clang clang, clang clang

My skin is peeeeeeling, and I want to claw it off. But instead I am moisturizing and that is doing nicely.

Sat on the couch and read Shadow of Night. It is picking up again! Hurray! Again, it is best when she is away from Matthew and doing magic witchy stuff. Matthew just sort of drags the plot down.

Ate pasta. Stayed inside. Kept moisturized. Only one day left. I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I'd like to during this break. Oops. Oh well. I'll keep working.

Amanda, my roommate, and her friend hung out at the house a bit.

Now I'm reading some comics and thinking about projects I want to accomplish.

This song (just the song, there isn't a video) is my song of the night:


1:30am edit:

I ended up going to get wings with my housemate Amanda and her friend Heather. We brought the wings back to the kitchen nook, and consumed them with some beer and gabbed and chatted. I did a little drawing of Heather's dog, and drew in my sketchbook, and we chatted and it was nice. They were both in a sorority together, so it is interesting to get a perspective into that social scene a bit. Not so different.

Wellington Camel

My face is starting to peel. Yay!

I spent most of the day working on a couple paintings. Watched cartoons and other shows and listened to Snow Crash and all was good. Ate noodles and scramble and drank tea. Kept inside. Found an aloe plant and smeared its insides on my burnt outsides. Pretty good day. I do enjoy working on art.

Oh! I bought a piece of Samantha Mash's artwork off of Etsy, it was shockingly cheap, and it arrived in the mail and I promptly put it in a frame.

It's the piece in the top left, the two Martin Freeman pieces are by my friend Daniel, aka W.C. Williams. I like my little desk set up. Yes that is a jar full of peanut M&Ms, DON'T JUDGE ME!

My vacation is winding down, but that is good because I'm getting antsy. I want to get back to working! Employment rocks.

Anyway, yeah. A home day. Just me and my art. It was good though.

13. That is just a kid!

Last night on my street, a 13 year old was killed in a drive by shooting. The police say it was gang related. I didn't hear anything, and the reports indicate only two gunshots, so it wasn't as if the whole block was shot up. It's so sad. 13! That is, that is way too young. I'm not scared of my neighborhood. It's quite the specific crime. Okay it does show I'm not in a great place, but I don't feel unsafe in my own home, or walking down the street during the day. I just need to be cautious during the night time.

And stay away from gangs.

A policeman and a lady who seemed to be a translator came to my doorstep to ask if I remembered anything. I remember some sirens, but sirens are not uncommon in any city, especially if you live nearish to downtown.

So. There was that.

I also woke up with super puffy swollen eyes. Some reaction to the sun exposure yesterday, I'm sure. So I spent a lot of the day with a cold compress on my face. And the swelling went down. My face hurts. It isn't extremely pink/red. It doesn't look burned. It just feels a bit tight. I can't find any aloe. I thought I packed it in my stuff, but I guess I didn't. So that constant agitation and tending to my puffyness kept me...doing that during the day and now it's night time.

Err. I'm really bad at productivity.

oh yeah, those are gunna be tan lines

Owww my faaace. I stayed in the sun for about 30 minutes more than I did yesterday, and at an earlier hour, and now I'm sunburnt! Not sure if it peeling level burnt, or just rather extremely pink burnt. Either way, I'll be taking it easy and staying indoors for the next couple days. I kept pushing my luck, didn't I? I hope my freckles don't get too engulfed. Either way, I think I've achieved a tan. Ha...ha..hmmmn. Yeah.

Listened to series 4 of Museum of Curiosity. It was pretty good. Finished watching the silly Teen Wolf. Finished off that enchilada casserole. Ate some salad.

Got up a bit earlier, hence the earlier start to the beach. Okay. Time to get down to vacation business!

Santa Cruz birds are up to no good

How are my freckles doing? I think they are coming along quite nicely. Just a few more days on the beach, and I should be good. I trimmed my bangs up nice and proper. Now they look artfully blunt, instead of inartfully wonky. Still, I keep them headbanded back when I'm on the beach. I listened to Museum of Curiosity and rotated my position every episode. That was relaxing.

Some seagulls tried to steal my sour patch kids. I was like "HEY!" and they scuttered off. Gotta keep an eye on my snacks, it would appear.

