Long time, no blog.

I swear I will be getting a hang of this blogging thing.

Life is good in Nashville. I'm about to turn over my entire middle school classroom to my student teacher, Jessica, which I can tell you I am thrilled for because who doesn't want a break from their job???

As far as life OUTSIDE of work, living in Nashville has proved to be even greater fun. It is a little hard to do just everything we want to do with only one person working right now, but we still find time to do fun things. We have made a lot of great discoveries as well as far as great places to eat and chill-

Five Points

When we first moved here, I heard so many terrible things about East Nashville (the somewhat area we live in). Yes, there are some ghetto places but we have also found some GREAT, trendy areas that we really love. One of them is Five Points. Five Points is a tiny, tiny area that is filled with awesome places to eat and walk around. It's quite hilarious because the people look completely different than the people you would find downtown in cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Matt likes to call this the "hipster" part of town.
Among some of the great eating places we fount Five Points Pizza which is probably the single best pizza in town...

Hot dog lover? YOU NEED to go check out I Dream of Weenie..

And get your coffee fix at the wonderful cafe called Ugly Muggs. 

Fleet Street

We discovered Fleet Street on Christmas Day. Matt and I were by ourselves this year for the holiday because we did all of our family get togethers prior to Dec 25th so we drove around trying to find somewhere to go and where to eat. I read online that the Fleet Street Pub was open all day so we thought "well, it's not your typical Christmas food but let's go!" Fleet Street is an small ally ducked somewhere in downtown Nashville that has a lot of bars and pubs, this one in particular was a British pub. The atmosphere was awesome, urban and friendly. We ordered and ate the fish n' chips which was just awesome! GREAT place to go hang and have a beer in downtown (and I'm not very big into the downtown area). Matt and I both agreed that we will make that our Christmas tradition every year from now on :)

There are sooo many more discoveries, I will have to find time to fit some more in here later. 

NEXT TIME!!!

Middle School Teaching So Far..

I am going into my third week at Mount Juliet Middle School and the verdict is....

I REALLY, really like it. :)

I've snapped a few pictures to show you my lovely journey through this new experience.

One thing I really do enjoy about middle school is the big change you see from 6th grade to 8th grade. I was so shocked by how SMALL my 6th graders are, then when my 8th graders get in here, half of them are taller than me. It's such a huge change to watch them go through in just three years!

Also, I think it is safe to say, as a whole, my middle school kids here are much harder workers than my high school students. Not because of skill by any means, but they're still at the age where they like to be creative and enjoy coming to art. In high school, they tend to get a bit more apathetic over subjects like art.

Another thing I like, they're *so* easy to intimidate. I feel like I had the 6th and 7th graders in tears practically because I was so strict and firm with them on the first day of class. After observing them, I discovered I can show them a little more remorse.

It's been taking a while to order supplies so I don't have nearly as much projects done with them as I thought I would by this time. We're just now starting on our first projects. 6th grade is doing Q-tip pointillism, 7th grade will be doing graffiti and 8th grade will be making graphic design movie posters.

Here are some shots throughout the day. (These kids are REALLY creative and bright. Such a pleasure to teach them!)


6TH GRADE-- POINTILLISM Q-TIPS

Welcome to our Nerd Cave :)

So I took the liberty of snapping a couple of pics of our new apartment. Though we aren't COMPLETELY done just yet, the entire tour gallery will have to wait till the end of the week.

But tonight's post will show you several of the accents of our apartment that make it the best "nerd cave" of all of Nashville. :)

This is part of our living room which is showing you our DVD, video game and book collection. We got a PS3, PS2, Wii and an N64. I was SO excited about combining our stuff because I knew we would have a nice entertainment center. The Sheldon Cooper poster was a must-have for my graphic designer fiance. 

Matt had sculpted the arm from Full Metal Alchemist when we were in clay sculpture class at UT Martin. I told him when he finished it "we WILL have that at our place when we get married" He was quite pleased at this request. :) I think it's bamf.

On the shelves of our DVDs, we got some cool Marvel figurines: Venom being the coolest. 

Zombie Spider-Man on the other side. 

My Hunger Games magnets.

