and it involves a german one piece jumpsuit which I am going to ROCK all winter.
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You know what's lame? The spell check on blogger.com questions the word blog.
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Some things are for sure... and they always involve the people in your life that you love and love you back.
It doesn't matter where you are- what's good is always good.
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There are a lot of things I am going to miss about Iowa City and Iowa in general...
...but my heart is throbbing for the ATL...

It's a bit insane the things I've managed to keep a hold of after 6 years of moving all around- and even a bit more strange the things that end up together that are from different alyssa eras. A lot of stuff has been popping up from the Full Sail era lately as I've been on a tangent search for these photobooth strips I had taken with various people in Florida...
I haven't found them...
But I know they are in an envelope SOMEWHERE!
Luckily I found a cool mix cd a really swell friend made... and some awesome party fliers... some special notes AND some SEXY BOYZ pins that never made it to their destination...
It's really hard to let go of such good times, and I think that's why I'm such a freaky pack-rat. All these little scraps of paper are more powerful than memories to me. When I see them- I'm transported to another time...and the air is super heavy, and there are palm trees and broken sprinklers spewing out over endless parking lots...and I am underage, and literally, truely... carefree.
It's so good- it's a movie.

It looks like winter outside right now...
Somthing about the sky and it's tone tells me snow isn't too far away.
I'm stalling at the computer before I face the chill- looking at the sky and thinking about being snowed in on what street was it??? east 79th or something? with my pals Mere and Justin G...booty shakin' in our socks to the snow and lil'kim.
It was one of the worst snow storms I have been in, ever- but also one of the best.
The subway tunnels were drifted shut that morning.
...I walked to work later that day in my split converse all-stars.
snow thigh deep...
new york city baby.
That's the kind of up hill both ways story you tell your kids.

there was once a house that someone built for something good...
now it is just a chimney




some warped glass that blasted out of the windows and melted together


.bales of hay.

This weekend I was able to snag ride to the Rochester Cemetary near the Cedar River/Rochester, Iowa area. I didn't really know what to expect, but the reason I wanted to go was to see one of Iowa's last remaining natural prairie spaces. Less than 1/10th of 1% of the actuall natural prairie of the state of Iowa exists today. Iowa used to be a sea of swaying grasses, flowers and shrubs and was an extensively dense habitat for a plethora of birds and animals.
Now- Iowa is a sea of corn and soybean fields- most corn is used to feed livestock. A lot of it gets turned into precious corn syrup too.
There's big push locally for ethanol of course- but that's always been around here as far as I can remember...and I was at Wal-Mart the other day and actually saw "local" plastic-y hangers made from corn too. I'm down with that.

Anyway...

There has been a lot of controversy over this cemetery in recent months because people are actually still being burried here- and with burried dead comes living concerns of how the heck are we going to mourn with all these weeeeeeeds around. There has been protests from the naturalists and ecologists to keep the area in tact- but more vocalization from the people burrying the dead...and so it goes, the spot was pretty mowed off when I got there.


















Massive Oak trees shroud the disorderly grave markers


















The oldest grave I could find had someone under it that had been born in 1771...


















I liked the way these had appeared to turn BLACK!


















A little Praying Mantis flew near to take a break and well... pray, right!?
This one totally knew I was taking its picture and proceded to creep behind the grave and stick its head out at me to stare... NO STARRERRING!























Which way is UP?


















This was a really cool visit, and though I would have liked to see more natural habitat- it is a very interesting place to check out. All weird and sprawling and old... a classic creepy cemetery.

october is the best month...
best weather, best colors, best air.












the sky is so pure and blue! (just ignore the power lines!)















Iowa City Modern...












Asian Market down the street from me=sauce heaven












something about this market is very comforting. small, saturated, colorful, smiling faces, old grandma in an apron sitting and chatting swiftly with delicate patrons.
...it reminds me A LOT of Tomato Company Inc. near Atlanta as it has just about any candy, snack, tea, veggie, noodle, bean, seafood critter, and condiment you could imagine, plus an Asian bootleg video rental section. This place even has the vcr set-up exposed...I didn't get a photo b/c it was right behind the checkout and I didn't want to seem invasive- but I quickly counted at least 12 vcr's and maybe 4 dvd players all hooked up in some sort of bizzare synchronicity.












has this been in Vice before???












