day 302

just feeding a giraffe at the ~state fair of louisiana~

i love fairs because they're colorful and creepy and have animals sometimes.

wish i could've ridden the rides, but that shit's pricey and also kind of dangerous.

instead i just ate a few snacks~ and hung out with my boyfriend and took photos of "things that are joined" for my photography class.

here is a really super picture of dacoda and i at the fair LAST year:

photo cred: lawrence drexler

i hope someone types my dad's name into google and this comes up.

i've got big plans for this weekend y'all, mostly involving doing lotssss of homework. but also involving going to the ~makers fair~ and halloween parties and watching scary movies and making cookies with my mom~~~~~~~

is 8:52 too early to go to bed? i don't think so because i have to wake up reallllly early for work....

what are y'all being for halloween?

what ~scary~ movies do y'all like? just wondering because my boyfriend insists that the saw movies are bad but i think they're interesting and evoke potential psychological discussions. i also like the final destination movies.

have you ever felt a giraffe's tongue?

day 301

HAY

just a reminder that the world doesn't owe you anything

k

t

h

a

n

k

s

b

y

e

day 300

there are very few things i love about shreveport, and ~*~pumpkin shine on line~*~ is one of them. for those of you who don't live in this BEAUTIFUL CITY, it's a KEWL FALL ACTIVITY with like jack-o-lanterns and painted pumpkins lined up alllll around the closest park to my house. it's the only time of the year when cars are parked up and down my street. makes me feel superior.

"oh. you had to drive here? oh...." psshh

i wanted to take a picture of myself AT pumpkin shine but that is just way too many people to have around to set up a self-portrait and it would just be awkward and people would stare. my blog is not ~~fAmOuS~ and i can't get away with shit like that. i thought about asking my mom to take my picture but didn't feel like having to re-explain my 365 day proj.

which led to resorting to this picture using creative FILL FLASH~~*~*~*^^^^^^^

however i did take a picture of this pumpkin that i wish i had made:

in other life news, i have been having an extra-hard time making decisions lately, like what i'm doing when the semester is over, what i'm wearing (changed my outfit like 3 times today y'all), what kind of animal i'm going to paint for my next assignment, what i should put on my netflix queue, WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE. in fact, the only thing i'm sure of right now is that i know i definitely do want to eat at another broken egg for breakfast tomorrow morning.

day 299

HEY guys. i'm trying to wear heels/giant wedges every day this week to rebel against the logical and the always overrated comfortable... wish me luck and no broken ankles.

i've been SO BIZZY with school and work for the past few days aweufahkjvbmbjmdsfhaksut

also i just spent 33 minutes trying to use the ~intelligent-edge select tool~ to make it look like my legs were floating in outer space but it just looked dumb

this isn't exactly a music video but basically it fits the criteria and i make the rules. this video is awesome and reminds me of simpler times. lOvE pEtE aNd PeTe Y'aLL...

day 298

words of wisdom:

do as much extra work in school as you possibly can

YOU'RE WELCOME

90s 90s 90s

WHAT A COOL VID/DEEP PHILOSOPHICAL SONG/TOTAL BABE LEAD SINGER

day 297

SORRY Y'ALL.

didn't mean to get sooo far behind in updating my bLoG

still on a 90s kick:::

i LOVED this video and her outfits. she wore the tapered/skinny jeans totes avant garde, guys.

Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker
Uploaded by hushhush112. - See the latest featured music videos.

day 296

i just got back from seeing a mostly high school production of rent.

makes me miss theatre/being on stage.

true story: when i was 18, i wrote chuck palahniuk a letter and told him that i loved him and that my MAIN GOAL in life was to someday play mimi in rent (keep in mind, 6 years ago. SIX). then he sent me a package and wrote me a letter back WHICH I HAPPEN TO HAVE RIGHT HERE... **gets up to get letter tucked inside signed copy of fight club, rereads it for the first time in years, realizes it doesn't actually say anything specifically about mimi or rent except that he made me a necklace to remind me of my goals which i used to wear all the time but stopped because i was afraid it would break, decides to take a picture using PHOTOBOOTH so you guys won't think i'm making this up**

also.

90s video... in case you didn't know, i'm only posting these until the 290s are over...

THIS SONG/VIDEO ARE SO GOOD

i remember the pop-up video for it. LOVE CITY OF ANGELS.

another true story:

when dacoda came to visit me in california almost exactly a year ago, we went to california pizza kitchen, and i was like, do you want to share pear and gorgonzola? and he was like, no let's just get vegetarian with japanese eggplant. then later we saw johnny rzeznik aka lead singer of the goo goo dolls eating with his family.

he:

a) is awesome

b) looked a little RUFF

c) had chipped black nail polish

d) gave off ~vibes~ that he didn't want us to keep staring at him

e) all of the above.

