Bridal Hell

The Bachelorette Party

Alas Karen could not make the party due to illness, so I made sure to do right by her for facilitating fun. I volunteered to be the designated driver in place of the pregnant lady. And then I wouldn't have to worry about spending money on booze, because booze be pricey!

It is such a beautiful drive down to Portland. Cruise down 101, wind past Olympia, sure there's a few boring stretches but it goes by pretty fast. Then bam Vancouver then you're in Portland town, baby! Barely time enough to run out of recently updated podcasts to listen to.

I cruised through downtown and the Pearl District first, to check out the rubble that was my old school campus. They moved into a new building and have torn down the warehouse that was the old school. It didn't have windows in most of the classrooms and the number of bathrooms was vastly undercode I'm sure, but still that was where I made so many memories for four years. And it's gone. I got to the school after all the walls have been torn down but the cement steps were still there. I reached through the grate and grabbed a hunk of rubble.

From downtown, I went out east on Burnside, but not after getting frustrated with slow walkers in the Pearl. Argh.

Parked at Mel's and hauled out the trunk that's the second of my three nuptial gifts for her and Alain. Gifts all over the place! And my leather bag is perfect for travelling with. I continue to be stoked on my bag. Mel changed into her party outfit and I changed into mine. I did my makeup before my drive so I wouldn't have to do it upon arrival in Portland. So yeah, dress on and I was good to go!

Johanna, Mel's sister, arrived at the house too. She looked styling in a black dress. The party theme was spooky/black clothes. I had my leather boots, black tights, black dress with see through bits, black hoodie, and leather jacket. Everyone was dressed so well! I drove us to Sara's house for the pre-shindig. Sara had chips and dip, and Dara and Danielle brought cupcakes and cookies. Yum! I ate a bunch of everything and cranberry juice. Sara had a rockin' tartan cape over her black ensemble. Dara and Danielle had black with white detailing dresses. Such a rad looking bunch. Mel got some gifties from D & D, and a skull pin with a ribbon saying Mel's Bridal Hell. Because the bride has to wear something to mark her status! Once we had snacked and toasted, we headed out to Fright Town: a three house haunted house in a convention center in Portland.

I'd never been to a haunted house before, so I was stoked on that, and Sara had located some discount coupons so we all got $5 off! We parked in the residential neighborhood and walked the few blocks to the Moda Center. I was expecting oodles of lines but there were not many outside, and tickets were bought with little line wait. Bags were checked and in we went! The space had exteriors of each haunted house with queues marked and people checking the ticket. There were players hovering around...basically actors in horror garb interacting. They were not allowed to touch, but they sure did creep! There were clowns and zombies and ghosts of all sorts. The first house had a general horror/clown strobe maze vibe. Had a nice vibe and different neat set pieces, including a black light painting hall. The second house (you could go in any order, just the ticket was only good for three house visits) had a zombie apocalypse theme with tons of corpses hanging and chickenwire. The third house had a creature/cannibal sort of theme and it had a ton of players to hover around you and jump out at you. It had a room with a spinning circle that really was disorienting. We staggered out of the last house in one dizzy group. I led the charge in most of the houses, and got a few good scares due to that.

Next in the roster for the night was The Lovecraft; a no cover Goth bar that I've visited before about four years ago (should be an entry in my blog about that). I drove us over, with direction from Mel, and we arrived early enough that a table was snagged by Sara, Dara, and Danielle. I got one drink right at the start and made the point that I wouldn't be driving anywhere for at least an hour. Mel didn't put up a fight about my rule, and we stayed from ten till one, so that hour was well used up. Cidney and Tabitha arrived to meet us (they were not the type to enjoy a haunted house). I bought Mel a drink, as did Tabitha, and probably a couple other people. The dance floor filled up, I had a creeper make several attempts to hit on me, the fog machine made it hard to see people, but that makes for good news because then people were not seeing me dance! I'm not a qualified dancer.

Alfredo was there, Mr. Two Days Younger Than Me. It was nice to see him and chat travel and things. Shane, a former PNCA security guard, was DJing and I was able to request White Wedding for Mel. I went to Mel and told her I put in a request but didn't say what. Five or so songs later it came on and the dance floor loved it! Perfect song for the crowd and Mel was ecstatic and knew it was for her at once. We fist pumped the air and hollered and what a brilliant moment.

Some clowns showed up, maybe Juggalos, and may have gotten a bit offended when Mel asked if they were from Fright Town. Getting fresh air at 1:30 in the morning while avoiding looking at two clowns making out really makes you go, "goddamnit Portland, this is why you have a reputation." But hey, it's not a visit to Portland if it doesn't get weird!

That creeper tried once more to hit on me but I cold shouldered him just the right amount to get him to leave me alone.

But the night didn't end there. Dara, Danielle, Cidney, and Sara rendezvoused with Johanna, Mel, and I at: Hotcakes House! Another place you'll find I visited some four years ago.

Lovecraft and Hotcakes were both places I went initially with Mel too! Huh! And we went to bunches of different places.

Anyway, Hotcakes is a 24/7 pancake and breakfast place. We got there right before all the bars closed, so we were able to get a table and get orders in. I got hashbrowns and a single hot cake. Others got other variations on hotcakes and biscuits. It hit the spot! I ate heartily and loved it. Yum yum. I drew in my sketchbook and I should scan those tomorrow. We had two square tables pushed together in the back part of the dining room. Other booths had teens in them, oh those kids out late having fun but can't go anywhere but here. It was nice to see them making memories like that. Hopefully a good time to remember for years from now. A large post-bar group arrived just in time to claim our table space. Hugs were deployed and off we went into the night! We collected Alain (the groom) from Sara and Jason's house and it was just after 3am when we all crawled into bed. Different beds, of course. Mel kindly hosted me for the night.

Alain makes a mean cuppa morning coffee, I tell you what. We talked collections, and collections of collections. The more people I can tell about The House on the Rock, the better. I got a sneak peek at some of the wedding decor. It's going to look so amazing! The wedding is next weekend and I need to pick out a dress. Maybe I should just wear what I wore to Nathan and Helen's? It's a cool dress.

Returning Home

I'm stoked to be back in Portland for a longer visit. It really isn't that far, I should visit more often.

