out and about, and then back, and then woosh out and about again! twice! in one night!

Just got back from the Del Mar. Went to see a midnight showing of Super Troopers with this guy Ryan, who I met on that site with the people on it that isn't Facebook. We met a bit before hand and walked around downtown and he pointed out this and that. He has been in Santa Cruz most of his life, so he knows whats up. There are midnight showings every Friday and Saturday, so I think I should make regular appearances and get in with the locals and make friends. There were two Taylors and an Adam who sat behind us and they were chatty and nice. The movie was pretty silly. A good thing to watch late at night.

My shift at work today was a short one. Caught shirts. Broke down the press (a term for removing all the squeegees, floodbars, and screens), set up the next job, caught and boxed that. Cleaned the squeegees and floodbars, removed the tape and scraped the ink from the screens. I left them to be cleaned on Tuesday. Three day weekend!

For dinner I met up with Daniel, one of the guys from the Monday night game group. We met at Betty's, though we both showed up at DIFFERENT Betty's. Oooops. He is really nice. We showed each other our sketches, talked about language and Japan and tactics for making friends in a new city.

I accidentally took Seabright back (on my bike) instead of Murray, but I know Seabright runs parallel to Ocean, so all I had to do was turn left on Broadway and that intersects with Ocean and zoom I was home. It wasn't that far out of the way. Glad to know I know how to get around a bit.

The late night movie wasn't planned till after dinner. It was a nice impromptu thing.

I still want to see Cosmopolis and Lawless.

Thursday already?

Did some uber taping on a job. And some tandem burning. Seems like we have a big job coming up! We normally don't tape like that unless it is a high volume. I caught shirts. I listened to Jeremy Irons read Brideshead Revisited. Damn that man has a nice voice.

Had a salad for dinner (turns out my lettuce had been moved to a veggie drawer. Thankfully I noticed this BEFORE it went bad). Hard boiled some eggs to make an egg salad sandwich. I've had so many pb & j sammiches. I'm not sick of them, but I want to add variety before I get totally sick of the easiest thing to make in the morning.

Yesterday, and the day before, it was pretty hot in the studio. Today it was a bit chilly but I was near the heater so whatever. Movement warms the body!

Tomorrow I have some evening plans. Hurray! With someone else! Hurray!

I need to draw something. Well, I have some things on my slate to draw. I really need to to-do list the stuff I have to do...BOOM just made the list.

I wonder if I have a three day weekend? Hmmn. I don't really care if I don't.

breezing through them books

Weeding! That is the term for peeling vinyl. Weeding vinyl. That thing. I did more of that. I almost drove up to San Jose for a pick up, but that didn't happen. I caught and boxed shirts. I picked vinyl off these signs. Not the most eventful of shifts.

And not the most eventful of nights. Talked online with people. Washed dishes. Washed my sheets. I need to start taking some further initiative. Sunday and Monday were initiative taking days, why not Tuesday and Wednesday?

I finished Whose Body? I like the character of Wimsey and will probably listen to more of his adventures and mysteries in the immediate future, but now I have a copy of Brideshead Revisited that is read by Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons wins all. Such a great voice.

peeler

Today I learned how to remove cut vinyl thingies from their vinyl! And I learned whilst peeling the excess from our really complicated logo. So many little bits, so many ways to muss it up. Vinyl trial by fire. Still, good to acquire even more skills. I finished The Light Fantastic and started Whose Body? a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel. Wanted a change of pace.

Earlier in the shift I burned and taped some screens and coated a fresh batch. Getting better at it!

But most of the day was spent peeling vinyl. It went by pretty fast actually, once I got the hang of it. There is still more to peel. I'll also learn how to put them on the other stuff, to make them transferable to things, though I think I've figured that out.

Back at home I chowed down on carbs and put my feet up. We have all these screens taped, but no shirts are in the shop. Either a weekend shift is coming up oooor....I don't know.

game on!

Guess who was social tonight? I was social tonight! But thanks to a different website. On the Santa Cruz sub-forum on Reddit, someone posted about things to do and ways to meet people, and someone mentioned a board game group that meets at Woodstock's Pizza every Monday, and lo and behold, Woodstock's is a quick bike ride from my house. So I decided, provided I got out of work not exhausted or too later, to check it out.

