Rose's First Update Post
Hi Mom, Carla, and Sara -
Sara, I owe you an email describing my life from the past two weeks, so this is going to be it. I figure I'll include everyone in it, because I'm sure Carla wants to know about Master Hyong's housewarming party.
The MFA show -
It was great - I can't believe it's over. I had a bunch of tickets up in little frames (they looked OK - they were the floating frames; plain glass pressed together to house a ticket.) I had a vitrine (one of those glass cases) over a pedestal with a bunch of stuff I was selling; t-shirts, buttons, and CDs with an audio recording of the sunset by Steve Albini. (That's going up on ITunes and Napster, and Real Audio, and all the other mp3 sites on May 31st) - and I was selling that stuff at a table, along with these absolutely GORGEOUS posters made by this artist from Chicago. (They're being sold in a gallery now.)
And CARLA stood next to me as I sold stuff - actually, Carla sold most of the stuff while I walked around and chatted with people! Mom and Dad were there! Tons of people showed up, and there was a bunch of other art in the gallery; one of the other pieces was a guy who was bicycling; all his art is about bicycling and how athletes put impurities into their bodies. Also about the bicyclist; he was calling his biking his "work" so he was "checking in" each day into the museum as if it was his workplace. The bike was up on a "trainer" so he was stationary.
The high part of the whole thing was that here, at the culmination of my academic career (well, most likely, anyway) Carla stood next to me, helped me set up this table, helped me get dressed - in fact earlier that day, I dragged her to the Dojang because I was judging a TKD test - and she sat next to me as I judged. You know she is taking TKD now so it meant more to her to watch a test! It was a big deal for me as well because I haven't judged a test in like, 3 years.
Oh! Then we had my birthday / graduation party after that! A lot of people came to that as well; tons of martial artists, good friends, art students. It was wonderful to watch Mom and Dad talk to all my friends! The Valentins were there as well. It was so nice! We ate fried chicken from the Seaboat. Gram spent the whole day just walking around and smiling at people. He loves when there are more people around the house. Another cool thing was that Mr. Valentin got to meet the woman who I teach TKD with; Lillian Hoddeson; she's a physicist and historian who works at the "other" lab in Chicago sometimes, so they have mutual friends.
It just felt so wonderful to have all these friends of mine and my family all in my house. I can still see everyone standing and talking. There was one point where Carla and Lillian (TKD teacher) and a bunch of other martial artists were standing in my dining room and Carla had her foot pointed out like she was doing a front-kick and everyone was standing around in a very serious discussion about it; I knew it was one of those intense martial arts discussions I've had for years, but now it was Carla having it.
Also! Carla met Master Hyong and they hit it off wonderfully! Master Hyong gave me and Carla a pep talk about his new theories of TKD. He came to the party later, and brought me a bottle of wine. Everyone had a sip, and Carla got to open the wine with Lillian's husband standing over her, 'vulturing' her.
So now for Carla, Master Hyong's party -
It seemed like there were about 1000 people there; half of them Korean. His house is a big house (about 1/3 the size of Carla' s house) in the middle of a farmland, 5 minutes from our house. There is a pond next to it. The house is not anywhere near done yet; the interior needs to be finished. There was a live band playing on their upstairs terrace the whole night long, and horse and pony rides!!! Gram had his first pony ride! Carla, I wished so badly that I could have convinced you to come down for it, you and the kids would have loved it. Gram spent about 4 hours running around in the dirt and grass and stones and smiling and yelling. There was tons of Korean food. People who hadn't ever met Gram were really happy to meet him, because most of the instructors knew me when I lost the first baby and the second. One of the instructors grabbed Gram and said, "Your mommy has been waiting a LONG time for YOU!
And that's it, all I have to do is graduate now (this Saturday).
Oh yeah, and write a thesis.
-rose
Sara, I owe you an email describing my life from the past two weeks, so this is going to be it. I figure I'll include everyone in it, because I'm sure Carla wants to know about Master Hyong's housewarming party.
The MFA show -
It was great - I can't believe it's over. I had a bunch of tickets up in little frames (they looked OK - they were the floating frames; plain glass pressed together to house a ticket.) I had a vitrine (one of those glass cases) over a pedestal with a bunch of stuff I was selling; t-shirts, buttons, and CDs with an audio recording of the sunset by Steve Albini. (That's going up on ITunes and Napster, and Real Audio, and all the other mp3 sites on May 31st) - and I was selling that stuff at a table, along with these absolutely GORGEOUS posters made by this artist from Chicago. (They're being sold in a gallery now.)
And CARLA stood next to me as I sold stuff - actually, Carla sold most of the stuff while I walked around and chatted with people! Mom and Dad were there! Tons of people showed up, and there was a bunch of other art in the gallery; one of the other pieces was a guy who was bicycling; all his art is about bicycling and how athletes put impurities into their bodies. Also about the bicyclist; he was calling his biking his "work" so he was "checking in" each day into the museum as if it was his workplace. The bike was up on a "trainer" so he was stationary.
The high part of the whole thing was that here, at the culmination of my academic career (well, most likely, anyway) Carla stood next to me, helped me set up this table, helped me get dressed - in fact earlier that day, I dragged her to the Dojang because I was judging a TKD test - and she sat next to me as I judged. You know she is taking TKD now so it meant more to her to watch a test! It was a big deal for me as well because I haven't judged a test in like, 3 years.
Oh! Then we had my birthday / graduation party after that! A lot of people came to that as well; tons of martial artists, good friends, art students. It was wonderful to watch Mom and Dad talk to all my friends! The Valentins were there as well. It was so nice! We ate fried chicken from the Seaboat. Gram spent the whole day just walking around and smiling at people. He loves when there are more people around the house. Another cool thing was that Mr. Valentin got to meet the woman who I teach TKD with; Lillian Hoddeson; she's a physicist and historian who works at the "other" lab in Chicago sometimes, so they have mutual friends.
It just felt so wonderful to have all these friends of mine and my family all in my house. I can still see everyone standing and talking. There was one point where Carla and Lillian (TKD teacher) and a bunch of other martial artists were standing in my dining room and Carla had her foot pointed out like she was doing a front-kick and everyone was standing around in a very serious discussion about it; I knew it was one of those intense martial arts discussions I've had for years, but now it was Carla having it.
Also! Carla met Master Hyong and they hit it off wonderfully! Master Hyong gave me and Carla a pep talk about his new theories of TKD. He came to the party later, and brought me a bottle of wine. Everyone had a sip, and Carla got to open the wine with Lillian's husband standing over her, 'vulturing' her.
So now for Carla, Master Hyong's party -
It seemed like there were about 1000 people there; half of them Korean. His house is a big house (about 1/3 the size of Carla' s house) in the middle of a farmland, 5 minutes from our house. There is a pond next to it. The house is not anywhere near done yet; the interior needs to be finished. There was a live band playing on their upstairs terrace the whole night long, and horse and pony rides!!! Gram had his first pony ride! Carla, I wished so badly that I could have convinced you to come down for it, you and the kids would have loved it. Gram spent about 4 hours running around in the dirt and grass and stones and smiling and yelling. There was tons of Korean food. People who hadn't ever met Gram were really happy to meet him, because most of the instructors knew me when I lost the first baby and the second. One of the instructors grabbed Gram and said, "Your mommy has been waiting a LONG time for YOU!
And that's it, all I have to do is graduate now (this Saturday).
Oh yeah, and write a thesis.
-rose
posted by Rose Marshack at 11:10 PM
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