As per tradition I had pre-drive brunch with Heather (sometimes it is Heather and Daniel). I met her at Dragonfly in Nob Hill and we moved on to la Bouchelier where I ordered up a grilled panini and got a chocolate croissant for the drive. The panini came with a salad, which I was happy about. I need more vegetables in my life.

We gabbed about etymology and friendship and creepers hitting on you and all sorts of things. I could talk to Heather for hours. She is so smart, insightful, broad, and all around wonderful. I am really lucky to have so many people call a goober like me their friend.

Parted ways around 2 in the afternoon and off I went back home. It's such a nice straight shot as you're pretty much on I-5 after two turns in Portland, and then you don't turn again till Olympia and that is pretty much straight onto 101. Stopped to stretch my legs a couple time and get some free rest stop coffee. When I got home, Mom and Dad were there (I knew they'd be here) and they had hauled out the raft. No more cute seal pictures for the season.

I unpacked and they prepared a chicken and veggie dinner for which Celia joined us. I talked about my fun weekend and showed a few pictures. Post dinner, the three of us watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks on VHS up in the garage room. Love that movie.

My computer was being wonky so I opted to just go to bed instead. Dad made poached egg on toast with Hollandaise sauce for breakfast, and he made a second for me because I'm special.

The chores for today were firewood and wood burning centric. I helped pull up logs from the beach and I pulled brush out of the woods to throw on the burn pile. The burn ban has been lifted, so we got a pile going out by the drainage field. Dad hauled the heavy stuff in the truck. Once we got a good pile going, we sat down for tea and watched it burn down (ya know, for safety). Then they packed up and headed out and I was left to relax, and relax I did! Don't know what I'm doing for the rest of the week, work wise, but I'll be doing something. Now to bed with me.

honey, tangerine, maple sugar candy

Thursday:

It felt like a short day, and it was shorter than usual, but not so long. Boss left to do an install and will be gone snowboarding so Friday was going to be light. Don't want to run a bunch of stuff wrong, ya know? I weeded some things that are going to be applied to stuff. Cut some stickers. Ryan and Jeff ran the job.

Did a little art supply errand in the evening. It was a nice night to walk.

Friday:

Jeff called and said I didn't need to come in to work, as they were all planning to leave at noon and there wasn't much for me to do. Yay! Day off from work, and I was already up and showered and dressed. I got in touch with Ryan to see if he wanted to hang out (he has irregular hours).

Oh, and it was raining. Rain rain, so much rain. But so much needed rain!

So I drove down to the Tannery, and met up with Ryan. We walked up to the Pogonip Trails and took a little hike. It was mildly raining, but not so bad. I occasionally used my umbrella. It was totally a Mom friendly trail. We had a few mountain bikers pass us, but none going at Nate speed. We hiked up the trail till 1, then headed back. I reclaimed my camera from Ariel (I left it in the car after the Welcome to Night Vale LA trip), and then Ryan and I headed downtown for food and fun.

We got out of the rain at Zoccoli's and had warm sandwiches. I introduced Ryan to the blessed existence of maple sugar candy. He had never had any! What a loss! We decided to catch the 4:20 showing of Monuments Men at the Del Mar, but as we had an hour to kill, it was book store browsing time! We ran into his friend Daniel who I think I may have met previously a while ago. I browsed cards, and looked at books, and made mental notes about books to get excerpts of for my Kindle. I'll still buy books, of course. I just...really like samples. There was a stop in at Logos too. No purchases, just browsing. I should get a proper book about David Hockney. He is one of my major art inspirations. I should know more about him.

Then movie time came around! Yay! And it was a good film. All the art destruction scenes had me in tears. It wasn't as flamboyantly cinematic as other war movies are, but in a way it didn't need to be. It felt like a good supplement to movies like Saving Private Ryan. Like, hey you've seen all this stuff already, so we don't need to take that route. It was more funny and endearing, but also heart breaking thinking of all the lost and missing art. A good, important film with many talented actors. I'd recommend renting it.

There was an hour between this movie getting out and the showing of the Oscar nominated animated shorts screening that was happening at The Nick, so we grabbed a quick beer at 99 Bottles. I checked off #91, which was Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat Ale. VERY tasty, highly recommend it. Tasted like a beer orange.

The animated shorts were so good! I loved the Japanese one Possessions and the UK one Room on the Broom. Feral was disturbing. I hope either of those first two I mentioned win. They also showed some short listed ones, and the Irish one The Missing Scarf was brilliant. Very fun note to end a lovely day on.

I drove Ryan back to the Tannery.

And holy hell, I don't know if I've forgotten how to drive in the rain, or if Santa Cruz just has really terrible roads for rain driving! It was really hard to see the dividing lines. Don't worry! I went slow and all was well. Just like, dang. Santa Cruz also has really horrible road sign placement. No one told them to put the signs of the streets on the stop light pole above the intersection. Noooo it's way over to the side and you can't read it till you are half way through the intersection. It's an old gripe, but it's still a gripe.

What a day! I'd like more days like this, but OHHH I forgot, I also bought some local honey at the Homeless Gardening Project store front. We printed hats for them. I didn't buy a hat. But local honey is apparently good for allergies due to introducing local pollen into your body in a good way. So I'm going to try a spoonfull of it in the morning and evening, and see how my snuffles go. It's tasty stuff, either way.

trying to learn how to do my eyebrows

Woke up so sore. I slept on half my body wrong and my knee was awful.

I weeded 50 feet worth of vinyl, and a different 25ish feet bit of vinyl too. So much vinyl. I burned and taped screens. Helped catch and box. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars, broke down the press. Having Ryan catch really opened me up to do all this other stuff. If I had to catch, I wouldn't have had the time to do all that other stuff. We need a third in the studio.

