out of Cali to Pulali

And once again I am several days behind because I've gotten lazy!

Job status:

Still unemployed, but I called to say "hey?" and they said they are still interviewing and they'll get back to me early next week.

Packing:

Dad and I got breakfast at 9ish in the hotel. I had the quick pancakes, tea, a cinnamon bun, an egg, and bacon. It was good we got a full rest in before the day and night and days efforts that would occur. We checked out, went to the Uhaul and got the 5x8, and got out of Target with snacks and string at 11:15ish. At the storage unit, the mattress was hauled into the trailer at 11:26am and five more trips up and down later, it was all in the van and trailer! There was room to spare, but it couldn't get too heavy and stuff was packed juuuust right. And at 1:15pmish we headed north to Pulali!

Driving:

Dad did all the driving up, as I'm not currently equipped to drive a towed thing. But I did my best to stay awake and keep him company and rotate out music and podcasts and conversation. I treated him to some snickers and In-N-Out, as it was his birthday! And he was spending it with me! And he even got to fix something when the bolt was rattled off the front passenger's side brake caliper. Just across the border it started humming and thankfully we were close to a rest stop, and the car was driveable and we didn't have to stop on the highway. Dad took the other bolt and moved it to the top, so that we couldn't properly brake in reverse but we could get to a place where we could get a replacement bolt. So good to have a mister fix it for a father, because that could have been damn bad! 9:20pm and a messed up brake? Miles from anywhere (well Ashland was the next city, still).

We drove on into the night and at 1am I made Dad pull into a rest stop for a nap. I used my alpaca as a pillow, like the good old days when I had a stuffed cat plush for a pillow.

I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT CAT.

And we drove on into the sunrise and scooted around Portland and got McDonald's in Olympia and a new bolt for the caliper and got to Pulali in under 24 hours since leaving Santa Cruz. I unloaded my stuff into the garage, pulled a few shirts and jackets for Seabeck use, put some mugs into the main house, and made tea for Dad and I. All locked up, we went to Silverdale and dropped off the Uhaul then Poulsbo to check out some marine stuff and candy. Then back to Seabeck to see mom and get some tasty chicken soup!

And then an early to bed night for us weary travelers.

Wednesday:

Called to see about job status. Slept in. Took it easy. Mom and Dad ran some errands. What else happened? Uhhmmmn. Did I help with something? I feel like I helped with a chore or task or... I dunno.

Thursday:

Helped Dad check the brakes on my car. Took off the wheels, did the measurements, all was well. I torqued the nuts on the wheels myself getting them back on. Felt pretty good about my skills at that skill. It's good to know how to take off your cars tire. Lunch was sandwiches. I felt really tired in the middle of the day. Almost took a nap, but didn't. Picked up delicious Seabeck Pizza for dinner. Mom made smoothies in the fancy smoothie thingy that Nathan got them for Christmas.

I took the Meyrs-Briggs test, and I came up as an ESFP. I'm pretty happy with that analysis. So I'm an ESFP, Ravenclaw, Aquarius...and some other stuff.

I've now seen a part of John Wilkes Booth's thorax

My laundry is tumbling in a dryer upstairs. Once it is done, I shall fold it and put it away and ride off into the day...to a gas station.

I had a big day yesterday! Lots of walking around and enjoyment. I opted to try public transit, as Kathryn's house is near a train station, so that's pretty much the easiest and surefire route to get anywhere. Clearer stops and all that. And with my smart phone, I could Googlemaps public transit options. The train was more train than fancy light rail. I grabbed a spot and waited for the ticket taker to show up so that I could pay. I bought the all day ticket, so I could take any transport at any time with no worry. It was a very pretty ticket, with shiny logos and lots of colors and the date punched out. I love seeing the bonafide ticket punchers, it's so...well almost archaic now with everything being scanable and digital. So I got my pass, and got off downtown and walked in circles a bit before I figured out where I was going.

The start of the day was all about the Mütter Museum. It was a collection of medical artifacts, tools, preserved medical oddities, and just all around... gross stuff. There were many deformed fetuses in jars, fetus skeletons, a whole wall of skulls, an impacted colon, several skeletons including one with a very rare bone disease where the guy spent 15 years pretty much in the same position in care. The artifacts were preserved in a sort of sickly way. They looked more real and organic. Not very dried out and polished. All the bones in the Museum of Osteology were pristine looking. These bones were...not. And the jarred specimens. You just can't get past a cycloptic baby in a jar. Yeah. It was ... gnarly. But I enjoyed it! Because that is how I do. I did need a breath of fresh air in the Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden. And I caught the Brothers Quay weird art film they made in the museum.