I had a salad and some rice and seaweed after the beach, and enchilada casserole before. One serving left and then it is all consumed! Hurrah! I didn't quite accomplish anything today. I think I got a case of the Tuesdays. That is to say that the week is just starting and there is also Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday and then BACK TO WORK! Yaaay work.

tarr jay

Spent another couple hours on the beach. My freckles are coming in nicely. I can't tell if I am tanning, but there are freckles. I just listened to The Unbelieveable Truth. Didn't feel like reading that damned tome Shadow of Night. But maybe I'll tuck into it.

Oh! I slept pretty well last night. My mattress pad is a bit lumpy and ill formed from its misuse on the floor (the padding isn't even dispersed anymore) but it should form itself a new. All in all, sleeping in a bed is quite nice. I am sleeping at a different angle, so that is something to get used to. It's a firm bed, but I don't mind firm.

I had oatmeal for breakfast, then a scramble for second breakfast, then walked around a bit, then went to the beach. I think I'll get an earlier start on the beach tomorrow. I leave it till 3/4ish, and after an hour and a half, it gets a bit chilly for sun lounging. If I went down around noon, after my main meal, things should be good. I want to be plenty freckly, and then I'll give it a rest. Or rather, I'll go back to work where I'll be mostly indoors and in turn that will make me give the sun exposure a rest. I saw a pretty wrinkly, though otherwise young looking lady, and that was a good warning. Still, the sun is quite comforting.

I also ran to Target and got some bath things, and some hair scissors, because my bangs are quite mangled and they need a better trim than my larger sheers can provide.

Now I'm loading up my MP3 player with all sorts of good audio things. Tomorrow, I shall put pencil to paper and make some art! Because I've been way slacking on the art stuff.

Nathan is awesome. Having a proper room set up is awesome.

Nathan was super awesome today. Took me to Ikea. Helped me get stuff from Ikea to my house. Helped me assemble stuff. Though he did do one thing backwards, but that was easily fixed. Hurray Nathan!

In case you are unaware, because sometimes I like to pretend that people who are not my Mom and Dad read my blog, Nathan is my brother.

Also Jared, you read my blog. Hi Jared! I think you knew Nate was my brother, but if you didn't there it is.

I set my alarm for 8, and it took my a while to realize why my alarm was going off. I got up, and did the routine, but I still was a bit slow leaving the house. Arrived in Redwood City at around 1ish. Got the extra futon and my buffalo plush.

Then off we went to Ikea! No trip to the blue and yellow mecca of flat pack is complete without starting with meatballs, and start we did. I had already scoped out stuff online, so I had a good idea about what things were on sale and what wasn't worth a gander. I started with a white color scheme, but it ended up being a natural wood (see: really basic) frame bed, with a dark brown bed side table (that is technically a coffee table), a dark gray metal shelf unit, and black legs for a white table top. I've been organizing my room, and there is a sort of division between the bedroom side and the art side, and with the table and already installed shelf both being white, it makes one side white, the other black, in scheme. Though with bits of red and blue throughout. Anyway, it all ties together. I want a comfy chair to go in the now freed corner. Like, a papasan or something. I also got an underbed storage thing, that is actually big enough to fit my shirts and trousers, so no need for a chest of drawers, unless I procure a lot more clothes. I also got a trashbin and some frames, and Nate got some things as well.

Traffic was a nightmare at this one intersection, because douchers kept pulling too far forward and blocking the intersection.

We assembled the desk first, then the bed, then I did the end table while Nate did the shelves. Then we ate enchilada casserole and cupcakes and watched the second episode of the fifth season of Breaking Bad. Nathan left after that, and he took some leftover casserole with him. Almost finished that beast off!

My bed looks nice. Can't wait to test it out! I'm off the floor, though not by much.

I hung some art up, the art that would fit in frames anyway, and also did a little tack + cut out image thingy for me to hang by necklaces and other small hangable stuff from. Now that's all in a line and it looks okay. Trying to not use tacks except where proper, like with calenders. I put a bunch of glue on my chipped/cracked Glam Breakfast mug, so now it is a pen holding mug. Now I have a desk, and a bed, and my room seems like a room. I'm getting situated! I'm thankful that I have a bit of time to continue to situate, and it isn't just straight back to work.

past the full moon

I didn't clean the fridge.

Did anyone else see that coming? Haha.

Naah, I did laundry though. And ate casserole, and creme cheese avocado sandwich, and oatmeal, and hot cocoa, and measured my room and artwork so that I'll be prepared for Ikea.

I also drank a couple beers and watched Teen Wolf, the MTV show, not the Michael J. Fox movie. I gotta admit, it's a cheesy show with a lot of inconsistencies and "really, this kid drives a 90k PORSCHE!?" but I'm hooked. Thankfully the season is short.