THE ANSWER IS E.

thank you for your time and attention.

day 295

today:::::

-finished my sphynx cat magazine article design for digital illustration.

-came home and worked on my troll puzzle while eating candy and listening to arcccfire by myself, cool

-went to the park, got this stellar snapshot which i thought would be easy but it was NOT

-made some mac and cheez

then dacoda helped me sew* a shirt for my ~terry richardson~ halloween costume.

mannnn i wish i had an organized closet, like alll neat and fancy. ANYWAY, IRRELEVANT.

the biggest news is this:

you are looking at a REAL LIFE image of a finished real really real new york times crossword puzzle. this is a first for me, no looking shit up, no asking people for answers. obv i'm a genius.

then l8r i got a fancy popsicle (~~*geauxsicles) which are totes delish but expannzzive (but the deliciousness outweighs the price) with sophie and kelly and dylan~~~

hung out at dalzell for a MINUTE and then came home.

hangin out with kitties. that's about it.

and. 90s video. significant because THAT NAIL POLISH COLOR WAS THE BIGGEST DEAL and also because i sang this song when i took voice lessons when i was 11.

*by this i mean i sat next to him while he sewed...............................

day 294

~~spooooky trees

LISTEN

i've decided that next month is No Television November. i really hardly ever watch tv but lately i've been spending a leeeetle too much time watching reenactment shows on animal planet and also discovery health channel (~!~!~!~) and honestly i think my life will go on just fine if i don't find out how a man and his daughter survived in the australian outback for 8 dayzzz. thus, No Television November.

this month is No Pastry October, which means i can't eat pastries at work because y'all, sometimes when i work closing shifts i eat like 2 or 3 per night and it's soooooo much sugar and takes up space in my stomach that could be reserved for more healthier options.

i know this is all VERY interesting so i'll continue.

eating no pastries is really much harder than you'd think, because it's instinctual to just help myself to samples of pumpkin bread (my ultimate weakness) and to enjoy a multigrain bagel during my lunch break. to cope with this treacherous month, i have to constantly recite mantras out loud.

...not really, but it would be funny and i suppose that would help. really i just pack lunches/dinners like peanut butter sandwiches and cheddar bunnies so i can eat those instead.

i also did No Pastry April and No Mexican May. i had planned on Vegan September but i forgot :o(

these are just extra fancy ways to ensure that i am always in complete control of everything

++++++

90s vid, almost forgot:

my bad if no one agrees, but a lot of the new jimmy eat world reminds me of savage garden. rad.

day 293

in my front yard

gentle giants spin in circles

and misplaced thieves are grown and

flourish among their mazes

in my front yard, there are holes

for us to fall into

but maybe the trees can reach down and pick us up, someday

in my front yard

i have found my tree

in my front yard, the somber souls can float above the grass and

we can create masterpieces with our eyes

the lives can move lazily through each other

and if one of them breaks they are made whole

when they are ready to be made whole again

in my front yard

everything is flavored and colored and bright

and there are trains to take us to our homes

and wolves to guard us from ourselves

in my front yard

we are not real

unless we are

because maybe it's better that way

-from October 2009

listen y'all, i finished this today and it's my favorite painting i've done so far:

did you guys know how much i love swans?? because i really love the ugly duckling story and the song "swans" by the format and the poem "spring swan" by bukowski, and also they are beautiful majestic creatures~~~~

and...

90s music video of the day:

day 292

HI.

just spent my evening painting the four seasons while my boyfriend looked up jeffrey campbell wedges on ebay because he is SO INTERESTED and then i drew beautiful images while he watched the worst show on television (sons of anarchy, gross)

and here is the 90's music video of the day: click this link right here y'all (embedding disabling trying to RUIN MY BLOG)

the first time i saw it i was like ohhhh i love that song from clueless! hahahhah

lastly, and very importantly, today while i was leaving school i wondered if the W is pronounced in "sword". i said both versions with and without the W to myself multiple times but i can't figure out which sounds right and i can't remember what i naturally say. i need to look that up.

day 291

this:

and this video

♥ 1990s

day 290

lately i've become slightly obsessed with the 1990s: floral dresses, old nickelodeon shows, and this video:

day 289

yesterday my boyfriend and i went shopping/eating in dallas. i've produced the following equation for your mathematical pleasures:

driving+practicing my rap skills while dacoda sleeps+almond italian soda and omelettes+mockingbird station+VELVET STIRRUP LEGGINGS+vintage stores+panera bread ICED GREEN TEA+northpark mall+good records+snickers bar latte*+practicing my harmony skills while dacoda sleeps=dallas

