good fortune

Monday (aka travel day):

Got up early and Dad made breakfast, and a little to go paper bowl of a cinnamon roll. I grabbed a drink, packed the rest of my stuff, and off we went to the airporter! Womp wooomp good bye Seabeck. I sat by myself on the ride over. It wasn't a full airporter. Arrived at Sea-Tac and it wasn't bustling. I like how Alaska Airline is all streamlined now. Self serve check in, then you just drop your bag off with someone at the conveyor belt. Easy.

I got some fish and chips from Ivar's. Well, that is what I ordered. They gave me shrimp and chips. Which I'm fine with. I ate them and chilled in the main terminal, then chilled by the gate. No one was seated next to me during the 30 minutes hop to Portland. Being in Portland, even if it is just the airport, made my heart twang. It was a quick layover and then I was headed to San Jose. I read my book.

Landed, got my bag, and Nathan arrived lickety split to pick me up. Back at his place, he, Helen, and I played Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, which was very fun and similar to Dominion in game play. AND I WON! I got 80 points, and Nate and Helen came in at mid 50. HA! YES! Go me, I am so awesome.

I got back home late. Unpacked a bit. Chatted with Justen. Then late at night I retired to bed. And I had the heater on so I didn't freeze, because damn this house doesn't maintain heat AT. ALL.

Also I claimed Nate's slippers for myself.

Tuesday (the last day of 2013):

Slept decently in, but not tragically so. Had some oatmeal and tea. Made a grocery run. Cleaned house. Wore my slippers, which help a whole lot. Did my eyebrows. Still no word from boss about him wanting me to come in, so... yay? More time off is good?

I finished unpacking, though I kinda perilously stuffed a few things into corners with no proper organization.

Met up with Anna, Justen, Michael, and Anna's friend uhm,.. I forget her name. For dinner at Dynasty Restaurant. Chinese food and whatnot. Justen's fortune cookie was "handsome is as handsome does". Right after he read it out loud, he spilled his take out box on himself.

Justen moves out tomorrow. End of a short era.

Just sticking around here for midnight. Tomorrow is the new episode of Sherlock! Yaayayayay!

New year, new happenings. Let's do this!

wolfie

Last full day in Seabeck. Not fun to leave the comforts and coddling of home. Waaah.

Got up early. Dad made me some eggs and toast. Num nums. I borrowed the van and headed to Poulsbo to meet Marcus and see The Wolf of Wall Street. That movie was crazy pants! Super colorful and Leo is such a dynamic physical actor. The whole cast was good, it was just sort of...ridiculous. Not in a bad way. It's just the only way I can sum up the whole extravaganza.

Afterwards we hung out at his apartment in Poulsbo. Rufus (his roommate, and you might remember him from when I blogged about attending film class) and I talked shop (Rufus also works as a screenprinter). Lots of mutual complaints about Bella brand shirts. It was a nice little hang out, but Marcus had plans at 4, so we said our goodbyes.

I put some gas in the car on the way home. Had to loop around because I pulled up on the wrong side of the car for the tank.

At home, Mom was off on a beach walk so Dad and I snacked. When Ma returned, we ate more food and then watched Attack the Block. Excellent alien movie. Love it, and Ma & Pa enjoyed it too! Yay!

There was still time in the evening, so I did laundry and we watched Saturday Night Live and I got to packing.

Right now I can't pack my birthday presents or the family photos or Nathan's presents! Waaah! Nor some of my Christmas presents (namely the wrench set). Kinda a bummer to get things and then be unable to return with them.

I'll resolve the rest come the mornin'. 10:20ish airporter. 3pm flight. Transfer in Portland. Whooo.

ciao Nate and Helen, see you in a few days!

Another sleep in day. Tomorrow will not be one.

Nate and Helen went off to the gym. I ate udon with egg and bagel and creme cheese and salmon and drank tea and loafed about. We had an early supper when they came back. Then all was packed up and we went into town to drop them off at the airporter. Boo sad! I'll be in the same position day after next. We swung by Best Buy and got some James Bond dvds, then hardware store for lamps (mom bought a party lamp that changes colors), then REI for book exchange. We returned home for a little bit. Put up our feet. Snacked. Then off again to Port Orchard and the Dragonfly Cinema to see The Book Thief. It was a good adaptation. No complaints about what they changed as the changes make sense.

Returned home. Made some plans with Marcus. Now to sleep!

groovy in Seattle

Whooo! Sixties party! I set my alarm and rolled out of bed a bit early, because I knew I'd need to smear stuff on my face and get ready and all that. Had two P.E.O.T.W.M.C. courtesy of Dad. Yum.

I had my outfit picked out. I added some rings and a necklace.

Helen wore a headband and did a braid in her hair. Mom wore clothes that she typically wears. Dad wore an era appropriate protest shirt and headband. Nate wore a nehru jacket. We were a great looking bunch. Totally not out of place on the ferry ride over to Seattle, hehe. I had a hot dog on the ferry ride. A nice little middle meal. Elevensies?

The party was Aunt Janet's 60th Sixties Themed birthday party. It was the extended family on that side. Carmen, Josh, Rosie, Janet, Steve, Ian, Lief, Hans, Jennie, Jennifer... lots of people! And lots of good food and wine and lots of encouragement to sample all the wine. I would have gotten proper drunk if I did that though. Ha. Anyway. There was a dance contest and Dad gave "The Swim" his all. Other dancers gave their all too, but I'm not allowed to mention their names.

There was a costume contest (I didn't win) and a guess that tune (mom didn't win) and a photo contest (Dad and I won!!). Jeanette and Liam were there. Haven't seen them in years. Jeanette hasn't age a damn day! And Liam is in the double digits now!

It was a lovely shindig, and lots of people in costumes. Good time, good family, good food. All good. Yay.

Took the ferry back and swung by Central Market for fruit and goodies. Nate showed us his 23 And Me results. Pretty interesting. Only two more full days in Seabeck. Womp wooomp.

boxing day

When I got up, everyone was gone! Waaah! Dad came down from the garage to inform me that Ma, Nate, and Helen went to the YMCA to exercise.

I had some breakfast and Dad made me a bagel. I started reading Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore for a bit. Off to a good start with that book.

We five went to the 4:50 showing of Frozen. It had some cute elements though there were disagreements about certain elements and if they worked or not. Good to have discussion though.

Dinner was rice and salmon and broccoli. Now Mom is reading aloud from The Snow Queen, which Frozen was based after....vaguely.

get dressed you merry gentleman

Do I hafta blog? Everyone that reads this was with me today! Ahhh I guess I hafta.

I was the last up, and I chomped on bacon and drank tea and then it was presents time! I dumped out the stocking which contained Gandalf and Sarumon legos! I got to assembling them, which took some nice. And that time irked other people because I was still assembling when they were done opening presents. Come on! Give me some time to enjoy! Jeeze.

Got the stocking staples: chocolate oranges, Pocky, other candy, more candy...

Presents! Everyone enjoyed the hand painted mugs that I painted for them! Nate got Picklepoop, Dad got a landscape, Mom got Rhododendrons, and Helen (who arrived later in the day) got carrots! I spent a good chunk of a day painting these, which I didn't mention in my blog because I wanted it to be a surprise. I need to go and paint a mug for myself. Wheeee yay.

My Christmas print shall still circulate, so I'll wait on describing that.

Nate got a painting of a wheat crop from Minecraft, and Helen got some bananas to go with her ever growing art collection. Ma and Pa got a juicer from Nate. Mmm juice.

I got Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Shop, Shada, and N0S4A2. So yay books! And some socks and leg warmers. And Playmobil!

Oh! And a cool box that Dad MADE and it makes noise based on light when you remove the insert and it is really super duper cool! What a cool box! So stoked on my neato box. Can't wait to put stuff in it! Dad always makes the most awesome stuff. Yay Dad!

We four took a walk later in the afternoon (Helen hadn't arrived yet). A few loops at Anderson Creek. Then we returned home and snacked a bit. Then Nate left to pick up Helen at the airport, and Ma, Pa, and I watched the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special. That passed the time. Food was put in the oven.

Helen arrived (with Nate) and we were all Yay! Helen is here! We had dinner (salad, ribs, potatoes, wine) and it was lovely. Then we observed closely as Helen opened her presents. She seemed to like them, so all was well. Then we played ImagineIf and I won! It was a tough race. Nate took an early lead but we brought him back and I scooted in to win. Fun game. I think we'll go see Frozen tomorrow.

Ma, Pa, and I watched the new Doctor Who episode where he regenerated into Capaldi. I cried. A bit. Well more than a bit.

And now to bed! What a nice Christmas. Yay for good company and good food.

there and back again

I thought I heard Dad snoring, but it is Holly.

I got up before Nate, so that is good! Always nice to get up before other people. Had some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and tea. Loafed about. Played no games. Just ate food. Nate told us about this documentary he watched about the bad sugar that is in everything. He is a bit of a kill joy. We still ate sugar.

We caught the 3:30 showing of The Hobbit in the new (to me) Bremerton theater. It is SO AWESOME! And much better when you are not so very tired. So much fun.

Back at home we ate shrimp egg sunflower seed salads. Those were good. Mmm. Afterwards Nate and I hot tubbed and then played computer games.

Now it is time to rest, I suppose. For tomorrow is CHRISTMAS!!!!

my girl Holly

Slept all the way in. My bed is so comfy and soft. Just sucks me down into it. Ahhh. Took a lot of effort to get up, but get up I did. Showered. Had some tea and cookies for breakfast. Nathan had arrived too, so that was good! He had a very early flight and took the airporter to Silverdale. His luggage was more a thing to deal with as opposed to mine. Luggage full of PRESENTS! FOR ME! Hopefully.

