Bob Dylan Said...

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."

I enjoy going to bed at night. After the alarm goes off for the third time, I enjoy getting up in the morning. But this question remains: What do I want to do in between?

This is a very difficult question for me, because the answer changes so often, and I am always left wondering whether or not that is okay. This project, Something Unexpected, has made me ponder this even further. Through it, I have an amazing opportunity to learn about myself, but the deeper I get, the more everything fragments. Each and every single splinter of myself that I find holds a deep wish or desire. How can I possibly fulfill on them all?

I thought that becoming a student at the VCU Brandcenter would solidify things for me once and for all, but it did me one better, and now I have more opportunities than I could ever have hoped for; they are teaching me how to help myself in anything I should choose.

Lately, giving away the unexpected (or selling it, rather) has been unexpected for me. I am so fucking attached to my stuff. When someone sends me a donation, I literally spend hours trying to figure out what to give them. Not only do I struggle with the age-old, crippling question, "Is my stuff good enough?"--I also struggle with giving it away in the first place. What is it that I think these things say about me, in or out of my possession? What do I think they say about me that I am not vibrant enough, interesting enough, or weird enough to say about myself?

The attached pictures were graciously taken by Sara Cobaugh, who mailed me $5! Thank you so much, Sara! In return, I mailed her the Dylan book that you see pictured. Good old Abe Lincoln was taped into the card she sent and, through the help of a well-drawn speech bubble, he said to me, "Just holler and I'll be there!" I'm gonna take him up on that.