At home, I relaxed. Had some pasta. I put makeup on just for funsies. Then Tara was all "you're so pretty!" and I was all "awwww". Totally easily won over by compliments. Anyhoo, Tara, Michael, and I went downtown and had drinks and dessert at Hula's. Hula Hula's? I had soda and a "pot" brownie, which was just a brownie cooked in a flower pot. They had tasty pie and booze. I was designated driving. We chatted, I sketched, we ate tasty treats. Mmmm. It was pretty cold. Very cold by Santa Cruzian standards. Regular November cold by Pacific Northwest standards.

last days as a 24 year old

Saturday:

• Slept in, of course. 
•  Got cashback at Trader Joe's and some snacks for the drive up. The couple behind me in line was really nice, and they were from Poulsbo so we bonded over being far away from the gray weather.
•  The drive up to San Francisco was uneventful.
•  Carmen and Josh bought some guinea pigs and named them Merlin and Arthur. They are quite cute.
• Carmen and I took the N Train to tonight's venue. 
•  The gig was Trails and Ways with My Satellite and Tremor Low.
• Phil and his brother Stephen were also at the gig. Phil and Carmen both bought me birthday drinks. Nice people. 
•  It was a good show. Not hop around and dance type music, but I dug it. Tremer Low moreso than Trails and Ways, which was the headliner.
• We ate sushi down the street and it was good. 
•  Cabbed it back, though it wasn't that late.
• It was nice to sleep in that big cozy bed that I slept in all those months ago while looking for, and eventually finding work.

Sunday:

• Woke up relatively early for me, though Sundays tend to be early days.
• Had some oatmeal and tea and chatted with Josh and observed the guinea pigs.
• I was a bit late leaving San Francisco for Oakland.
• And my GPS refused to locate any satellites.
• So I got turned around, and turned around again.
• And arrived on Lakeshore an hour later than planned
• But I made it!
• Finn, Robin, and I drove onwards and parked and had brunch at Cock-A-Doodle Cafe.
• We browsed the used bookstore while waiting for our table.
• I had the eggs benedict. It had avocado and it was delicious. I ate it with my hands and made quite a mess of it, and I probably embarrassed my companions but they have good poker faces.
• From there we returned to Robin's, where I parked.
• We walked down to Lake Merritt and went into another used bookstore (though it also had new books). George Grosz's autobiography caught my eye. I want to read more biographies and non-fiction, so this with my Lucrezia Borgia and Berthe Morisot tomes will make for some good historical reading when I eventually get around to it.
• Finn treated us to coffee, though I had hot cocoa, and we sat by the lake and Finn read to us from This Is How You Lose Her as the sun set. It was a nice time. Finn biked away.
• Robin and I drank wine and watched Clueless.
• Then we drank tea and watched a bit of Basquiat.
• Then I drove home.

And now it is past midnight, so I guess I am officially 25.

Sunday in San Francisco

Got up at 8am. Being around Carmen and Josh makes me want to get up early and be productive. Carmen also said I could stay with them for a bit while looking for work. Which is awesome. Hopefully I'll start getting some interviews and I won't have to take them up on their offer.

Carmen made oatmeal for breakfast and put fancy healthy things in it, and it was DELICIOUS! Thick and hearty and wonderful. Best oatmeal ever.

Their was a picnic planned at Fort Cronkhite, so Carmen made lovely little sandwiches. I made the cucumber, dill, and creme cheese ones. Because I love cucumbers. At 11, Odd Owl's drummer Adam and his lovely wife Vanessa showed up for picnic time. They were both friendly, awesome people all through the day. Actually most of the people that I met today were cool. Such a friendly community, and so full of hugs! Anyway, we all piled into Adam's car and drove North to Fort Cronkhite. While yesterday was hot, today was foggy but generally not that bad. I had my light track jacket, and that was enough.

At a picnic table, we gnoshed on sandwiches of all sorts, cookies, chips, and other good treats. We talked thesis, among other things, and I can't quite believe that it has been a year since I defended my work. A year! I've been graduated almost a year! Whaaat!?

Anyway, after stuffing ourselves, we took a nice walk along the bluffy hills. There was poison oak, but I don't think any of us got it. I certainly am not itchy today (I was wearing pants). There were lots of clusters of people, educational looking clusters.

The walk took us to some bunkers, where a couple asked us to take their photo together, which was special because the guy had just proposed! Ahhh! How sweet. Congrats to them.

From the bunkers, we went to the lighthouse on the point. I like a landscape that is immersed in fog. Something lovely about the hint of shapes of things. Sun is nice, fog is nice, different weather is just nice.

After descending from the lighthouse and bluffs, the five of us put our feet up at this little house on the hill. A nice breather. Then we drove to the Mammal Center, which was just a place to rehabilitate seals and the public was allowed to watch from a safe distance. The elephant seals were loud.

I start a fair number of paragraphs with "after", I should come up with better transitions.

The day out done, Adam and Vanessa returned us to Carmen & Josh's house, and we parted ways. The rest of the sandwiches and sushi were consumed while we watched a couple Enterprise episodes.

I drove Carmen to the open mic night that she was assisting with. We got parking right outside the venue too! No sooner was I in the door at the Fish Bowl than Eric handed me chalk and asked me to do the sign for the night. I obliged, because chalk signs are fun and Eric was enthusiastic about what I whipped out. It was a fun night, and everyone was very nice. Jesse on the ukulele was lovely, Christopher played the guitar, this guy did an acoustic cover of Jump Around. Jesse and Melody did a duet. Everyone was lovely and friendly and easy to talk to, and because I know Carmen and because people know Odd Owl, for once my reputation precedes me! It is awesome.

I dropped Carmen off, hugged her goodbye, and returned to Redwood City. No traffic late at night. Tis good. Nate and I watched the new Game of Thrones episode, and it was inteeeense. And tired from a day of hiking, which followed a day of biking and hiking, I went to bed. Nice.

hopping in SF

I sent off some emails today to people asking if I could use them as references, so that was good! Another step. I also put Microsoft Word on my computer, so I can edit my resumes and stuff. Get those in order.

Nathan, Chad, and Oleg went bike riding. I sat out on the lawn area and read. Then I got tired, so I took a nap. I caught some sun on my collar bone. I am determined to get my freckles back and in full face force!

The boys came back from bike riding, and we went to get some pizza from A Slice of New York. Good pizza according to Oleg, and it was indeed good. We also swung by a BevMo and I was wowed by the selection. We four gnawed on pizza and chatted and drank some beer and pushed the hyper dogs out of our laps. It was a good afternoon.