Today was a nice, slow at home day. We ate food (sandwiches, teriyaki skewers and broccoli, candy) drank stuff (tea, juice, cinnamon whiskey), and played games (ImagineIf, Who Flung the Poo?, Cranium: Hoopla). Dad worked in the garage on his projects. Can't wait to see them!

A nice mellow day. We walked to the driveway to get the mail. I cuddled with Holly a whole bunch. Salvador doesn't like me.

I did my makeup. Really need to practice my eyebrows! I like having more visible brows.

car, train, plane, and boat. good thing I have a coat!

Damn, I think that has to be a record of how fast it takes to get from Santa Cruz to Seabeck!

5:30am: alarm.
5:50am: get out of bed and shower and munch some food and finish packing
6:45am depart house
6:50am put some gas in tank and fill up tires and then head north to Mountain View
7:45am arrive in Mountain View to get a lift to the airport from brother
8:05am arrive at airport
8:20isham get through baggage check line
8:40isham get through xray line, there is a lady with a yappy dog but otherwise all is well
9:10am get a breakfast bagel and chocolate croissant and eat them
9:35am board plane and get seated in an aisle and have to deal with annoying demanding lady who makes a fuss about now having easy access to the aisle but then she sleeps through the whole flight so whatever to that
10:15amish away we go!
noonish arrive in misty Seattle
12:15ish get bag from carousel, it was one of the first off
12:25ish board light rail for downtown
1:05pmish get off train at Pioneer Place and strut down the hill in hopes of catching the 1:30 to Bremerton
1:25pm board the 1:30 to Bremerton! Booyah!
2:30pm disembark after a nice ride over the water and yay, Ma and Pa are there!
2:45pm we get barbecue to take home
3:20pmish HOME!! Like, wow no time at all. Travel is amazing!

At home we ate the barbecue and I petted Holly plenty and we chatted and caught up about all sorts of things. Celia came over too! Yay! I don't think I've seen her in two years just about, so that was awesome. Her new hairdo is quite good. We opened a few presents and gabbed and I tried on outfits for the sixties party. Lots of fun options! We ate dinner and ate lots of chocolate and mom made cookies and we played a game that was pretty fun and a good laugh!

It's nice to be back. Now I have some presents to wrap!

test run

Auntie Janet is having a sixties themed birthday party, so naturally I wanted to try out makeup before the big day. I swung by Ulta and got some false lashes just for the occassion. Falsies can be used a couple times, so I only got the one pair. Don't think I'll add them to my regular routine. THAT BEING SAID I did really like how long my lashes looked with them on. I felt all flittery and elegant. I want to practice it a little more, and maybe try a few different tutorials. Still, yay! Fun things are afoot.

I talked to Ma in the morning.

My secret santa gift arrived AND my Ladies of Heavy Metal calendar (my friend Leah's project, which I helped Kickstarter). My secret santa was TOFFEE! Yumm! Good start to the day.

But also a slow start. I didn't get onto my errands till 3ish. I did bang out a couple paintings later on. But I still don't have a packed suitcase. I need to get on that. Now. Right when I'm done writing this blog post. Which isss....

NOW

finished for 2013

I painted my nails in a rainbow. Red on the far left pinky, to violet on the far right one. The rainbow at the end of a hectic week! Wheeew!

Thursday:

Ran this job. Weeded vinyl. Weeded more vinyl. Ended up staying late working on the vinyl. Things were not as orderly as they ought to be. We are working on it, but there has been some turn over and it's taking time sorting itself out, though considering how busy we are....it's not the best time. Ah. Oh well. Don't want to go into too much detail here on this public blog. Busy is good! And I'm setting up jobs like a champ, so that rocks.

Took a nice hot bath when I got home and went to bed at a respectable hour because I agreed to show up at work at 9am.

Friday:

I got doughnuts on the way to work, because I figured people would like doughnuts. I bought and consumed two custard doughnuts. Balanced breakfast! We ran a bunch of jobs. Fronts, backs, lefts chests, sleeves. I broke down the press. Set it up. Caught. Counted shirts. There were a few hiccups, but no one lost an arm. It was a long shift, but getting there early still made it feel like I was getting out in good time.

Yaaay! I'm on vacation!

Got home. Had some tea and hummus and chips and all that good stuff. It's nice to leave on a Sunday because I don't have to stress about doing the whole travel thing RIGHT when I'm done with work.

So tomorrow... sort out a few last minute gits. Clean my room. Pack. THEN I GO HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! YAAAY!

wednesday

Wednesday down! Two more days to go! Whoooo!

I weeded some vinyl. I burned some screens. Coated some screens. There was a Costco run that resulted in MORE HOT DOGS AND PIZZA! Yay! I set up the job and Jeff said I was really good at setting up screens.

The day moved along. Didn't go fast, didn't go slow. Just went along.

Got home. Did my laundry. Ate some foody food. Folded laundry.

Worked on prezzies. The one I ordered yesterday showed up as being shipped. Come on Christmas Miracle!

printorama & pressorama

Printed my Christmas Print! Yay! I'm pretty stoked on this one. It went off without a hitch. Psyched to give it to people. Whooo! I should print more things. It only takes a few hours after work.

I was allocated to heat transfer pressing. We had a small order of jerseys to get done ASAP, and they had lots of little bits to be put on. Loooots of little bits. But since I was in my own little corner of the shop, I got to listen to stuff. Yay. I like my stuff.

I also coated screens and weeded vinyl. A full 8 hour day, then my own printing! Which was fun.

Got home. Made some pasta. Ate a bit of it with sauce for dinner, but most went to a tupperware for tomorrow's lunch. Easy peasy. We've got a lot of work to do in the next few days!

Then I go hoooome! I just ordered another present and I hope it arrives it time to give it to the person I want to give the present to. Ohhhh.

ciao and hello to a new person in January

Back at it! I put my tunes on the radio using the tape adapter. Electric Six, Cake, Kaiser Chiefs, and White Stripes were the days mix.

Also I set up the job like a PRO! Needed no tweaking. That felt awesome. Ran the job. Well traded off a bit with Jeff. I counted some shirts in, because it was a bonkers order. Three different piles, with mens and ladies tees, and mens and ladies long sleeves, and hoodies and windbreakers. Like...what? And some were black, some were white, some were gray, some were "asphalt" whatever color THAT is.

Not a shabby day. It was even warm!

Got home to this month's house meeting. Well first we ate dinner. My sauce, Tara's pasta. Mmm. Very savory on the second day.

Justen is moving out! He has some job thing down in San Diego, so he is going to do that. The meeting went well.

Didn't work on art like I ought. I'll work on art tomorrow.

elementary drawing

Quick Sherlock from CBS' Elementary. Love it when he cooks.

getting it done

Today went by fast and I managed to be productive! Got up early and made a grocery run. Got the pasta sauce going. It ended up being a loooot of sauce. Not sure how I'll enjoy that over the coming week for lunch. Hopefully a lot of it gets eaten at the house meeting tomorrow.

I did one Christmas painting. I bought the paper for my Christmas print and I watched Somm on Netflix Instant while I designed the print. So I've got that done. Just need to print it some time this week. Booyah.

The movie Somm was okay. It didn't really get into wine history like it could have, nor the stories of the dudes testing for the thing.

Had some pasta for dinner. Liked the sauce. I didn't add the marjoram because they didn't have marjoram at Trader Joe's, nor in our spice cupboard.

My to-do list is looking manageable, so that is good. Time to write a "by the end of the week" one!

can't tell you nothin'

Friday:

Didn't do so bad on the whole sleep thing.

Oh and The Hobbit was AWESOME! So much fun. The barrel escape is still going through my mind.

But yeah, wasn't so tired at work. Jeff called in sick. I accidentally burned a few screens (couldn't locate the other screens and thought they had been reclaimed. Oops, well I had shown boss that I hadn't located the screens, so he did say to burn them). And I weeded vinyl and did heat pressings. That took a while, though I did end up getting out early.

After work I drove up to Ikea, which is in Palo Alto. I got some meatballs. Because one ALWAYS starts an Ikea trip with meatballs. I knew what I was there for, but still I wandered the market. One never know what they didn't know they needed. In this case I bought some glasses to supplement the cabinets at home. I bought the frames that my Christmas print is going to go into.

Returned home. Worked on my To Do list. Went to sleep.

Saturday:

Slept in, which maybe I shouldn't because I had tons of stuff to do today. But oh well. Had some oatmeal and tea. Did my makeup:

Then I went downtown and... did some Christmas related things. Things that I can't mention because it would give away the surprise. But I really like what I did. Haha.

Went home. Made pasta. Ate it all, even though the box probably said 2 servings. It was too late to go to Trader Joe's for food stuff, so I'll do that tomorrow. Then I'll spend a lot of time drawing! And maybe doing another shopping errand. But I have lots of drawing to do, and it must be done!

Damn. Next weekend I'll be headed home for the holidays! I need to figure out my sixties makeup! Waahhh!

Maybe I'll go bother the ladies at Ulta. Get some false eyelashes. That was a part of the 60s, right? False eyelashes? That Twiggy look. Hmmm.

back to Mirkwood

I painted my nails with a coat of blue then a coat of purple. Made a really nice shade. I need to start layering and play with that more! Nail polish. So much fun. Did you know sales of nail polish and red lipstick go up when the economy is down? Makes sense, as they are little vanity purchases. It's easier to buy than, say, a whole new set of makeup or something.

