Shrimpfest 2X15

My body hurts. I did a bunch of walking today and I'm tired. Whewww! But uhh Friday:

Friday:

A really, wholly do nothing day. I had eggs and bacon and toast with jam. I had coffee. I watered the plants a bit. I watched TV. I lounged a bit. Read an essay on Tinder. Tindr. That app. It was a really good essay, Chris linked me it. Then I climbed back into my warm cocoon. Oh, I did some laundry too.

Saturday:

Set my alarm so that I wouldn't sleep through half of Shrimpfest. Got up, had some fluids and coffee and crumpet with jam. Got dressed in the clothes that I would wear in a cartoon: black jeans, Palladiums, black hoodie, graphic tee, leather jacket. The graphic tee was the Anadrill one. Representing at Shrimpfest!! I did my makeup in the purple & gray style. Looked like this:

I try to look distinct.

I opted to walk to Shrimpfest because exercise is good and I figured I'd have a few beers and I didn't want to pay for parking (though now I know that parking is free, still the second point stands). I grabbed my umbrella (white for best visibility) and strode out. The initial hill was tricky and my ankle was feeling jammed (like it was a year and a bit ago at the end of my time in Santa Cruz, I should get it checked out by a doctor) but as I started going down the hill it loosened up and started feeling much better. It was raining, but not intensely so. Still my shoes got a bit damp (I need proper walking rain boots). There was a decent line at Shrimpfest and I joined the credit card line and paid my way in. Struck up a conversation with this guy Larry in line, I would run into him a couple times over the fest. Nice fella, and his son was named Nathan.

I hit up an ATM once inside and bought some shrimp beads to represent. There was a band playing some cover songs, and they were fun. I got a garlic dog with onions (ordered it right after Larry & Nathan) and consumed it under a mounted umbrella. Very delicious and warm and filling. I did a circuit of the vendor booths. I filled out a form at the Habitat for Humanity booth, smelled soaps, looked at sand blasted glass mugs, and bought a whoopie pie for first dessert. Yummy! At this point I entered the beer garden and grabbed a beer and a seat and got to something sketching and much needed sitting. I can only be on my feet for so long. Larry joined me for a second and I sketched him and he told me "I'm made of old leather" as a way to discourage me from drawing him. His son also studies art as it turns out, and we chatted briefly across the Beer Garden barrier about brush pens.

Had a second brewski and drew more by myself. I walked around a bit more. Wished there was some cotton candy. I like cotton candy. There was popcorn but ehhh I don't want popcorn all the time. Bought a little nice smelling soap and a doggy treat for Banjo. Penultimately I consumed a funnel cake with powdered sugar and maple on top. Last funnel cake I consumed was in Marietta (Mariette?), Pennsylvania with Rainbow at that stormed out Seven Bridges concert in the park.

Finished the whole cake and stuffed and tired, I dragged myself home. Woof that was an exhausting walk. Did not like the up hills, but eventually it was all downhill. The rain has stopped by then, and the clicker at the gate said 2000 people at visited! Good turn out. Tomorrow is the belt sander races, but I'm not returning.

Celia stopped by and we chatted. I went pajama mode the instant I got home. I'm stuck on a really hard level in Bubble Fins. Jooosshhhh help!!!

Oh and one of Rachel's friends is doing a Highway 101 bike trip, so I may do the kind host thing like so many people did for me a year ago.

Here are more photos:

hetch ee double hockey stick ee arrrr

Saturday:

I was browsing through my old blog posts and I used to write such long entries all the time, but I was also doing so much day to day. Going to this class, then lunch, then another class, then hanging out and doing this and that, or going to First Thursday and seeing all this art. I've been out of college for four years now! Wow!

So today was a really fun great day! Saturday that is. I got to sleep in a little bit, then I had some scrambled eggs with chopped up bacon and cinnamon toast. Put on my stripey tights, my pineapple dress, my black hoodie, my leather jacket, my black Palladiums (though thinking about it, my orange high top Palladiums could have been a great way to bring the colors of my dress out, hmmm next ensemble!), and did shimmery eyemakeup with brows and no winged eyeliner. Just a nice look for being out on the town and hanging and being recognizable. I like to dress worthy of being illustrated, if I'm going to be fancy. Can only wear a tee and jeans to so many functions.

I was originally going to take the Bremerton ferry, but reviewed the Bainbridge times and that was equally as good. On the way there I swung by a coffee drive through and got a coffee to break a $20, not knowing that the parking lot at Bainbridge Island has gone automated. When did we stop having to shove dollars into a numbered slot in a metal thingy to pay for parking? Do we still have to in some places? I finished my smoothie (raspberry) and got a coffee at the ferry dock and finished the coffee by the end of the ferry crossing and felt right on the verge of having had too much coffee. I did a drawing on the ferry ride over, but the drawing was a birthday card for Chris (into which I included a shark sticker because that is how I roll).