Matt is a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim. So he painted this inspired portrait of us as two Scott Pilgrim characters, above will be painted "The Garretts" in the title font. :) 

I know it's not nerdy perse  but I am really enjoying our city themed bathroom.

Now I can not wait for these to be done. Matt's been working on them for quite a while. Its going to be a series of portraits of our friends in neon graphic colors. So excited to see them all put together. Only 4 more to go!

Loading and unloading, done. Unpacking and organizing, EFFING DONE.

I got two words to sum up my experience these last 4 days.

moving. sucks.

Never in my life did I ever imagine that moving (and not just that but downsizing from a 1200 sq ft. apartment to an 800 sq. ft) would be so overwhelming and stressful. I do remember lots of people saying that this will be a big challenge and test for mine and Matt's relationship. Sure enough, the week before the move we fought more than we have fought our entire 3 years of being together. I thought the madness would never stop.

But I will say, on the day of the move, this guy really went above and beyond for all the work he put into us moving. We got all of our furniture moved in last Saturday and by the end of the day I just had no idea what to do. I wish, looking back now, that I took pictures of this process but I was too stressed out to even imagine doing that. I wanted to separate all the boxes and put them in their own individual rooms but we had NO ROOM to even do that. We got the bed put together and just clunked out. When we woke up the next morning I tried to get started on the living room, thinking if I could just get the "main" room looking decent I won't feel so overwhelmed. 

About 15 minutes in, I felt like I was making it worse than making it better. I tried to organize by putting the crates and bins in the closets, but they wouldn't fit on the shelves. I tried to hang up mine and Matt's clothes but we only had room for half of mine. We had no storage space whatsoever. We had hardly any cabinet space for all our dishes and groceries. Everything felt like it was just getting smaller and smaller so I just fell onto the couch in tears. I had no idea how we were going to put together this apartment with all of our stuff we had no room for. Matt, being the sweet thing he is, came over and handed me a blanket and said "you're just tired. lay down on the couch and take a nap." Realizing I really was exhausted (especially since I didn't sleep much the night before) I did what he said and fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up a few hours later, I realized that he had already set up and organized the entire living room, dining room AND kitchen..... Just another thing to brag about. My future husband is the absolute best. :)

Anyway, it's now Tuesday and it FINALLY looks the way we want it to. It was rough moving up here, but working with Matt on this has been just a blast. We have always lived apart since we've started dated, even had to maintain a long distance relationship 95% of the time. Knowing that I was setting up and decorating our first home together, there's just nothing like it.

I got a couple of pictures to post throughout the night, including some accents that give our apartment an "awesome nerd touch."

Look out Nashville, the Garretts have MOVED IN!!!! :))))

one more week. and already worn. out.

As you could probably guess from the topic I have had a busy last couple of days.

I got an email last week that I have New Teacher Orientation this weekend for Wilson County Schools. Well, might as well go up there and stay several days to get some stuff done right? There were so many things I was needing to do:

-Put down a deposit for NES (Nashville Electric Services, which charges me a whopping 180 bucks to begin services. GROSS)
-Put down my deposit for renters insurance and new car insurance

-Get to working in my new classroom.

I thought I could kill several birds with one stone so I decided to drive up there Tuesday, stay the night with my funny Nashville-ian friend Mary Beth for the week while I got some things done. Here is what's happened so far.

Tuesday Night:

I stopped in Dickson on the way to Nashville and had dinner with four of my favorite students from Perry County: Farrah, Nicole, Hunter and Ian. Words cannot describe how much I adore these kiddos! It felt very different going out to eat dinner with them as friends, since they're technically no longer my pupils. I kept remembering how they were when they came into my Art I class as sophomores and it just amazes me how much they have grown into such precious young adults. My advisor told me that you never forget your “first batch of kids”. I always thought she was just crazy, and a bit of a freak. Oh, how I was so wrong, and she was so right. When I hugged them goodbye for the last time, it made me realize how happy I am with the career path I chose for myself. I know I complain and nag all the time on here about my job but the truth it, I really, really do love it.

Wednesday:
Got up at the crack of dawn (ok, not really the CRACK of dawn, more like 7am) and went to NES and paid my Godly expensive deposit. That was painful but at least we get it back in a year.