Work was all right. I miss my tunes, though I got a chance to listen to some while coating screens. I did the heat press thing. I double coated a screen. I taped screens. I counted in shirts for several orders.

Not a full day, which was nice. Finally got out a little early instead of late.

Got home. Had some dinner. Did some laundry. Now I shall go see The Hobbit!! Obviously I'm blogging now because I'll be getting home at 3 and I get up at 8ish for work SOOO.

and now: poetry!

Feeling a little bit better today. A little bit of Googlin' does a girl good about certain things. Have to itemize what needs to be done with certain plans. Secretive!

And a good chat with your mother. That can do a girl good as well.

Work was dull. I've been told not to listen to my MP3 player as it is a distraction. Of course sans it, I still made an error. I dunno. I get it when it comes to being in a busy studio, but if I'm just doing my own thing for a length of time, why not? It gives me peace of mind and it makes the time pass. Today was just...like. Uhg. I don't like being in my head that much. But guess I gotta do what I'm told.

This job is the only thing really keeping me in Santa Cruz. What is that tipping point of job satisfaction versus home dissatisfaction?

I bought my ticket for The Hobbit! Yay!

Then I spent the rest of the night sort of by myself in my room. People were home and chatting and stuff, but I didn't feel up to being social. I'm not in a good mood these days. I kinda just want to be left alone, but I also want company. I think I want the company of people that are too far away.

My yellow nail polish is making me happy though. It's a really nice color and the clear top coat is preserving it nicely! I came up with this poem by way of browsing my nail polish colors:

racy red sheer satin slip
hot magenta gunmetal
blue me away!

Kara made a Costco run for work supplies, and I suggested that she get hot dogs. And she got hot dogs! Well Chris told her to get hot dogs after I told him to tell her. Everyone was super stoked on the hot dogs. Point to me for taking the hot dog initiative!

It's only Tuesday

Had a not so good day at work. And just. Uhg.

Really it's only my job that keeps me in Santa Cruz. It's a nice city, but I can't see myself being here in the long term. And I turn 26 this January, so if I get to 27 and I'm still here? Like. Uhg. It'll feel like spinning wheels. It doesn't feel like much has changed for me in the year and a half I've been here. I don't like that feeling. But when you have a good job, it's hard to leave because all that is out there is uncertainty. Ya know?

Uhg. Yeah. Not a good day. And it was long too and it didn't leave much at the end of the day to relax and now it is 11 and I've been staying up way too late so I should get some rest early.

It's tough being a big part of a small studio, because you can't just call in sick like you can in High School.

Holidays can't come soon enough. Neither can The Hobbit.

I've got all 50 of my cards addressed! That feels like quite the accomplishment.

two weeks till holidays, not that I'm counting

Damn. How is it already midnight? Well I guess working a full 8 hour day when you start at 10:30 really kills your evening.

I printed the fronts on the job, and boss printed the backs. Which was nice because it took some fussing with and I'm glad I didn't have to be on the shirt side of the job. Jeff did embroidery. Ryan did reclaiming. We are working on figuring out how to run the studio sans Andrew and plus Ryan. Kinda have to renegotiate how to do things, and find out everyone's systems so that things don't get lost.

Also apparently the studio was 27 degrees in this morning, but when I arrived it was warmer due to the dryer being on. When I cooled the dryer down, it was the fasted cool down I've ever seen. Normally it takes like 20 minutes, but I swear it was off in 5.

I started listening to the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast. No slight on you Mom, it's just interesting women's history stuff, and also just general womensy stuff. Learning!

It's so cold in Santa Cruz. I need to find my leggings. Why does it feel so much colder here? Well my room doesn't retain heat worth a damn, sooo.

Bleh.

Have any of my packaged arrived up in Seabeck yet?

nerdlife

Saturday:

SOooo. My nerd errand. I was meeting up with some other Cabin Pressure fans over in San Martin, California. See the show is going to have a final episode, and all the fans across the world are getting together to make a "thank you!" video for the show creator. So me and Robin, the other NorCal yet not San Francisco Cabin Pressure fan had a little meeting over at this little airport in San Martin. Near Gilroy. I got up nice and early and drove over. The weather was good and the hills were nice. Gilroy is really proud of its garlic.

Anyhoo. Met up with Robin, fellow Cabin Pressure fan, at the Magnum Aviation place over in San Martin. Me her, and her husband Ray, and we took a couple nerdy pictures with the planes. Basically we'll submit the photos and they'll be compiled into a video/thing (I suppose). It's a nice way to get together all around the world and show someone their work is appreciated. Either way, it is nice to get out of the house.

I got a bit lost driving back from Gilroy, and ended up in Salinas before turning back to Hollister. Still, I was in no hurry and I got back home by noon. Then I was left with the rest of the day, in which I had gotten up early, to be productive! So I walked down to Palace Arts and procured my secret santa gift exchange gift, as well as some other gift exchange stuff. For the first time in my life, I had shown up at a store without my wallet! So I had to have them hold my stuff. I walked back to my place, grabbed my wallet, and walked back. I'm generally so good at be prepared for stores.

Afterwards I worked on correspondence and ate some pasta. I went to bed early because I was tired.

Sunday:

I woke up at 9:30, and decided that was too early and went back to sleep.

At 1:30pm, I got up and had some breakfast. Well, lunch maybe? I worked on more cards writing. I got some food. No crock pot this weekend. I made some snowflake decorations for the window. I itemized what had to be done in the near future. It's looking less busy now, so that is good! Just have to make my Christmas print and buy the frames.

Saturday was relatively productive, and Sunday was very much not. I guess it balances out?

so very dry

Blaaah. Felt sort of foggy all day. Not getting to bed at proper hours. No good.

I ran the shirts on one job. I caught a bit. I broke down the press. I burned some screens. We have implemented a white board at work! The abbreviations are D, F, S, G. Also known as: docket (the sheet that breaks down the shirt order and has an image of the shirt), film (for burning), screens (screens burned and taped and otherwise prepped), garments (clothes ordered and counted). The white board has two weeks worth of days in which to post jobs. So that is neat. Hurray! Organization!

My lips are so very dry. Just horribly try. Blistex did nothing. The sample of balm from Lush did nothing. I bought Aquafor's lip repair. WOW! AMAZING! Aquaphor is the best.

I have a nerd errand to run in the morning/early afternoon. Weather permitting. Then other errands.

carded part two

My lips are so dry! Waaah! Trying to keep them moisturized.

Work was sooo cold. We didn't need the heater on. I grabbed a beanie from the stack, and a shirt to add to my current layer. That is how cold it was! I think I'll wear some tights under my jeans tomorrow. I coated some screens. I ran some stickers than needed this ink that needed hella chemicals to remove. Yes I used gloves. Several layers of them. I cut some banners. Taped screens. Burned screens.

Oh so cold. We did run a job, and it was a bit warmer then. Still. Bleh.

I was grateful to go home, turn on the heat, and eat some warm carbs. I dropped off 15 cards this morning, and I have 18 to post tomorrow. So that is neat!

I ran out of stamps. So now I have to buy stamps. Only need 20 more to cover the rest of the cards with some left overs.

carded

Printed 50 cards after word, addressed 31 envelopes, added several addresses to my address book, and wrote up 15 cards to post! Three are going abroad, so that is cool. I'm calling it a night. I'll get the rest written up tomorrow night and in the mail on Friday. I'm pretty happy with these cards. Only three were really goofs, but none so much that they were really goofed up. Printing at work was much easier. I could use the pallet and the squeegees and all the equipment was there to be used if I needed it. I still did it manually, but OH so much easier. Boss dug the design. I didn't get out till almost 9pm, and I had to scrape the frost off my car. It's going below freezing now. Boo. Cold bad!

Got some good pod cast listening in today.

I caught AND ran shirts. And taped and burned screens. And delegated Ryan to reclaiming.

I finally listened to the Nikola Tesla history podcasts, but they were rather general and mostly stuff I knew. The Queen Nzinga podcast was awesome! I listened to the Radiolab episodes: Blood, and Bliss. Both very interesting, though I wish they spent more time with the special effects guy and all the types of fake blood he uses.

My lips are so dryyy!

So I got home all tired and stiff and set to writing up my cards. I have some in tan, some in yellow, and some in pink. Which will you get???

To get a long little doggy!

Attention Ma & Pa, I am ordering some Christmas presents online, but I'm having them shipped to the Seabeck address. So anything that arrives for me, just put it on my bed. DON'T UNWRAP IT!!! Okay? The estimated delivery date is the 10th-26th, so hopefully they arrive!

Anyhoo. Okay.

I loaded shirts on the press! But it went slow because they were polos and the front had to have the buttons pressed down into the well of the zipper pallets, so that the button wouldn't rupture the screen. I did all right!

Coated screens. Burned my own screens at the end of the day. Taped screens. Caught shirts. Weeded. The day really scooted along.

Learned about Freya of Arabia. And did you know that Pablo Fanque, as mentioned in the Beatles song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, was a real person?

I have gnocchi and Gorgonzola for dinner. It was good.

Why did the cowboy buy a dachshund?

Back at it! Ryan cleaned and reclaimed. So odd to have that done by someone who isn't me. I did museum banners. I hope I didn't mess one up. I'll see if it gets rejected. Properly doing those banners for poles, you know the ones that hang flat off the side of poles up in the air? is really hard. Very specific measurements need to happen.

I also burned a bunch of stuff. Double coated. Weeded. Heat pressed. Nice start to the week.

Unless I messed up that banner. Errr.