From the gross glory of the Mütter, I walked to the Rodin Museum, which I got free admission for with yesterday's Philadelphia Museum of Art ticket. I checked out all the bronzes and admired the handiwork. Then I was getting hungry so I knew it was time: Philly Cheesesteak time.

I decided to go to Geno's, which I guess is the tourist option. It was a walk aways, but I had my walking shoes on and my mp3 player full of tunes, so off I went! Philadelphia has a pretty good assortment of shops. A lot of times when walking for miles through a city, it seems like once you get past a street it just drops to residential and then that is it. My path went through food stall streets, and upscale shopping streets, and just restaurants and smoothie places and galleries. It was a really nice variety, and I could see myself spending much more time here just eating and checking out art. Philly, parking aside, is great. I like it more than Austin, that's for sure.

So Geno's was across the corner from Pat's and I guess they have a rivalry? Each place has a long line, but I assumed the lines moved fast. Which they did. I struck up a conversation with the lady behind me in line, and she said I was her hero for taking this trip. A hero! Me!

I gobbled down my sandwich on some person's doorstep stairs. Very tasty, though the cheesesteak I had from that vendor in Portland was better I'd say. Then I plugged in the Reading Terminal Market into my GPS because I wanted ice cream, and I grabbed a bus nearby and waved my all day pass, and boom off I went! But oops the market closes at 5 as it turns out. So I just got on the train and headed back, because my dogs were majorly barking!

The train was different from the one I went in on, and it dropped me off at a different Jenkintown stop, so there was a moment of panic of "oh my god please let me be on the right train, please GPS don't have lied to me!" but I got there all right. No problems with public transit whatsoever! And it also made me aware of my skillset of just taking trains and dealing with schedules and all that stuff. I didn't grow up with public transit, so it's all been stuff I've learned in the past 7 years. Anyway, it's good to have a sense of capability, I think.

At the house I snacked and watched TV and slept pretty well, though I slept on my arm weird. It's fine now, but there was a painful bit of it just being sore and stiff.

So I'm waiting on laundry. Guess I'll start loading my car and packin' it up. I'll head off to New Jersey, but I'll try to avoid toll roads. Just go to the beach or something. Princeton's art museum is free, and only an hour away, but it closes at 5 due to it being a Sunday and it's 2:30 now.

hootie and the trillfish

Friday:

Only had two tasks today at work: finish the jerseys and sort the work branded shirts. I came in early to get the jerseys done early. Weeding all the names for the heat transfers takes forever! But I got them done. It was just me in the studio. Kara was there for a bit, as was Jeff in embroidery. But it was just me in the main part.

Our work branded shirts needed a major organization overhaul. Plus they just needed to be refolded and sorted by size. We have so many XL tees. So I folded them all. And pulled all the old designs. And sorted the sizes and put the newly printed stuff on top. Took a lot of time. The sort of thing that is best done when no one else is in the studio so I could take up all the space and spread out. Ended up being a full days worth of work! And since I got in early, I was out early and had time to enjoy the lovely day!

So nice weather right now in Santa Cruz. SO nice. I accompanied Tara on a downtown errand and got some froyo for dinner. Then I watched Hannibal and other TV and went to bed early and slept in.

Saturday:

Odd Owl is playing at the El Rio tonight! I wasn't planning on going but since I can crash on the floor at Carmen and Josh's, I decided to go! But first: earlier in the day.

Slept in. Took a long shower due to the time it takes to wash my hair. Had some tea and creme cheese and celery. Walked down to the mall area and went to Ross and found a new pair of simple flats. My other simple flats are on their last steps. Then I went to Chipotle and got a burrito. It filled me right up! Yum. I'm glad I wasn't spoiled on burritos in my youth.

I got my cool clothes on and packed up my car for the night (bringing some reclaimed screens to Carmen). Swung by Trader Joe's and got some coconut water and used that purchase as an ATM for cashola for tonight (instead of going to an ATM and paying bucks to use the right and not getting anything in return). Had an easy drive up with minimal traffic. Sun was in my eyes though.

The Show:

I accompanied Carmen down to the El Rio and watched the stuff while she found parking. The El Rio has a narrow side venue and a back patio with lots of space. Nice place. This guy hit on me a little bit, but his American Psycho patch put me right off. I did a very good job of pacing my alcohol intake. Gold stars for me! I generally can pace myself the easiest with whiskey. Nothing hidden by mixers. Anyhoo!

