numb

Yesterday:

Caught up on the sleep. I haven't really been missing it or sleeping poorly, I was just so very exhausted by the whole week. Felt woozy in the morning but eventually I got all my things together. I finished carving my block and went to print!

I got there as the class was shuffling out so I loitered while some space opened up. Robin and Lacey (different Lacey) were in the center studio as well.

The first roll up indicated just how shallow some of the carving was so I cleaned off the ink and started carving into it. Took out some of the wrong chunks. Oh well. Second roll up and with some pressure got it looking exactly how I wanted to. But, BUT the block was bleeding blue! Some of the ink I had previously used had been absorbed into the block and was coming out of some of the lines. I tried cleaning it off and hopefully the next time I print, it will work out.

Robin gave me a Valentine's Day Card. It was lovely and special.

I went home and spent the rest of the night there. Katie, Gabe and I had a wee bit of wine. The night went long with Spinal Tap and Uno and Oreos so I ended up just crawling into bed and completely forgetting about writing.

Today:

Woke up at 8 and I could not get back to sleep at all. So I watched TV on my computer until the rest of the world woke up.

Mom and Pop sent me a lovely See's Heart for Valentines. Very wonderful and tasty.

Gabe made biscuits (from scratch), gravy (with bacon, also from scratch), and eggs (from the store) for breakfast. It was all piled together in a mound of awesome.

Did my laundry. It finished just in time for me to dash out and see Synecdoche, NY with Jen. I've been wanting to see it but it was definitely different than what I thought it would be. It is a long epic depressive movie. It left me feeling nothing but considering a lot. It has to do with death and being the star of our own tragedy and comedy. And the future. It has to do with a lot of things and the creator said that there are no wrong ideas about what it means. Hmmn.

We went to Powell's and I spent the rest of my gift certificate on Clive James' Cultural Amnesia. It was marked half off already and I only ended up spending $4 out of my pocket. Yeah!

Jen ate lunch at Roxy's. I had a soda. We hugged and parted.

I folded and put away my laundry and folded and putted away some piles of neglected clothes. Listened to music on my Audio Technicas.

I have two party invites for tonight and while I feel I should go to one, that movie sucked all the energy out of me. I'm sure once I show up, I'll have a good time but right now. Uhg. One is for Kurt and Kody, Katie's friend and Karen's friends roommates (but I don't think Karen is going). The other is Thom's (previously misspelled in this blog as Tom) Single Awareness Shindig. They are both on the East side and both are at 9 so it will be a journey either way. Dunno what I'll do.

Update: After lots of false stops and starts, I ended up staying home from it all. I didn't want to bike the 60 blocks to Thoms and at first it seemed like I would have to take the bus with Katie. Then Karen said she was there and she drove so I was like, okay sure and Pattie offered a ride to us there. But then Karen was sick and left early so I decided once and for all to stay out of it.

Karen and Adam stopped by for a little bit and we chatted about comics and Oryx and Crake. Now I'm hungry again so I think I'll make a quick thing of pasta.

oops, thought it was Friday

600th post. Whoo! Course, posting those pieces separately did boost it a little bit.

Anyway, we discussed what odds really mean in math class. Karen and I shared the flask of Billy Tea. No snow today. No one running the light on Burnside.

There was a leadership meeting so I had to hang around at school. No biggie, I had to do important Club Coordinator related things. That was mostly emailing people about club formation and how to reach me and those things. I used the library macs and those things are super glitchy. They barely function as computers. To quote someone else, the library lab is where technology goes to die.

After that, I chilled in the print studio with Robin and Karen. I read from my Mamet book a little.

The leadership meeting was for the appointed people on the council. Karen, Nathan, Diana, Robin, Liz, and myself all received a free lunch with Michael and Rachel and we chatted about the state of things. It was a little above my head but it is cool to see in inner workings. This is where things get created to bring the school together. I'm a part of that! I have power! To create! What have I got myself into?

I carved for the rest of my break. I almost have it done. It is almost ready to print. I sure hope it works out. Tomorrow I aim to do at least 1/3 of it. One color, so that is 8 nice prints.

I loitered around school for a while. I ate a lot of Katie's Oreos so I went to Safeway to replace them. They were half off so I got two things, just to be really nice. Now we have a TON of Oreos. It is weird, I haven't gone food shopping in a while. Gabe keeps us well fed and the pasta and sauce supply is no where near low. It's going good. I need to get apples though.

Just worked on making the refined portraits in class. They look so serious and tough. They also are not the same size...oh well. It will get resolved. I'm still building up the image anyway.

Robin came by to facilitate a roomie agreement between Katie and I. Just a sort of clarification of rules. Robin said our place smelled a little funky.

I aim to clean the place a little. The clutter is really building up.

Karen came by for an episode of House. We are almost done with the season. We will start watching Tudors next. Henry VIII kicking butt. Yeah!!

Weekend! Whoo! This was a long, tiring week.