Had some tea once I got home. Started to listen to the podcast about Fridtjof Jansen. A Norwegian explorer with a great mustache. It's a two part episode, so I'm excited to learn more. Apparently he didn't die young on the arctic, so yay!

I'm all caught up on Thrilling Adventure Hour. I guess I'll balance Stuff You Missed in History with more Radiolab and Dinner Party Download.

my four days are up

Got up bright and early (10am) and got the crock pot cooking for some tasty chicken tikka masala. Got it in the pot. Chopped up all the ingredients. Got it going! Then I spent 8 hours enjoying the smell of the kitchen. Mmm. Smelled so good.

I got out of the house for some tertiary grocery shopping. Had some pasta for lunch. Watched some tv and took a bath and read. A nice relaxing day.

I think I could have cut the chicken a bit thicker, but overall it was very tasty. Mmmm.

Hung out with Dylan and Justen a bit. Overall a relaxing day. To the grind I go, once again!

Well I say grind. I do like my job.

the quest for red chiles

I had NO IDEA it would take so much effort to find red chiles for the chicken tikka masala recipe! At least Santa Cruz isn't big and there are several grocery stores all on the same loop. First was Safeway (after trying Trader Joe's on other days). Did not have it, but they did have doughnuts and these exfoliating skin pads I've been trying to find but were not at Wallgreens or CVS. Funny what you can find at the dingey Safeway. Whole Foods had a whole bunch of fancy expensive food, but no red chiles! They did have compostable compost bags, so now the compost bin will lack the sticky bottom. Which was ew. Tara put her yogurt in the bin this morning, because she didn't want to clog the sink..but I ended up pouring it in the sink anyway because ... gross. And what, I was jut going to put yogurt in the can outside? That stuff goes rancid. There is a difference between yogurt and apple cores. Anyway. Yeah. With bin liners there should be a better compost situation.

Shoppers Corner had the red chiles and I told the check out lady that she was my savior. I couldn't believe that it took multiple stores to find! I could swear they were everywhere, but maybe I'm thinking of red bell peppers. Hmm.

Anyway. Returned home. Installed the new compost liners. I worked on my holiday card. Ate left overs. Struggled with my makeup. Somedays it is easy, somedays it just doesn't work. Normally when I mess up my eye liner. I can blend in shades pretty well, but getting gel liner right and even is tough.

I caught the late showing of Catching Fire. The guy working the ticket counter had an awesome beard and I told him so. I walked to the theater on 41st, which was surprisingly walkable. I enjoyed the movie. Though it sort of sped along getting from the starting content to the arena. Sort of "oh right there is a whole 'nother chunk to this story!" Good actors, and the effects were awesome. I enjoyed it. No shakey cam!

Back home I got my chicken marinating. Yogurt, cumin, coriander, a bit of salt. Sliced the chicken up, but oh wow it seems EVERY knife in this house is dull. I need to find a way to sharpen them. It's absolutely awful.

So yaaay, tomorrow I get up and get my chicken cooking! 8 hours worth of slow cooking, but it'll get started around 11ish if I manage to roll out of bed. Hurray!

two days of the weekend down, two to go!

Thursday:

Yay! Sleeping in time! I had my breakfast, put on my nice dress, took my time with my makeup. 3ish I headed off across the river to Anita and Dan's. Anita is Ryan's sister. Their place was right across from the Natural Bridges park. Very nice spot, and had a view of the ocean though it was on a street perpindicular to the water. The view wasn't obscured by other houses.

Ryan's Dad was there, and Dan's grandma Connie as well. We snacked. Opened some wine. Chatted. Anita was doing the cooking and she got everything out and warm at the same time! And it was a lovely variety of staples. Beans, yams, gravy, cranberry sauce, turkey... mmmm good stuff. It was a nice meal. Good company, and not totally hectic as maybe a larger one would be. After dinner we played Apples to Apples. Then had pie. Then played some video games. I got home at about noon and promptly went so sleep.

Friday:

And I slept in a whole bunch! I did my laundry, but accidentally washed one of those Trader Joe's lavender satchels in the washer...so there were lots of lavender bits. But those came out in the dryer. I vacuumed and itemized a to do list. At Target I bought card stock to turn into cards. A lot cheaper than the paper I WAS buying. Like... by a whole bunch.

Had some left overs for dinner. Tidied up. I got a lil address book too (super cheap) and I'm putting addresses into it, so that I have a better record. I did have a file on my computer, but that is far from complete.

And since I'm sure you're all eager for it, here was my Thanksgiving makeup:

cute animal wine is what I prefer

We finished this job that wasn't actually fully due for another week! Ah! But great to get it done. Took some work, but we were done for the day with daylight to spare!

When I woke up, some of the power outlets/lights were not working. I figured I would take care of it when I got home. So I got home, the problem hadn't magically fixed itself. Called Jeff, who left me a message about what to do...but then I accidentally deleted the message and lost track of what to do, so I called Dad and said "help me Dad-wan Kenobi!". But I couldn't find the other button... but Jeff came home soon and showed me the thingy I had to press, and boom lights were on!

I went to Trader Joe's and bought some wine for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I went with a "cute illustrated animals on the label" theme with Babble and Tribunal. Both reds. Had some TJ's sushi for dinner. Watched stuff. Took it easy. Nice to have a good amount of time in the evening to relax. Now to sleep in! Wheee!

I wonder how I'll do my makeup for Thanksgiving? Hmmmm.

day before day before

Ryan invited me to his Thanksgiving! With his sister. And other people. And all I have to bring is some red wine. Booyah! I was going to make this two day chicken tikka masala recipe, but I'll save that for the weekend. You marinate it over night, then slow cook it all day. I still need to find some garam masala to fill out the recipe. That and some peppers.

Anyhoo. It was a late night trip to Trader Joe's, after a late day at work. We've got a couple big deadlines, so it was a lot of stuff that needed doing immediately. Jobs to get set up, plenty of screens to burn, screens to coat, stuff to tape up. And so many squeegees cleaned and recleaned. Got some good listening done on Thrilling Adventure Hour.

Long day at work. Got home lateish. But I just gotta work tomorrow, go buy some wine, and then it is four day weekend time! WHeeeeeEE!

super stoked on santa cruz nerds

Just got back from seeing the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special. In 3D! At the theater! It was awesome. There was a line around the block and they were so palpably nerds. There were fezzes and bowties and long scars and sonic screwdrivers and Tardis this and that. Oh it was great. Ryan met me in line (friend Ryan, not coworker Ryan). Got pretty good seats. The audience whooed and cheered and it was a great experience.

Work was full, but not totally strenuous. Burned some screens. Counted out several nightmarish jobs (lots of specific pieces that were in separate boxes that had to be susses out). I trained Ryan in cleaning screens and reclaiming. I like reclaiming. That is solid audio listening time. And I get to use the pressure washer. Oh well. I must train. A good studio can swap everyone around seamlessly. I think new guy Ryan is getting the hang of it.

Mellowed at home a bit. The dishwasher does NOT get all the dishes clean as it ought.

But seriously, where are all these Santa Cruz nerds hiding? There were so many of them!

selfie was word of the year

Uhhggg. I'm so congested! I don't know why! I don't feel otherwise sick and I've done a pretty good job of staying warm. The space heater had my room all kinds of cozy last night.

There was today's makeup look. Fun to run errands while all done up.

I made my pulled pork, though I think I bought the wrong cut of meat or something. Either way, it turned out okay. Edible, sure, but nothing too phenomenal. I was hoping for a little more fancy but ehhh. Oh well. It'll be good for sandwiches in the next few days. Only working three days this week, then it is four day Thanksgiving weekend! Hopefully at the end of it, I'll have all my film drawn up and ready to expose and print in the following week. Have to go to Ikea and buy frames. Thankfully I don't really have to do Christmas shopping. Just Christmas making. I'll probably just have stuff ship to Washington instead of hauling it on the plane.

While the sun was out, I walked to Staples instead of driving. It was warm and I was just in my Hawaiian shirt. Twas nice. I picked up some envelopes, and film to draw on to turn into separations for screen printing. So once I get it drawn, I can buy some paper! And ink. Hmmm. Yay screen printing!

Ohh that Benadryl seems to be kicking in and my face is no longer leaking.

Took a nice bath today as well. Very relaxing.

chocolate oranges are at Trader Joe's. Yaaay!

Today I:

• Trimmed my bangs. They are nice and blunt now! I like my bangs straight across.
• Bought a space heater. My room doesn't stay warm, all the heat just goes right out of it. And when I turn the heat in the house on, the upstairs goes to an uncomfortable 70 and I'm like...not even really cozy. So I bought a space heater to use to heat my little room. At least the space isn't big.
• Bought pulled pork ingredients. I think I bought the right cut of pork for the recipe. So that'll be what I try to achieve tomorrow.
• Did my makeup all pretty like again.
• 
• Watched the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode, which was awesome! Tennant is so good! I wished the other Doctors had cameos (well the surviving ones). But overall it was super fun to behold. Such great actors!
• Walked around a bit. Well mostly just to Target and back. And then Trader Joe's and back. But still, nice to get out of the house.
• Discovered that the Trader Joe's spring rolls are pretty ... meh. Edible, but nothing special.
• Slept in. It was nice. And my knee isn't hurting. I'm tempted to buy a brace though. Those make it better on those days when it is bad, right?
• Watched some other telly.
• A pretty good Saturday.

trying to learn how to do my eyebrows

Woke up so sore. I slept on half my body wrong and my knee was awful.

