the one, the only: Karen Berger!

As you may have read, my friend Karen has headed off to Kansas City for a summer internship with Hammerpress Studio. The picture above is her multi-juried show accepted piece "The Legendary Hank Williams Jr.". It won the Bronze award in the Illustration Juried Show.

She will be writing about her adventures in her own blog (and hopefully by promoting it here, she won't laze about with it):
http://toperceive.blogspot.com/

moving out in august?

Guess what?
What?
Karen, Adam, Phil, and Andy are trying to get a house in NW Nob Hill district! And they have asked if I want to go in with them. It is five bedrooms, two living room, two bathroom. I agreed to do it, nothing it for certain right now but I figured I should give it a shot. It is considerably cheaper than The Goose and in a good area and we might be able to set up a silk screen printing studio in the basement. It is about time to move out methinks. My lease is up in August. I filled out a part of the form. Give it a shot. Why not? There is still a lot up in the air right now, it isn't solidified. I haven't put money down.

Gabe made this noodle shrimp cabbage dish for Nathalie's barbecue. Karen and I drove together. Hit some hella traffic but got there alright. Terry, Colin, Amanda, Ursula, Ursula's roommate, Nat's twin Katie, Matt, Bryan, BT, and Megan were there. A nice little crowd. We ate barbecue food prepared by Nathalie's uncle (or was it her dad? Her parents and an Aunt and Uncle set were there and I couldn't quite tell them apart). Chatted nerd stuff and drew a little. Nathalie lives up on 43rd in a nice little house filled neighborhood.

When it got a chilly, we grouped together in the basement and played Taboo. Nice little party game but tricky to get the hold of it. Terry killed it, as did Ursula.

Karen left early because she is off to Kansas City tomorrow. Bye bye Karen! Ursula, her roomie, and Amanda left to a bar that held another graduation party. Terry, Colin, and Matt all departed for whichever reason. Bryan had to meet his girlfriend for something. It got dark. Nathalie loaned us sweaters. I was one of the last to leave. Walked by my lonesome the 10 blocks to the Max Station on 43rd. It was running a bit late but getting back was pretty much uneventful. Portland is safe.

Jason was in the Goose Hollow area (his friend Sandeep lives in a complex about two blocks from my apartment) so when I got back we hung out for a little while. Not too long as he had to catch the Max out to Beaverton.

Need to plan when I want to go home. I don't want to think about internship till I sort out my visit to Washington first (I want to see all yall, Christmas wasn't much of a visit). I don't want to go home till I know what to draw while home so that when I get back to Portland I can get right to printing for the Zine Symposium in July. I want to print a second run of my comic before I go home. I have a week left of free time in the printing studio before I have to pay the summer use fee.

Need to make a list.

happy three one!

Okay so the rafting trip was bust. Even a little picnic was bust. It all fell through. But it also wasn't that brilliant of a day. Not super boiling hot where you just HAVE to find relief, so no big lost.

Had a restless morning. Got up early. Read. Ate a late lunch. Not much happened. Karen helped me move my art from her car to my apartment.

It was Gabe's birthday so there was a little get together at Scooter's. Tom came down from Washington for it. Gabe's friend Chaz was there. Super nerd. We drank and talked and took pictures of ourselves making funny faces. We walked back and Gabe went to sleep and Katie, Tom, and I are going to watch Pineapple Express. Yay. Mmm.

I made Gabe a little card with lots of Luna drawings. Katie made him this photoshop card where she put their faces on these Japanese girls from a fashion mag. Really silly, really lovely.

I did good shopping!

Who was it that said I should be hitting the pavement in regards to my internship? Do you guys want me to visit home or not? And it hasn't even been a week since I got out of school! Let me relax a little, it was a very stressful semester!

Anyway, so I relaxed today. Karen and I got together to do some summer shopping. Got the blue with white polka dot bikini from Old Navy that I wanted (I scoped out the website ahead of time). Also grabbed some flip flops and some plain tees from the sale wall. Mmm five dollar teeshirts. Forever 21 provided a cute shirt dress. Gap provided another 5 dollar tee. I looked at all the cute full priced things with sadness in my eyes. Sadness that they are once again priced too high for a student with no discount. Karen did some intense grabbing though. Lucky girl.

I wore my UV reactive teeshirt. The color shows up real quick and fades just as fast. And it takes bright light to react so it is hard to show off when it isn't bright outside. Still, I dig it.

After frolicking around Lloyd Center like a bunch of high school girls, we went to Hot Lips and then to school. I transported my locker contents and most of my. Oh dang, forgot to unload the woodblock drawer. I'll have to remember to do that. Anyway, unloaded my silk screen drawer. Left behind the comic paper and transfers for when I do a second printing. Having just seven left, I'm not cool with that. I want to have more to sell and pass around.

Took the streetcar home and lounged around.

At 8pm was a technical Munchkin Party. I didn't know it was a potluck of sorts so I grabbed the left over caramel corn that Gabe made a while ago. Phil made very spicy pasta sauce and I cried a little while eating it. Robin and I walked to Safeway and grabbed some chips and dip. Mmmm. We ended up watching movies to increase Robin's pop culture knowledge. Spaceballs was followed by Mystery Science Theatre 3000: Space Mutiny. Karen dyed her hair to be a smoother blonde. Looks good.

The rafting trip has been demoted to a maybe swimming trip to maybe a not happening at all trip. We'll see.

a day indoors

A real, quality do nothing day. Ahhh.

Well I added some more show cards to my in progress decoupage chest of drawers. covered the third drawer.