Mark: Work in Progress

Digital Illustration of David Mitchell's character Mark from the BBC show Peep Show.

Photoshop.

Jez: Work in Progress

Digital Illustration of Robert Webb's character Jez (short for Jeremy) from the BBC show Peep Show.

Photoshop.

Mister Nose Block

Wood block in progress of being carved. Green and black are not carved, light is.

Mister Nose is a character from the comic I am working on for my Graphic Novel Class.

8"x10". Overly soft wood.

what runs but never walks and where it goes, thought follows close behind

I had such a good sleep. There was no comic meeting so I just slept in. It was so nice. Mmm. Didn't have to roll out of bed till 10.

Had some issues locking up my bike but we got to class generally on time. Yoshi gave a quick, somewhat failed demo of solvent transfers and then it was a work day. I'm carving an image of Mr Nose from my comic. There is a stripe patter that repeats. I'm only about half carved. I worked on sharpening the tools that Awesome Dorothy gave me. I got off the rust but they still need some work.

Yoshi played two Art 21 DVDs for us. PBS shows about different current artists. Pretty cool stuff. He also showed us a how-to video about how the Japanese master printers do it. So much work for such beautiful craft. Seriously, it is a lot of work. So many blocks and so perfect. Flawless woodblock printing.

Comic Club was a lot of jamming about a girl named Jane. They were rather crude in the majority but they are quick, fun things. I got some mac and cheese and jo-jos from Safeway and I didn't finish them all so they carried me through the whole long day. Good deal.

I stayed in the printing studio for another hour carving. Devin was around and Patrick and Soh Kun. Carve carve carve.

Then yoga! Intense, painful yoga. I couldn't balance at all and I have no arm strength.

Karen came by for House. I drank a lot of water. The week is almost over. Tomorrow will probably have more carving and some Student Meeting. I seem to have a busy weekend coming up. Have to make time for printing. It takes an hour and a half (about) to do 8 nice prints but that is with the pressure set way too high. For the block now, I can't damage it. Hn...

11 hour day, 10 hour sleep to follow

WHAT A LONG DAY! HOLY COW! Math. Printing. Student Council. Talk to Michael. Printing. Digital Illustration. Printing. THEN HOME! I am so tire and worn down.

Math. I got most of the math homework right! We also did a sample space of dice rolls to see what the empirical data is.

It was snowing as I rode to school. It wasn't sticking in the slightest but still, snow! No!!

After that, Karen and I bee-lined it for the print labs. I bought some paper and inked up a roller and got to it. I bought six 24x18 sheets of paper which yielded two 10x12 pieces and two 8x12 pieces each. 24 sheets of paper to print on and it only cost 12 bucks. Thanks Art Media! I did the first flat color in the time it took from class to council (and into council a little bit).

Student Council was uneventful. Now my duties of Club Coordinator are kicking in. Have some people to email about multiple film clubs. After the meeting I say with Michael Hall and chatted about my responsibilities. He gave me some papers to look over. Afterwards, Daniel approached me about starting a sort of ASL Learning Society. Which would be awesome.

Then I got back to printing. Got another color done in time for class. The rack was quickly filling up with bright orange prints. I will have plenty to give out to friends and family and loved ones and people who want to give me money for them.

Digital Illustration was just for working on our projects. I worked on sketches of the two actors so I could practice getting their look down. They both have very distinct faces and I want to capture that.

Diana and Devin were also printing. There were some quibbles about the pressure. I had it really tight and they had it light. The tightness made the ink come off so smooth and solid and I didn't have to wait for it to build up on my block. I ran out of ink in one color before I got to the actual edition so the 12x8 prints with the blue background will not be quite the same as the 12x10 ones. Different blue. After a grotesque amount of sugar and time, I was ready to go home. 9:30am to 8:30pm work work working.

The chili I had when I got home hit the spot. Except now whenever I get up I groan in pain. I'm so sore. I hurt so bad. Uuhhhg. So much work. At least I'm caught up. Well, not really as I don't even know what I'll be printing on the solid backgrounds.

Robert Webb Sketches

Quick digital sketches of Peep Show's Robert Webb for my current Digital Illustration project.

Photoshop.

David Mitchell Sketches

Quick digital sketches of Peep Show's David Mitchell for my current Digital Illustration project. Robert Webb sketches to come.

Photoshop.

anna's back. tell a friend.

I got another care package from home! Another insanely securely wrapped box that is really well padded so my stuff always arrives in perfect shape. I got some Sweethearts, this marshmallow heart, and a really cool egg beater! Thanks mom and dad.

Today was just that Illustration studio. My piece was one of a few that had solid blacks and it stood out in that respect. Still, it could have been better with more detail. Joe advised scanning and bringing images into photoshop for about half of the works. This crew has some insane people in terms of ability to render detail. Kevin and Janessa's stood out to me. Really well composed. Good for them! They rock.

Lunch was Quiznos and hanging with Tom in the library. I would have brought my bagel but sadly it was moldy and I didn't have time to prepare anything else.