In the evening, Nate and I went to San Francisco for Carmen's birthday drinks get together thingy. We met, after driving in circles and finally finding some parking, at Medrone Art Bar. I got a fancy drink. Met Erin and Frank and Alisha, and all were very nice. It was Prince night at the bar, so it was crowded and they projected videos. I whipped out my sketchbook and did some drawings. I wish I could scan the drawings I've been making, as they are quite good. From there we walked down the street and got some food at Burger....Burger...I can't remember the rest of the name but they had awesome onion rings and sweet potato fries. Steven joined us. Chatted with Erin about art and things. After food, we hopped to the bar next door, and I had a beer and did more sketches and it was all quite swell. I gave Carmen one of my Banana Slug prints, and she was enthusiastic about receiving it. It is becoming quite my signature piece, what with it being on my business card and all that. Nathan, who had nothing to drink because he was an awesome designated driver, drove us (him and I) home at around 1:20ish. Fun night.

Tomorrow we might go to Ikea. I need to get my resumes in proper order. Then I start Googling jobs and trying to become this thing called "employed". Yay.

Portland Mini Break

Suprise! I decided to go down to Portland for two nights! Have car with good gas mileage, will travel.

Had oatmeal, packed some clothes and jammies, had tea, packed the car, hugged mom, and at 1pm I departed Seabeck for Portland. I need some practice with long distance driving if I plan to drive to California and start my life there and stuff. I stopped just after Olympia, and just before Portland to stretch my legs and, ahem, relieve myself. Still, the drive was good! Not all that stressful, I don't feel too tired from it. I just wish there were better stations to listen to.

I felt a little bit anxious pulling into Portland, as I'm really unfamiliar with city driving. But the streets were familiar, the traffic was light, and all was well. I found a parking spot on Johnson, between 22nd and 23rd, and parallel parked. I haven't parallel parked in yeaaars, and I did it flawlessly. Go me, go me. I put on cooler shoes and this smashing jacket I found in the closet, and trotted down to PNCA. Like a boss.

Danny Frazier was at the front desk. Said howdy to him. Hugged Asha, who became an American citizen yesterday, in the print lab. Also hugged Heather and Heather. The lab has been updated and it looks nice and pretty. New table tops, new shop vac. Real swell.

Daniel Williams had quite the mustache. Surprised Serenity and Dom in the library. They gave me lovely hugs. Chatted with Martin French a bit as well. It is First Thursday in Portland, so lots of people were milling about. More unfamiliar faces than familiar though. Ahh how time changes.

Heather, Daniel, and I went to Bridgeport for dinner. Drank some tasty beer, I finished their remainders. AHh I am such a mooch, but I adore them. I kept it pretty secret that I was coming here. Those two knew I was coming, and I texted a couple others. But made sure to have people not let on to Karen that I was there. That was the big surprise! To see her at her Courier Coffee Art Show.

And surprise her I did. She went "AHHHH!!!!" and hugged me, and went "AHHHH!!!" again and hugged me again. She was so enthused. It was awesome. Feels great to be so adored and to have my company appreciated like that. Coming to Portland was a very good idea. Feels really good to be here, and to be around so many great lovely wonderful supportive people. Saw BT, Jim, Phil, Andy, Morgan, Jon, Sivonna, Lacey...got hugs! So many hugs! I just drank water because I knew I'd be driving later on.

Jon, Sivonna, and I walked to the Hellion Gallery and looked at the stuff there. Some nice collaborations and wire craft. Saw Morgaine and got more hugs. Saw Chase. No hugs from Chase, but that is okay. Went to Grass Hut and met Bwana Spoons and chatted. Went to Compound...or no the gallery at Upper Playground. We were not that impressed. Swung by Pony Club, and the show there was quite superb. And the artist was very cute. Erin McCarthy was there, and we chatted.

Sivonna dropped me off at my car, which was good because my cool boots were starting to hurt my footsies. Drove to BT, Karen, and Phil's house and parked. BT clued me in to their wifi. Karen was asleep already. BT and I had a lovely conversation, and he went to bed.

Now I'm blogging and unsure what tomorrow has in store. Madeline? Dom and Serenity? Who knooooows? But it is rather exciting. Randomly showing up in Portland has worked out very well for lil' Trill.

second verse, not same as the first

Three Saturday's in a row I have been in Seattle. Blimey.

At 9am, dad said "APPLES!" and I went back to sleep.

A bit later, Holly chased some German Shepards off the property and I went back to sleep.

Then I got up, showered, grabbed a granola bar and some Propel water stuff and got to helping mom and dad with the apple juice. We did four pressings I reckon. Lots and lots of apple juice. I put some in smaller bottles to take to Seattle in present form.

I parked in Bremerton and rode the 1:45 ferry over. It was a lovely nice beautiful day. First on the itinerary was meeting up with Sam for a bit, but he wasn't at his place till 4ish, so I wandered around Pike's Place. Found what seems to be a good book about Houdini. Then I caught the 26 to Fremont. There were some Occupy Wallstreet protesters, so that was cool to see. Viva Occupy!

I got off the bus in downtown Fremont and used my memory of last weekend to navigate to his apartment, and I did it flawlessly! No wrong turns. Just straight, right, straight, left, straight and BOOM, found it. No address, just memory. I met his roommate Brenda and I gave them some delicious apple juice. It got some nice compliments. Because our juice is awesome.

For the next couple hours, Sam and I played Agricola and caught up on the events of the last week. I lost horribly at Agricola, and Sam played what was probably his best game yet.

The rest of my day's plan was to navigate my way to Serenity, who I knew to be in Seattle but I didn't know where she would be.

Sam was going to a Sounders game, so we parted ways in Downtown Seattle after taking the bus out of Fremont.

I then learned that Serenity had drink plans at 9:30 in Ballard. So 1) I would have been better off staying put in Fremont and 2) Ballard is too far out to have drinks at 9:30 when you have to catch a ferry back and the latest ferry is at 12:50, which doesn't give that much time for late night bus connections. I don't have a smart phone so I was unable to figure out routes and times, so I decided I wouldn't be able to meet Serenity. Boo. Oh well. Lesson learned, make sure you know where your friend is, before you go and visit. Still, I had a nice time wandering around Seattle. Swung by the Occupy Seattle people. One guy was shouting which was a bit distracting from the main organizer lady. The bicycle cops were very low key. They were there just there as a presence but not a threat.

I got some Ivar's and read The Sisters Brothers while waiting for the ferry. I napped on the ferry on the way back. Disappointing that I didn't get more out of my visit to Seattle, but totally fine to get out the house and just walk around.