The Iowa City public library is right behind my place.
...just a view from outside the window I was studying near today...

I awoke from a regular nights sleep to find that fall had appeared.
...and the trees were set ablaze to shed their cinders through the air!
but I ask-
where did the locusts go?
where were they ever?
even the crickets have started to cease.
and the world is drying up wherever you turn.
the fields that were once strikingly green-
are stark and brown today.
the sumac that was once vividly blood red-
is a deeper, more dense mahogany, almost black.
but oh! there is so much life in even what is dying.
for the ditches are rampant with that which is wild-
and the color rages on until it’s frozen in time.

...back on a def jux kick again... mostly aesop's labor days and el-p's fantastic damage.
Especially el-p.
Quality and innovation over-ride the nostalgia factor- but only by the thinnest sliver of difference. Still just listening to the first 4 seconds of either of these albums sends me back to places I'm lucky to have been.
....kind of makes me want to move back to new york...
Well actually, REALLY makes me want to move back to new york!

It's crazy how certain people can encompass a place through assemblage of sound.
Thev'e done it and I know this.
...the best news is- el producto has a new album coming out soon, and no doubt I have intensely high hopes.
But could our leader actually let us down?
I shall think not.

follow him: el-p's production blog

I read today that "thick eyebrows" are in for fall.
cool.

in addition to the eyebrows- I vote we all take cues from this charming little fellow above... sweater vest = must have
let's bring it back in full effect.
turtle necks too.
in fact... while everyone's at it- let's just get sharp marionette style.
monocles, little white gloves, suspenders, wingtips.
why not?
don't be surprised if when you see me next I got my puppet style on- and I mean the "good" kind of puppet. not the kind on a string.

Today a man came into where I work.

He is blind- but does that really have anything to do with anything???
...he first asked me what our brownie/bar selection was- so I told him:
4 mint
1 zebra
3 walnut fudge
4 coconut macaroon

he proceeded to order:
3 mint
1 zebra
2 walnut fudge
1 coconut macaroon

oh yeah... and FOUR diet sodas.
When the total exceeded 16 dollars, he told me he had but 15 to spend, so I suggested he take off one of the sodas (which cost a ridiculous amount anyway... $1.35 per 12 oz can) so he did and had 4 cents to spare. (TIP JAR GONE WILD!)

He then asked me to unwrap the brownies for him, which was fine- but I was shocked to see him sit down and eat every one of them.
That's right... 7 brownies... 3 sodas... one sitting.

My encounter with blind brownie man kicks off my new project of identifying excessiveness.
It might just be the biggest problem in the world today.
Seeing that man today was such a real-live, physical metaphor.

As we just victims, forced to participate in a consumer driven world controled by super power politicians and ceo's?
Or are we blind idiots who create our own destined fuck down by not making the right choice when we actually have one to make?

So kids, strap on yer bibs and get ready for moments of over indulgence, binging by design, packaging monstrosities.
Everything All The Time.
World Wide Buffet.

...things I am learning about food...

-how to not scorch the fuck out of everything with a gas stove and shitty pots and pans-
albeit...does anyone want to get pretend married so we can gift register for all new le creuset?

-cooking for one-
not only is it NOT fun...you eat too much and have left overs with a nasty tendency to get all skanked out.