I weeded 50 feet worth of vinyl, and a different 25ish feet bit of vinyl too. So much vinyl. I burned and taped screens. Helped catch and box. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars, broke down the press. Having Ryan catch really opened me up to do all this other stuff. If I had to catch, I wouldn't have had the time to do all that other stuff. We need a third in the studio.

At home, I relaxed. Had some pasta. I put makeup on just for funsies. Then Tara was all "you're so pretty!" and I was all "awwww". Totally easily won over by compliments. Anyhoo, Tara, Michael, and I went downtown and had drinks and dessert at Hula's. Hula Hula's? I had soda and a "pot" brownie, which was just a brownie cooked in a flower pot. They had tasty pie and booze. I was designated driving. We chatted, I sketched, we ate tasty treats. Mmmm. It was pretty cold. Very cold by Santa Cruzian standards. Regular November cold by Pacific Northwest standards.

cool people of history

My room is generally cold, but when it is cold in Santa Cruz, woah is it cold in my room! Hard wood floors are a scam.

Worked a long shift at work. I drank some coffee with a cataclysmic amount of non-dairy creamer in it, and it sent me up the hyper wall. WHOAOAAAHHH. At least my coworkers and boss found it funny. I did some heat transfers. I cleared the back table of stuff. I showed Ryan how to count stuff in. Caught a bit. Cleaned a bit. Weeded 42 feet worth of vinyl. So much vinyl.

Some cool people I've learned about via Missed in History podcast (over time, not just recently):

• Elsa Lanchester
• Charley Parkhurst
• Stede Bonnet
• Walter Potter
• Beryl Markham
• Louise Boyd
• Evliya Celebi
• Empress Elisabeth of Austria

And there are so many more interesting people to learn about! I love being able to listen to so many podcasts.

I got back fairly late, and the rest of my night was spent sitting and being cold and stiff and sore from work. I think I'm going to go lay down now. Ooofff.

November chills

I had two junk drawers that were just getting cluttered with stuff, so I organized them. I also tossed a bunch of stuff. Well recycled. But yeah. Nice to organize. I have a bunch of clutter that is obscured because it is in plastic bins. It doesn't LOOK like clutter, but it's just stuff. I don't have much space in this new room, so I have to maximize what I have. I turned one of the junk drawers into a makeup drawer, and set out all that I've accumulated over the years. I have some decent makeup. I want to get back into wearing it, because it was fun to do so during college. I probably won't be getting up early on weekdays to apply it, but it's a fun hobby.

I took a little walk around the neighborhood as well. It was a brisk, clear night. Just cold enough to warrant a scarf, which is exactly how cold I like it to be.

So the new guy was at work today. Ryan is his name. Because of COURSE the new employee will have the same name as someone else I already know in Santa Cruz. He is only a year younger than me, which is a bit funny because Andrew the other coworker is also a year younger than me and is leaving to do his own thing. Interesting how three people can be the same age but be in totally different places in life, but arriving at the same vector point. Many different paths. Some work, some go to school, some work many jobs, some work one for years. Ryan seemed to pick up what we were putting down. Screenprinting is a lot of systems and little things, and you really learn it by doing and seeing. Training someone really makes you appreciate how much knowledge you have, and how much work it took to acquire it.

Outside of training, I burned stuff, I caught, I counted, I cleaned. The day moved pretty fast.

This week is moving pretty fast! Already Wednesday.

today I learned about Empress Cixi and Evliya Celebi

Super convenient living within easy walking distance of Target. Need Cheerios and toilet paper? Boom right there. And.. oops forgot to get something. Well. That is find, because it is right there! Though they haven't been stocking airheads in their dollar bin area. And an Ulta opened up in the mall, and they have a superior skin care selection, though right now I'm working my way through some products and seeing how my skin looks. I'll be needing a new bottle of cleanser in a month or so, so don't know if I'll keep with the same one, got back to Cetaphil, or try something new. It's interesting to read up on skin care, and reading blogs that are not sponsored talk about what is "normal" for skin, compared to what products say they'll deliver. And then you'll get posts that are like "make sure to change your pillowcases regularly and wash your headphones if you use over the ear ones" and it's like... duh. One can take care of their skin as much as they like, but if they just rub their face on an old pillow case, it defeats the purpose!

So many sides to everything.

The new hire didn't start today, but I think he'll be in tomorrow.

Today was relatively short. Burned screens. Coated screens. Activated a new thing of emulsion. Cleaned screens to get ready for reclaiming. Hauled the trash down.

The problem with changing your address at the post office is now I am getting all these spam letters. Come on USPS, don't give my address to THE MAN!

Really need to get drawing on my holiday stuff. I'm making gift lists! So if you want something, drop me a hint.

chemically treated

We are getting a new employee tomorrow, I think. They are going to be trained on the embroidery unit, and the order of shifts and stuff is going to change around. It'll be interesting. I dunno. We have a nice productivity level right now with Jeff and I running shirts and Andrew running excess, but Andrew is working on his own stuff now. Soo yeah. The dynamic shall change, but hopefully for the better.

Jeff and I ran some shirts, but there were oodles of set up things to figure out. I reclaimed some screens at the end of the day. We've got a good thing going right now in terms of keeping ahead of screens piling up. The room is full of screens to be used. Squeegees and floodbars are cleaned. Mmm hmm.

I spilled some gas on my pants at work, when I was filling up the generator, so I promptly washed them when I got home. And I threw in my work shirts and my other jeans. But then I set the washer to hot water.... and now my work shirts are a bit blue. Oops. Oh well. They'll wash out again next time around. Might be time to add another six pack to the rotation, it's been a few months.

I listened to podcasts about Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She has very pretty hair. And about John James Audubon. And Walter Potter's taxidermy. All very interesting stuff!

I also took a bath. Love using scented epsom salts. Now my hair smells all good. Mmm good smelling Trillian is much better than gasoline, dehazer, and blow out fluid smelling Trillian. I wear gloves! And an apron! I try to keep it off my skin, and when it does get on my skin, I wash it off as soon as possible.

indoors

Saturday:

Today I took on my room! I had stuff still in a box from the move and I just had clutter and I needed to decrowd my room. So I listened to podcasts and worked on that. And now my room is much cleaner! Theres more clear space and stuff is put away. And I did some laundry. There was some bonfire hanging out. I watched Exit Through the Gift Shop. Watched other TV. Did my makeup all fancy like. Pretty mellow day.

Sunday:

Today was focused around the house meeting. Justen, Tara, and I went to get the fixings for the communal brunch of hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, fried bananas, and mimosas. Mmmm. Justen did most of the cooking and I did some setting up of plates. I moderated the meeting and it went pretty well. Nothing really had to be sussed out aside from a few bits about dish washer stuff.

Now I'm just relaxing. Watching telly. Ate some noodles. Another week starts! Whooo!

Oh, and there is a Christmas List posted to the right of this blog. Just putting that out there.

friday mild day

Ended up being a shorter day. Burned and cleaned and taped and prepped. And I did a couple banners. Nice note to end the day on.

At home I wandered over to the mall and bought some things. Some unmentionable things. Some mystery action figures in secret boxes things. Some epsom salts for bath things.

Took a bath. Vegged. Painted my fingernails.

Now to look at my budgeting for the rest of the year as I come up to the holidays. Two weeks off is nice, but that is a whole paycheck to be down. Hmmm. But I'll be better off than last year!

viva la pod

Wednesday:

I spent the day cleaning and reclaiming and coating. Gotta get the screens flowing in, because we've got a few multi color jobs coming up. Caught a bit. Listened to stuff. A standard work day. Nothing too traumatic.

At home we (being housmates plus Dylan and Michael for a bit) relaxed around the fire pit and chatted. I went to bed and that was that.

Thursday:

My shoes were delivered this morning! So quick! That is like, what, 3 days since I ordered? And they fit! Though I have yet to do a full wear and really test them out. But they sure are cute and make me very happy. Yay colorful shoes!

We are sponsors for the Santa Cruz Warriors Pod Squad. aka the people who give shirts at the games. We printed the Pod Squad shirts. After that, I worked on reclaiming and cleaning and burning and coating. I cleaned all the squeegees and floodbars because they were getting goopy. We reuse the white floodbars because we frequently run jobs that use white ink. No sense to clean it when it is going to be used for the same purpose in 20 minutes, you know? But over time they do need cleaning.

Got home lateish. Had some carbs for dinner.

My friend Dee sent me a whale shaped tea infuser. It's really awesome. Dee is the best. I sent her the stuff I got her in Hawaii on Wednesday. It's nice to give and receive gifts. I made some tea with the infuser.

Friday tomorrow. This week just went by. Woooooosh! Time goes so fast. Still waiting to hear back about what days I'll have off for Christmas.

Also Kon-Tiki is on Netflix Instant! Yay!

red shoes!

A few days ago, I saw that my dream shoes (red Palladium boots) were available in my size on Zappos. I decided to wait on the purchase. See if I still wanted them in a few days. And I waited...and I still wanted them. So I got them! Hopefully they fit nicely. I should probably Goodwill some of the shoes I haven't worn in a while. I should Goodwill a lot of things. Look at the clothes I moved and have yet to wear. Though because of my job and current social life, I'm not really engaging in the cool part of my wardrobe. Hmmm. But there are some things that I for sure don't see myself wearing any time soon. That should be one of my weekend goals for this coming weekend: thrift shop donation. Clear some clutter!

Also make a holiday card to mail to people! I wonder what would make for a good design. Hmmm. Maybe something with a tropical fish?

I've been listening to the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast mostly. So many great little topics, and they all inform one another the more you listen. I learned where "Goody" came from, in terms of name titles. It's like Mrs. So Goody Garlick is Mrs. Garlick. Goody is short for Goodwife. I wondered what was up with all those Goody ladies in Shadow of Night.