Todays Portrait Is: Jonathan Safran Foer.

egg flippin' good time

Pa made fisherman's special. We four ate outside under the kiwi and grape arbor. It was lovely. It was Nathan's choice with what to do for the day, so we played Settlers of Catan. I did not do well at all. Nathan won. The first bit of the game was played on the lawn, but Dad over heated so we finished it up under the arbor again.

Hotdogs for lunch!

Nathan and I watched an episode of Misfits. Then we went outside and got bitten by mosquitoes. Then we went inside and got changed for dinner. We went out to a nice place in Silverdale. One of those places where they cook up your meal on a hot plate for you, and do a lot of cooking at once. I had the chicken, but was filled up with delicious rice and stuff before hand. The cook was very impressive with his egg flipping skills. As in egg in the shell flipping about. Very exciting. We were stufffffed. Two boxes of left overs!

Back at home we watched Point Break. Ma was a little impatient up until the chase scene in the middle. Natey is back to San Jose tomorrow morning. Summer is running out, though the weather is nice.

Todays Portrait Is: Oscar Wilde.

work, fun, extra fun

Oi. Man, got up at a reasonable hour. How normal. 9am! AHG! But I actually got to school with time to spare. Got to the studios and got my job: finish up the tape job and then sand sand sand. My hair went a shade lighter with all the spackle dust. It was strenuous, but it only lasted two hours. Still, damn it was a lot of dust. Not fun.

Came back to the computer lab to find an email that rerescheduled my meeting, so I spent a couple hours adding color to the next five portraits! I want to get super far ahead with them again, especially since I'll be heading on a two week vacation come June. I finished five last night, also known as all of the band Hot Chip. So the rest of the week will be Hot Chip Week. Whee!

I went home, had a phone call with mum about stuff. Found out I could activate my phone through my phone, and didn't have to go to a store. So wham bam: my old Samsung from 2005 has now been decommissioned and I've moved onto Dominic's old Samsung, which takes pictures and flips in two different directions! It is really sweet. And not broken! So yup, I've moved on. It takes me a long time to give up a piece of technology, especially if it still barely works.

At 8ish I rode my bike over to Mel's. She was waiting for me on her bike and together we rode to the East Side. I think it was her first bike trip over the bridge. I went at my regular meandering pace, and it was quite a lovely ride. The Lovecraft, a sort of goth bar, was showing the first four episodes of Game of Thrones tonight, We arrived at fifteen till nine, but they didn't start till ten (even though their thingy said 9). So I had a couple brewskies and a salad roll. We chatted and all that fun stuff. We stuck around for two and a third episodes. They really work well in sort of distorted projected resolutions. Mel seemed to like it, despite how weird the show is prone to be.

And we had a nice ride back, all though some guy in a car barked at us. That was startling. Still, we made it home safe and sound. Mel will be a bicyclist yet!

Now I'm going to unwind with an episode of something, get up, and then go teach some kids how to screen print!

Todays Portrait Is: Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

my only friend the end

Oh boy. What a day. A day to final it all. We are done with OUR focus week. OURS. My class. Mine. No one elses. All that freaking jazz.

I decided to sleep through the first block of proposals. The 9am-10:30am ones. I'm still a bit sick and needed that time. But I did get up and get to school in time for the 11:00-12:30 ones. So I went to see Sivonna. Her thesis she made this whole product design line around this cyclops owl Muku. So she gave his story and detailed the process of collaboration to make the resin figures and the chocolate molds and she had a fashion show of her tee shirts. Zain, Samala's son, was totally fabulous.

Sivonna gave such a great thesis defense. It is weird how short these things seem when you go through the process.

Oh man, I'm tired. Okay, gotta keep writing.

Lunch was rice and stuff. Had some of it. It was good. Drew people who were at lunch.

Went to Heather "Tibby" McDowell's thesis proposal. It is funny how doing something like sport's photography is so foreign at PNCA. But she defending her proposal very well.

It was a packed house for Diana (the next proposal I went to). She is cataloging the type in the letterpress studio and doing pieces based around type and stuff. That will be cool. I gave some people some more posters and got some caramels in exchange.

After that I went to Jenn's defense. She did these paper dolls and focused on body image in women and DID SO WELL. She takes the awesome stance that acknowledged that stuff like "real women have curves" is just as harmful and how women are great instigators of negative self image and stuff. Anyway, she did great and I almost wanted to cry with how happy I was.

Afterwards there was a little going away party for Tom Mullowny in the commons. There was a band. And a keg. So I had some beer and sat and chatted with all sorts of people. Then we migrated to Yur's, where I partied more. Lots of great conversations and WHOOOOing and hugs and throwing of makeshift confetti. We may have made a bit of a mess, so I tipped well. Met Leo's lovely fiancee Kelly. Then some of us walked home. I dropped my bike off at home and met Beth, Leo, Danny, and Kelly at Muu Muus and had a burger. MMM! And now I am at home and I am tired and tomorrow there will be new Doctor Who. But right now I sleep.

Todays Portrait Is: David Bowie.

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.

fart jokes are acceptable at any age

Wednesday:

Final day of classes! Yeah! The years are just flying by now. Got up a bit early so I could get to school to try and render the video smaller and properly. The third render still wasn't so good. Talked to Anouk and learned how to render through quick time. Huzzah.

Critique lasted all class, but each one was 10 minutes and watching animations take up time. So it went fast. And I took notes because I knew I couldn't remember all we watched, no matter how awesome. And it went alphabetical, so Tibby, Zach, and I were shafted. Tibbs and I shared our pain about how teachers ALWAYS say they'll do reverse alphabet but they never do.

Tippi - hand drawn shifting animation about how the bull was revered because it looked like a uterus. Very beautiful.

Andrin - stop motion cars sliding about. He made it look like the cars were sliding left and right. He did a lot of cutting out of cars, because the shadows never changed. It was totally convincing too, totally didn't look cut out. It was great.

Alison - something really conceptual. not my cup of tea.

Chase - goddammit Chase, why you gotta be so awesome? A side scrolling animation with lots of loops and his beautiful photoshop techniques. My side scrolled as well, but totally different styles. Anyway, Chase's animation was awesome. Robots and stuff.

Amanda - cute love story but the music was insanely loud

I think this is when we broke for lunch. I rendered my video properly (meaning good quality but not a HUGE file). I felt like pizza, so I got pizza.

Emily - a stop motion tribute to Jan Svankmejer. Cute old lady. Excellent animation.