The rest of class was spent with the figure. Anna was our model. Wonderful Anna. Courtney and I drew like we were taught by Morgan and Joe asked us why we didn't do contours. We both explained that it had been beaten out of us and most of the focus was on proportion. My drawings were a mix of rough areas that highlighted the forms and values. There were minimal contours. Overall, I was really happy with my progress that day. The poses never exceeded 15 minutes which was painfully short. It was a good day.

Robin came over at around 6 and we finished our math homework. I shared some of my sweets and she shared some of her tea. I had penne with sauce for dinner. No Gabe.

Good enough start to the week.

(I helped but I could also be wrong)

Got my drawing for Illustration done really early. I worked on it a little bit more and know it needs something more but I just couldn't think what. Joe is asking us to work in a style that is quite cool but it isn't really something I'm familiar with. It is a plain and rather empty looking piece. Rather bummed about how it turned out actually. Still, have to keep working and all that. Tomorrow the class will be almost all figure, yay!

Watching Ghostbusters and Stardust while working.

Gabe made a variation of eggs Benedict for breakfast and it was tasty despite being runny and having a lot of yolk. He made a southwest chicken salad for dinner and it was really filling and delicious. The entire spread was very presentable and had a fantastic dressing. The only problem was that the salsa was of medium spicyness and there was no milk. It was hard but I did eat it. The ice cream chaser was perfect.

I helped Jen with her math homework. Imagine that! Me, helping someone with their math!

Andy knocked gently on my door at 8am but I said I wasn't up for breakfast. He did offer to sort of pay but I still just wanted to return to the warm embrace of the heap of blankets. I should be more adventurous.

ho humm

Okay. Taxes. What? I filled in the amount I made and that I was a dependant of someones. I didn't qualify for a lot because I was a dependant and based on the amount I made for some reason I owe $111. That doesn't seem right at all. I don't have any withholding according to my W2s. I tried to find something on the Internet to help me but I got confused because I am filing as a Washington resident but I live and work in Oregon. I shouldn't owe a hundred and eleven dollars. That is one tenth of what I made.

FAFSA was a locked away thing as well. The PIN expires every year I think but then I can't get a new one because it says it is already activated. Argh, what?? I hate forms.

Diana and Robin were having a Valentines making party. Katie came over as well and we went crazy with the glitter. I made Luna a card. We had hot cocoa. Some of the glitter was really fine and it really stuck well to everything.

Later on, Phil and Andy knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to go to a 7am breakfast Sunday morning. I didn't quite accept or reject. I was bewildered a little bit.

Gabe made nigiri sushi for dinner. We all watched Spaced. Mmmm. Fun times.

support Laika!

I wrote up an outline and a synopsis of my comic. Now that I have that, I have a clear place to go and it is more sure how it will turn out. That will be done tomorrow. As well as probably my taxes and FAFSA. I'm behind and soon mom will start yelling at me about it.

Around five, J called me and said she and Karen were meeting at the Annex for drinks and that I should join them. So I did. The Annex is a place that is located on Burnside and where a street diagonals into Burnside and vanishes. It is a triangular and narrow establishment. Pretty nice and has some great decoration. J and Karen were dining outside as I approached. I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. Simple and easy. We hung out for an hour and then it was time to go see Coraline!

J messaged the manager (she used to work there) to see if it was really busy and the manager said that she could get Jen and us in for free if we were sneaky enough. Apparently the main manager is a jerk. Free movie! Madeline gave me a Regal gift card for my birthday so I used it to get popcorn and a drink. A Diet Coke because I knew I'd be sharing with my girls and that is all that they drink.

Coraline was wonderful. The animation was flawless and the music was phenomenal. The story wasn't so different from what I remember so I wasn't like, "Oh man I can't believe they changed that!!" It was a little scary but nothing more than Harry Potter. Very creepy and the voices fit. Wonderful, beautiful little creation. I hope it does well because the studio, Laika, does great work and I wish the best for them. Support Portland's Laika!

We went to another bar after the movie. It was like a bar/club. It was called the Red Hat or the Red Legion or the Red Something. A J sort of place (if you know what I mean). It was rather empty so we just grabbed a spot at the bar and chatted. I didn't know what to order to I asked the bartender to make me something sweet and he did. The next drink (which was a long while after the first, I'm not a fast drinker by any means and I see that as a good thing) was called an Otter Pop. It was blue and big and lovely. It was a really fun night overall. We chilled as the place filled and talked and joked and I got all cozy and relaxed. We got a late meal from Roxy's and grabbed the streetcar to our part of town. Karen and I walked back to the Goose from our stop and J continued on past PSU.

The rest of the night was spent with a glass of water, a blanket, and the Internet. It was fun. I liked going out with Karen and J. They are good persons.

Go see Coraline. It has French & Saunders and Ian McShane voices a cat.

VOLUME FIVE!!!

