papa berger

Bleh. Feel terrible. Short disrupted sleep does not work.

Started the day with helping Doug and Rick move Karen's stuff. Doug is Karen's pop and Rick is his friend. Phil and Andy Bone came and helped, as did Gabe. Karen has a HUGE amount of stuff. It filled a whole Uhaul. The kind with the attic space, not the trailer. And I mean filled. Books, shelves, clothes, craft things, couch, cabinets. Tons of stuff. That little lady is more of a collector than me, she just has organizational skills.

Gabe was blown away by the scale of the boxes. He had not seen her place before. We worked for two hours. I mostly helped by keeping doors open. I'm not good at lifting. At noon Andy left for work and the rest of us got pizza. Mmm Pizza. Good ol' Bellagio's. Doug, or rather Mr. Berger, is really nice. He lives in Poulsbo. They upgraded from Bremerton.

The rest was the light stuff and cleaning. I scrubbed the walls a little bit and swept. So empty. I wonder how many boxes I'll move out in. I have a lot of books and clothes, but my trinkets are mostly small things. Have the decoupaged chest of drawers and the head lamps.

Karen's Ikea shelves were trashed. The Billys fell apart as they were lowered to the ground. They were fully decimated by the boys.

We were all paid in checks. That's right. Paid. I made money today! I could go buy mom another birthday present. But I won't because my bike has a flat tire! The tube must have a hole or something. It can be filled with air but once I sit on it, it goes flat in a minute. I don't like to walk. Very lazy I am. It is also hot, I don't want to spend more time in this weather than I have to.

Mailed a few letters. One to Karen, one to Llyw. They were bulky and the lady behind the desk gave me some hassle about their irregular shapes. Some mail to my traveling friends. Put my check straight into my Key bank account. I went to the downtown branch. They were much nicer there than the one on Burnside. The lady who helped me had a really pretty name. Enjoille I believe it was.

Kind of checked out for the rest of the day. Napped. Alternated between a couple television programs. I think I'll go to sleep early. Still need to pack.

can't even do songs that don't require a key

Even drunk, I am fully aware that I can't carry a tune. But I guess I'll start at the start.

Went out in the bright day to run some errands. A couple things needed buying from a certain shop up on 23rd. The people in the store were very nice, very helpful. They let me get as much as I wanted to get and didn't load me down with salesman trickery. And if they did, well it didn't feel like they did.

After that, made a quick stop at Trader Joe's. Fantastic amount of A/C there. Just lovely.

The rest of the day was spent in hiding from the sun.

At around 8, I put on a nicer outfit for Tom's birthday. Katie did my makeup. I'm hopeless with makeup. Never learned. She did a smoky eye. At first it was startling to see me with that much goop on my face but I grew used to it. I undid my braids and tousled my hair.

We were the first to arrive at The Ambassador. First after Tom. I gave him a card and a To(m)blerone. Started off with a Long Island Iced Tea. It wasn't the best one I'd had. All the drinks I ordered were meh. A lot of people showed up, even Tom's mom Carla. She was delightful. The twins Kurt and Kody were there. Everyone was nice even though I was meeting half of them for the first time. The karaoke queue was long. Katie sung Hey Jude and later she and Tom did Under Pressure together. I put Rock Lobster in under my name and by the time the song rolled around I was more drunk than I was aware. I don't think I did Rock Lobster all that well but the large table of people I was with sung with me and carried what I couldn't. Uhg. Karaoke is fun to watch but I don't think it is my thing so much. Heh.

It was fun, even with my poor performance. After we were to Kurt and Kody's for a little after party. They had a really nice cat. I sort of napped a little bit (yeah right, napped). Kurt and Kody are Katie's old old long time friends. They act as well and were in a Disney channel movie. They have a really nice cat. Eventually Katie, Gabe and I went home. I cleared my bed of the standard debris and curled up all cozy and fell asleep for good.

journey to the east

Starting to cool down. And by that I mean 88 degrees or so.

Didn't quite sleep in but I took a nap later on.

J and I had a little girl date. I walked to Fox Tower and met her for the 5:15 showing of (500) Days of Summer. A movie about love and how devastating it can be. Also a good movie as well. Believable characters, swell acting from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey "Trillian" Deschanel. It fit together nicely. Nonsequential narration but still easy to follow. Sad but not heart wrenching. A good movie.

After we braved a few more minutes of sun and caught the number 12 to the other side. Riding a Portland bus! First time I've done it in ages.

A few blocks took us to 24th and Burnside. The Screen Door is a cozy, jam packed little place. Very warm with cute waitstaff. J and Gabe both said it was good. I trust their opinions of food. I ordered a Mint Julep because J ordered the Porchswing Lemonade. I wanted the lemonade but felt weird ordering it as well. I should have just ordered it. Not that the Mint Julep was bad, it just isn't my kind of drink. I had the screen door plate, which is any combination of sides you wish (well three of them). I had mac and cheese, fries, and a pork chop. It came speedily and was scrumptious! We ate and drank and I ended up rambling a little bit much about a certain subject.

The sun descended and so we left. J went back to the other side with me on the 19. So sweet, even though it was going in the other direction for her. The only max available was a yellow so I walked the rest of the distance. The breeze from outside is nice now.

Tomorrow I have to run some errands, buy a train ticket (I'm going back to Washington for two weeks, starting this Sunday), and go celebrate Tom's birthday. Going to get my karaoke on, hell yeah!

heat continues

800 entries! Whoo whooo!