Hill - stop motion. Mostly him going in circles. It was really nice. The movements flowed really well. There was a lot of stuff that apparently didn't work out, but all in all it was nice.

Most of the animations were under a minute. Rose and Anouck wanted good animations, and wanted us to keep them short so that they were good. Not try to do too much. It was amazing. So much great work. They brought in bagels and shmear.

Jeff - stop motion shirt and pants and shoes moving that eventually ended with him in it. Titled "waking up" or something.

Jaime - an animated dog moving about. Sound could have been better. Obviously took a ton of drawing.

Kami - a stop motion doll Marjorie. Sort of referenced Amelie. Very nice and simple and silly but effective all the way through.

Matt - told a story through well executed walk cycles, animation, sound, and cuts. Simple yet excellent. Really got the movement down for it all.

Kelly - He did a longer animation about a tooth fairy. Lots of composites in AfterEffects. Obviously made with his daughter in mind. Lots of unicorns and fairies but also crude humor. Turned out he wasn't accepted as a Tooth Fairy, but a Toot Fairy. Hahaha. The final shot was a door and farting noises. Heheh. It was very well received.

Leah R - stop motion cork screw and other items. really well animated with lots of variation.

Mitch - hand drawn stuff. really created this mood. nice.

Malcolm - figure moving against something trying to burst through the door. good sense of weight.

Kebrina - animating what music looks like, in a way.

Petra - rotoscoped animation done using sharpie, but scanning the sharpie on the reverse of the paper. the bleed through, not the actual page with the marks.

TJ - stop motion bear looking for a suitcase. cute.

My critique went really well. Everyone enjoyed it. No major trifles about what I did. One person said that they would enjoy playing a side scrolling game of all the animations that utilized panning. Owls and astronauts zapping aliens. Hehehe. Hill commented that it was cool that I can go just by one name in my art. I commented that the alliteration in his name was cool.

Tibby - very tense minimal animation. I said that it reminded me of greeting cards that you give people for tragic moments "I'm sorry for your horrible disease" I think I said, which got a good laugh unintentionally. The graphic looked like it, but the sound and the subtle build up acted very counter to the art. It was good, though Tibby knows animation isn't her bag. Well she says that it isn't, I think she is better than she is giving herself credit for.

Oh, Rose also got us mini cupcakes! Awesome!

And finally Zack. Goddamn that kid, he went for it. Stop motion, exposing light sensitive plants to light and documenting that as animation, puppets, set design, 3D stuff...god that kid. He did so much and probably it was all that he worked on for the past five weeks. It blew us all away. The conversation that took place when his finished was:

"How did you do that?" asked Trillian.

"In two words," added Hill Hudson.

"Black. Magic." answered Matt in Zacks place.

It was really something spectacular, and for a 200 level final as well. That kid will do amazing things.

And class was over. We said our goodbyes and applauded a lot. We applauded after each video and then after each critique. So 40 rounds, plus a couple at the end for everyone. Yay applause!

I scanned some website sketches in for Advanced Illustration and wrote up a response to the web survey. Class started and we mostly just talked about websites a bit and looked at our portfolio books. Then we watched Ponyo! Just for fun. And ate snacks. Ponyo was cute, though I was a little disappointed by the end.

Then Dom and I went to Yur's and met up with Danny, Leo, and Beth. Illustration booth right next to a design booth. I had a beer and a shot and we chatted and drew and gabbed and it was nice. A perfect end to the semester. Hanging with the awesome people at the local faux dive.

Went home. Was tired. Went to sleep.

Thursday:

Slept in, as I rightly deserved. Showered. Had some toast. Ran some errands. Went to Fred Meyer for some more of that intense conditioner that my hair is addicted to. It feels so sooooft. Also got some mousse and nail polish and maple candy and orange juice and blistex for my chapping lips. Then went to 3 Monkeys to get some presents. And then ush-Lay for more estents-pray for oiled-spay amiliy-fay embers-may. Hehehe. I think I'm set on presents now. A good mix of handmade and bought.

Then I rode my bike down to downtown, got buzzed in, and dropped Margaret off at Rollyn's apartment. Then we walked down to Pioneer Place and caught a matinée of The Tourist. It actually was a lot cuter than I expected it to be. I wasn't expecting much but it delivered just enough. Won't be the worst movie to rent down the line. Wasn't as trick stunt or innuendo heavy. Depp was charming. I liked it well enough.

We got pizza and hung out at his place after. It wasn't a bad bike ride back either. As his place is blocks from my old one, it is familiar streets. Just cut straight down to Johnson and then up to 22nd and I'm home. Right angles are the best.

Bought my train ticket home. I return the 19th. Don't have major plans from now till then. Probably clean the place up a bit. Wrap presents...

sytycdaaaannnce

Daylight savings time! Now we get more sunlight. Gets dark at 7 instead of 6. Whoo!

Woke up at 8am for some reason, but I guess that was actually 9pm. Got up. Ate a scramble and drank some tea and watched some stuff. Worked on writing. Showered. I'm cruising through the bullet points pretty good. I don't have the links between themes yet or corresponding slides, but it is coming along. Just gotta get the language and length down. It is at about four minutes right now (the thesis part). It needs to be double that, but I'm not done writing and polishing. I have three weeks to polish. But there is a lot of grime to get through.

Anyway, ma and pa visited Sylvia out in Beaverton and then hopped on the max and streetcar back to my neighborhood. I wrote for a bit more and then got dolled up for the show. We walked down to the max stop at the train station and hopped the green to the hotel. Dropped stuff off, grabbed some good at Burgerville. Yum! I don't eat a lot of burgers.

At 6:30 we walked the couple cold blocks down to Rose Garden Arena. There wasn't a standing line like the last time we saw So You Think You Can Dance. A half minute in a queue and we were in.

Even though we were a bit back, the seats were still good. We were on a more slanted section, so no chance of a blocked view. Also the seats were comfy this time. Speaking of time, it passed quickly and the show started before we knew it!! This tour show had less of the filler chatter and was dance dance dance all the way through! There were some jokes and stuff, but overall it was the routines we love and full of great dancers who were very fit. I hooted and cheered for Kent and Robert. They did my favorite routine (and moms). All in all, a fantastic time! Ma got me some cotton candy and then had to tell me to stop eating it because I was getting hyped up on it. It was a great night that totally took me away from the worries and stress of thesis. And it was nice to see the parents, especially as I might not be able to make it home for Turkey Day.