I miss work!

Tomorrow is Ikea! Yay!

Another relaxing day. Haven't started to bike around the city yet. I can't think of anything to do! Or a way to meet people besides signing up for classes somewhere, but classes cost moolah and I'm trying to watch that. Hmmmn.

new chrome in our domecile

Tickets confirmed, I am coming home! For one full day (during which I will be at Cherish and Isaiah's wedding) and two half days, during which I will be flying. Still, it will be nice to see the family and see Holly and all that. And also grab some clothes and books and things. And I'll get a chance to experience the San Jose airport. Yay?

Today I set my alarm. Enough sleeping in! Time to return to some sort of schedule. My tummy hurt through most of the day, so I took it easy. Got out and did some grocery shopping, as you can't make creme cheese avocado sandwiches without creme cheese.

All the cashiers at Trader Joe's are so nice. I wonder if they'll be friends with me? Oh god, I sound like the whale in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

We got a new faucet installed in the kitchen, as the last one was leaky. I didn't notice till Janet pointed it out to me. I should have noticed, because instead of having a separate hot and cold knob, it is one of those singular ones where you turn it one way for one, the other for the opposite, and inbetween is, well, inbetween. And it is shiny. And doesn't leak. For a mostly observational drawing artist, sometimes I can be really not observational.

There are seven avocados on the table in our breakfast nook. SEVEN! I need to look up a guacamole recipe, because uhm, SEVEN AVOCADOS!

The fridge was smelling a bit like old broccoli. The culprit was old broccoli. Composted that. I might spend tomorrow cleaning the fridge. It seems like the last roommate left food behind (as there were some eggs with a June expiration date). It isn't a big fridge. I think just getting to the back and making sure there are no more suspicious vegetables, ya know?

I miss my jooooob

Today I sat on the beach and did some quick studies. Going to send some drawings out to people, woo! Will go down tomorrow and draw some more, if the weather looks good. I also got some Dippin' Dots. Mom ordered me to do so. I finished listening to American Gods.

Oh, Reamde. Did I say how excellent it was? Maybe that is why it is so jarring to read Shadow of Night, because Reamde was so damn well executed.

Anyway. Trying to find the next audio book to listen to, and I think I'll give Stephen King's The Dark Tower series a listen. I like his books in audio form. And if I recall correctly, the last time I listened to part of the Gunslinger, it played properly on my funky player.

Starting to get bored with my enchilada casserole. Uh oh. I'll keep eating it though. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Put some hot sauce on it.

Other meals included a scramble for breakfast and udon and egg for dinner.

Here is a doodle of me as a print technician (aka my job):

defending probably bad habits

Texted with mom about how frustrating and slow Shadow of Night is. It is kinda amazing how I can read a couple pages and a lot happens, but then I get through 50 pages and it seems like NOTHING has happened. I love the magic descriptions, but some of her writing is just, erggg, needed someone to read it before it went to print. A bit rushed or something. I'm hoping that, after the 200 page mark, it picks up. I am comitted to not starting any new books still I finish one I'm currently reading. I ordered Cloud Atlas and a biography of Lucrezia Borgia, so those are my incentives to finish Shadow of Night. It seems to be picking up, now that Diana is all "I need to find a witch". YES. YOU NEEDED TO DO THAT 200 PAGES AGO! COME OOON!

Anyway. I went to the beach. I only go down for an hour, hour and a half. Enough to get warm, but not enough to get pink. Tomorrow I plan to bring some of my art supplies, so maybe doing some drawing will extend my exposure and thus, give me a tan. I know tanning is bad, but I've been pale for so long. Vitamin D is good too! And as long as I'm not, you know, spending 6 hours toasting every day, I should be good. Just a little bit to get my freckles started. The sun is still a novelty to this Pacific Northwest gal.

I miss work. I like doing stuff. I like working.

End of July, now for August!

Yay, got my paycheck! Was enjoying thinking about how much money was in my bank account, then I paid my rent. Ah, oh well. I really enjoy my house. I enjoy having a living room to lounge in, I enjoy having a dining room to eat in, I enjoy having a back porch to soak up some sun from, I enjoy having an avocado tree to get avocado's from, I have a good sized room, I live near tons of great stuff, and my neighborhood is suspiciously quiet. It's a good place to live, I don't mind paying for it.