Math! Venn diagrams! I totally get them. Yeah. The teacher is really good at explaining stuff in artists terms. We also did tree examples for finding probabilities. Not quite as fun but I got it. I told my two math jokes when there was a lull in his lecture. The class was silent and then there was laughter at just how bad they were. The teacher was rather stunned.

After class I ate the remnants of a burrito and sat with Karen.

Illustration Drawing Club had its first meeting! It is something that J is starting. We are going out into the urban landscape and drawing from life. We decided on meeting schedules and where we could potentially go. Daniel, J, Karen, Diana, August, and Amanda showed up and one of the lowest level Illustration students, Ebony, joined it. It was real awesome. We ate pizza. I didn't eat that much because the burrito left me very full.

There was more chilling in the library. I did the first page and a third of my math homework. It is a three page printout. It wasn't fun to work on it for two hours straight on Monday night so I'm getting a jump on it.

Digital Tools was filled with a discussion of our ideas for digital assignments. Then we practiced colouring in old lineart. Our assignment is to do whatever we want! I think I will do some Illustrations of Jez and Mark from Peep Show.

We got out early and with some pouting, I convinced Karen to join me in a journey to Floating World Comics. We overshot it a little but we arrived before the main rush. I GOT SCOTT PILGRIM VOLUME 5!! It was the release party of sorts. The guy who does it is in New York but this was the Oni comics (the people who publish it) party. I got a great deal on a teeshirt and I got the comic and my other comics. Whoo!! I love my shop. So many great things there. Karen even found a comic that she enjoyed.

We rode the Max home and a nice man helped me hoist my bike up into a secure position. They have bike hooks but I am really weak so it is hard for me to do.

I curled up with a blanket and read Scott Pilgrim in one sitting. OH MY GOD! AMAZING! INTENSE! WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT A YEAR FOR ANOTHER VOLUME??? I love this series. It is so silly but the characters are good and the art is consistent.

Robin came over to discuss apartment agreements but Katie had gone to let in her friend Tom. Instead we ended up going through photo albums and year books and looked at young photos of us and giggling. It was a nice little time. Tom and Katie went out to Karaoke and Robin left and I went up to Karen's to trade Scott Pilgrim (and loan Adam the volumes) for the comic she got. We ate cupcakes and talked and had a good time.

Tomorrow a few of us are planning to see Coraline. Whoo! I think I'll reread that tomorrow afternoon.

fire! food! firefood!

The comic meeting was most fruitful. I think we should meet a little earlier than only having 45 minutes to discuss but oh well. Lacey is all thumbnailed, August has clear designs, and Maddison seems on the right track. I didn't have as much to show as I would have liked but I have many characters to design and I'm starting from scratch. Everyone else had something in place.

I went to the library to get one of Mamet's books that Daniel suggested. The other book, City of Glass, was nowhere to be seen. It must have been misplaced or improperly checked out.

Printmaking was long long long. Yoshi went over some process things and we went to check out a printmaking show at a gallery. There were some cool litho prints of TV show character housing schematics. One was Frasier's apartment, that puppy is huge. Yoshi and Tom's class combined for the walk to the gallery so I chatted with Madeline. Some of the prints just oozed people well received because of the makers name. We also got to look at a few Picasso's.

We broke for lunch. Madeline and I went to Tea Zone. I had my standard iced Purple Mountain's Majesty and panini. She only had a little sweety thing. It was a nice lunch but I should have gone to Quizno's. I got really hungry not soon after.

After lunch was the critique. Hours and hours repeating some of the same stuff about texture and quibbling over if something does and doesn't work. There were some nice pieces and some okay pieces. A nice little variety. It went by slowly. Can't believe it took almost 2 hours to get through about 10 prints. I nodded off during Yoshi's lecture but I snapped to it when he told me to wake up. He introduced the next project, which is a 2 color print with a solid color in the background and an image over it.

After class, I took a substantial nap in the library. Phil sat on the couch that I was curled up on and he nicely tapped me when it was 6:20, time for yoga!

Oh man, Yoga was tough. We didn't do child's pose at all so by the end I was shaking and unable to hold anything. I wonder why I'm so good at bridge though, seems like the only thing that I can do.

Gabe made fried chicken and mashed potatoes and collared greens! The stove caught fire when he was cooking! We tossed baking soda on it and it went out! But all the smoke! Took us forever to fan it out and get the alarm to shut up! The chicken and potatoes were lovely but the collared greens were not my thing. A little slimy.

Oh my, did you guys watch the new Lost?? I really like this season.

pop your eyes out

I actually did fairly well on the math homework. The dice problems tripped a lot of other people up. We moved on to Venn Diagrams and conditional probability. This time I grabbed a seat on the side of the table that actually faces the white board.

Then it was just a matter of killing time till Student Council. I accidentally photocopied way more comic club posters than I really needed. J followed me around while I canvased the school with them. And I followed her while she put up the Illustration Drawing Club posters. Hers are much nicer than mine. Oh well. I ate half a bagel while practicing my little speech.

