a story of boys and hankies

Have y'all enjoyed that cookie piece? I like having it up there. Anyway, on Wednesday I dropped it off with boss, who commissioned it.

I got up, put on a dress and tights and medium sweater and long gray coat and boots and did my makeup and set out to have a day of fun! I left enough time to swing by the office and drop off the piece.

And so I must sadly mention that that may have been my last visit to the office. I was laid off. But understandably so. Need more clients to have more work for me. Hopefully I'll get a call in a week saying "we got one!!" but for now, I continue as if I need to get a new job. Sad, but that's how it goes sometimes. So I saw Boss and Bodi and we hugged.

I caught the ferry with time to spare and chilled. The Bainbridge crossing really flies by I feel. By the time I've had a hot dog and taken a few selfies, we are already in Seattle and I'm disembarking. Chris would be a bit late to meet me for coffee, so I took my take taking pictures of buildings. It was a nice clear day, cold sure but I had a good overcoat and scarf. The lady barista at Storyville coffee was utterly darling. I complimented her brows and she seemed very joyed by what I said. The dude baristas had a vibe of "what are these girls talking about?" but brows are important, yo.

My coffee was tasty and Chris arrived and we caught up, I was finally able to give him this Battles letterpress poster that I've had forever. I got it as a freebie from Karen when she interned at Hammerpress, and I've just consistently neglected to get it to him. Till now! It's a cool poster, but I don't listen to Battles. Chris does. It was just a brief meeting, as he had plans later and I had plans a bit later too. At the coffee shop I realized I had dropped my hankie somewhere between the ferry and coffee. Bummer, because that hankie belonged to Grandpa Joe and had an embroidered S on it.

Parted ways with Chris and walked over to Kinokuniya. A nice walk on a nice day. I met up with Cameron, who I met at the Dir En Grey show and we hung out for a bit. A little meet up. Nice fella. We had takoyaki and talked things and cooking and travel (he's a Canadian!). And had some bubble tea. And he was so nice he dropped me off downtown. I was prepared to walk, but he dropped me off.

I was going to see Hateful Eight with Marcus, but he was unable to get a ticket due to it selling out. So I went solo. I got there early and was pretty near the start of the line. Got a seat in the near center of the first row at the start of the upwards seating. I sat next to one person, but the person who came into the row after me sat one away. It's a sold out show dude, sit next to someone!

But because that spot was open, a late comer was able to take a really good spot instead of being stuck in some corner place. I got to talking to this guy (there's a lot of men mentioned in this post) next to me, and he was a good dude to chat to, though not when the movie was going of course. He shared a bit of his flask of bourbon with me (which wasn't a big flask, and it wasn't full) which was a nice way to punctuate the movie.

So The Hateful Eight was pretty dang cool! And I went all the way to Seattle to see the 70mm showing. Very stellar. It had an intermission and an overture. Great performances all around, beautiful sets, and yes gore and violence because hello Tarantino movie. Yeah it was great. Well worth the travel, and I had a good day all around so that was worth it.

After the screening, the guy I sat next to and I got to talking. His name is John. He walked me down to the ferry, because the conversation continued to go well. Well I invited him to walk with me, he didn't follow. I mentioned that I had lost my embroidered hankie and that we should be on the look out for it. I even retraced my steps to the ferry. And there at Madison and just past Alaskan Way where I stopped to take a picture of a building....there it was! Barely stepped on! Just there! And I was able to show John the embroidery that PROVED it was the hankie I mentioned and not just some random Seattle hankie.

Really says something about Seattle trash collection when that stays put for eight hours.

I gave John my number and said adieu. Talked to two MORE dudes on the ferry ride back. They had the Hateful Eight programs so I knew we had a topic starter. They both had wedding rings, so I wasn't about that. I just like talking to people. Turns out the programs have different centerfolds. I'm really happy with my Demian Bichir centerfold.

My car was iced over, so I had to crank the heat and break out the scraper. I drove steady and slow back home. It was below freezing. I don't know if I've driven in 27 degrees since Colorado?