Went to Cherry Creek to sign our lease, pay our pro-rated rent for the month of July AND my entire month's rent for August. So that's about $1,500 right there. WHOEVER told me that moving “is no big deal” deserves a nice long night with the back of my hand. But, nevertheless, I AM getting to finally move to my dream city. It's by far worth the price I've spent.

Went out to my new classroom at Mt Juliet Middle to decorate and go through my inventory. GOOD GRACIOUS THIS WOMAN LEFT ME WITH SO MANY GREAT ART SUPPLIES. She has left me paint, paper, origami paper, bookmaking supplies, a kiln, construction paper, and best but never least A CRAP LOAD OF PRINT MAKING SUPPLIES. (<-----------THISSSS) I spent pretty much the whole day there. From 10am – 7pm of nothing but organizing, planning and decorating. Here are just a few snapshots of what it looks like so far. I plan on doing so much more to it.

View when you first enter.

Another angle. The poles in the room are very weird. I didn't notice them much when I first saw the room but as I walk around and move about in my new room, I just feel like they're in the way and also so out of place. On the plus side. They do have outlet holes, so that will come in handy. Especially if the kids ever use hot glue guns.

View from the back of the room. Still got a lot of decorating on the walls (future mural ideas possibly?). Also notice how hardly NONE of the chairs match one another. How funny is that :)

My desk and curtains I hung up today! I knocked off the Pinterest craft of decorating an ugly desk with wrapping paper. It matches my curtains PERFECTLY!! :D I also love that desk beside mine in front of the window. I'm planning on making it one of my “isolation” tables.

View from another corner of the room. You can see my kick butt paint station from here.

Gloooooory, Glory, HALLELUUUUUJAH. I HAVE A SINK.

The printmaking supplies I stumbled across. Out of everything I found today, THIS is what I freaked out about the most.

A flipping KILN.

And of course, my teacher trade-mark. The “dark aluminous room”. When I was at PCHS, we were practicing still lives so I brought in three lamps for our light source so they could see shadows. After we finished our shading project, we liked the feel of the room so much, we kept the big lights off. Not sure if I will continue that with these middle schoolers, but it's always nice knowing I can go to this look whenever I like. I actually loooove it with the lights off.

And for some other snapshots around Nashville:

A brand new apartment complex in Bellevue that I absolutely love but will probably never be able to afford. No matter how many times I sell myself. :/

A big long-haired kitty I almost took home with me. Seriously people, take care of your pets. Especially if it's as cute as this one!!!

Move in day in a little over a week. I am counting down the days. Still. And be expecting a huge blog post about our moving experience. Hope it's better than worse.

Five Favorite Films

So I am sitting up on my couch unable to fall asleep (and begins that teacher-summertime-insomnia). While up and about, I've been browsing the internet for some movie reviews since I am a movie fanatic and I am always looking out for a movie I'm wanting to see. I came across a channel made by Rotten Tomatoes where they ask actors and actresses what their top 5 favorite films were. They interviewed some people like Jonah Hill, Edward Norton, Katherine Heigl, Tilda Swinton, Michael Caine and some other great people. It surprised me who had great taste and who had bad taste. (Ice Cube has GREAT taste in movies ironically!)

So it got me thinking. What ARE my 5 favorite films. After much, much, muuuuch deliberation I've finally came up with my list. What better place to share than here! So here are MY top 5 favorite films (for now that is):

5. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

I just watched this movie literally 3 days ago and it's already made a great impact on me.

Being a life-long artist, I am a huge fan of Wes Anderson's style of film making. I think his style of films are by far the most beautiful in the industry. For those who don't know, Moonrise Kingdom is a love story between a boy and a girl who decided to run off together which brings their family to create a search party for them around town. It's one of the best coming-of-age movies I've seen in years not to mention a marvelous cast. I just love all of Wes Anderson's quirkiness he puts into his characters. The movie made me laugh, it made me tear up, it made me feel melancholy. The soundtrack was brilliant--- overall just a fantastic movie.

4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Eternal Sunshine came as a HUGE surprise for me the very first time I watched it. I was not expecting this movie to impact me at all but in the end it ended up being one of the most unique and heart wrenching movies I've ever seen.