The election was interesting. I gave my speech and was very nervous. I can't remember half of what I said. Jeremy gave his. We both were running with very different methods. He ended up being asked a lot more specific questions than I and I think he felt he was being ganged up on. I can see how that was. His tone came across as passionate yet negative while mine was positive. We stepped outside and chatted for a bit about Japan and tattoos. We came back in and it was a tie. 12 to 12 with 5 abstaining. He withdrew, deciding he didn't want to be a part of it. I'm the Student Clubs Coordinator. We got more yoga mats! And a piano!

Afterwards I talked to Rachel about my position. I hung out in the print studio a bit with Robin and then Karen and I retired to a lab to work on our digital projects. Mine are slightly scribbly messes but still cool. The critique about them went on for about an hour and a half. Sometimes he gave a demo with the pieces. Not with mine though. Actually I think mine was one of about two that he didn't demo with. Hmmn. After our little break we played around in Corel and he introduced the new assignment (which is to send in ideas for assignments).

Gabe made spicy chicken and rice and fauxconut milk sauce curry stuff. It was really good and the spice cleared my sinus right up. And I had a tall, cool glass of milk with it. I did some sketches of Gabe and Katie playing Mario Kart. Outside of that I spent the night working on my comic and trying to get as much stuff as possible written out. It still isn't enough. I have no clue how to write or even start thinking about writing.

I really wish this was the proper Graphic Novel course.

very awesome

Yesterday (and a little bit of the day before):

Picked up Llyw without a hitch. Well, the train came in a little late but I had the Nintendo to keep me company. This time he remembered to bring a scarf. The Blue Line took us to City Center and then told us that a train was having trouble so we walked back to my place from there. Not a bad walk. It was nice and brisk. One time when he visited it was raining as we went back. I made a big batch of popcorn and we watched SLC Punk.

In the morning he made cheesy toasted bagels with not really all that runny yolk fried eggs. They were delicious. I made Earl Grey tea. A very lovely and filling way to start the day. Many hours were spent rummaging Powell's. He found a Sulamith Wulfing art book, I found a great riddle book and bought some light weight Moleskins to use as sketchbooks. My gift certificate from Averie is not quite used up. There was a post that the new Scott Pilgrim volume will be out in a few days. I can't wait!

A perfect day for walking, we went up to 21st and enjoyed some root beer floats at Coffee Time. I made some sketches and he browsed through his new book. Coffee Time has wonderful artwork on the walls and sky light. It is a warm, earthy little place. With good root beer floats. A quick jaunt into Trader Joe's for butter and we headed back to my place. The two of us put our feet up and relaxed. Llyw worked on finishing the fourth Scott Pilgrim volume. I worked on my riddles.

Layers were added and we headed out to catch the Max to take us into downtown. We got off on third and went in search of the pedestrian path on the Morrison Bridge. It was found easy enough and we began the trek to the other side of the river. It was a really beautiful clear night. The river glimmered and the bridge hummed as the cars went by. The warehouse district is too empty to be really scary, still it was suspiciously empty. We located Montage no problem. The place is naturally dim but sadly this day it was actually dark and shut down. Probably because of the Super Bowl. Didn't think I needed to call ahead. Big bummer but it wasn't such a horrible walk across. The way back was very pleasant but I needed a rest half way across the bridge. I'm just not a walker. Llyw played with his laser pointer, testing to see if it really was visible from a mile away (it was).

I don't know any places to eat so we took the easy way out and went to Chipotle. I wolfed down my burrito and then felt ill because I had eaten an entire burrito. Llyw was wise to save some. The max bore us home and it took me a while to recover from all that eating. Gabe and Katie went out and we stayed in and watched Night Watch while enjoying a lovely Shiraz Cabernet. I don't know how well Russian Horror and Red Wine are supposed to go together but they fit nicely.

Today:

Morning was just simple toast. Nothing fried or melted. I gathered what I needed, Llyw packed his things and we were off. Class started before his train left. I took some reference pictures of street corners for class. It was a bright, lovely day. We hung out till I went through the red door, through which is the illustration room. I got to introduce him briefly to a couple people that I ran into while trying to get my pictures from my camera to one of the iMacs (didn't work at all). A brief hug was exchanged and it was time for class.

Robin didn't save me a seat so I was forfeit to the front of the room. The first little project was to do portraits of one another so that Joe can put names to faces. I drew Josh and he drew me. His portrait ended up with eyeliner. The technical difficulties resolved, Joe explained perspective (honestly, how do you get to late in your sophomore year without knowing one and two point perspective?) and gave a quick little slide show of Golden Age illustrators. Lunch was an onion bagel and some tea. I sat with Robin, Josh, and Janessa and we solved riddles.

The second part was followed with more lecture, some on location perspective drawing (20 minutes outside, 20 minutes in the commons, and 20 minutes in the classroom) and an introduction to the new assignment. We are assigned, in one week, to combine a real street corner reference and to add our own people to it and have them blend together. Learning how to draw figures in space and all that.