The first band up was not a band, just the lady Katie Day. She played the guitar and the keyboards and did a cover of Remix to Ignition with backup dancers. She was lovely.

Adam, the drummer for Odd Owl, has a baby boy! Last time I saw Odd Owl, Vanessa wasn't pregnant. And now there is a baby. Time flies!

Odd Owl came on next and they were awesome as always. Got to hear a few of their newer songs, which I haven't heard live yet. Awesome. I was groovin' up near the front.

Ben, the drummer for Echo and Maw, called me Tricia McMillan. I told him we were instant friends because of that.

Echo and Maw were neat too! I bought their CD. They had a keytarist. They did a cover of Wrecking Ball and the audience sang along. Great crowd, lotsa energy.

I helped guard the equipment once again, and it was brought back to the space. We got back to the house at the wee early hour of 3am. Awesome.

Sunday:

Has a slow start. Drank lotsa water and had a bit of muffin. Watched Breaking Bad with Carmen and showered. Erin, Josh, Carmen, and I set out to find brunch. We drove through Golden Gate Park and saw the buffalo! The wait at the Beach Chalet brunch place was an hour! There was a line just to get your name on the list! So we opted out. Did I mention Erin is pregnant? Lots of pregnancies! Anyway. We found our way to Eats in the Inner Richmond area. A bit of a wait, but it's all good. A lovely day, but we were seated inside and in a place where a chill kept creeping over us. I had a bacon avocado tomato scramble and it was tasty. Not mind blowing but still good.

We coated a screen before we left, and we burned it when we got back, but it didn't wash out right so we coated a second screen to burn. That one washed out just fine, and it was set to dry. It was a later start than intended, but it's great to be in the City and hanging with people. The posters look so awesome! The colors look really slick and the teal/red one just POPS. Carmen noted that from the distance you see the ODD OWL text, but up close you see the owl lady. It's a nice dynamic. So we got the deluxe owl lady posters done, and then we did the drum head. Which required special fumey ink and holding the screen in place over the drum head and making sure it doesn't smudge and then quickly cleaning everything up with turpentine (well turpentino or some sort of alternative to turpentine). We did it in one and it looked AMAZING and then bam right into cleaning. We kept things well ventilated but still I feel like I'm missing parts of 8th grade from my memory. Oh well, it was just 8th grade.

But yeah, very successful printing!

9:30ish I headed south. Got home safe and sound and wow I am pooped. Time to sleep and then take on another week!

easiest twenty bucks I ever did make

I was riding to Roxy's and I saw a cell phone on the street, so I decided to stop and pick it up. It didn't have an obvious Mom or Dad listed, so I sent a text message to all the contacts. At Roxy's I got a bacon cheese burger. Very good. When I got home there was a response from a Jacob saying to call him, so I did. He was in the area so he swung by on my intersection and I gave him the phone (technically it belong to this fellow Rio, but Jacob works with Rio and it seemed a good call to give it to the guy who knows the guy, as opposed to waiting for the actual guy to borrow a phone to get in contact with me. It also looked like a work phone). He thanked me and gave me $20 for my "big heart" (his words). How neat is that? It wasn't that much effort, but I accepted. He offered to buy me a drink but I declined. Mainly because my burger was getting cold and I didn't feel like getting a drink, all though maybe I should have. Doesn't hurt to meet new people and Jacob looked interesting (wooly hat, glasses, floppy blonde hair).

Now I'm enjoying my burger and watching Sons of Anarchy. Good way to end the night.

Slept in. Didn't do much for most of the day. Watched TV. Didn't tidy. Karen asked me out to mini golf so I accepted. Knowing Lacey would be there was the clincher. At 6 I went to Trader Joe's, which acts as my ATM, because a 99 cent charge is cheaper than two bucks, and that 99 cents goes to candy instead of a company. And the sweet sticks were only 99 cents! Huzzah! Then I cruised down to black light pirate put put. An Escalade rode my tail all the way down, really irked me. She was so impatient. Then I turned off from them. Then I was lame and stopped in a bike box and didn't notice it was green. I was rightly honked at by the car behind me. I was the first to arrive, but I was a few minutes early.

Lacey and Karen showed up on the dot and Adam P (not Adam V) came by shortly after. I grabbed a white ball which under black light was a light blue, Lacey's was a dark blue, Karen's was orange and Adam's a different orange. I had a good start in the first half of the game. Well, I was very much behind but better than I usually seem to do. Adam was king. Lacey was queen. Karen was jack. I was jester. Still, putt putt is fun fun. Karen and I will probably get together over the break and hit up Kitsap putt putt.