I caught aprons, I taped screens, I caught a discharge job, I cleaned screens, I taped more screens. I gave Andrew some chocolate. Pretty nice day at work, and it was warm!

back in action

Sunday:

Slept in! Hurray! I walked some errands. Tried to see if Target had small compostable liners but no go. Got good at Trader Joe's. Went home and set about making a bacon risotto, then I swept and vacuumed. Got things tidier. Took it easy. In the evening, Justen set about making a fire in the pit in the back yard, and he, Michael, and Dylan tried to make some hot dogs. It took a lot of figuring out and some lost hot dogs before it came together. Their friend Allie also came over. Beer was drunk. Risotto was eaten. It was nice.

Monday:

Back to work! The first thing that happened was my boss startling me as I was leaving my car. I was parking blocking a van, and he asked me to relocate. So I did so. He picked his box of chocolate and asked if I had fun. The damage of my absence wasn't too bad. There is a not wholly unreasonable amount of screens to clean. Some of the boxes were a bit unorganized. Otherwise, whoooo not burned down! Got right to burning screens and catching and boxing shirts and burning and taping and catching, and then cleaning. A good day! Good to back.

Relaxing at home. Have a bit of a headache. There was something I was thinking of doing but I forgot so...now I'm not doing it. Uhhh.

double feature with a break inbetween

Woke up earlyish, which is good considering the time change. Gave Justen some chocolate in thanks for driving me, and then had breakfast and tea.

I swung by Janet's and left her gift on the stoop. Hope she likes it!

I did my laundry.

I went to the 4:40 showing of 12 Years a Slave, which was amazing. Tragic, horrific, depressive, heart rending, but amazing all the same. One of those powerful dramatic movies that cuts right through you. Chiwetel Ejiofor was absolutely amazing. So talented he is.

I bought pizza for dinner and went home to chill.

Then I came back downtown for the 9:30 showing of Thor 2! I met up with Ryan, Veitta, and Crystal. And later on Rich and Ariel joined us. Ahh very good movie. Villain was a bit eh, but the effects and fights were good and it was funny but poignant. Very enjoyable movie.

I've got my to-do for tomorrow, and then it is back to work!

back home like I was never gone, waaah

A day of travel! Whoo!

Got up 7ish and showered and stuffed the chocolate on top of my packed things. I tucked it in with my towel, and hoped it wouldn't melt. Had some tea and a bit of a pastry, then we were off! We checked out and south we went. We stopped by a National Park so Mom could get her stamp for her book. Rental car was dropped off, we checked in at the airport, and since we were melting in the humidity and warmth, we went into the airport restaurant and got some food and enjoyed the A/C for a while.

Once it got crowded and we didn't have any more food to occupy ourselves with, we went back outside (Kona has a mostly open air airport, which is nice but also horrible when you are dressed to head to colder climates). I was seated behind Ma and Pa. The flight from Kona to Honolulu is a short one, and we were touching down in no time. My plane departed way away from Ma and Pa's so we hugged and I went through the agriculture line. There was the LeSportsac bag shop, and I liked their duffles, but when I store doesn't openly list prices I know it's probably too pricey for me. Just looked up the brand. Yeah, those are three figure bags. No thank you!

I sat at my gate and watched cartoons on my laptop till it was time to board. The plane had a big salmon graphic on the side of it, so that was cool. The plane was far from full, and I had all three seats to myself. No free meal and I was hungry so I bought one. It was good though. I watched more stuff on my computer till the battery ran low, then I listened to podcasts and worked on my crossword puzzles. Pretty effortless flight. We even arrived 20 minutes early, so I texted Nathan and he was on his way.

My luggage came out just fine and all the chocolate was there and in tact. Whoo! Nate picked me up, we grabbed some drive through, and he took me home to Santa Cruz. We talked about the trip, art, movies, all sorts of things. I gave him all the goodies, and he was pretty enthused to get the stuff. He liked the shirt and the munchies. Nice for him to drive me back so late!

I unpacked about 90% of my stuff. Don't have the energy to do it all tonight. Plus it is late. Well late here. I'm on Hawaii time so it's just 10:30 now. Hmmm.

fish poop

Whoo! Snorkel tour day! I was up bright and early. We all were. Grabbed some snacks, packed our bags, grabbed towels and we were out the door bright and early 7:15am!

The meet up place was about an hour south, and from there we would get on a boat and go further south. Before boarding we were set up with masks. I traded in my new and better snorkel. There was plenty of room on board, but still a good crowd of people. Not too many kids. Mostly adults. They served up breakfast of tea, coffee, muffins, egg thingies, fruit, and other stuff. We munched as the boat took us to Captain Cook's Bay of Bay Things.

The sun wasn't all the way out, but that was nice. Nice to not be under its full wrath. It was still warm and the water was nice. We anchored, got a quick run down of dos and don'ts, and then fins and goggles were on and it was snorkel time!

Despite whatever shape I'm in, I can still swim pretty good with fins. My legs are probably in good shape. My arms and belly? Not so much. But being on my feet all day gives some perks. I was diving and going low and up and down and up. Holding my breath. Saw so many lovely colorful awesome fish. I saw a parrot fish. A nice big one. I could hear it munching on the coral. I followed it around for a while, which is a nice way of snorkeling, and I was just starting to think about how nice the scene was when it let loose a big fishy poop. Ruined the moment!

I took a little on boat break and tried out the slide and diving platform. Lunch was served and I ate a hot dog and burger. I let that digest a bit and I was back in the water! This time I stuck with Ma and Pa a bit better. We took the rest of the underwater camera exposures. Hopefully those turn out! Ma pointed out a little fish cleaning station, where tiny fish cleaned bigger fish.

Finally all aboard was called, and we clambered aboard. There was a little video about the fish and it had a clip of a scuba diver getting his teeth cleaned.

I took a nap on the drive home, and a longer nap once we got back to the hotel. All that exercise and early morning stuff really took it out of me!

We caught the Hula show at the hotel plaza, which was awesome. This guy lit his tongue on fire and then lit his fire thingies on fire with his tongue. We all had drinks and then returned to the room and chilled and packed. Then did the necessary chocolate shopping. We had dinner at Lava Lava and my pineapple jasmine fried rice arrived in half a hollowed out pineapple! That was sorta amazing.

Now it is packing time. Oh woe. Back to the mainland I go.

up north again

Today was the designated rest between lots of sun exposure day. It's nice to do a sun day then a shade day. Mom booked a snorkel tour for Thursday, so yay! Hopefully I won't get sunburned. It's a full morning thing.

We checked out the petroglyph field by Kings' Land. It had so many carvings, though some looked a bit modern. Still, nice that it was preserved. Preserved riiiight next to the golf course.

Merriman's Restaurant was our lunch destination. I had pork saimin, mom had beet salad, dad had salad nicoise. Then mom took the initiative and ordered two desserts! A flan thing with jam and cookies, and a chocolate thing with ice cream. Both were amazing.

Further up North (today was a Northern Hawaii trip) Tex provided some malasadas. Mmmmm. So warm and fluffy and tasty.

Akaka Falls was nice. Very lush and jungle-esque. Had some nice waterfalls and the hike wasn't so much a hike as a stroll on the path.

We headed south and stopped in this little six building town where I procured some lovely button up shirts. Awesome! They were second hand and totally my style.

Laupahoehoe Harbor had some nice rough waves. A tidal wave was responsible for many deaths there several decades ago. There is a lot of consistent disasters on Hawaii.

Instead of hitting more beaches, we went back to the hotel early. There was a bit of shopping. I got one final shirt. I should be all shopped out now...except for chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Gotta get fat stacks of those.

I like turtles

I am very much pink on my arms and down my back. Got mucho sun, but not a sun burn! So that is good.

Dad and I had the full protein extravaganza buffet then we packed up for our day out. We went to the Hilton lagoon. It was a bit constructed, but in the end it offered up plenty of nice fish to see, and turtles! There was a Moorish Idol, Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, Unicorn Surgeonfish, Spiny Pufferfish, I saw a Hawaiian Spotted Pufferfish and tried to signal mom to see it but she didn't, Threadfin Butterflyfish, Bluestripe Butterflyfish, and others. There wasn't any current, but there were kids. But the kids kept away from me.

We swam around and I tried out my new and very marvelous snorkel. We ate ice cream and looked at the dolphins. I don't really support "swim with dolphins" type places. There was a shark in the water, but not the swimming water. Hmmm.

After another dip in the water, we changed into dry clothes and headed out. We got snacks from ABC Store and then headed south for a coffee plantation. We arrived at Greenwell Coffee. Really lovely. Our tour guide had a Tardis shirt and was very informative when it came to telling us about the plantation. Four generations of owners! I bought some coffee for Janet as a gift. I don't think Janet reads this, so it's all good! Surprise!

We swung by two National Parks: Pu'uhonua o Honaunau and Kaloko-Honokohau. The latter had a nice view of the lava rocks and the former featured Royal housing and sacred grounds. Both were very nice and there was a sign calling people out on cultural appropriation. Namely the removal of white coral to make signs on the side of the road.

Teshimi provided an awesome Japanese dinner. I had the udon and rice, which were so good. Some of the best udon I've had. And I bought a shirt. Good to support a cool little place like that. The owner lived to 106!

I'm pretty pink from the sun, but not full on burned. Now I'm just relaxing with soothing creme on my skin and Ma and Pa are watching BBC America.