We were let out early but I lingered to talk to the teacher. We chatted about comics and movies and just how good or bad the Watchmen movie is. I missed the streetcar so I walked half of the distance home and then sat and drew people while the streetcar caught up to me.

I had some mini tacos for dinner.

Math homework took me about an hour and a half. I feel like I get most of it, but it still feels like a trick. If it comes to easy there is the chance I am doing some part of it wrong.

Did I mention that Dorothy passed on some of her old wood carving tools to me? No? Well she did and they are awesome and she is awesome.

balloons are the only thing big enough to fill it up

The guy next to me woke me up with sounds of WHOOO and YEAAAH. That is mostly what I hear from him.

Gabe talked about this fritata he made that had a full pound of bacon and five eggs. It had a lot of the cheese in it as well but I forget what kind and how much.

It was a loafing around the apartment morning and afternoon. I worked on homework while watching Aliens. Then I cleaned up my apartment as best as I could. Well not the best but I emptied out the trash and wiped down the surfaces and shoved things under my bed. The usual.

I just ate a large portion of penne and garlic tomato sauce. Ohhh. So much garlic.

I have about 14 character facial designs. They are ending up pretty varied without pandering. I might throw in a couple that are similar, to give myself more of a challenge. This comic will be mostly character driven so the designs have to be solid. It causes a little bit of weakness to each one having to purge pages of design but through tweaking... I am not even to scripts or panels yet.

More YEAAHing from next door. I think the neighbor is 18, 17 last semester.

Dad called to thank me for the thank you card. All the ones I sent out are silk screened. I hope they all arrive, I sent out six.

I'm blogging early because yet again I have to head out to the train station. I did this routine two weeks ago. Another little mini visit from Llyw. I have a three day weekend all semester, perfect for visits from my Northern friends and family.

grubby little hands

Had a lovely breakfast of tea and pop tart and salad. Played Professor Layton while watching Alien. Good movie. Awesome on the projector. I love how my schedule doesn't start at 8am any day so when the weekend comes around I am not wiped out.

At around 4:30 I left to get the paper to print. I didn't dress that warm but the ride was quick. I ran into Junko at Utrect. I bought four sheets of overpriced paper. 16 bucks just for one crummy little edition. Outrageous! At least I don't have to pay for the ink and tools. The class was still hogging the space in the print studio so I chilled in the library for a while.

I grabbed a spot at the glass table in the Center Studio. Rainbow was there. I inquired a few riddles. Robin and Karen started doing some screen printing as well. I rolled up the ink, I prepared my station, and little by little I got advice on what I was doing wrong. Robin advised me about the ink spreading. Rainbow about the roller. Karen, well I forget what Karen advised maybe she didn't say anything. Both Rainbow and Robin encouraged me to use more pressure. Oh wait, Karen did as well. Robin also went, "ahh!!" and surprised me as I was laying the paper onto my block to print it. It was a frustrating time. Some of the prints came out really well actually. The block looks nice. It was a lot better once I switched to the press. The blacks were much more black. I like my print but I felt self conscious doing it around all the other more experienced printers.

My hands have the crud of ink on them. Whoo!

I swung by Trader Joe's to stock up on breadstuffs, pasta stuffs, and chili stuffs. Cheap food that could spread out a lot easier. I got some raisin cinnamon bread especially for the use of toasting.

Katie was making something for Dinner but I didn't have a share of it. I just had beef chili with bread. Then 9pm rolled around and it was time for Munchkin!

Poppy, Robin's sister, was over so we were teaching her how to play. The table was crowded with tea cups. We played Munchkin Impossible and only to 6 levels so Poppy could get a quick understanding. Adam won because he was fighting something that gave him 2 levels and we didn't notice. During the second game Karen and Diana left to do rounds. A couple of us snuck some extra levels because they were gone so long and we figured they wouldn't notice. Karen only caught on to Phil's mysterious nine levels. Adam was sitting back in his chair and I touched his arm and he fell over. It was funny. Adam has a bruise from being kicked in the head at his Ninja Fight Club that he goes to. I brought over my lollipop vase and shared the wealth. Karen won the second game by a lovely majority.

Phil was going to come over to watch Pan's Labyrinth after but hes allergic to cats and Katie was sleeping so we decided to call it a night.


The new hair looks great. The layers really bring out the curly nature of my hair. It is a wonderful update.

new 'do

Math was mathy. We had more probability stuff. More things about the birthday problem and adding probability of multiple things within set groups. Or whatever. I would take notes but I've found I loose track of what is being said when I try to write it all down.

Afterwards, Robin and I chilled in the South Studio and worked on our printing projects. A few members of the other class sat at our table and we talked about movies. Japanese movies. Korean movies. I finished my block up and had intention to print it after Digital Tools. I was forgetting something though...