-el myr can NOT be recreated in the kitchen of today nor the kitchen of the future-
howtheydodat?
some things are better to not know.
el myr on myspace

I wish I knew more about the true possibilities of this... but has anyone ever noticed or thought or wondered if there is just some limited amount of physical appearance options in the world???
...and through moving and mating they get planted and strewn about all over the place, things and people seem unique and individual, but they really are not that different from someone else they've never met or seen... and never will.
It's the doppelganger idea- and for me it's everywhere.
...you'll see someone in one location and then 1000's of miles away, there they'll be again.
Hey, there's that really tall guy with the flaming red afro and confident face...holy shit... there's that super annoying wanna be musician chic with the really awkward fat hanging over her jeans....and fuck it, over there is that really nice nerdy gay guy who's always wearing pastel button up dress shirts and looks totally sharp all the time. And look over there... it's the guy who gets a medium dark and tips a quarter.
Seriously... it's almost haunting- the people I just keep seeing over and over wherever I go. I'm not saying that these people aren't unique in their individual personalities, but I've lately just been very aware of these neither better nor worse, but strikingly similar people, who for some reason or another just can't stay away.

I washed my dishes 2 hours ago and my sink still has not drained.
...brushing up on my tenant rights at present...
anyone have any tips for dealing with negligent landlords?
In the meantime, I fear my sink and it's clogged and twisted depths. What if some sort of snake comes out of the drain?!!?

I guess it's not as bad as the time meredith, scott and I had some other tenants corny-poo in our bathtub.

So that summer came and went, and I became cold...

I'm not sure that it broke 60 today, and every time I checked... it was 57 degrees out there! August 28th and in the 50's!!!!
Hoodie weather is in full effect and I am sooo happy for that.
Jacket party 2006!!
Guess it's time to unpack the long sleeves and scarves I so adore.

I am slightly concerned about the poor little veggies finishing up their summer in the fields. Although their end is nigh, thems' be chilly temps for harvests to come.
(Hopefully the farmers market this week will still be good to go.)
Here is a shot showcasing only a fraction of what was available from last weeks selection-


...feeling pretty lucky that within 2 blocks- I have a 2 times a week farmers market and 2 independent organic food stores always full of local items.
New Pioneer Co-Op
Tait's Natural Foods

The very yummy Oasis Falafel Cafe even uses local soy oil for all of the deep frying.
Like I needed another excuse to eat french fries...
Oasis Cafe

now approaching midnight.
avoiding my textbooks at the moment...
oops.. there it went.

here are some photos I snapped the other day from the tornado damage that occurred in Iowa City a while back. The building next to this church had wood splinters protruding from its side from the force of the wind slamming the holy debris in like toothpicks.

Today was kind of frustrating.
Sometimes I have a hard time communicating to adults in positions where they always deal with people who don't know what they want. They are so used to making things so basic and general, and basically making people's minds up for them.
I know what I want.
I know what I don't want.
I've fucked around too much already, and I don't have time to waste.
And usually when dealing with university faculty- I end up telling them about the program I'm interested in b/c since it's not generic, they don't even know anything about it.
All I want is to make progress at a reasonable but quick pace... and I don't need anyone to hold my hand and walk with me taking baby steps.
...I go in to the Study Abroad office today to talk about the Icelandic exchange program with a program advisor and she ends up talking about fun times in Costa Rica so I can fulfill my foreign language credit. I told her I wanted to go to a school with a solid earth science and environmental studies program and that I wanted to focus on sustainable development IN SCANDINAVIA.
I got the notion towards the end of the meeting that she didn't even know what that was and that's fine, but just ask me. It's going to make things a lot easier for both of us.
I know that sometimes I can be bull headed- but shit, don't waste my time talking about Central America when I specifically tell you I want to study in Scandinavia.
Anyway, here are some photos from my place and what not....

this is my building

always at home with eames

stuff!!!

...appetite for destruction...

if anyone out there can think of the best name for this sandwich, I will send you a prize!
so start scramblin' yer noodles NOW...