Eternal Sunshine is about this couple who's relationship starts going south so they undergo this procedure that erases all their memories of them together, but while they go through the procedure, they realize just how much they still love each other. It's one of the most creative and poignant stories I've ever watched on film. I remember watching the movie and crying my eyes out because I wanted them together so bad and I was heart broken every time they were torn apart. Very few movies can make me feel that way, so when once comes across me like that is an amazing piece of work.

3. (500) Days of Summer (2009) 

Surprise, surprise. Another romance-type movie right? WRONG. lol Watch the movie and you will know what I'm talking about. :)

(500) Days of Summer is honestly a movie that I don't really just love, I *adore* this movie. I literally have watched it over 25 times and I learn something new every time I watch it. I think that this is one of the most brutally honest movies ever made which is why not many people like it- but that is the sole reason why I adore it.

There is SO much honesty to this story about Joseph Gordon-Levitt who falls head-over-heels in love with Zooey Deschanel but she just does not and will never love him the way he loves her. And it's during this entire situation that he finds out exactly what kind of man he wants to be and what he wants out of his life. I related so much to this movie and my previous relationship experiences are almost an exact mirror reflection of what this guy goes through in this movie. I literally have felt each emotion he did in this film.

I love EVERYTHING about this movie: the story, the message, the characters. But what makes this movie even greater is the art direction is absolutely stunning. The soundtrack is marvelous and reminds me a lot of The Graduate movie soundtrack. This will probably stay in my top 5 for the rest of my life.

2. Shawshank Redemption (1994)

EVERYBODY is a lover of the great Morgan Freeman. To me this is what started it all.

To me, I don't think there will ever really be a movie that was made better than this movie. Everything about this film is perfect: perfect story, perfect script, perfect cast, perfect acting, perfect ending. There is not one moment of this movie that is flawed. I can't say beyond words how *rare*  it is to find a movie like this. I watch this movie every time it comes on cable (which is a whole lot). It is such a remarkable story about friendship and the importance of keeping hope in our hearts throughout anything we are going through in life.

Some of my favorite quotes of all time come from this film. One in particular, the famous "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'." I recently had to re-buy this DVD because we watched it so much it got scratched to pieces.

My number one, favorite movie, of all time.....

1. Elizabethtown (2005)

I usually follow movie critics to a tee with film ratings. However, I honest to God think this movie is one of the most severely underrated films of all time.

I'm a huge fan of the "coming-of-age" films. Elizabethtown is about a guy in California who's Dad dies, so he has to travel to his Dad's hometown in Kentucky to arrange his funeral and meet with that side of the family. Through this process, he finds love and finds out just how precious and beautiful life is. There's lots of reasons why I loved this movie as much as I do.  Growing up in a small town in a state that is Kentucky's neighbor, there were so many elements to this film's setting that reminded me so much of my hometown of Lynchburg. The people, the scenery, it really felt like I was watching a film that was shot in my backyard. I feel it reflected the great closeness of a small town and how when one individual passes away, the entire town is effected as if they were all close family.

There are very few directors who can make these beautiful films depicting the importance of living life to the fullest, and Cameron Crowe is one of them. Another reason why I love Cameron Crowe's movies is because he (along with Wes Anderson) puts a giant role on music and the soundtrack of a film as much as he does an actor or actress starring in it. I still, to this day, find this to be the *best* movie soundtrack of all time. I bought the soundtrack and left it in the CD player of my car for 5 straight months. To me, this is the most perfect soundtrack for a film and it really can not get any better than this.

This is a movie that I have literally watched over 100 times. I watch it when I'm sick, while I'm cooking dinner, while I'm having a glass of wine relaxing after a day of work, while I'm in bed trying to go to sleep, I watch this movie all the time. And I cry every. single. time. I watch it.


Well, those are my top 5 favorites! (for now that is. Lord knows that they will be tomorrow.)

Bed time. Now.

New Blog

In case anybody is interested, I have created a new blog on tumblr which will be all for my experience at Mount Juliet Middle School. I'm gonna try to keep up two blogs and see how that goes. If it gets too insane, I will just blend both subjects into this one. I really like the Tumblr look over Blogger but I feel like I have a much better community here on Blogger.

So here ya go:

http://mjmsart.tumblr.com