We walked back to the hotel, I watched a minute of Walking Dead on their cable. I love the show, but it wasn't a good part to turn to. Said our goodbyes, and I grabbed a cab that was waiting outside. Didn't feel like trekking from China Town to Nob Hill on a Sunday night.

Got back. Put on my jammies. Watched Walking Dead. Watched Boardwalk Empire. Have Dexter and Bored to Death waiting to be watched. Sunday is the main night, there isn't much television throughout the week (House, Lie to Me, Glee, Raising Hope, Community, Fringe, Terriers...yeah think that is it). I think I'll have some tea and watch Dexter and tuck in for the night.

Tomorrow I am going to school to work on dubbing in AfterEffects. Oh joy. Should swing by Ace Hardware and exchange my clock on the way there. What else do I have to do? Thesis slide show...animation...have a reading I have to do. I don't think there is anything in Advanced Illustration that is due. But yeah, when I'm done with animation (or when I get too mad to work) I'll come back and slide show it up. I don't feel rushed though. I've made good progress and need to keep fluid about it. Verbal practice and question asking and answering will fill it out as well.

ma and pa hurray

Since pop gave me grief for writing at 3am, I'll do it at 7:42 pm! Ha!

Got up at 11. My alarm officially does not work. Need to replace it. It has served me well for probably 7 years now. It works as a clock still, just the alarm function isn't worth a hill of beans.

Anyway, had some left overs. Had some tea. Took out the trash and recycling. Did the dishes. At 2pm I wandered over to Trader Joe's and got some snacks for mom and dad (Candy Cane Joe-Joes are IN STOCK! Loooove them!). Then I walked from 21st down to 6th. Turns out it only takes thirty minutes to make the journey, so with time to spare I sat and listened to my audio book. The train came in, along with ma and pa!

Yaaay! They brought me cereal AND special apple juice. Hurrah. We maxed it over to their hotel (on the other side of the river) and dropped stuff off, and then maxed it right back. Wandered up to my studio, showed them the studios, then went to Ace Hardware where I got powertools! Specifically a power drill and a nice set of bits and a new alarm. Dropped that stuff off at the apartment. And then we went down to Melt for dinner. I had a beef dip with fries, dad has beef deep with salad, mom ordered a bunch of appetizers. And since ma had a light dinner, she ordered a bunch of dessert. Well ice cream and a cupcake. Yum. So much food.

It was raining, which isn't pleasant at all. Oh well. After dinner, we called a cab and ma and pa returned to the hotel. Tomorrow they are meeting with Sylvia earlier in the day, and then later we'll go see So You Think You Can Dance!!

Now to work on thesis or whatever.

poor faye

I woke up to a text message sent from someone I don't know. It was an image of the figure I have on my keychain in the bark of a tree. I got this keychain from Japan. It is a keychain from the show Oh! Mikey, and the figure is Mikey. Anyway, I didn't recognize the number. All I knew is that someone who has my number has my Mikey and sent me a picture of it. Quite the mystery.

So I had some poptarts and some water and got to wasting my day, like usual. I glanced at stuff I needed to get done, but I didn't do it.

Took out the trash. Popped some fish in the oven for a late lunch.

I later found out that Mark and Kristen had found Mikey and it was Mark's number that had sent me the image. I got my Mikey back. I need to superglue it to its fastener. This isn't the first time he has come off.

I decided that, instead of watching it like I usually do, I would catch the Mad Men season finale at Gypsy, which is a bar one block away. I arrived and had a drink and sat in the corner. I moved to a table when it came on and during the commercial breaks I chatted with a ginger and a well suited man (who won a costume contest that I missed). I ordered another drink and some dinner and put my feet up and enjoyed the heck out of the Mad Men finale. It was good. Not as gasp inducing as the previous episodes have been, but it was good. The people filed out when it was over and the well dressed costume winner came over and asked to buy me a drink, and I said sure. So we stuck around through the encore and talked. His name is Christian. At midnight we were kicked out so we migrated to Coffee Time and talked some more. A really nice fellow I must say.

Anyway, as it was Sunday Coffee Time closed at 1am. I gave him my number and called it a night. I hope he calls. There was that other fella I was seeing but there wasn't a spark and so that didn't really develop. You know how it is.

A really good night. Made a new contact, watched a show with some people, ate some good sushi (bar sushi was better than sushi place sushi, though not better than Origami Sushi).

Tomorrow I shall crack open a book or something.

bye bye jay

Thursday

Got to school in perfect time. Whoo! In animation we discussed the reading. We broke into groups and then each group presented their consensus on the reading. As always I volunteered to go first because it is easiest to just get it out of the way like that. After that we talked about film scene composites and studied The Birds and the 8 different components of something something. For lunch Kristen and I went to Hot Lips and got pizza and breadsticks. Yum. Tabitha joined us. We chatted about stuff and some lady shook her head at us. We were not being vulgar, just opinionated. Ha!

Anyway, back in class we studied Hedgehog in the Fog and watched a bit of a documentary on Yuriy Norshteyn, who made the animation. Totally brilliant. Really intense drawing cut out stuff that is just flawless. Then we split into groups. One half studied cut out shape animation, and the other (mine) learned about the stop motion program Dragon. Pretty insane motion capture. It is what Laika uses. Laika did Coraline. Apparently after every stop motion frame, it took a minute and a half to process the image through the servers before it even came back to the computer. A minute and a half. Per frame. There are a ton of frames in a movie. Insaaane.

Cotey, TJ, and I animated some dinosaurs. Tippi helped. We got our stuff done which ended up being our homework so that is done. Whoo! Well it was some figures that move in on another one. I'll upload it eventually. The program and set up limitations are pretty intense, I don't know how much stop motion I'll be doing. I like drawing. But yeah. It took over an hour to do a simple animation moving five figures about for 8 seconds.

I returned home for break. Ate some mac and cheese. Picked up some art books. Got back to class right on time. We discussed our ideas for missing portfolio pieces and then talked about how we might construct our portfolios. I have a pretty good idea for mine. It will be a mailable fold out poster, instead of a book.