Arrived to a gray Seattle day, but no rain! And I was glad it was a bit chilly because it it was hot while I suffered up the hill to Capitol Hill area, ohhh that would have sucked. I strode up Marion in full awesome force. Peed in the bathroom at Seattle Library because that coffee went through me like a champ. Nice library. And continued up the blocks. My fitness app actually was like "wow you did some good exercise today!"

The venue wasn't open (The Eclectic Theater) so I met Chris at Stumptown and we hung out on a bench in a park and chatted podcasts, coffee, life stuff. Hungry, we went down the street a bit to Pike Street Fish Fry and both got the battered cod and chips. Scrumptious. Can't beat a good fish n chip. Catching up with Chris is always great. No matter how long its been, we are always able to talk. It's a really good friendship to have. Had a couple beers at Saint John's Bar & Eatery, which featured a bulls head that was shaped out of Rainier cans. Nifty. I was never one to know all the different places to hang. I've always relied on other people's suggestions. I guess in Santa Cruz I knew maybe, like, one place? I know theaters. If there's a theater near by, I know it. That is what I seek out.

With still time to kill, we got shmancy cocktails at Cafe Pettirosso. When am I ever having a fancy cocktail? Almost never. Treat yo self!

Then, finally, venue time! I saw Emily Heller inside the venue and made eye contact but was far too shy to say anything at that moment. Still, how cool! And she, like my Wentworth Miller sighting almost a decade ago, looks exactly the same in person.

The venue was small. Seating for 20ish people. A guy was solving a Rubik's Cube and I complimented him on his nice cube choice (solid colors, no sticker). Nice friendly crowd. Brett Hamil opened. Funny guy. I liked his jokes about forgetting you ate beets the night before. Elicia Sanchez was next and was hilaaarious! Great stage presence and jokes and rhythm with the crowd. I don't think I've ever seen stand up like this. I saw an open mic in Santa Cruz, but that was a series of 2 minute sets. Very different. I liked this size because everyone was there to have fun and were supportive. I don't know if I'd enjoy being in an audience where someone antagonized the performer. I'm here to have fun and enjoy myself, and fighting against the person trying to make that happen seems...weird?

Anyway, Emily Heller was aweeesome! I love her Baby Geniuses podcast that she does with Lisa Hanawalt (hence why I lugged myself all the way out to Seattle for this show). How do I review comedy? She had good jokes. Relevant, relateable, well transitioning jokes. I dug her. And I talked to her a little bit after the show and bought a poster and she signed it and she recognized me from this Instagram post I made earlier in the day about boating to see the show, so THAT was cool! I had a nice moment (I felt) of banter with Mr. Hamil. "Where did you come from?" "Brinnon." "Where's that?" "Near Quilcene." "Where's that?" "Near Chimacum." Heh heh heh. Small towns.

Absolutely wonderful note to end on. Chris hooked me up with the proper bus to take downtown (the 12) and I caught the 9:55 back to Bainbridge Island. It's probably been three years since I last saw Chris. We should hang more. I should go to Seattle more. It's not a bad city. It just takes time and effort and timing and money to get there. But parking in Bainbridge ain't bad.

I didn't drive all the way back to Pulali. I stopped in Suquamish and stayed over at Aaron's. Not too far out of the way. Banjo is a sweet cuddly doggy, but is prone to chewing noisily on a bone in the middle of the night.

Sunday:

Aaron and I got brunch at The Oak Table Cafe in Kingston. I had the eggs casey (and our server was named Casey) which is chopped bacon in eggs on a croissant, drizzled with mushroom sauce. But the side of pancakes was overkill, but Aaron is a good guy and helped finish those off. Well sated, I took a nap while watching Anthony Bourdain on Netflix...still at Aaron's. So polite of me to just hang out with someone and spend the time napping. Hahah. Then I read a bit about geology from Aaron's illustrated copy of A Short History of Nearly Everything. Learned stuff about the weirdo English dudes who started that whole geology as thing stuff. Then I returned to Pulali.

Did laundry, got shows queued up, Interneted, watched Mad Men and was like "well, that show is gone now." A very good full fun weekend. I love getting out of the house, and really need to do it more often. I just can't think of things to do besides watching movies (in terms of activities that get me out of the house. I also scanned my sketchbook.

TRILL WILL ROCK YOU

Felt a lot better after that long sleep. My throat is still hoarse for some reason, but the rest of me is fine.

