so much biking, my bum will be so sore

It is past midnight so....Happy Towel Day to all the hoopy froods out there! (May 25th is Towel Day).

Went to Taco Night at Erics, with Carmen and Josh. Met Addy and Alex and Aaron and Cory and...a whole bunch of people. The tacos were delicious. I drank a bit, and chatted about all sorts of things. It was a bike ride there and back, but it feels good to be on a bike. I'm out of shape, but not totally bad at it. Again, it is just that last hill that I can't quite make it up. Josh was saying it was cold, but I didn't think so. Probably because my blood was pumping. Anyway, the shindig was fun. Met some nice people. Everyone I've met thus far has been friendly. Good sign for a place.

Earlier in the day, I got a Vietnamese sandwich for lunch. That was good. I've been here a week, but it feels much longer. Maybe because the social life here is more active? Ah. Yeah. I applied to a few more jobs, and followed up on this internship (they got back to me! Dad knows who "they" is, I don't want to say it here for fear of jinxing or counting my eggs before they hatched). So I did the job things. Also watched an art video feed of Scott C. making a painting. That was cool.

A pretty good day. Work stuff in the afternoon, shindig in the evening.

Tomorrow I'm going to make potato curry for dinner. Hopefully I don't screw it up and poison Carmen & Josh.

new record of three

I completed my sketchbook zine. Well, I am printing a facsimile of my sketches from thesis, because people like them so much. My final silkscreen project. I'll have to print a lot because A LOT of people want one. It is exactly 16 pages, so it should print well. And I have the cover drawn (which is actually the last to be drawn so it isn't a true facsimile). Anyway, I went to four defenses today.

Bryan's robot mythology was good. Got through the points quite clearly. His thesis reflected the more literary consideration than an immense body of work. The panel for thesis always include a non-department person. And Bryan's had a few weird questions. Like "how do you want me to see this" and Bryan's "I want you to see it right here, right now, like this" was perfect. And not snarky.

Afterwards I called Ames and Big Giant about internship stuff. Ames wasn't too enthused about my questions about what I should send them, but Big Giant was friendly. I had my sketchbook out and Martin approached me to see what more I had drawn. BT even did a little hand motion to represent seeing what I had done. I like that.

Anyway, Madeline went to Rachel's with me. She did four large digital pieces about mother earth (though really it was mistress of the animals or something). Four specific American terrains and man did she have research. Lots of science and creatures. At first they were large pictures of animals, and half woman/half something, but damn...it must have taken ages. Rachel was nervous and had a few second pauses, which must have felt like minutes to her. But she got through it.

It was soup day. Not that great. I like sandwich day better. Sat with Madeline, Kristen, Amanda, and Rachel (other Rachel, no the other other Rachel). Karen and Daniel joined us and we gave Karen some harmless poking about her drunken antics. Robin won the people's choice award in the BFA Juried Show. I didn't get into the Voorhies/Carey prize, but I got three out of four pieces into Illustration Juried show AND a section of my Odd Owl poster is on the flier for the show. Whoo!

Erin McCarty's thesis was next. She had spent the week painting the small illustration room and installing her painting. The white walls were largely black with silhouettes of Alaska trees and Arizona cactus. Her six pieces were beautiful and grotesque and represented feelings that she saw as the root of many problems, feelings of defeat (cowardice, carelessness, dependency) and feelings of aggression (envy, selfishness, pride). The room was dark and close in and there was very limited space. It all culminated into this glorious experience. Erin's work really...yeah. I wish I had pictures. She also had these reoccurring skeletal figures that I think mom would really like.

Between Erin's and Ursula's I got my resume tightened up and edited out a page from my portfolio and sent it off to Big Giant (along with a cover letter). Now just gotta wait through this weekend...

Ursula's road trip memory installation was huge. She did these massive drawings over digital printouts and hung them and had artifacts below, and beverages and cheese potatoes. It was a full experience. Really cool and professional for being just her first installation. She went to all 50 states. She had about 12 large drawings as representations of some of her experiences, and a wall of remainders from the drive. It was just almost overwhelming and ultimately very effective. She had a wonderful humor about it, but knew what she was doing and had a pure passion for it. It was a great way to end the whole week. A real positive note.