We parted ways right after and I went to Powell's to see about more presents. I bought some stuff because I liked the covers and because sometimes, when it comes to giving presents, I am my mother's daughter. She knows what I mean. Hahah. After Powell's I went over to Rollyn's. This name keeps showing up in the blog. I don't wanna jinx things by putting info in my blog, but I do like hanging out with this fella. We just hung out for a little bit and watched some Christmas specials. A nice little visit. I was downtown so it was easy. Then I left and going up Clay or something I saw the phone. Picked it up. Went to Roxy's. Ordered a burger. Went home. Got the phone to the other person. And that was my day.

Tomorrow I WILL tidy. And pack. And go back to Seabeck. Yaay!

reborn as the Heart of Gold

My computer had the same error this morning, and when it came to logging into Marvin, it froze. So I turned it off and went to school.

Chloe and I paced each other for most of the way to school, but she pulled ahead at the Everett stop light. The class size was about half what it usually was. Guess people didn't have their papers to turn in. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to the reading so I was totally lost in class. The trusty MFA's held up the non-Adam Arolla end of the conversation. Those two are real champs.

Oh, turns out Elizabeth, the lady I was going to help screen print on Friday (but she was too sick and had to cancel), was in my class the whole time. Who knew? Well, obviously I didn't know. But that was cool. Her project idea has changed, so I told her my offer still stands as long as she gives me a week notice.

So yeah, couldn't follow the discussion more than usual. But now I have two weeks to devote to the essay, and it is about art! So yay.

Oh, a few days ago I finally got around to replacing my bike seat. It feels so different...sturdy and stiff. Needs to be broken in. Still, did that all by myself. And the seat was really well secured.

After class, Leo and I planned to have our meeting with Adam. The meetings are just one on ones to determine what we are getting and so he can relate. But he never showed, even though we talked to him right as class ended. But I got to talk to Leo, the only illustration major in my class that I don't know that well. So that was cool. Still, sucked that Adam was a no show.

At 1pm, Karen picked me up outside the school. Today was our afternoon out! She swung by the bank and then it was off the the sprawl by the airport. Best Buy and Ikea meatballs awaited. I went to the computer department, made eye contact with a tech guy and before he could talk down to me I said "I need a serial ATA 2.5 inch hard drive with a preferred 7200 RPm". And he was all, "well they are right over here". I had three options: speed with medium size upgrade, huge size up grade but same speed, medium size upgrade with no speed. I opted for speed. My baby will need all it can get if she is to last for at least two more years. The size is actually equal to that of my failing external hard drive. I don't know why it (my hard drive) suddenly took a dive. Sucks, it should be a solid piece of equipment, not some lump that maybe you can get a file off of. Oh well.

So yeah, new hard drive. 7200RPM, 16mb cache, 320GB of space. Western Digital Black Scorpion. Mmm nice.

Over meatballs and cake, Karen and I had a long and great discussion about what we would do if were were teaching illustration, how important it is to have teachers tell you what is working and what just isn't, how great printmaking is, and just general catching up. We haven't had the most one on one time since school started. It was a really great meal. She bought a plant.

After Ikea, we stopped by Artist's Edge. Karen bought some clayboard for art projects. Then back to school. We chilled in her studio. Talked some more. Then it was the parting of ways for I had yoga and she had whatever she had to do.

It was an exceptionally nice day, so it seemed like some of the yoga attendees had vanished. The normally packed class had only 7 people. Still, it is nice to have a smaller group. A lot of twists and bends. Low lunge count, which makes me happy.

Clear ride home. Backed up the last of my music. Started my laundry and then it was computer go time. Removed the battery. Removed the screws. Pulled out the hard drive. Took out more screws. Put the new hard drive into the old hard drive holding thingie. Screwed that in. Turned computer on. Put in re-installation software. And it was smooth sailing. Vista booted up perfectly fine. Got it back on the Internet with some help from Katie. Actually, Katie's help has been huge. The fact that she loaned me space on her computer for my files and helped me painstakingly transfer them USB by USB. Such a great girl.

The only holes right now are some of the drivers and settings. I'll get that sorted out. Also I am missing the Microsoft Office Suite. So I can't open Word. That needs to get resolved pretty quick.

But all in all, I did it! I got new hardware installed with my own two hands, put everything back in order, and it is so insanely fast. Go me!

My two accounts are now Marvin and Arthur Dent. Arthur is the back up admin, which I shouldn't need for years.