heal darn you!

My leg now only really hurts if I put stuff on it, like aloe vera. Don't know why it would help a scrape Mom. Oh well.

Did my laundry. The machines are nicer but about .25 more expensive than The Goose. Watched some Mad Men with Kristen. Washed my hair. Folded my laundry. Watched stuff. Ate noodles. Put away laundry. Watched more stuff. Took it easy generally.

A little over a week till school starts. Yipes! I don't really feel the senior year terror yet.

Still can't find my missing suitcase. Really weird.

Tomorrow Mel is getting a tattoo, so I might tag along on that.

I wish I could be out and about and helping with that installation more, but my leg has put a stop to that. I can't go about working on my knees and risking getting old paint in my wound. It is healing well, but I don't want to risk it.

I heard that one of the editors or something for Bitch magazine will be teaching us, and that they'll be getting someone in to help with type. And I think the animation class will be super.

I'm doing a good job making my own meals and not needing to eat out. I did that a lot in the Goose. Well, I just ordered wings. Being in a more upscale neighborhood keeps me eating in. It is a nice place though. An oasis of peace.

Six String Samurai with Pagans and Christians

Thursday

Slept with my leg out of my sheets. Which sucked because the weather went colder so it was a night to sleep under covers. And since the weather sucked we called off the Sauvie's Island trip. Oh! I set out some chocolate croissants over night to rise and they were delicious in the morning. mmmm! But yeah, no sun or whatever. Tabitha and Kristen got some tickets in the nosebleed section to see Lady Gaga tonight. Mel, Karen, and I went to the Goodwill Bins. Now The Bins is this Goodwill of all the neglected Goodwill stuff that is not bought. You pay by the pound, not price. It is amazing. I got three pairs of heels that fit really well (two brown, one purple) and a pair of flats. I got three coats to hang in my studio because I know it gets cold. Also I can loan them to other studio people and if they don't come back, no biggie. So two suit jackets and one larger tan one. I also got a grey jacket that, because The Bins doesn't have mirrors, I couldn't see how INSANE the shoulder pads on it were. They are huuuuge! But it is sort of great at the same time. I got a floral romper that fits pretty well and a dress that ended up being a couple sizes too big (can't really try anything on there either). Also got this ceramic turtle. I paid about twenty bucks for all of that. Niiice.

The leg is doing better slowly but surely.

We had Mexican food after. It was good. Filling. Didn't need a dinner afterwards. I came home when Kristen and Tabitha were all dressed up for Gaga.

They left and I put my leg up and watched Project Runway and then sat in bed and watched True Blood and got drowsy and didn't feel like moving my leg more and went to sleep.

Friday

Leg getting better! The soft sensitive patch is hardening up and being less sensitive. It has also stopped weeping fluid. It looks considerably worse, but in healing things look worse before they look better.

Yeah another gross picture for you guys. But I can go bandaid free on the knee and hydrogen peroxide hurts a lot less. It is a constant soft hurt, but not so bad. I get injured so rarely.

Finished up the lettering and logo for Ben's business card and sent him some compositions. It needs some cleaning up and refining of letters. Then I got ready for another date with Kevin.

We went to dinner at Melt, this sandwich shop on 21st. Drinks and coconut prawns for starters. I had grilled cheese and soup, he had the crab cake sandwich. All in all it was really, really good! The place has a great atmosphere. We got some gelato after but the Green Tea flavor I got lost its appeal really quick. Then we went to see Valhalla Rising at Cinema 21. It is a movie about Vikings and Christians coming to America in 1000ad. IT WAS INTENSE! The atmosphere was really well played out. It is the type of movie where you have to really get into the scenery as narration. Mads Mikkelsen, a Danish actor who is a personal favorite of mine, was awesome as a viking warrior with one eye. It is a movie I can see someone with no patience not enjoying, but I got engrossed. Very powerful. I was glad that Kevin liked it too because sometimes when you pick a movie then you get worried if the other person isn't liking it and resents you for picking it, you know? But no, we left the theater going "that was intense!". We wandered around 23rd and got a quick final drink of the night at Ram's Head. I showed him my Japan photo album back at my place and with that we called it a night.