Starting the day, we guessed which band would start first on the classic rock station.I guess Queen, Chris guessed Rolling Stones, and Jeff went with Tom Petty. It started on ads, but then the first song that played...BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH. I heard Jeff in the washout area go "AWWWW" and Chris in the office go "WHAAAAATTT" and the song continued "BUDDY YOU'RE A BOY MAKE A BIG NOISE PLAYIN' IN THE STREET GONNA BE A BIG MAN SOME DAY!". So awesome.

Sleeves were ran. I cleaned some stuff. I taped some stuff. We ran the backs on some stuff. I pressed some hats and reclaimed screens. A nice full day.

At home I cooked up some pasta and settled in for a night, well, in.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is almost to 2k!

ups and downs and all arounds

I did enough today to warrant its own posting, instead of double day posting like I've been doing a lot lately.

Dog Beach:

Because a potential housemate has a dog, we were going to have a meetup at Lighthouse Field State Beach to see if Joey and that doggie will get along. And I figured it would be good to kill two meetings with one stone, I got up at 8 and joined Janet and Joey at the beach. I met tons of Janet's pals. There is a big hooplah about leash laws and they are trying to take it back, so they have set times where people meet with their dogs on the beach. Established times and stuff. 8:30-10am on Saturday for sure. Anyhoo, so I met those people and they had coffee and doughnuts. I met so many lovely doggies. Friendly doggies. Fluffy doggies. Big, small, just...awesome dogs. Several times I was just sitting on the sand and I didn't have enough hands to pet all the dogs. There was Charlie, Perro, Jessie, Lou, Molly, Penny, and other dogs. Ah! It was lovely. Charlie was very sweet. It was seriously many kinds of awesome to just chill with happy animals and to chat with various people.

Alas the potential housemate did not show up.

Alana:

But Alana, a potential housemate who was referred through a friend of Janet DID show up. She was very sweet, is going to school and working, and was just generally like...nice! She was easy to talk to, easy to laugh, everything about her seemed good so....now we have her for a housemate! She liked the house, and seemed to have the right sort of energy for the way it is around these parts. And Ron Lemon, the across the street neighbor, stopped by for a chat with us three while we were all talking on the porch. So that felt very communal. Yay! New housematey.

Fridge and Pantry:

Alana departed to do what she needs to do, and Janet & I worked on making a little room for her. We cleaned out the fridge of food that wasn't ours, as well as Amanda's shelf in the pantry. She (Amanda) didn't have a lot anyway, and we didn't toss what was good so if she still wants it, it is here...it's just been sifted into the communal food a bit. There is so much more room in the fridge. There were several things that have been in there since I moved in, and I didn't know whose they were. Now it has been long enough to just toss some of the stuff. And there is much more room in the freezer. Hurray!

Egg:

I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch.

Shopping:

There were these nautical boat print swim trunks at JC Penney that I really wanted, so I drove up to San Jose to see if they had them (I should have called, but I wanted to check out Kinokuniya as well). I took a wrong turn on Tully, and it took me a while to realize that, but once I did that I got my way to the mall pretty easily. They did not have the shorts! And none of the other designs appealed to me. I need a new swimsuit, but I'm not going to buy one I'm lukewarm about. I really want those cool boat patterned shorts. And I'll just get a bikini top or whatever to go with them. I haven't bought a new swimsuit in about 5 years, ha. I wandered around the mall a bit. There was a Daiso, which is bad news. It's a Japanese store, but all the stuff is priced at 1.50, or a couple bucks more. And they have a little bit of everything. It's like a slightly more higher end Dollar Store, but they actually have a good stock of things like: wrapping paper, pencil lead, mechanical pencils, ceramic chopstick holders shaped like flounder and radish, yan yan, toothpicks, goofy hairbows, calligraphy pens, notebooks...yeah I did not make it out of that store empty handed, and if you think that description of items is oddly specific well, there is a reason for that. I don't know what I'll do with my little ceramic flounder, but I know that I love it. After that hooplah, I went to find the Kinokuniya. I remember seeing it on my way to the Imax to see The Hobbit, and it WAS on Saratoga and it WAS on my right when the theater was on my left....but I couldn't find it this time! I wrote up directions but I didn't write the address because my GPS is pretty useless at finding satellites, especially in San Jose. I drove down Saratoga till I hit residential, and then the other way till I got into a residential area again. No luck! I wrote down the directions to get home from the Kinokuniya, and thankfully the directions started with turning on Williams, and at least I had located THAT street. Naturally I turned left on Williams when I should have turned right. But that mistake was evident after a few minutes. I eventually got back home after a shopping trip that ended with no luck at the store I wanted to go to, lots of luck at the store I didn't plan on going into, and no luck at finding the store that I really wanted to go to. As it goes.