At around 2, J texted me asking if I wanted to enjoy a few hours of A/C with her. The only stipulation was that we would be seeing The Ugly Truth. At free, the price was right. It was predictable. Had a few good moments but it wasn't anything great. Gerard Butler's biceps were probably the best past (next to Gerard Butler himself). Tomorrow J and I are going to see 500 Days of Summer. Another movie about love all though I think this one will be actually good.

Still, it's always nice to get out of the house and see a friend.

Afterwards I went to school to touch up the Cordia portrait. It didn't reproduce quite as nice. The Macs in the lab had HUGE screens. Gigantic. Never seen one so big. Just a total DAANNG experience. It was also nice and cool. Still, I had to leave.

Lots of bicyclists out today. Saw a shirtless one. Smiled at him. He smiled back. He was wearing a helmet and looked like he actually washed his clothes (well his shorts at least, who knows what state his shirts are in). My kind of Portland biker.

Watched Torchwood. Gabe, Katie, and I went threesies on a Bellagio's pizza. We got half butchers block and half mother earth. Aka half MEAATTT and half artichoke and garlic and la la la. It was good. Uhg. So hot.

Mummy, when is a good time for me to come home?

102

102 degrees with one little tiny fan and no A/C.

Had a really bad night sleep. Upstairs neighbor was having some bedspring issues for an hour and a half.

Braided my hair again. Drank lots of water.

Went to school at around 4:50 to scan the paper planes. Sadly I only got one in and then the library closed. Talked to Amanda till 5:30 and then I left for Yoga.

Thankfully Yoga has a shadow from the building, otherwise it would have been intolerable. Very warm and toasty. Some cute babies were about. My mind wasn't quite in it today.

Afterwards, I stepped into the Art Direction class for the last hour and a half. There were only two critiques left. Mackenzie's mock Reader's Digest had already been discussed. Didn't mind. I wasn't asked to say anything. It was interesting to see all my classmates illustrations. Karen's one was nice but it didn't quite fit the body of the article (not her fault) nor did it seem like the person who chose her had any idea why a person would pick Karen. As in, if I wanted a bold poster design with type I would go for Karen. If I wanted a painted still life of food, I wouldn't go for Karen. Dominic's fit perfectly. It was about brewing beer. Very light hearted. J's was a nice illustration but it didn't fit the style of the rest of the article.

After that, Wes Youssi gave a little slide show of his art and design. He did the cover for Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. It was cool. He was nice. There was A/C and drinks and treats. The sun had gone down by the time I left school but it was still, very believably hot.

Rest of the night was a dead space of watching Eureka and Buffy. It doesn't drop below 80 for the next 10 days.

now that is a cool tattoo

At the symposium, this girl had a very rad tattoo. It was of a waffle iron. It was in the crook of her elbow (the soft side where it folds...I think there is an official word for that side, or maybe it is just all the elbow). Anyway, when she folded her arm it closed the waffle iron because each side of the iron was done on each side of the crease. It was so totally cool. Blew my mind. It was really well rendered as well. Lots of nice tattoos and the zine symposium.

Arrived on time and set up. The lady said that if there was empty space next to you, you could fill out into it if you liked. So I did. A full table! Lacey came at around 11:30. She sold four of her comics. I traded alot. Some of the trades were very awesome, some I was kinda more meh about but still my work is getting out there. That's good. The symposium is more about becoming a familiar face than making phenomenal sales. I sold 17 comics over the course of three days (17 hours total, Stumptown is 16 spread over two days). Sold two of the posters. Karen sold three of the Milagro today (when she got back to me with the price which was a buck). Need a more vertical display and more wares to sell. Variety. Because right now its the comic, a poster...and that's it. We are making a pact to quit art if we don't have anything new by Stumptown.

I sold 46 comics at Stumptown. Didn't trade quite so much. Like I said, people come to Stumptown with money.

Exchanged a new plane with BT. Flew one to the Reading Frenzy guy. He was cute and we had a great conversation about Zach Smith and David Lynch via the plane. His flights to my side were a lot better than mine to his. I'm just dreadful at throwing them.

The revolutionary guy was gone and Jason and Sarah were next to me. They had a box with sticks set up. The sticks had a little mini clothes line esque set up which held one dollar mini comics. Awesome set up. They were really nice people with a great sense of humor. We pitched each other every now and again. Jason had some really beautiful comic work.

Lacey bought tater tots for lunch. Mmm. Jim stopped by. His hair is longer. Like a damn hippie.

In the last 2 hours I did a circuit and spent about $23. Not a whole lot interested me. Bought Jesse Reklaw's Slow Wave compilation. 16 dollars marked down to 10 for the convention. He vaguely remembered me from Stumptown. I told him my dream about Batman eating coleslaw.

I wore longer pants so I didn't get hurt sliding under the table.

Tomorrow, if I remember, I'll scan the paper planes.

Met some nice people. It was fun. Need more stuff. I'd do it again for sure but I won't have such high hopes for big bucks. Stumptown 2010, The Perceivers are coming for you!

Spent the rest of the day indoors. Gabe made tacos. Caught up on So You Think You Can Dance. Great thing about watching them online is that you can just skip to the dancing. Loved the 5 girl Bollywood number and the Seven Nation Army routine. So cool!

Braided my hair for the convention. I felt really cute with it like that. And I like how it crimped once I removed the braids.

Lacey is a great table mate, just want to say. Fun and easy to sit next to. Gets what is going on.