After, Karen and I bet Annie and Chad (illustration painting and beginning illustration teacher respectively) at Rogue Brewery. Chad offered to pick up the tab after we ordered! So nice! It was actually really amazing to hang with them. I never doubted they were cool but having a few beers and hearing Chad's wrestling voice...really amazing. They also drew stuff in my sketchbook. Really awesome things. We then out arted each other "where is Michelangelo's David?" and all that. Yeah, it was fun. Nice hanging with people. I like PNCA because they encourage friendships with teachers, and having a beer with the is totally acceptable. And calling a teacher Mr. This or Professor That would be a form of mockery, not respect.

Parted ways. Karen and I went to Laughing Planet. I gorged on a burrito while I finished up my sobering up. Mmm.

Went home. Talked with Katie for a bit. Watched some teevee. Tomorrow is puppet and assess just how behind I am day. And probably clean up my totally trashed room. Mmm.

hoot hoot hoot!

Took a long nap that was interrupted by a fire alarm. Now I am awake enough to blog.

Wednesday:

Daniel was half an hour late to class. Some of the people calculated how much money we were spending to sit there, by dividing the amount a credit at our school costs by the number of hours were at school. I think they figured that his lateness cost $15. Oh well.

He did arrive and we got right to presentations. Sandra and Brian. This weeks theme was the watershed.

Ate with Karen in her studio during lunch.

We critiqued Brian's photography, then Matt's little aquarium installation, then Heather's needle point map, then Lana's performance.

It was such a nice day that we held the rest of class down by the river! There was a sandy spot right next to the Steel Bridge that was nice. I made a little castle while we talked and all that.

On the way back from school, I stopped at Trader Joe's for a snack run. I over did it with the snack purchases, but better to have taffy and trail mix and cheese puffs then nothing at all.

I only got about 15 minutes between getting home and heading out with Molly to go to Eugene. Molly is Carmen's friend from college and was a perfect driving companion. We talked about school and art and Portland. Way rad lady. The ride down went really fast, but it was raining and horrible. I thought it would continue to be warm. Oh well.

Luckey's was a place with history, according to the newspaper clippings on the walls, but it didn't stand out that much to me. Pool and a narrow bar with poor service. Carmen and Phil were there and we chatted over a beer. Molly ordered some food. Phil (the guitarist, not my friend Phil from Portland) and I talked about Garth Ennis comics. Once we found out we both liked Preacher and The Boys, well we talked a bunch. The sound guy apparently quit and they venue had to track down someone else, or something along those lines, I don't quite know, but it all worked out. They were the only ones playing.

Adam even showed up! Yay! One of Molly's friends was there as well. And that was pretty much it, but the people at the bar cheered them on with lots of interest. Loved the music, great tunes. Wonderful to hear them live. Doo doo doo do dooo doo do do doooo. It was really nice to just get out of Portland, relax with a friend and some family and make some new friends. To just sit with a drink and relax.

I came back into Portland with Carmen. Tried to stay awake so I wouldn't just doze while she drove on in silence. 3am when I crawled into bed. 6:30 am when my alarm went off. Totally worth it.

Thursday:

Thank god for ink day. Sat and played with ink and kept from nodding off. After the break, Morgan told us some more history but then we had story time and we just went from tangent to tangent. French fashion dolls, peacocks, what snake tastes like, and so on. It was fun.

Illustration was a little more stressful. Stage 2 review, I didn't have much to show him. I had print outs of my pieces and we talked about putting together a portfolio and how to set up an internship and stuff. I need to get really good documentation of my pieces, construct a leave behind, update my resume... So many things to do right NOW instead of next month. Bleh. It was an open work day, which meant another day of listening to people yammer about their schedules. This will probably continue for a while. I need to bring headphones to class. Especially when I'm tired and have no patience.

Went back home. Sort of did nothing. Ate food. Then I started watching Princess Bride and I began to fall asleep, so I just allowed it to happen. Then fire alarm went off.

Tomorrow is clean up this wrecked room of mine day, papier mache time, and plan out internship time. Wheee.

a bust

Rose up at the correct time. Got out of the door early. The red was there but I needed to take the Blue but no worry as I was on time for the Blue. Read Another Roadside Attraction while going out to 102nd.

And there it began. I heard that we were to meet at 102nd and Halsey, the Max stop that is. Rustin said it was one stop after 82nd. He may have mentioned something about Gateway but I remember hearing the 102nd stop pretty specifically. So what do you decide? Do you get off at the stop that is one after 82nd or get off at the stop you think was mentioned?