*was surprisingly NOT good. you'd think it'd contain chocolate or caramel, you know, the two ingredients in snickers. but as far as i could taste it was only hazelnut, with NO WHIP CREAM dreamcrushers dammit.

day 288

an enthralling poem about today, i am writing as i type:

i'm a poet and i know it

sleep dreams

kitties

meowww

level 4 ikea comforter

george's

smellllllll

arcade

fire

rabbit cage paint chips

or

berry stained lips

buy and by

dream cat

DREAM CAT

work shirt

fuck yeah

fuck yeah

fuck yeah

silence monsters

wrinkly fingers, uninvited

black holes

freedom,

arches and cylinders

make way for

popsicles

taco bell

and tears

no need to submit this to poetry.com, i already have

day 287

HANGING by the bears at the monroe zoo.

today was AWESOME and i keep thinking it's saturday which means this weekend will be long and GREAT. fall break mmmmm

i love visiting animals at zoos. maybe someday i would like to work at a zoo. i would be an excellent animal expert and make sure their habitats were perfect and comfortable.

here is a picture that is sort of similar to another picture taken at this same zoo in april 2009...

and here is a not-so-great photo of a hippo's mouth:

if you want to learn about the coolest hippo in the world, jessica, you should click here

and if you want to see some portraits that i took you should click here

also, today i created this list in my head while i was driving home...

the best bands that start with an S:

savage garden

spice girls

the smiths

day 286

1. my boyfriend cleaned my room for me! yesterday i was DYING too much to appreciate it but today i keep staring at my CLEAN floor. my floor is beautiful. i hope to be seeing it for quite some time now. i have to work on the rest of it this weekend, putting clothes away and doing laundry and i just need to discover an organization method that works.

2. tomorrow is fall break so i don't have school so i'm celebrating by making all my friends go to the monroe zoo with me

3. last week i took esther to get her spayed, because a cat in heat is just an abomination that i don't even want to think about. her body had a reaction to the dissolvable stitches and basically they just didn't work at all, so there was this gaping hole in her body. i brought her back to the vet yesterday and she had to spend the night there. which is nbd because she's an easy-going lady. i picked her up today after color theory and SHE WAS WEARING A CONE HAT. it was the most hilarious, pathetic thing, and she was supposed to keep it on for a week, but immediately after i brought her home, she bumped into like 3 things and then somehow got it off. then everytime we tried to put it back on she'd get out of it. so she's just being carefully monitored and petted on the regular. she loves life ALWAYS PURRING. thanks y'all for reading that story about my kitty. wish i could've gotten a picture of her with the fashionable cone :o(

4. tonight i'm hanging out by myself and not doing anything that involves homework in any way. i'm about to start watching mystic river and DO WHATEVER I WANT

day 285

my bad y'all, last night at work i felt like i was dying, came home and cried, then went to sleep.

day 284

a couple of things that are embarassing:

1. not having an answer to the question "what do you do in your freetime?"

which my painting teacher asked me yesterday and i had NO IDEA.

i mean i hardly have any free time right now anyway, but also besides that it's not like i'm really good at just one thing. i'm not going to be like "i have this 365-day blog" or "i like to draw outfits that i make up" or "i like to hang out at dalzell and have dance parties"

i said that i liked reading and music and he was like "oh you just sit there and listen to music?"

NO JEEZ/FUCK.

then somehow the conversation led to me being a vegetarian, which i had to explain and it's impossible to talk about vegetarianism without sounding like a righteous asshole.

keep in mind these conversations were held WITH OTHER PEOPLE in the room.

2. also another thing that's embarassing is trying to hand someone their drink out the drive-through window at work, but repeatedly hitting the brim of your mandatory hat against the edge of the window, with a considerable amount of momentum so it knocks you backwards.

day 283

OH are other people allowed to be in my 365-day project pictures? ok, sure.

are y'all tired of hearing me complain about how sick i am everyday? GOOD BECAUSE I'M FEELING MUCH BETTER

and this was a very excellent sunday funday//

this picture was taken during my ~photoshoot~ with dacoda, patrick, and chad so i could take their portraits for my class. i'll post the pictures on flickr probably tomorrow.

(it's 6 am on tuesday now, and i'm watching saved by the bell and updating this so i don't get too far behind.)