I stayed close to the house today. Bargain Barn closes at 3, which is silly! I had some of my tasty casserole for dinner. It was tasty.

Relaxing day. Feeling pretty good.

beach, and the thrift quest

I'm getting antsy! I want to work! I like work, I like working, I like my job and want to do it!

I don't like being idle at work, I'm rubbish at taking breaks.

I'm pretty good at being idle at home though, but I still would like to work.

Anyway. Had a first breakfast of oatmeal, then a second breakfast scramble of tastyness. Then I walked down to the beach, and lounged in the sun for an hour. Being good about moderating my exposure. I think I'll go down every day that seems nice enough to venture down to the beach. Though I'm a Washington gal, it doesn't take much for something to "seem nice". I kinda want to bring some cash next time, so I can get some Dippin' Dots, but I need to watch my moolahs. Just bring a towel, water bottle, book, and sunblock. Then I am gangbusters!

I wandered to a couple local thrift stores and found that all the furniture was pretty pricey, and no beds. Though a fold out couch...? If I put my mattress pad on it? Nah, I need a bed. Plus I don't think a couch would fit through my door. And how would I even get it home? There is a Goodwill Bargain Barn somewhere, so I think I might drive and check that out tomorrow, and see what they have. Just scoping out what is around, not actually buying. I'm planning an Ikea trip.

I prepared another enchilada casserole, and popped it in the fridge. Yay for easy dinner tomorrow!

no bed for the wicked

Target has opened in Capitola, and I swung by to check out their furniture selection. They only had a couch. No futon. Gaaah. I want a bed! I think this lack of bed is what is throwing my body out of whack. Or maybe its the inactivity. Hmmn. Anyway, I need to make some more expeditions to find a futon bed of sorts. Even a futon would be a step up, and I could procure a frame later. I ended up getting a seven pack of generic work shirts (white small mens shirts that come in a multi pack) and some head bands and nail clippers. Now I have 2+ weeks worth of work shirts. Hurrah!

Early in the day, I went to brunch at Storey House, where my friend Michal lives (though she is moving out). Storey House, it is on Storey Street, is a little bit run down but has its indie charm. It has a back yard with a turtle pond, and cats, and is filled with a pretty cool array of people. I can't remember their names, but they were all nice. I brought juice and showed off my impressive Champagne opening skills (mimosas!). The food was lovely. Corn tortillas, beans, perfect potatoes, spinach pie, brownies, ahh what a spread! Everyone knew each other and I felt a bit out of the loop, but still they were friendly. I was invited along on the record shopping expedition but I declined because I wanted to run the Target/futon errand. Though that ended up being bust.

Made myself a massive scramble for a late lunch. Three eggs, a bunch of bacon, chunky onion, all fried up together. Mmm. I think I shall become really good at scrambles. That will be my "thing". Oh, and I put tapatio on it. Yum.

Spent a lot of time on the couch. Tomorrow I'll go down to the beach and later make a vacation to do list. Art that needs to get done. Correspondence to compose. Those things.

bed to couch to bed again

Ohhh you betcha I slept in. I woke up at around the time my alarm usually goes off, then I went back to sleep. Woke up again a bit later. Went back to sleep. Then at around noon I rolled out of bed to commence a very lazy day.

Had doughnuts and orange juice for breakfast. Followed shortly by eggs, bacon, and tea. Then later on I had another creme cheese and avocado sandwich. I snacked through the rest of the meals.

I'm going to a brunch at Michal's place tomorrow. Michal was a classmate from my Freshmen year at PNCA, but she went on to other places. But she is here (all though leaving soon, boo), and there is a brunch shindig so I'm going to that. I think I'll just bring some juice, as I don't have any ideas for what to prepare.

I spent a good chunk of the day watching Doctor Who in a livestream (where people stream stuff online and people congregate to watch). That was fun. Classic Doctor Who, sort of camp episodes that I haven't watched yet. I also read some more Shadow of Night. I wish there were more magic scenes, as I love those descriptions. The romance is sort of getting to me. Blah blah blah carry on.

I felt quite sore all day long. Not sure if it was because of my sleeping situation (the lack of bed) or a day of inactivity after so many days on my feet. Hmm. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, yup yup.

This blog post is brought to you by avocados. They are awesome.

I think I pulled something in my arm. Or it is just extra sore. Either way, I am looking forward to having some time off. Though I do like my work, and do like making money. A little sad to be out of the game for a while, but oh well. And I might have some shifts here and there, depending.