I went to get some lunch and ran into Phil and we chatted about Mad Men. Karen showed up and we decided to go get haircuts! We both had a coupon for Bishop's so we went to the one in The Pearl. It only had one lady in there and Donna did both of our hair. Karen had some of the dead hair cut out but kept the same style. The lady styled it in a wavy way and it was a little too wavy for Karen. It added some volume but I think it was quite a surprise for her. Once she smoothed it out later in the day, it looked really nice. I had some of the poofy lower volume removed but it still has the length. The front layers cut back a little. The stylist flat ironed my hair so it looks different than it normally would. I think it will look good once it has my natural texture. It is nice and hip. Go me!

Karen and I strutted it back to PNCA and grabbed some JoJos. Then we chilled in the computer room and worked on our projects before class. I listened to my Pandora station using my awesome new headphones. They are massive and amazing. I got a few oooohs and ahhhs at them.

The first chunk of time was spent going over our first mini projects. The clock wasn't so good but in general I liked the piece. Next we moved on to a digital version of a painting project that some of us did in Farel's class. We took some screenshots and were repainting the color schemes. Mine, thus far, as really rough and all over the place. They look cool but I'm not sure what he wants from them. Still, when he saw what I was working on he gave some approval. During break I stuffed my face with Macaroni and Cheese. Sooo good. I need to get into the lunch making habit again though. Bagels! Creme Cheese! I need you!

I had neglected to buy paper to print on so I couldn't print after class. I loitered a little bit with Karen while she started work on a letterpress assignment and then I went home.

I have been playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village on Katie's DS. It is a puzzle and riddle game centered around this mysterious village. Some of the riddles are really ridiculously hard. I needed help on about four of them. It was suggested to me by Katie as a source of inspiration for the comic I am about to undertake. I'm not wasting time, I swear!

Karen stopped by for more House. Luna cuddled with her during the episodes. Tomorrow I shall print. I have a lot of stuff that needs to get done early in the weekend.

upgraded

My comic idea has to do with puzzles and riddles and job interviews. Or something. I'm still fleshing it out. It was well received by the intensive people. I got a few good suggestions for just how I could take it (I'm just scratching the surface). August is still crazy but in all good ways. Lacey has some nice shorts in store and Maddison is doing something about Lucifer. Before the class I canvased the school with some fliers encouraging people to Vote Trillian.

Karen gave me her wood cutting tools to borrow. Class was mostly a long lecture about carving, cleaning, inking, and all that. We went over our designs. My heron was mostly sketched out on the board while others were tightening up their designs. I was carving while Yoshi was talking (I payed attention as well). Tomorrow, during the break, I plan to finish carving and start printing. I only have to do 3 of each method (hand rubbing and the press). I'm pretty thrilled by the design and I think it will print well. Whoo!!

Comic Club was during lunch. It was mostly the usual faces talking about nerdy things and the high hopes we have and the odds of anything actually happening. There was pizza! I ate a lot of it! I volunteered to do the posters for next meeting. Now I need an idea.

There was, in theory, yoga tonight. I couldn't locate them though so I went home to pick up a mysterious package the Goose was holding for me. What was in the box was so awesome: new headphones! A belated birthday gift from Llyw. They are boss (my old ones started having cord problems a few weeks ago).

Seriously awesome headphones. Every song I listen to just sounds better. They are massive monsters and very distinctive. Katie says I look like a robot with them. This was probably, as a whole, my most awesome birthday. It was golden.

Robin and Karen came over for a few House episodes. We watched the one with the Romani who swallowed a toothpick, the one where house debates reason with a patient, and the one with the CIPA patient who has a tapeworm (my favorite episode). It was fun, but now it is late and I have to get up in eight hours.

Oh, I also did my laundry.

Miss Clock with Color (work in progress)

Work in progress, about 2 hours worth of time spent.

Ink brush line art with digital color.

red bump rising

Snow! More snow! It was snowing when I got up. And it had even stuck a little. To be safe, I opted out of biking to school and walked with Karen. There was no word of cancellation so we trudged on in many many layers.

I got a couple problems wrong with the math work but that was mostly in the tally sections where I included some of the probable outcomes twice. He threw more probability at us, such as the probability of drawing this AND that and with or without replacement. Robin was very sarcastic and the teacher called her out a little. In a silly way. That girl, ooohh.

So after class, Karen showed me how to screen print! She showed me how to apply the emulsion, how to clean the screens, how to expose, how to set up an image to expose, and all that. We did it in two parts, separated by digital painting. It is pretty easy. I should get a screen, whoo! Have screen printing Tuesdays or something.

A guy came in and talked to us about our opinion of the school. He was looking to apply and wanted some student opinions so we gave him ours.

I am going to run for Student Clubs Coordinator. I will be a little chunk of change at the end of the semester. I will help sort out the clubs and all that. I'm up against Jeremy and Melissa (not a Melissa I know, actually I am not even sure if that is her name err). I think I have a good chance. I'm running my campaign with "Accept whatever brings us together". Like, silly clubs are okay as long as people show up. That is the point after all. I have a poster ready to photocopy and post tomorrow. I might do a larger version as well. Get right on it! Yeah!