I got off on the one that was mentioned because it seemed so specific. Stops can easily be forgotten. Lloyd may be the fourth or fifth stop after you cross over the river but I couldn't say for sure.

I was there early so I waited. Then it became 15 after. I called at 20 after and left a message. I called again at 30 after and didn't leave a message. After I boarded the Blue headed west again and passed by Gateway, I called to say I was headed home. This was at about 12:50. We were to meet at noon. I did get some serious reading done.

I got off at the last stop in fareless square on the other side and went to Yamhill Liquor to get Katie a quick present for her birthday. I don't know what she would like to read so I didn't want to browse Powell's. Candy is so low class. Figured I would get her something a little nicer than PBR. I'll make her a card as well. The clerk was really nice and pointed me to a bottle of Bulleit bourbon that was marked down almost suspiciously low. It had a nice enough packaging design so I got it. And the fact that I am blogging about it only indicates that I couldn't resist and gave it to her to open it already. Katie loved it. Gave me big hugs. It is now resting in a "for special occasions" spot. We toasted to ourselves.

Jason took me out to the Leaky Pub or Leaky Roof. Yeah, Leaky Roof. It is a little Irish "gastro pub" a few blocks from Goose Hollow. It was happy hour so I got a $3 burger and a Cosmopolitan. He had this salad with sliced apple and pear and chocolate. It looked delicious and my burger was quite good. Jason got a new job downtown. He has switched from traffic something to font configuration something. After the meal we wandered around the houses in the area. Walked up some very tall steps. It was nice. Refreshing. Today wasn't all that warm though.

And I heard back about today's internship snafu. He was at the Gateway Transit Center. Waited about as long as I did. The number of his I seem to have is not the good number but he also has my number(which is my only one) so that is not both ways excuse. Darn shame about that. Looking forward to a bit of adventure. Not a good way to start things out. I guess I should be forward and tell everyone I meet that I need good, specific instructions or I will get misplaced.

the hummus was quite good

Absolutely beautiful today. Warm, sunny. Perfect for sitting back and watching Buffy and taking a little grocery walk with Katie. A wonderful day. Those little tiny clouds were in the sky and it was blue as can be.

Yesterday there was a black plume of smoke that looked to be coming from North East Portland. It was only a plume that faded, probably an explosion and not a fire. It was dark. Haven't heard anything about it. A person with a bow and arrows also tried to jump off the bridge on Sunday. They were talked down.

Learned a new word: gloaming.

Picked up munchings from Safeway after a little long nap. Walked with Katie because it was a nice day and it was time for a walk. The self packing was a hassle because I had to press "skip bagging" after every item. There needs to be a "I brought my own bag" options programmed in to those things.

I'm nearing the end of what Hulu has to offer in terms of Buffy. The episodes are lagging a little without the overall arc. I want more Spike.

Hmm, what am I forgetting to mention? Oh yeah, my interview with Rustin!

But first, I had to run some errands at school. As I was locking up my bike, Matt went Boo! and scared me. You shouldn't do that to tense people! Okay he didn't know I was stressing so I can't fault him. This time at least. My woodblock stuff that I had forgotten about was still there. Not cleaned out! Hurrah! Checked out some DVDs. Went to the computer lab and printed some stuff for my portfolio. It isn't the best looking thing but it is at least a portfolio. I left at about 11:20 from the school for the noon meeting at Black and Red Cafe (or was it Red and Black?). Good thing because the pedestrian path on the Morrison Bridge was closed and nonmotorized vehicles are forbidden. Had to ride further down and cross the Hawthorne Bridge. I was still about 10 minutes early but was far more sweaty and winded than I would have liked.

The Cafe was a vegan place. It didn't even need a sign and I could have guessed it was vegan by the clientele. I really stood out and I don't quite get why. I wasn't in leather. I just was in clean jeans and a stripey teeshirt from Gap. I get how being vegan sometimes extends to what they wear but the styles of dress between the workers and wifi users who left their dog outside for well over an hour with no water bowl, and myself were very different. Anyway, I ordered a hummus and chip plate with an italian soda and waited for Rustin.