And my teeshirts arrived from Threadless! I can't wait to wear them out and about. One has UV ink that the color shows when you get out into the sun. Very cool.

Gabe has left for a few days so I ate the can of chili that has been sitting in my cupboard for a while.

Still haven't slept in past noon.

Watched What To Do In Case of Fire tonight. This Til Schweiger movie about a group of revolutionaries who plant a bomb in a building and it goes off 15 years later. They band together again to try and get the evidence back that condemns them. A great little film. Fun. Then I watched Following, a short film by Christopher Nolan. A little mystery film told slightly non sequentially. A nicely rendered little thriller. I dug it.

I also worked on cleaning the apartment. Threw out papers that had been piling up. Put away books. Put away clothes. Did a little vacuuming. Didn't get much reading done, just did a lot of watching. The weather was cooler but I heard it is supposed to be in the 70's and 80's for the rest of the week. A second rafting trip is planned for Thursday.

Mmm summer.

not quite as warm but much much more wet

Karen called me at 11:30 to ask if I knew the meeting was at noon. I didn't but I was up and washed already so no biggie.

The student leadership meeting was a free lunch of Thai food with plenty of rice to go around. I had a lot of rice. MMmm. It was mostly a little meeting to hash out what the responsibilities were of the jobs and not an actual time to solve the school's problems. It went by fairly easily. Just buzz words and advice and expectations. Karen had a meeting so I was on my own for my way back (she drove me there).

I lounged around school and bit and was going to get an Italian Soda but the streetcar was right there so I went home instead. I picked up some cheap, but better quality than the ones I have, Popsicles to have and share with Katie and Gabe.

Karen invited me to go rafting with her, Adam, Tony, and Tony's friend. They were in separate cars so we were lagging a little behind. Karen had a meeting about an internship so we were a little behind. I sat int he car while she had her meeting and it was about 20 minutes before I realised that I could in fact open up the door to relieve the heat inside then automobile. I read The Road.

There was a slight communication error about rafting. The other party left without us and we went anyway to just swim and enjoy the Clackamas river anyway. We assumed that they had left when it turns out, they had left about 5 minutes after we arrived. Yeah. Oh well. Karen also locked her keys in her car. Oops.

Adam was the drop offer and the pick upper for the rafters so he met us at Carver(Carter?) Park, which was the end point. Adam asked a guy about getting to other rafting stops and he told us about a little route. We waded across a shallow river bed and followed an ingrown trail to find a little swimming hole farther up river. Only a couple people were around. Tony and his friend came by in their raft from upstream and they managed to paddle over and greet us. We lounged about and a couple of us hopped in the water. The freezing river water. It was easier to jump the second or third time. And much more fun.

We decided to join them and raft further down the river and find a way back from there. Right when we started the sun went behind some clouds and it stopped being drying and super sunny. Still we had fun. Except at about the 45 minute mark I was getting worried about where the next rafting stop point was. It was supposed to be (according to Tony) a 30-40 minute raft. Uhh yeah. This nice old couple was fishing and we asked them how long till the next place and they said another hour.

So we decided to just get off the river at the next available spot, which ended up being slightly private property. Just little cement stairs into the water and a back gate to a yard. We got out and to the shoulder real quick and no one was home. Hehehe.

Karen called AAA from our place there. And you know that nice old couple that told us how long we had? They offered us all a ride in their truck! We deflated our raft and all five of us fit quite nicely in the back. The couple even gave us a few jackets to drape to keep from being too chilly. They were super cool. And so nice. They offered to take us, we didn't ask (though we wanted to). It was either that or walk or call a cab. We even received a little, "you kids watch out" lecture. What an adventure!

AAA showed up pretty quick and the boys and us parted ways. We both managed to half change on the way back. Karen struggled to get her top on during the drive through wait. It was silly. I took a shower when I got back because I was still chilled and damp. It felt really good. Gabe has been a little under the weather so my Warren Ellis comics have been keeping him company.

It rained a little. Katie and I watched Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Gabe made really rich chocolate cupcakes with creme cheese icing. Mmm.

I lathered on sunblock so my pasty complexion is preserved.

Here is another dose of Luna:

Trillian and Jen's

I couldn't convince Gabe or Katie to go to Powell's with me. Jen however was game for a day of walking and sun enjoying and ice cream and lunch and a brief trip to Powell's.

I opted to walk because with her having to part at work I knew I would probably end up near a max line and would have an easy route back. Plus walking with my bike is a hassle. It was a lovely warmth. Not so frying but I could still manage pants.

We met inside Powell's and I picked up a used, non movie cover, version of The Road. Both our tumblies were grumbling so we went to Kenny and Zukes. It was a little pricey but our sandwiches were the size of all our fists combined with another layer of meat ontop. I was only able to get through half, but now I have tons of pastrami and roast beef to nibble on over the next couple of days. Yum!

Ben and Jerry's was the next stop. Frozen chocolate bananas were ours to eat! What a lovely phallic treat for dessert. Mmmm. We consumed them in Jamison, where the number of kids had multiplied since yesterday. There was a wonderful dad and daughter squirt gun team and the dad traded with the mom. I like seeing playful parents. There were naked toddlers and squirt guns and bad faded tattoos. We waded a little. At 11th and Johnson, Jen ran into her friends Ed and Shad. The streetcar came and we parted ways. On the way back home I helped some German tourists figure out which stop they needed.

I read The Road. It has big font but the words are chosen wisely.

When night fell we rented Severance and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Only watched the former. As violent and fun as when I first watched it.

Tomorrow is my last obligation as Student Club Coordinator. A little leadership retreat where we hash out all the answers to the school's problems!