Yeah. It was a nice date.

ouch! busted

Forgot to mention that yesterday the hinge on my phone broke. It will not close, well it can close and open but it makes it so much more likely that the top will break off the bottom and I don't know if it will work if put back together. I really like this phone. It is reliable and no frills. It is old of course, pushing six years. Which is four years more than the life expectancy of any phone. Booo.

Today I ran some errands. Went to Powell's. Got Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Space travel! Yay! Also picked up a Crunchie Bar, which is pretty much a Violet Crumble labeled differently. Went to the Bike Gallery and dropped off my bike for a wellness check up. Walked down to Finnegan's to look at their Playmobil. They had a woodshop class set! With a bearded teacher, drill, clamp, students, and first aid kit. It was amazing! Talked to Dad on the phone for a bit about phone problems. Walked down to Verizon to see what sort of phones there are. Basically if I want to replace my phone and not get a new plan or anything, I am looking at spending $150+ on a new phone. Yeah. No way. I don't get at all why phones still cost so much. Everyone has one, so why haven't they gone down in price? Why are there no cheap no frills phones? This is crap. Oh well. Tape for now. Went and got my bike back. I was crossing the street to get in the far right lane and crossing the street car tracks I didn't have my tire slanted enough and it got caught in the tracks. I didn't flip over so much as twist and hit the pavement. Thankfully I fell in an empty parking space and not in traffic or into a car. I skinned a large bit of my shin and my knee isn't too pretty and my shoulder aches. The passers by stopped and were really nice but I wasn't in too bad of shape. I paused for a minute to catch my breath and I got back on my bike and rode home. My bike seems unharmed. Wheel isn't bent. It rode just fine, though the rider wasn't in as good as shape.

Here is a gross picture of my leg before cleaning:

Ouch! Kristen didn't come home till 8ish, which was good. I needed to be alone while I howled and cried as I washed out the scrape (now my slight tan will have a bit missing, nooo!) and the knee gouge. I then sat and watched cable while I patted at it with a damp towel. Just patted and patted. When I was feeling better, I hobbled over (this is the right leg, which has been twice sprained and was once kicked in high school and still is a bit wobbly from time to time) to Walgreens to get hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin and other assorted medical stuff. IT HURT SO BAAAD to sanitize it. I just had to suck it up and do it really really fast and then pause and then go again. Then I lathered it up and let it sit. I took a tumble on my old bike about a decade ago and at that time it was just a chunk of flesh that lifted up on my left knee. Now my right knee might get a matching scar. I can't remember getting a scrape this size before. Still, three years in Portland as a biker and this is the first time I've been caught by the tracks and the second time I've fallen on my bike (the first time I missed the curb when propping my foot up, but nothing really got injured).

To distract myself I did my hair up in Heidi braids. Like a milkmaid. Whee! Tomorrow we girls are going to Sauvie's Island to swim. I'll probably lounge in the sun more than swim. I don't think water will favor my injury.

Also having the Crunchie Bar on hand for comfort was really good. Lovely distraction.

keys and bottles

I have a headache. Ugh. Heat.

Chatted with Madeline for about an hour. Ate some good.

I went down to school and dropped off my health insurance waver. Swung by student services and said hello to the people there. Everyone is getting new hair dos and cuts and looking festive for the season. Went to the library and scanned some stuff. Rented Mad Men season one to watch with Kristen.

Swung by REI to grab one of those things to attach my keys to a belt. Not sure if the proper name. Cariban? Anyway, got that and a proper water bottle. The little one I found just isn't cutting it for my hydration needs. Plus it will probably be good to have one on hand in the studio. Or biking. Anyway, got those. Returned home. Sweated. Ate a salad. Watched Ninja Warrior.

Ben asked me to design a business card for him (for some cash) so I'm working on that. Sent him some font tests today. Will write them out proper tomorrow and play with compositions.