Today was a short shift. Caught some shirts, cleaned some screens, did some tidying. Finished Reamde, which was awesome. The climax was very exciting. I highly recommend the book. I couldn't be more satisfied with it. Wheee!

After work I went grocery shopping, because I am once again down to minimal food stores. The Safeway here is expensive! Gah! I opted for Safeway because Trader Joe's doesn't have everything. Though now I think I should go to TJ's FIRST and then Safeway second for the additional whatevers. Anyway. I'm all set on food for a while. Bacon, eggs, bread, oatmeal, jam, etc.

Taking it easy now. Letting my arm be not so sore.

The curb in front of my house can hold three cars, but there is always some doucher who parks in the middle in such a way to prevent a third car from parking either in front or behind of them. I made sure to park in such a way that when the middle car moves, there is plenty of room for the next person to occupy the middle.

For dinner I made myself a creme cheese and avocado sandwich, using avocados from the avocado tree in my back yard. Yaaay! So tasty. Yum num nummers.

lovely Lisa

I totally forgot it was mom's birthday! I'm such a bad daughter. Happy birthday mum! I'll call you in the morning and send you a lovely card. A belated one, but a card none the less. I love you! You are so supportive and excellent and lovely.

Today I started at noon. I slept in and that was great. I cleaned some screens, then reclaimed 21 of them. My arm was sore from using the pressure washer, but sore muscles are used muscles, and muscles are good things to have. I cleaned and caught some shirts that were manually printed and my hands got all kinds of messy when I was filling up the ink. A shorter day, but a good one. Tomorrow is my last day and then I am on a forced vacation. Yay! Though I might be called in to do this and that.

Had some pasta for dinner. Watched cartoons. Thought about what I'm going to do with my time off. Work on my correspondence, work on art, read, work on my tan. Those kinds of things.

pallet #7

Ahhhhoohhh I had a long long shift today and my legs are sore sore sore. I was loading shirts onto the pallets for a good while, and got my time down to 12, which was awesome. But that took a lot of motion and leg and arms and stuff. It is tiring work! I cleaned and burned and taped screens earlier. And helped set up the press. And caught shirts. And listened to Reamde. Boss went to a barbecue and brought us (Julie and I) back turkey burgers! So awesome. Didn't have to make/buy dinner. Tomorrow I'll have a late start. Some time to rest.

Boss is going away on vacation, so I in turn have a couple weeks forced vacation. Time to relax, explore Santa Cruz, catch up on correspondence, work on my tan, read my book, get some furniture, work on art. Lots of things. Hurray! So just a couple more days of work and then it is all done.

Now I'm just sitting in bed, enjoying being off my feet. Still, not sitting down all day has got to be good for my health. Keeps my active! Yay!

cog in the machine, but in a good way

Today work ran like a well oiled machine. Julie and Andrew and Chris's Dad were all in shop working (as was I) and we all worked side by side in harmony. I taped screens and cleaned screens and ran the shirts for the job. It was a smallish job and I had a good time of 14 seconds and nothing went wrong. Everything went really well. I like those kinds of days. Tomorrow we finally get to that massive job. The back design is super rad, though I shant divulge it here because I don't know what I can or can't publish about my work. It isn't uber secret, but I'd rather just err on the side of client privacy, ya know?

So, work was awesome. Reamde continues to be an awesome audiobook. Back at home I talked to Madeline for about two hours. We geeked out about geeky things, and it was most enjoyable.

Need to find some Santa Cruz activities to get me out of the house. Hmmm.

Monday? More like Wednesday

Slept in a bit today. Monday's seem to be come down days. Mostly clean up and prep. I taped screens, I removed tape and reclaimed screens. I rewrote the mesh count numbers on some screens, something that I'll do a lot more of as I go on cleaning, just because it is sometimes such a bother to try and dig out screens of certain mesh counts. I also stacked shirts for a job. I started late, which was nice. Had a bit of a sleep in.

Tomorrow is sure to be a big day, as Julie is being brought in. Shirts shall get printed. Thousands of them. And boxed. Whooo! I'll have to pack a big lunch.

Got home. Had pasta. Did my work clothes laundry. Edited some writing of a friends. I'll probably tuck into bed soon, and read. I've been plugging away at Shadow of Night. Matthew is frustrating me as a character, and sometimes the writing makes it unclear how many characters are in a room/where everyone is standing. At least Philippe is sort of hilarious, and I really hope Diana slaps Kit before the book is done, because DAMN HE NEEDS A SLAP!