I worked a three hour shift today. Just clean up and reclaiming, and it started late.Very mellow. After work I washed my car, and now it looks quite pretty. It was getting a bit pollen-y.

So yeah. I rode my bike over to the pizza place. First time riding my bike in this city. Not two minutes was I out before someone said, "I like your helmet." Polka dots win again. There is a bike path along the river, which keeps one off San Lorenzo, which is nice. Really easy bike ride. Not really anything in the way of hills.

Oh, in regards to the cable bike lock (responding to Dad's phone message in my blog instead of calling). You could mail me another care package, or put it in Nathan's luggage when he visits. Either way.

Anyway, back to today's narrative. The table of gamers was obvious, mostly on account of the games they were setting up. There was Alan, Andy, Jeff, Jim, Chris, Daniel, and Kathleen. Boom, remembered their names. We split into two groups. Daniel, Andy, Alan and I played Evo, while the others played some other game that I've forgotten the name of. Evo is this sort of complicated dinosaur evolution thingy thing. It was fun and I won! I had a lot of dinosaurs on the board during game play, so I got a lot of gold from that. We played Seven Civilizations next, at least I think that is what it is called. I came in last. Still, it was fun. I like these sorts of games, though they take a lot of instruction. But now I know two games! And if I have the time, I'll be back next Monday. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, and the pizza was good (feta and chicken, my usual pizza order).

Rode my bike back. A really easy ride too. What a nice night! I'm being social! Yaaaay!

what I hinted at yesterday is...

Okie dokie. Soooo. I decided to give online dating a try. All though more for the meeting people/getting out of the house and checking out the area aspect of it than the finding someone to date part. Went with OkCupid because it is free, and if Carmen met Josh on it, then there should be some really awesome people? Anyway. I have good instincts and know how it goes: meet first in a public space, let someone know where you are going, set a good end time. Among other cautious things.

So today I hung out with Amir in the Stanford Library. Amir is a TA for the English program at said fancy college, and is starting work on his dissertation. Smart stuff. And he showed me the tea cupboard, and let me have as much tea as I wanted. I only had one cup, but I could have had two. It was a beautiful day, and we walked around the campus and talked about books and perception and travel and linguistics and all sorts of topics.

Not a bad little meeting, not a bad one at all.

Afterwards I went to Redwood City and hung out with Nathan. Ate a burrito, drank soda, talked video games, saw what my painting looks like matted and framed (it looks GOOOOOD), and watched an episode of Breaking Bad.

All in all, a pretty good Sunday. Now I await Breaking Bad.

Tomorrow I start work a bit later, so an extra sleep in day is nice.

cleaning house

Got my paycheckola, and since I definitly have enough to more than cover rent I went shopppping! For paper towels, Draino, car soap, and other household things...because I'm an adult and I have to buy those things instead of tickets to Disneyworld. All though actually I wouldn't buy that anyway. I did get some Seagram's Sweet Tea flavored vodka, because you can buy that sort of thing in Californian Targets. That and lemonade, which when mixed together makes for a lovely drink. I also got a new MP3 player! Now my tunes are easier to access. Hurray! It is a little clip on thing and should serve me nicely. Amazing how the same size mp3 player in the iPod line of things costs $80 more. Why spend that much more money? I don't understand.

Anyway. Ran them errands. I wanted to wash my car, but a doucher parked way too far across our driveway for me to feel safe getting in, so I parked elsewhere, which ended up being too far away from a hose. So my car will go dirty another day.

I scrubbed the bathtub though. It was looking grubby. Cleaned the little no slip thing and scrubbed away the stuff that had collected under it. And poured Draino down the drain. It was draining slow and I couldn't get the stopper off to try and dig out the culprit (probably hair). So I poured down some chemicals and 30 minutes later it drained like gangbusters. It is back to looking nice again. And draining nice.

Had a scramble for a late lunch and half an avocado creme cheese sandwich for a late dinner. Had my Arnold Palmer as well, and that was tasty indeed.

Got some plans for tomorrow. I'll tell you about them after they happen.

Oh and I watched the first episode of Parade's End. It was awesome.