2 slices of soft wheat bread of some sort
1 medium sized carrot- finely shredded
herbed tofu- extra firm
sprouts that tickle your fancy (I like broccoli sprouts!)
pickles- hamburger dills yo!
hummus of your choosing- I've found scallion to be rather tasty
annie's goddess dressing (it HAS to be annie's goddess!!!)
yellow mustard (mustardayonaise if you're "like that")

....so....
-spread a decent amount of hummus on the bottom layer of bread
-pile carrot shreds on top
-then, put a decent amount of sprout action on top of that
-drizzle the golden dressing that annie made on toppadat!
-NEXT! thinly slice the herbed tofu lengthwise if you can- to get the most coverage
-stack 2-3 pieces of tofu on the sprouts...etc.
-pickle that shit UP!
-draw a pretty mustard design on the other piece of bread
-top, smash, cut...eat!

fuck jars.

They are so hard to get open. Imagine if I were an old lady with arthritic hands. It's only going to get WORSE!! I seriously had such a hard time with this that I almost cried and threw the jar at the wall. But the fact the mess would have been way worse made up my mind. To all you pickle jar manufactuers out there... have a heart... not all homes have men between the ages of 15-55 in them.

look ma, no ketchup!

here's some photos from my super exclusive pinic in the park with myself.

mineral water, veggie booty, bomb ass sandwich, vegan cookie... evolution...
what more does a gal need anyway?



yuummmmmm............

greetings from IOWA!

So...I had previously planned on being more initially thorough with this whole blog thing... I had desires to photo document the entire process of the big move. The parties, the packing, the move-out, the move-in and all the chaos that is strewn in between and around. Aside from the photographic side of things I also wanted to start this as a way to practice articulating and recounting my observations in a more outward way. Maybe that seems bogus and wordy, but it's what I mean. I have a feeling that the next few years are going to be very much about process and collection- so I may as well get a jump on things and start sifting through the sediment now.

Back to the imagery!

...I wanted you to see (even though maybe it's all too obvious) the visual transition from South to North... I wanted you to see what it looks like when you drive into Iowa over the Mississippi River by way of Interstate 80. I wanted you- my Atlanta lovers!!- to be in the drivers seat of a 16 foot Budget rental truck as I took a left turn down Quincy's gravel Avenue... up the short lane of my 1860's farmhouse shaded by overgrown arborvitaes- and get that feeling... this is home again.
Did you catch a glimpse of my crazy dog racing around the yard to greet us in a frenzied blur?

But alas, the trip I made was solitary for the most part. My dad- who is generally silent and non-obtrusive, flew down to help me with the drive back. Most of my time was spent driving and thinking. Collecting the hazy memories from an amazing week exploding with drinks, hugs, sweat, love, and last minute connections; returning to the moments to savor them once again while simultaneously driving away from them.

I left Atlanta in the early, soft pink morning of July, 31st, 2006 and arrived at 1259 Quincy Avenue that very same day. So much was physically far from me, and that felt pretty heavy. But more heavy than the all the 16 wheelers that dominated my 1000+ miles of travel- was the weight of emotion I carried with me. I truly felt that I had left so much behind.
I still feel like I have left so much behind.

20 or so odd days have passed, and it's true...
I have proven myself wrong.
I long for Atlanta.
I miss the things I didn't think I would.
But I am okay with that! I know I am here in Iowa for one simple and specific reason= to finish school.

So- on with the next.
School started today...I've been working at a coffee shop...catching up with old friends and family... etc. etc...
I am moved in to my new apartment, and though it's a work in progress, I'm getting used to what it's like to live alone. Lots of walking around in my undies, really.
Iowa City is a small treasure worth delicate exploration, so I'm in the process of checking out the spots and what not- just trying to soak in...I'll do some features of the cool places coming up in future blooooogggs.

In the meantime, here are some photos, some of which will require more in depth explanation at a later time! Until then.
Much love from your forever displaced girl...

cabbagetown tunnel


scott and I trying to pop blood vessals in our face?!


me husking corn w. an effed up face- ultimate grilling session followed...


amazing shot by Bobb Lovett of the lovely home of said corn- if anyone is familiar with Iowa artist Grant Wood... this photo looks like one of his paintings!!!


bobb's senior photo that never happened- everyone ask bobb about the rental car story!!!


it is truly rediculous in Tipton...