March Where Did You Go?

I swear this month has just passed by me and I don't know how...

There have been many trips and many explorations this month and I will share a few with you now.

- I began Mustache March with this guy I guess you could call him my friend Austin Piper (not really we hate each other *wink*)

- I went on epic hiking trips with some fantastic people..... You know who you all are.

- I fired a gun for the first time in my life.

-  I explored Horse Shoe Lake and the surrounding areas.

- I went to Knotts Berry Farm in Cali with a group of friends.

- I turned 20 years old on the 13th!

- I video chatted multiple times with my best friend while she studies abroad in Italy. *jealous face*

- I was at the live taping of an episode of American Idol in Los Angeles.

- I stayed up 29 hours within a two day period *not recommended*

- Completed many pieces of art in his classes at school.

- Explored the Asian market near his house..... they have some weird stuff just let me tell you.

- Received his first ticket ever..... stupid cops *gives stink eye*

- Buried my dog Mozarts ashes under a tree, read earlier post for full story.

- GOT INTO THE ASU DRAWING PROGRAM! 

And many many more things, this year has been great and I can't wait to see what April has in store for me!

A Sleep Deprived Redhead...

Friday night I had the pleasure of attending a lock-in at the church I help out with the youth at, and if you know what lock-ins entail you know they don't entail sleep.... For those of you who have no idea what a lock-in is I will explain; Basically everyone gathers at the church around 10pm and then the doors get locked so that they have to stay and can't wander off. Then there are tournaments and group games all night long mixed in with talent shows and free time as well. Some kids squeeze a nap in but most don't, and me being a leader I didn't have the privilege of sleeping. By the time 7am rolled around and the kids were all being picked up I had been up for 19 hours straight.

I then had to meet up at my old church North Phoenix Baptist at 9am to give my artistic opinion on the renovations they are doing on their 3rd floor, which is where their youth meets on Sundays and Wednesdays. I got there around 8am and figured I would take a nap in my truck so I did, about 45 minutes later I get awoken by a random older Asian man knocking on my window asking me to open my door..... So being half asleep I did (I know stupid right) and he just wanted to ask me if I was okay and if I had fallen asleep on accident with my engine running. I told him I was waiting for some people and he went on his way. I finally met up with my friends Carol and JonMark and we went up to the 3rd floor and I got to see the progress they had been making which looks freaking amazing. 

I was there until about 3pm so I had been up for just about 27 hours, which I don't recommend. I then had to make the 30 minute drive home which was one f the scariest experiences of my life. It was like daydreaming... Nothing seemed real and I kept almost nodding off. I thought I was going to crash and kill myself, so needless to say I won't be doing that anytime soon or ever. I got home at almost 4pm and went to bed around 5.

SO MY GRAND TOTAL OF HOURS WITH NO SLEEP WAS!!! *drumroll*.............. 29

This photo I took a couple weeks ago describes how I was seeing things that day.... The whole day feels like it was a dream and never happened.

Rain + Toms.

Advice for owners of Toms Shoes: Check the weather before you leave your house if you even if there is only a slight chance for rain........ they will absorb water like a sponge and you will be miserable with cold soaked shoes all day, I would know this happened to me this morning :( 

I will never again let this happen! Rain will not get the best of me and my Toms ever again!

(I know my bad... I should have know to change shoes when I saw the sky was super dark this morning)

Let's all go to the Berry Farm.....

I took a trip with a couple of friends this week back out to California for the second time in the past two weeks, and we all went to Knott's Berry Farm. I'm going to keep it short and say it was so nice to get away again but seriously The theme park was kind of lame....... Other than that hanging out with my friends made the trip worth it. Here are a few pics from the trip........

The Story of a Ficus Tree....

Long ago my mom and dad traveled from Texas to move here to Phoenix, and my mom brought with her an indoor ficus tree that she had kept in their apartment. It survived the trip and followed our family through three moves until we settled in the house we are still in now.

We had a family friend living with us and he had a black lab puppy(Mozart) who all my friends know was later given to us. Anyways one day when we were all not home Mozart was in the backyard and my mom had put the ficus tree outside for some sun. Seeing it as an opportunity Mozart chewed through the base of the 7 foot tall tree then decided to play with it like a giant bone. When my parents got home Mozart was running from one said of the yard to the other with the tree in his mouth. My mom was not happy to say the least, so she grabbed the tree from Mozart. 