New Years Eve was pretty mellow. Talked to Celia a bit. Slept in. Tidied up a little. When the clock rolled over, I sat on the seawall and lit fireworks. Roman candles and sparklers mostly. One bottlerocket. Found out I can make this gaming meetup on the 2nd. I'm looking forward to that!

New Years Day started with a hike! Ma and Pa were on their way to meet up and Celia and I didn't have much time to get clean and dressed and on our way. Corbie was taking himself for a walk, and showed up on the driveway as we were headed out (I carpooled with Celia). Met Ma and Pa at the Overpass Lot and we went in the van together to Gibbs Lake. The loop trail took about two hours, and it was a nice path. Some ups and downs, but nothing too strenuous. Plenty of frost pushed up through the ground, and cool fluffy frost too. A nice brisk start to the new year. Post hike, we ate at the 101 Brewery and Cafe. I had fish and chips, there were bacon garlic fries ordered for the table, and we ate heartily. Yum num. One of those meals consumed at just the right time, because I haven't needed to eat again since.

I picked up some mail from Ma and Pa and we returned to Pulali. I chilled for a bit, got the new episode of Sherlock, and later in the evening went over to Celia's and we watched Sherlock! It was awesome. Fun how it went back in time with all the awesome production values. Celia is great to watch Sherlock with.

And now I'm super congested! I was doing really well. Cat allergies. Boo.

So now it's 2016, how 'bout that?

cookies 2015

graphite and watercolor on fabriano

2015

family, friends, family friends

Woof! Way behind! It's been a heckuva quadruple of days.

So after Christmas, I went back to Pulali a bit before Mom and Dad left. I lit a fire, tidied up, started some laundry, vacuumed. Ma and Pa arrived about an hour after I did. Hans and Corrine visited during this time. They were over at Celia's, and Ma and Pa went over before I did, and I followed suit a bit after. Corrine made a cake in my oven. Celia made a roast beast. Dad grilled some salmon. There was soup and bread and gravy. Lots of good stuff! A little family and friends food and game playing. We played Win Lose or Draw, and I decimated! I won so hard. Felt good to win that much after not winning many games. Played a few rounds of Scattergories too. Dessert was at my house, we had cake and icing and watched The Incredible. I put on my new jimjams and went to bed.

I'm sleeping in the twin bed for the next while. I like to mix it up. Switch back and forth. The big bed was feeling too big.

Ma and Pa and Hans left early in the morning. I slept in and vegged out. A nice day off from a couple social days and the many hours spent making the cards. Which now that Nate and Helen have their present, I can reveal that I spent many hours printing them a set of custom cards! The design turned out really nice. It's their house, with seven spot colors. Only printed 25 because holy hell any more would have taken a long time. And I did custom return envelopes too. Nice gifty!

So yeah, spent a day relaxing and keeping warm and all that.

So that brings us to....Monday? Yes. Yesterday. I slept in and relaxed, and then plans suddenly changed with Kristen (my old roommate in college who now lives in Canada but has family in Kitsap) and she was having a little spring roll dinner tonight because the next day she was going to Seattle with Alain (not Mel's Alain, her own Alain). So I prettied myself up and popped over to Seabeck to pick up some mail and gifts, then went to her place! Well her parent's place.

Alain is a nice fella, and I met her friend Jillian. We had spring rolls and wine and gabbed and gabbed. Gabbed till 2am!! We had lots of catching up and lots of life and lots of memories to go over. It was fun. And got to know Alain too, he's a new fella to meet. I did not have wine anywhere near the time I departed, don't worry. I got home at 3 and actually got up and not a horribly late hour,

I've been doing a lot of two meals lately. My appetite has gone way down. I don't get hungry till later, and I stay not hungry. Not the worst thing, as I'm prone to just scarfing tons of food. Had some udon later. Worked on a piece commission for Boss, but a separate commission from work. Just a "I need a piece from you as an illustrator for something else".

I'm really happy with how it turned out. Just the right amount of labor for the price.

Got some news this morning (the 29th). Won't disclose it fully just yet as I'm still processing it.

Just know that there is news.