Only two more full days left in Hawaii. Boo. :(

up a volcano and to the end of an island

Sunday at the National Park:

National Park visiting day! We were out of the hotel just before 9. Had a long drive ahead of us, but to get to the other side of a whole island in 2 hours? Not that much of a huge drive compared to anywhere on the main 48. Anyhoo. I took a nap for half the trip, so that was easy. At the visitors center I changed into pants and shoes. In the bathroom. Obviously not IN the center. I bought some postcards and a patch and magnet, then we watched the video about the eruptions in 1969 and 1970.

Volcano House, across from the visitors center, provided lunch. We had a view of the still venting crater in the middle of the main lava flow. The weather on this side of the island is colder and windier, but not awful. I found a crushed penny album in one of the Volcano House gift shops, so that was awesome. I crushed some pennies in one of the machines in Volcano House. Then it was hiking time! We drove to the Kilauea Iki Trail starting place. It was a medium length trail that went half way along the edge of a lava flow crater and then down into it, and then back up. It wasn't venting like the other one. Totally safe. We switched from sleeves to jacketless and back to sleeves several times on the journey. For some parts it was warm and moist, and others the wind cut right through. It was lovely though. Nice to go along the edge and look down and see the worn path of people hiking the same path for years. Nice to descend down and get a gander at all the different kinds of rocks. There were other people hiking, but it wasn't crowded. When we got up out of the crater, we were pretty sweaty. This park seriously lacked benches. The trail head opened up at the Lava Tube, so we walked through that.

The end of the road featured lava that flowed into the ocean as recently as 2003, and there was a store with a cool shirt design, which I got. We grabbed some photos and then headed up to the Jagger Museum for sunset. The lava in the steaming crater was still glowing.

We stopped for gas on the way back and I bought us all ice cream. We picked up dinner fixings and called it a night.

Monday Around Kailua Kona:

I slept in and took it easy. Ma and Pa went to the time share meeting thingy and I cruised around the Internet and had some bread and tea. Nice to have a casual start after all that uber hiking of yesterday.

Later in the day we went to the Kona Brewing Company, in Kaileua Kona proper. Huzzah! We got a sampler of beer to accompany our lunch. It was quite tasty and warm. My bratwurst had to cool down a bit before it was consumed. We drove further south and swung by Snorkel Bob's and picked up a snorkel because my current one is broken.

We tried to visit a coffee plantation, but they were closed. Alas. I dropped some postcards in the post. GPS took us to Lava Lava, where we enjoyed Mai Tais as the sun set and live music played. Nice.

Not the most packed of days, but hey not every vacation day has to be.

feral cats

I'll sum up today...tomorrow.

Day two! First full day in Hawaii! We spent it checking out a few beaches. A nice casual start.

Woke up at 7, which my body thinks is 10, so technically a sleep in! Went to the buffet at 8, and bought myself some food. Piled high the protein with sausage and bacon and eggs, and threw down some potatoes. Green tea and guava juice as well. Mmm. Ma and Pa arrived at 8:15 and Pa got a plate and Ma ate the fruit.

We swung by the ABC Store and got some provisions and then it was off to the beaches!

The first stop was Black Sand Beach, which had some nice snorkeling. It was open to the public though we had to sign in at the gate. My snorkle was brken but Ma was nice and let me use hers. So many pretty fish.

It was windy and that was blowing the sand in our face, so we moved on to Hapuna State Park Beach. Lovely! No coral or fish but plenty of soft sand, no wind, and nice surf. We floated for a good long while and caught a few waves and body boarded a bit. I ended up a bit pink from today's endeavors, but far from burned. I changed back into my clothes and we drove up to Hawi for lunch.

Hawi was windy but quaint and cute. We ate at Bamboo Restaurant. I ordered the stir fry with shrimp but it came with fish, but I'm fine with fish. Mmmm! It was really good and the portions were nice, so no left overs and no over stuffed feeling. Very good restaurant. We wandered up and down the street through town. Well town is a bit over selling it, but it really was nice. I bought this awesome handmade in Kona turtle mug. It's very cute. Lookit how cute it is:

We traveled up North to check out this hike, but the weather came in and rained on us, and it was cold and windy. Well cold for Hawaii. So we went South again. I napped.

Back at the hotel, we rinsed the sand off in the hot tub. I showered the rest of it off and had left overs for dinner. Ma and Pa made a food run and I loafed around on the internet. It took a while to get the DVD player running, but we did it. We watched the first half of Pacific Rim before Ma and Pa called it nighty night.

Tomorrow we are going to the volcano! Hurray!

Cruz to Kona

oi yoi yoi, today has been long. I am now three hours behind, so that means it is midnight. Today started at 5am. Guh.

Got up. Packed up the last of my things. Justen was up without me having to ask, and he took me to the airporter pick up and dropped me off. Boarded said airporter and got to San Jose Airport in good time. There was another guy in the airporter. Some dude.

I checked my bag. 26 pounds. So I can bring 24 pounds of macadamia nuts back with me. Or as the airline people joked, "I can help if you are overweight!"

The line to get through security was slow, but I was in no hurry. One lady was called on the loudspeaker and she went into a hurry very quick. Once through, I got a sausage muffin and cruised the internet. San Jose airport has poor food options, but free wifi. So it balances out.

The flight wasn't booked solid, so the person who was seated next to me ended up moving to a vacant pair of seats. Which is awesome for setting piles of books in the spare seat instead of having to dig them out of a bag from under the seat. I napped shortly after my in flight meal.

Landed fine in Honolulu with plenty of time to spare. I got a soda and a burger and onion rings. No wifi in Honolulu. Not free anyway. Boarded the plane and this time it was full and I had a seating partner. It was a quick 45 minute flight. I worked on a crossword puzzle and before I knew it, we were coming down!

Ma and Pa had arrived shortly before I did, and it was hugs all around. The Kona airport is nice. It has a very open air plan, with gazebos instead of buildings. Oh it was warm and lovely. We picked up our rental car (Chevy Cruz) and went to check into our hotel.

The room is insaaaaane! I have my own bedroom and bathroom, both of which are large. Ma and Pa have their room and a bathroom that is bigger than my new bedroom! And there is a kitchen and a decent sized fridge. It's a condo moreso than hotel room, though I don't think Ma and Pa will be suckered into the time share.

Anyhoo. After we got settled in, we drove to the beach and wandered on it. There were several wild cats seeking affection. Oh! There is a cat that showed up at our sliding back door. We named him Duke.

After the beach we went to the shopping center place and saw a dance school perform some Hula and Maori dancing. Very nice. Dinner time arrived. I had the meatballs. It was okay. A big enough portion for leftovers, so that is good.

Back at the room. 9:30 Hawaii time. 12:30 tired long day for Trillian time.

Halloween & Hawaii

Last day of work. Vacation time! It was so far away and now it is here. I'm all packed up and ready to go! Confirmed with the airline. Whooo!

And work was nice and short. Caught a bit. Reclaimed a full racks worth of screens. Cleaned screens. Burned and taped screens. Boss was nice about me taking a vacation. No resentment, though maybe some jealousy. BECAUSE HAWAII! YAY!

Got home and put on my Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction costume. I painted on sideburns and did my eyebrows. There were a couple trick or treaters, and thankfully I had candy to give them. I did Tara's eye makeup for her pin up costume. Then I headed over to Davina and Eric's to mooch and help them with candy. With handing out AND eating candy. So I did that. Hung out with them. Ate food. Ate candy. Drank wine. Saw many cute little kids, though very few of them had home made costumes.

I returned to my abode and packed up the rest of my stuff. It's certainly not a full suitcase right now. Plenty of room for souvenirs.

day before the day before

Got mostly packed up! I might pull a few shirts out of the suitcase, but it's pretty light and far from packed or even full. Lots of room for chocolate covered macadamia nuts. I'm just going to check it all the way through. Carry on shall be laptop backpack and satchel. I don't have any travel snacks, but I figure I'll get them once I get inside the airport and through security.

Went to Target and got some shampoo and conditioner, as I'm running low. And some candy to give to kids tomorrow. And some cash back for travel. And paper towels. The paper towels don't have any travel importance, we just needed them.

We finished up the tedious job at work. I cleaned some screens. Listened to Thrilling Adventure Hour and Stuffed You Missed in History Class. Such an awesome and informative podcast. I missed a lot, as it turns out.

I did laundry when I got home, just so I had the full range of articles of clothing to choose from when it came to packing.

I'm a Ravenclaw, what house are you in?

Back to work! Coated the screens that had dried over the weekend, so now the exposure room is nice and full and should be good for the week that I'm gone. Hopefully the studio doesn't burn down in my absence.

Caught the job. My knee has been hurting me a lot lately, so that is no good. It's the weather I suppose.

On the way home I got some oil for my car, and some skin care stuff. Changing my routine. See if I can get my skin REALLY nice, instead of just okay. Working on self improvement type stuff.

Tomorrow I need to get my packing on, and make a list of things, and maybe go buy some candy for trick or treaters. Do all my errands so that Thursday I can relax.

Home was relaxing and not getting up to muching.

Really wish my knee didn't hurt so frequently. It's just that pain where you want to pop a knuckle, except magnified. At least all my coworkers have some sort of injury, so they can sympathize.

surprise three day weekend

I got up and was all set to go to work, and then bam got a text from the boss telling me to take the day off. Works for me!

I didn't go back to sleep, as I was already good to go for the day. So I finished my freelance stuff for Odd Owl (booyah!). And watched two more episodes of The Tick with Justen. And chatted with Tara. And ate more of my crockpot lunch. And walked to Target for odds and ends. It's raining right now, which is notable for this city. Watched telly. Tidied my room. Pretty productive.

only a few days till Hawaii...I should start packing!