My dad immediately called the man who was staying with us and told him before he came home that day it would be in his best interests to go to the store and buy my mom a ficus tree. So he returned home with a brand new tree for my mom. That new tree has been in our house for almost 10 years, until yesterday.....

We planted the tree in out backyard Saturday morning, but if you read my post last month about my black lab Mozart you know he sadly isn't with us anymore. Before we put the tree in the ground we put Mozart's ashes in the hole so that he will live on forever with that ficus tree.

R.I.P Mozart Picarro Houston 

You will live forever now buddy.

Idol Dreaming....... "Waaaaaaat Ryan?"

Last weekend I received a text message from a friend asking me if I wanted to go to American Idol with him and some other people. Figuring that it was a once in a lifetime kind of deal I said I would go. We drove to Irvine California on Monday afternoon and picked up his friend who was going with us. We didn't have to be at the show until Tuesday afternoon so Monday night we drove out to Santa Barbra and explored 3rd street promenade, and the pier. Not to mention taking ridiculous pictures in the parking garage. 

Tuesday rolled around and we drove out to Los Angeles to the CBS studios dressed to the nines, because there was a dress code...... We were numbers 60, 61, and 62 in line to get into the rehearsal so we figured we had a very good shot of getting into the show. I will save the boring parts and get on with it. We got into the rehearsal and before we did they took away our cameras and our cell phones so unfortunately I have no pictures of the event. After the rehearsal was over our section was asked if we wanted to stay for the live show.... So of course everyone said YES! So if you watched American Idol on Tuesday the 9th of March you saw me multiple times on national television! The experience was awesome and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Being there with awesome people didn't hurt either...

 The last photo before my camera was taken from me...

There is definitely more to the story but for your eyes sake I'm not going to type it all up.... ask me about it I will give you all the details!

Sorry it's a photo of the the T.V.

A Day Spent With Nature...

Today was a jam packed Saturday... Full of friends, hiking, shooting, and photos.

I woke up at 8am this morning and met up with my buddies Lauren, Rachel , and Titus and we drove about 30 minutes to get to SquawPeak to go hiking, let's just say we don't like using the trails and may have gotten a little lost, but we took amazing and hilarious pictures to make up for it.

 

  

  

 

Later that day I met up with my dad, uncle , and grandpa.... Which is always an experience. This time they decided they were going to drive out to Horseshoe Lake, which is near Cave Creek, AZ. They wanted to go shooting with some of the guns they have recently bought and asked me if I wanted to come along, me seeing it as a photo opportunity I obliged and jumped in the truck. I got some amazing shots of the scenery, which made the trip worth it... Oh and I fired a gun for the first time today which was definitely an experience...

 

  

  

  

  

Photo Credits: Me

Musical Habbits...

I was driving home today and could not figure out what to listen to... I scrolled through my Ipod a couple times and nothing stuck out to me, and if you know me at all you know that I go through music in phases. I feel like there is no phase right now I'm stuck in some kind of musical limbo... 

So I just picked something and it wound up being Jack's Mannequin. I had forgotten how much I loved their music, and now I'm just a little obsessed. If you have never heard of JM or listen to their music go check them out right now!

Art Update #2

Hey it's March, and this is my second Art update enjoy! More art will be up sometime next week :)

 

Life Drawing: Chalk pastel + Charcoal 

Sketchbook Page: Ink, Stamp Pads, Newspaper

Old College Application Piece: Graphite

I hope you enjoyed my art this week, If you would like to use the images in any way ask my permission first.

Mustache March? I Think YES

Me and my friend Austin Piper decided that we wanted to do something kind of crazy, kind of strange, maybe even kind of stupid for the whole month of March. 

What are we doing you ask? Well for some reason I had seen something about Mustache March somewhere and that was the first thing that popped up so I said that. So we decided we would participate.

So for the whole month I will not be shaving my Moustache......

April 1st we will see, maybe I will shave maybe not..

 

Be Jealous.