++++

here's one, just one, of dacoda:

(wearing a troll mask made by my mom when i was six)

day 282

oh my god i don't even like chinese food.

and my tastebuds are malfunctioning so i can't taste ANYTHING right now :o(

in between blowing my nose 452 times during my infinity-hour shift at work and attempting to paint a cat, i made a flickr to show off my exceptional~*~ photography.

here's the link y'all here here here

flickr.com/photos/lizziedrexler

right now i only have pictures from my last assignment

but soon there will be more

ALSO~~~~~

the other day in digital illustration we were supposed to be looking for magazine articles to design.

but i pretty much spent the entire class looking at this on national geographic...

discovering a new species has always been a far-fetched (though still technically attainable) life-goal of mine

also this CUTEST BAT IN THE WORLD reminds me of falkor the luck dragon:

day 281

unedited, for my photography assignment "portraits"

i've got that feeling where every muscle in my body aches.

in fact, i've been feeling so horrible, i had almost forgotten that a few presents (to me, from me) arrived in the mail yesterday:

JUST THESE SWEET NEW KIX.

they're reebok easytones, so i can get FIT and TONED while i'm at work. take advantage of this rare opportunity to see them clean, because come tomorrow they'll be covered in milk and coffee and probably a couple blobs of whipped cream. mmmm.

i love getting new shoes, even if they are super ugly really stylish like these

present #2:

i got the new jimmy eat world record, which i haven't even heard yet because i'm a HORRIBLE fan. but i wanted it on vinyl and we have no places that carry new records in shreveport!! so i ordered it. and i'm going to listen to it soon and probably cry.

day 280

sick sick sick DYING.
tonight i saw i'm still here, which left me asking, why is joaquin phoenix so brilliant? WHY AM I NOT SO BRILLIANT?? life is unfair.

day 279

ohhhh today my BF~*~* and i went to the red river revel for some good louisiana times y'all LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULEZ. in short summary, for those of you guyz who aren't from shreveport, the revel is just a festival to eat overpriced (but usually delicious) food while listening to bands (most cover lynyrd skynyrd) while looking at art (most involving some sort of fleur de lis) while trying to avoid running into people you know but don't want to see (see day 241).

i've gone every year since i've lived here except last year because that's when i was living in fancy los angeles. here are just a few important lists:

things that were awesome about the revel that now only exist in the memories of thousands of shreveportians:

the ROCK DIG

the fire drill.. awesome and safe

going on field trips and getting KAZOOS

that man (or lady) who used to walk around on stilts

the simulator ride (1997ish?) that my dad, brother and i rode like 15 times at least

the 2007 losing anna show

the 2000 keith urban concert, back when i thought keith urban was KEWL, so you know i had to stand front row center of course, then my mom picked me up after

also one year when i was on danceline, we did a dance there and i thought i was really good. i was not.

good food that the revel has/had:

fried snickers and twinkies!

chocolate covered cheesecake (see picture, above, mmm)

those things with half an orange and ice cream on top. so good. don't remember what they're called, but they've been gone for years

that's all i can think of.

i bought some bamboo earrings and a patchouli candle. i reluctantly made the decision not to purchase a $3500 owl photograph.

REVEL 4EVER

rdrvrrvl <-- that's the way to spell it with no vowels

goodnight

day 278

dRaNkIn SoMe fiiiine hot chocolate on this chilly afternoon. if you guys wanted to know what the absolute best kind of hot chocolate is and the SECRET RECIPE.... it's this milk chocolate kind from the generic whole foods brand, mixed with water from the stove NOT the microwave, then just a tiny bit of milk and cinnamon sprinkled on top. SO DELICIOUS TO DRINK IN THE FALL AND WINTER. also it tastes the best out of this owl mug.

now, on to more important matters.

y'all, today i skipped drawing class which i NEVER DO because i H8 MISSING CLASS (this certainly isn't my junior year when i thought it was just fine to skip ecology class once a week)

but i've been feeling ~under the weather~ lately and i really felt that a nap would greatly benefit my mind and body.

AND I WAS RIGHT

day 277

i didn't dare wish you good morning

day 276

basically i'm finished with this...

"sincerely, l. cohen"

before you guys think "THAT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART COMPOSED OF ONLY TINY DOTS I'VE EVER SEEN" i should probably inform you that it was so so so time consuming but it wasn't very hard to do. in fact almost everyone in my class did a really awesome job at this proj, y'all.

this weekend i practically clopened*

and i watched a clockwork orange for the first time. i tried to read it in high school but i think i only got a few pages in before i gave up (that shit is for literary masters ONLY) and dacoda has a new desire for me to watch every stanley kubrick movie. DON'T KNOW IF I'VE MENTIONED THIS VERY IMPORTANT FACT BEFORE, but i've hardly seen any *important* movies. paula, film connoisseur, made me a list a year ago and i've been slowly making my way through it.

also today i was a STAR (extra) in a movie so i'll probably become famous soon y'all.

also have i mentioned how much i really love drinking orange juice? i do.

*clopen= working an opening shift after closing the previous night. close, open. clopen.

day 275

journeys:

day 274

"i live in an old house where nothing

screams victory

reads history

where nothing

plants flowers"