Saturday:

Yard work day! Got up to bacon as made by Justen. We walked around the front, side, and back yard and figured out what needs to be done and we divided up the shores. Tara and I took a lot of the sweeping/leaf clearing jobs. I also picked up pinecones. I listened to podcasts and worked up a sweat. Not a bad start.

The chicken did indeed microwave better. Goes well with rice.

Since I agreed to help Eric and Davina hand out candy, I went downtown to get a costume together lickety split. Walgreen's provided the UCSC shirt and the thrift shop provided the running shorts. Bam!

Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction costume! Easy!

I watched The Heat (or did I do that Friday?) and relaxed and didn't get up to much of anything else. Really not a Halloween party person. My knee is hurting something fierce too.

Sunday:

Slept in, so that was nice. I'm trying out Chia seeds with my oatmeal. Don't know if it does much, but it hasn't killed me so that is good!

Did a quick Trader Joe's run with Tara. I suggested she be a pin up for Halloween and she says she is going to go for it! Yay!

Also wasted most of the day. Ate pizza and watched three episodes of The Tick. Then I watched Homeland and wondered what I was doing with my life. But only for a little bit. I'm good at thwarting those feelings of long term life goal searching.

it was warm but now it is cold

Made yellow curried chicken with potatos in the crock pot. It ended up a bit dry and the spices didn't really absorb. Not awful and a total loss, but not something I'm eager to take up. But hey, I've got a few days worth of easy meals. Make some rice and that'll stretch it more. Maybe it'll microwave better.

Work was short due to tricky stuff. But I coated screens and reclaimed another big bunch. We'll have so many screens for next week! Gotta have them, as they'll need 'em for when I'm not around.

As I was paying for my airporter fee, I realized it would be a really good money laundering front. Not much overhead, not much paper trail if you make it cash.

At home I got the crockpot going after a TJ's trip. Tara was able to show me the hottie at the store that she liked. He was pretty hot.

Hung out with Eric and Davina, the neighbors. Might help them hand out candy on Halloween.

Tomorrow is yard work day and...I dunno what else. Open weekend?

crockery and night walkies

Another fun full day! We ran these shirts that took lots of different color combos based on shirt color. Some were black so they needed white and red, some were red and needed white and black, some were white and needed black and red, but different ones had different texts. There was a lot of stuff going on and it was a frustrating design.

Reclaimed and burned at the end of the day. It was very chilly.

Thrilling Adventure Hour, Sawbones, and some Stuff You Didn't Learn in History Class were my podcasts for the day.

Made a little Trader Joe's run for bread and some misc food stuffs. My crockpot recipe book arrived, so now I can look at that for weekend recipe picking! Whoo!

Sent off another sketch.

I found a wallet in the TJ's parking lot, so I turned that into the lost and found at TJ's. Well the sort of back desk where lots of people were. That should be the right thing to do. Hopefully it gets back to the owner.

I wanna go back to Nordstrom Rack and buy more discounted braaaas.

and I'm....from Earth

I don't think I can eat cabbage. Makes me toot. Well I could eat cabbage, I just can't have anyone be near me. Boss got Charlie Hong Kong. He asked what I wanted and I said "surprise me" so it was salmon and noodles, same as he got. I was sad it wasn't something funny like pork butt. Next time.

Worked a full long day. Lots of cleaning and reclaiming at the end of it. 18 screens! Very good. Go me. Caught a little bit, but I was mostly on the other end of the studio. Burning too. Did that. Got through a lot of Thrilling Adventure Hour. Love the Sparks Nevada run of stories. And I listened to some Radiolab.

Got home later in the evening. Had some tea. Worked on my gift exchange. Have to get it mailed by Friday! Also got my check for my deposit, so I shall be sending that up North to get deposited. Got it all back, so that is good.

podcastarama

Put in a reservation for the airporter and called in the favor with Justen to get a lift! Whooo!

Work was pretty good. Wore my other new pants. Got ink on the butt of them. Ohhhh well. Not much ink. Caught jobs. Cleaned stuff. Finished listening to MaddAddam. The ending felt a bit hasty, but otherwise it would just be drawn out needlessly. So I guess I dug it. Now I'm full on podcast listening mode.

Podcasts in my queue:

• My Brother, My Brother, and Me
• Judge John Hodgman
• Stuff You Should Know
• Radiolab
• Sawbones
• Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
• Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
• Stuff You Missed in History Class
• The Infinite Monkey Cage
• Thrilling Adventure Hour
• Welcome to Night Vale

Well I say queue. I just sorta add a random smattering of these and listen to whatever floats my boat. I listened to a great Radiolab about color, and started one about Guts (surprise! Mary Roach is on it! Love her!).

At home, Tara, Justen and I watched MacGruber. It was silly.

I inked and scanned and sent off something that I hope is final! And worked on something else.

Hmmm. What clothes should I bring to Hawaii? My wolf tank. My Eternal Scout jacket. Hmmm. Cool clothes, to be cool in Hawaii!

surrounding myself with cute things

Monday! And we got a good amount done. I burned a bunch of screens. Jeff and I listened to the Hardcore History podcast and learned about Ghenghis Khan. Well we listened to part II of V.

I caught shirts...and caught more shirts. And taped screens. Also listened to the Stuff You Should Know and Thrilling Adventure Hour podcasts. Pretty informative stuff.

At home there were two goodies that arrived in the post for me! Yay, goodies! One was this wall mounted bottle opener I commissioned from BT, which has a John Finnemore quote on it. I'll post a picture once it is installed. It's really swell. The other is this hanky with Aidan Koch's art. I have it draped on my lamp. I like buying art, and it supports cool people so yay! But now I shant buy stuff because HAWAII! Looking into airporters. There are several options, so that is nice. I'll see if I can get a lift to the airporter before I make the res. Get the favor in, then secure the spot.

My room is taking on a very eclectic and cute tone. Lots of patterns. Trying to make it a nice space. This move has really brought on a lot of melancholy. I miss Joey and Janet.

attempting teriyaki

Kinda a blah day. Slept in. Went to Trader Joe's and picked up some food stuffs. Got chicken teriyaki going in the crock pot. It wasn't that awesome. Tasty but nothing special. I'll probably eat it all within two days too, as I didn't have much chicken left. I drew. Did laundry. Yeah.

After all that excitement on Friday and Saturday, just couldn't keep the momentum going, I suppose!

happy fun time

Friday:

The weather is giving us the run around! It was super hot outside, but we kept the garage door cold so the concrete of the studio radiated mostly cold from the night. It sucks when it gets really cold, because it is pretty much just one big cold seeping upwards.

Ran jobs. Jeff and I listened to the Hardcore History podcast about Ghengis Khan. That was super intense, and a bit multi parter! Can't wait to listen to more. The latter chunk of the day was spent reclaiming, cutting stickers, and then coating those newly dry screens. Nice to have lots of screens to work with! Though we are going to run up short on 305s. Busy times are coming! I could probably pull a few extra shifts and count them during my holiday week.

At home Justen and Tara were all, "lets go out and do something!" Justen's friend Michael came over to join in the downtown fun. Girlmode was activated and Tara did her hair and I did my makeup. We went to 99 Bottles first, because I was hungry. Knocked another number off my card! Then we went to Blue Lagoon, where there was dancing and a few more drinks. I think I pulled my neck muscles head bangin' to Nirvana (which is apparently dance music now). This guy Alex knew Michael, and this Alex looked SO MUCH like an Alex. When he arrived at the table, like I thought I knew him because I knew his name was Alex...he just permeated Alex-ness. But the night was fun! I danced and chatted and had a good time. Got back at 2ish and went to bed content.

Saturday:

In the early afternoon, I went to the Bixby house for what will be the last time. I scrubbed the stove and cleaned the fridge inside and out. And there were last tidbits to pick up. It was so...empty. No chairs or tables or brickabrack or piano or art. It was just...empty. And really sad to walk around, but I couldn't even begin to understand Janet's feelings! 15 years of living somewhere...packed up!

Joey was so happy to see me. She came running and thwapped me with her tail and got so many pets.

I returned home and had some lunch. Then began the first trip of what would be an uber day for shopping!

Palace Arts for supplies for my new Reddit gift exchange (Joss Whedon themed, I'm going to do a portrait of Mal). Then I went to the thrift shop downtown that is always 50% off. I didn't find any good pants to turn into work pants. Nothing near my size...THOUGH I did find two pairs of shorts that fit really well. So that is awesome.

Returned home and snacked, then looked up the closest Old Navy. Just going to get work pants from where I know there'll be something in my size. So I headed up north. I walked through the Nordstrom Rack entrance, and then WOW! The bra selection! I have such a hard time finding ones that are 1) in my size 2) not ridiculously expensive 3) not a beige monster. And NR delivered! I actually had choices! I picked up three Betsey Johnson (cute designer) ones that were all half off. And I got some sale makeup. Nordstrom Rack is awesome, how have I not been to one? And if I have, it has been years. Then I went to Old Navy and tried on tons of pants. Some styles fit in one size, others did not, and some fit almost the same between two different sizes. Annoying, but I found some pants that were not tight. Maybe a bit more loose then I am actually sized at, but it is good to my comfy. All in all, a very successful clothing shopping trip! Normally clothing shopping frustrates me. Now I'm psyched for all my new buys.

Oh! And my sunglasses arrived!

A very good day! At home I cleaned my room and put away a bunch of stuff, and organized other things. And did some laundry. 

Now to contemplate tomorrow's crock pot meal. Hmmm.