He was on time, always a good sign. For an hour we chatted about art and the like. He talked mostly. About projects and public art and printing and experimentation and all that. Asked the "what I want to get out of this" question. I shared my chip plate and he bought one for himself and shared that. I was confused by some of his wording. Well, a lot of it. I suspect it is something I will have to get used it. Right now it looks like it is a very informal internship. Once it gets more established, I'll talk to Andy at school and see how I could get credit for it. Rustin and I are meeting at Noon on Thursday and I am going to help with some public art project. Sounds cool. For sure I will get to see more of Portland. It is a big big world out there. Oh and he likes Firefly and has read Hitchhiker's Guide and said he was afraid to ask if it was my real name. Heh. So there is that! That is working for me.

Katie and I are going to a little show on Sunday. Robin has a music thing on Friday. My schedule is filling up (for the week).

It was hot riding back but oh well. A nap was my reward. And Gabe made me a perfect dinner! Mini penne pasta with a chicken tomato sauce that had just a nice little amount of spice that enabled me to pace myself and enjoy it all with a cool glass of milk. It was really lovely. Getting back into the swing of the Portland diet.

kept women

So yeah, back to square one with housing. The lease is up at the end of July. Now I have to think about that. Damn.

Contacted Rustin to inform him that I am back in Portland. Tomorrow we will be having a little coffee or whatever and talking about the internship. Sadly it is on the other side of the river (the location). Gotta get up and get to school and sort and print some things out first. I think if I leave by 10 I should be fine. The stuff at school shouldn't take more than an hour so that is leaving another for getting over to 13th and Stark. Exciting! I hope I can get started right away. He seemed like a nice fella.

Watched Buffy. It loads pretty well (during the summer at least). Not enjoying the third as much as the second. Second season was pretty much awesome throughout.

Did I mention my grades? A in illustration. A in digital illustration. A in math. A+ in graphic novel. A- in screenprinting. Cumulative GPA: 3.87. I'm on the Dean's List.

Katie and Gabe were making a little outing to The Dig and Mike's Drive In. I was invited along. Gabe treated us to the lunch. Deluxe burgers all around! Fried egg, bacon, patty, sauce, and milkshakes! Delicious. I knocked down a huge portion of it but I still had to get a bag. We were parading around in our sweet shades.

The Dig is a place that has $1-$6 everything. Sure, it does not beat some of the sweet thrifting Karen talks about but it has a better potential for finds because it doesn't seem to have been mined over by Hawthorne Hipsters. Found a pair of navy high waisted shorts and a brown corduroy snap button shirt that fits really well. Pretty good. Shorts for when I regain my biking legs.

Jen didn't want to see Hangover a third time, so I went with Katie and Gabe. We got some snacks on the way and walked down to Pioneer Place. There were perfect seats. Not too far, not too close.

The Hangover had really beautiful cinematography. It was really well crafted and varied. It had a real style that set it apart from being a standard comedy. I had a lot of fun. The laughs have a good pace. It isn't trying to be one after another. The actors are great. I had a lot of fun. It isn't for everyone but it does its kind of comedy right.

We Maxed it back. I watched Buffy. Drank tea. Trying to relax. Take it easy in the morning. Get all cleaned up and ready to be presentable for the meeting.

come June 1st, I'll be rocking Puget Sound.

My first sleep in past noon!

Today was a lovely day but I wanted to get a start on printing so I tried to round up someone to assist me. Jason was foolish enough to agree to learn how to print. Hahaha. Anyway, he came in from Beaverton and walked down to school.

And it was one of the two days of the year that campus is actually closed! Memorial day! Argh! What a scam. It is also Towel Day for all the hoopy froods out there.

So we went and got ice cream and watched all the kids play in the fountain. I had a root beer float and he had the hazel nut type. We walked down to the waterfront and walked down waterfront park. The Rose City Festival is going on but the rides didn't look fun and we didn't feel like paying to get in. So we just walked past the festival. A late lunch was enjoyed at Rock Bottom Brewery. I tried the Morrison St. Stout. It was creamy and delicious. With it I had the Sonoma Chicken wrap. Tasty also. Good fries. We sat in the outdoor area and shared a time people watching.

Nice little day, even if I didn't get to print.

And I heard back about the internship, sorta. Rustin still wants to meet and see how the internship would work, but he is in Queens for the next few weeks. Just as well because Trillian is coming home to Washington! I'll be up in Seattle for a couple days then on Monday I shall hop the ferry over and return to beloved Seabeck.