Evening Time:

I now have a calligraphy brush in each size. I had purchased two from Ichiban Kan in San Francisco (a store similar to Daiso) and so with the one I procured today, I have multiple sizes. So that is fun. Too bad they utterly bleed through my preferred sketchbooks. Still, I'll find a use for them. They have a nice weight to them. Alana has started moving in, so that is pretty neat. Lucy Knisley is doing a book signing in Berkeley tomorrow. Don't know if I'll drive up and see her, but I don't have any other plans. Might as well journey about on my weekend.

time turner, so I can do all of that again!

Woke up with shin splints. Not the worst ones I've had, but still not pleasant. Wasn't looking forward to a day of walking with them. Thank God for Advil.

Got up out of bed. Took a shower. When I got down stairs, it turned out the only tickets for the Harry Potter exhibit were in the late afternoon, so we didn't have to rush to Seattle. There were some flubs with the buying of tickets (it is timed entry) but a call sorted it out. Unfortunately plans with Jeanette didn't work out today, but will be arranged for later hopefully.

Since the tickets for the exhibit were not till 5:15, we didn't have to rush to Seattle. Drove and parked at Bainbridge. Decided to leave the umbrellas in the car. It was raining and sure to rain more, but we would be indoors, or near cover, for most of our day. The ride was nice and uneventful. Took some photos. Loving my camera. Thankfully I have rechargeable batteries because by the end of the day, the battery light came on.

In Seattle we walked up to Pike's Place, and because the line was long at the donut place we decided to just head straight to Seattle Center. Went to West Lake Mall and hopped on the monorail. A quick ride to the center. The EMP, which once I regarded as ugly mold architecture has now...well grown on me. Stockholm Architecture Syndrome I guess. Dad and I ordered some beignet's. Ma wasn't fond of them, or the latte she ordered. But I dug them. A nice warm food perfect for cold Seattle day. With our appetites sated a little bit, we went over to the Pacific Science Center. We could wander around the regular exhibits while waiting for our time to come up. The dinosaur exhibit was old. Actually a lot of the exhibits were old, and just how I remembered them. Not a lot of updating has happened, but when you have a lot of kids coming through...sturdy is probably best. I got a wax astronaut from one of those make your own wax figure machines. I totally want to get the naked mole rat next time I'm at the center. It was so cool. Love my green little figure. It was a lot larger than I was expecting too. I was expecting a little figure. Anyway, I liked it.

We went into the butterfly room too. Stuffed our coats into a cubby. So many wonderful butterflies. Giant blue morphos. It was also humid and warm, which was nice. Took lots of pictures. After that we decided to get in line for the Harry Potter exhibit. 35 people were admitted every five minutes. The first stop was the sorting hat. A lady had the hat and gave a little talk. One girl got sorted into Ravenclaw...or maybe it was Hufflepuff. And a shy little boy got into Gryffindor. Then we went into a room with some TV screens that played clips from the movie, and then when that was done the doors opened and we were let into the AMAZING exhibit of props, sets, costumes, and general things from the Potter movies.

There were robes, books, centaurs, goblets, wands, and so so much more. It was really well displayed too. Everything was in context. Not just items in boxes. The great hall was constructed, as were some of the woods and Hagrid's Hut. There were TV screens that had videos playing. Some parts were interactive, well just two (a place where you could pull Mandrake roots and a quaffle pitch). No photography was allowed. It was a wonderful exhibit. I fell in love with the book designs. From the Quaffler to the potion textbooks. So much attention to detail and design. The people who made them really knew their stuff when it came to references. I wished I could have one...but alas stealing is wrong. The kids who came were well behaved, and there were a lot of adults too. Of course, the original young fans of the series would be in their 20's now (ie: me). I should listen to the audio books again.

Anyway, it of course ended with the gift shop and lots of price gouging. Still, dad got himself a beanie (Gryffindor colors) and Ma got me a Ford Anglia magnet as an early Christmas present. I bought myself a Time-Turner. A cheaper plasticy one, not the silver replica that was about sixty bucks. I'm way pleased with my memento. It was dreary and dark when we caught the monorail back. We got some Ivar's to go and ate while waiting for the Bainbridge Ferry to load. We finished the fries and chowder on the way over, and I put my tired legs up.

I started to doze on the way home, but perked up enough back in Seabeck to lure mom into watching the Top Gear Syria (and general middle east) special with me. Hahaha, got her into the show now! Now I've popped some more Advil and a nice sleep seems good right about now. Tomorrow Dad and I are going to make cupcakes! And try some of the techniques from his book out.