After break we finished up class with a documentary on the awesome Milton Glaser. The scope of his work is spectacular. And he got no money for the I ♥ NY design. NONE. But he didn't seem bitter about it. With that done, Karen and I drove over to the Florida Room to bid Jay farewell.

Jay is leaving for Oakland, with the intention to move to San Francisco. I know it won't be the last time that I see her and I'm so proud of her and she will go spectacular things. Still, she has left. Bought some drinks and some food and then a couple more drinks....haa. It didn't get crazy, I just wasn't paying enough attention. Thank god for designated drivers. Tabitha, Mel, Kristen, Heather, Danny, BT, Brandis, Dominic, Jax, Travis, and others came. It was a good little party. I cried. About three times. Not sobbing, just crying and hugging. Karen got me home and I just sort of shuffled into bed with my water bottle. Delicious delicious water.

Now I need to go to move to Monterey, which is close to San Fran.

Friday

Woke up to some text messages early on and couldn't fall back asleep. Spent two dreary hours watching Top Gear. Showered. Ate some stuff. Went to school at 1:30 to help Cotey and TJ slate our video animation project. Took a lot of effort to get that sucker into iMovie and add some names and stuff. Also our project exported with deleted frames, so we had to solve that problem with Bodven's help. That took about 45 minutes. Went back home. Did mostly nothing for the rest of the day. Watched Community. It was much funnier than last weeks episode.

Err yeah. Waste of a day. Totally. Well I did some homework.

It's hard to keep enthusiasm for a project when you have to step back and think "what does it MEAN". It is counter intuitive thinking to the major. I mean, not totally opposite but it isn't demanded of us from our program.

Talked to Madeline.

I'm not itching anymore!

twice my age, four times as fit

Last night was long and fun. I just came back from a 2.5 mile bike ride across an unfamiliar bridge. I am tired. I just want to tuck into bed, but I'll do my best to write this stuff up.

So we three got primped and waited forever for a streetcar and then when we did get downtown, we ended up one stop after where we should have gotten off. Still, we arrived on time and Mel was there looking fabulous. We reserved a big table and with just four people there, it looked very unused. Robin came, Phil came, Jim came, Dan and Tabitha and Kara came. I think that was about it.... Huber's has very fancy drinks and so people were not enthusiastic in their ordering. I ordered one and a well drink later to pass the time till happy hour. Because that is when 3$ burgers happen! So good. Calamari and all sorts of good things. People plopped cash down and magnificently the remainder was just what I owed. Nice! I stopped spending money for the rest of the night, but we ended up going to a ton of places and I mooched some drinks.

CC Slaughters included dancing. Brian, Tabitha's friend, showed up. I danced and chatted. We moved onto The Tube. Which is a cramped little tube of a club. Way too stuffed full of hipsters. No room to really dance beyond simple moves. I got a lot of fresh air instead. Then we went to Boiler Room or Billiards room...Bsomething Room. That was a lot of fun. Outdoors, heaters, good tunes. Danced till 2:15am. Then we walked home, the ones of us that were still there. Got home at 3am. Drank water. Went to sleep. I was happy to be sober through most of the night. Someone needs to have wits about them.

*****

Kristen made us cinnamon rolls! I had some tea and did the dishes. Mel and Mark came over. Gabbed and chatted. Kristen and Mark left. We four walked downtown. We three walked back up. I packed up my computer back and hauled some art supplies down to the studio. Worked on my animation for a few hours. Half way through the sketching phase. Well I have some stuff to add to it still, but it is going well.

It's nice to be using my studio in a nice and proper fashion. I need some stuff on the walls though. Even with paint it feels barren.

Went back home. Had some lasagna. Got a jacket. Went to see Ten Tiny Dances! Such beautiful work. Sink, A Version, Dayna Hanson, and Clearly Another World were my favorites. The 10 dances are all choreographed around a 4x4x1 stage. Mike Daisey was even there. It was a cute performance. Dayna Hanson's was hilarious and Clearly Another World had me almost crying.

The place for the show was across the river. I went down Stark to Morrison Bridge on the way there, and it was nice. And I went up Grand and across Burnside Bridge on the way back. Also very nice. About 30 minutes both way, but it went really fast. Things don't feel long on a bike.

Tomorrow is time for more work. But it is fun work.

party at hubers

Blogging at 7pm, instead of whenever I get home from Kristen's birthday celebration.

Slept in a long while. Ate my delicious chocolate croissants. Ate some pasta later. Kind of chilled out. Didn't really feel like heading down to school to work on stuff. Tomorrow I don't have a TBA performance till late, so I'll get on that tomorrow. Yup. Draw lots of animation goodness.

My Threadless tees arrived! There was another sale online, so I picked up another giraffe design and this all over toile inspired print. Love them!

We girls started primping really early. Tabitha picked out my outfit. Jeans, my yellow short sleeved bomber-inspired jacket, an apple and stripe printed shirt. I straightened my hair and started smearing makeup on my face. Light shimmer, golden eyeshadow, red shiny eyeshadow, eyeliner winged out, blush, pink lipstick...the works really. But I look smashing. Kristen has way more. It is fun to be a girl and go all out with your look. Lady Gaga has been on a loop for the past hour and a so and now we are about to head out. If it isn't too late, I'll add the details later. But if it is, expect the festivities write up tomorrow.

blimey girls know how to have fun

Drinking water and eating carbs. Ohhh boy. Kristen turned 21 and Mel and I took her out. Went to O'Briens and had some booze. Let her be all "whoo I'm in a bar!" and all that exciting jazz. Went to Matador and drank more. A guy bought her a drink. We talked and gossiped. About four hours of chilling and having fun. Now I'm adding stuff to my stomach so I don't roll out of bed feeling like crap. It was lots of fun though. I don't go out like this all that often. Now I'll chill and watch some Top Gear and fall asleep.

But first the rest of the day. Uhm. Ate some stuff. Sorted some stuff. Went to Trader Joe's and got some snacks and bread. Kristen left for a picnic and Mel came over early so we chilled and watched some TV. Back to school tomorrow. Before I know it, it will be over. Tomorrow I should record my lunchbox animation and decide which TBA to go to. Guantanamo Baywatch for sure, seeing as how I helped slightly with their stage pieces.

No leg picture. I'm sure yall will miss those shots a whole bunch.

Mm yeah, can't think of anything else to say. Sleepy time. Mmm.