This heat is just...bahhh. It is supposed to go to 70 soon.

day off

Yay a day to do nothing! Just to check out and watch TV and put my still sprained ankle up.

What Not To Wear, Top Gear, Police Academy. I really gotta get rid of cable before school starts. It is just too damn easy.

But tomorrow I have some tasks to do. Whoo!

Uhm yeah. Did nothing. Put away nothing more. But it felt good.

School starts in two weeks. Damn summer went by. I got next to nothing accomplished. Oh well.

directions, poo, and reading

Saturday

Soap box derby! Tabitha picked Kristen and I up and we swung by and got Mel as well. It was a hot hot day. Shorts and bikini top were too much layers. I got some snacks and lemonade so we wouldn't starve on Mount Tabor. It was a nice drive over and we got parking near enough to one of the entrances to Mount Tabor. Unfortunately it was not the entrance near the better entrance. We walked up to where the carts were and what, if we had looked around more, would have been actually the starting point. I got confused with directions and went up the hill and ended up near a drum circle (Mel & co. stayed behind to find their own way). Oh! We were trying to meet up with BT, Liz, Phil, and other people. But yeah, I got lost and called BT three times but none of the directions got me anywhere close (I suspect he was drunk and unable to visualize where we were in relation to him). But I ran into my three girls again and we decided to just park it off to the side of a path and relax and snack for a bit. Tabitha's friend Matt was there in husky colors. He had a soap box car, or one he was helping with. After putting up our feet for a while, we went back to try and find our people once again. We made our way down the track and on the final loop there they were! We whipped out the snacks, I popped a beer, and we settled in to watch the semi-finals of the soap boxes.

One crashed into hay bales and an ambulance came later, but that turned out to be for a skateboarder. All in all, it was really hot and lots of walking around a huge mountain, but it was fun. Then we went back down the mountain, Karen gave us a lift to our car and we went to our apartment. Kristen, Tabitha, Mel, and I sat in the dark, drank cool liquids, and watched cable TV till about 8pm.

We gathered our stuff and got in the car and headed to the north east for Karen, BT, and Phil's housewarming party. They are now living in a nice little North East Portland house. Still moving in a bit, but it will be a sweet place. Karen's bathroom is very pink and BT's is nautical themed. Blues Brothers was playing. Diana, Robin, Alison, and a bunch of sort of unfamiliar people were there. Andy came over. Justin and his Dad. Evan and Holly came. Evan brought a card game called Poo where you play monkeys flinging poo and once you get 15 poo, you are out. It was A LOT of fun. I think I'll have to pick it up at Powell's. Liz, Robin, and Kristen played their ukuleles on the porch. It was adorable. Tabitha needs some sort of award for being an awesome designated driver. She got the standard trio (Mel, Kristen, and I) home safe and sound. I winded down with an episode of True Blood. Then went to sleep.

Sunday

Woke up. Had bacon and eggs. Watched a cable show about cake, then White Collar, then some Ninja Warrior, then more White Collar. Around that time Tabitha showed up. She was doing a staged reading of a friend of hers' play so she drove us to University of Portland with her. (Us being the standard four: her, Kristen, Mel, and myself). U of P is in an area where all the streets are named after Ivy Leagues. She got right to a practice reading. We watched the first half of it. Mel and I played some paper games. At intermission we wandered around to find some sort of food or vending machine but ended up out of luck all together.

The play out of rehearsal flowed pretty well. It was about this guy who murdered this guy but denied it because he was going crazy and had broken from it. It had some good parts but was too heavy with Kevin Smith influence. Tabitha played a girl in one scene. And played it well. The writer wasn't much older than me and I salute that he just wrote this play and edited and got it to test reading stages. A lot of effort and putting yourself out there. Good for him!

Karen snuck in later and she, Tab's friend Kara, and the rest of us went to Nepo 42 to get dinner. Tasty sandwiches! And Karen got a magical free sandwich through missordering. We girled it up and went whooo! It was a great night to sit outside. We made plans to go to Sauvie's Island on Thursday. Exciiiited! Sun and swimming!

Now to curl up, watch True Blood, and rest!