Digital Painting was super fun. We mostly played around with sketches in photoshop. Played around with layer blending and brushes and the massive Wacom tablets. Mine is so junior compared to these puppies. I am working on a picture of Miss Clock. It is mostly two color shading with minimal fancy techniques. I'll play with it some more on Thursday. For a late snack, Karen and I split some JoeJoes from Safeway. Mmm, warm potato wedges.

After class, Karen showed me how to print. The two MFA's were in there as well. They were doing this quite massive prints. The one I was doing was very tiny. It worked out FABULOUS! I still need to master the application of smooth color but I will get there. I pulled some quality, single color prints. Go me! We missed the streetcar by a couple minutes so we walked back. Our return home became a musical as we sang our thoughts and feelings and ideas in a lovely, tone deaf manner.

I worked on my campaign poster and my woodblock design. The poster, which is more of a flier, is done. The woodblock is readyish. I feel like it needs something...well I'll find out.

I sent out thank you cards tonight. Well I put them in the box drop so they will go out tomorrow.

Miss Clock - Rejected Sketch

A character sketch I did for my comic concept last night. The body shape became overworked so I scrapped it.

taxman

Illustration Studio! Whoo! I'm always excited for my core classes because well, that is what I am here for. The class has a large number of familiar faces (minus, sadly, Bekka and Madeline who are in the Friday class). Dominic, Robin, April, Kevin, Janessa and her boy, Jon W, Chelsey, and Marilyn are all there. The teachers switched and we have Joe instead of Daniela (same Joe that teaches Digital Painting). It looks to be a fun class. He has an awesome background and is very varied and hip and "with it". We started out with doing some doodles and exchanging them and making the doodles into something. Mine became a person recoiling, I thought it worked pretty cool. We were doing this thing while he sorted out the projector. The introduction was similar to the other class but I didn't stutter through mine as much. I mentioned liking Tony Moore and Joe mentioned knowing him. Everyone knows everybody.

We took an early lunch and I grabbed some soup from Yo's. He raised his prices sadly but damn that soup is good and filling. I sat at a table in the library by myself but then Mel and Melissa joined me, and then J (formally known as Jen), and then Madeline. It was a nice lovely feeling to have so many people around me. The early lunch ended short of an hour so I had to head back prematurely.

We did a drawing exercise and talked about the syllabus. We will be doing a steady amount of life drawing homework. Sounds great, I have a good rhythm for that type of thing. The last hour of class was spent pretending the classroom was a coffee shop and drawing one another. It was fun. I have high hopes for this class.

Got all my tax info in. Now to do it. Also got my shiny new license. Yay! No more wielding my passport around.

Finished rewriting my math homework in the proper form. Finished a drawing for some extra project. Wrote out most of the riddles for my comic. It was productive.

The girls came over for a few episodes of House. Robin really doesn't like his character, what with him being a jerk and all. A little House goes a long way. I worked on my work, they worked on theirs, and it was a nice little night.

day and a fourth

The metal bleachers hurt my bum. Stupid, affordable seating. I dressed too lightly for the kind of weather that was happening, namely snow. Bloody snow! Nothing worth sticking but still snow. I met Jason and Joe on the Max. They were on the blue and we coordinated so they wouldn't have to get off and meet me. Jason had about four layers on, I had three and no scarf and thin jeans. It wasn't so bad but it wasn't that great either. We switched to the Yellow and rode it all the way to the last stop. I've only gone to the last stop on the Red before (for the airport). The Expo Center is huge! There were like, three events going on. It took us a while to find the Rose City Rollers. Well not a while but when we found them, it was fairly obvious.

It was great to see such a turn out. There were 8 bleachers around a flat, temporary rink (it was some sort of large, constructed rubber mat). They all filled up. We sat on the high part so we could get a good view of the whole thing. Our little trio was there about 45 minutes early. The show started with an awesome drum line and then two annoying announcers came out and gabbed. The teams were introduced and each member went out and posed. There was The Guns N' Rollas, the Heartless Heathers, The High Rollers, and the Break Neck Betties. I was rooting for the Heartless Heathers because their outfits were not showy and they looked serious. Roller Derby is where girls on skates go in circles and one person gets points by overtaking the other teams skaters after getting ahead of them and getting back around. There is a lot of shoving and pushing and falling and about 6 referees are needed. All the girls had pretty amazing toned legs and a few had awesome outfits. A fun thing about Derby is that all the girls come up with puns for their names. My favorites were Wreck Deckard and J.K. Rolling. The first bout was between The Break Neck Betties and Guns N' Rollas. It was close but GNR came out on top. They had a really good strategy. The points can get racked up fairly quick in Roller Derby. Heartless Heathers beat the High Rollers by nearly double in their bout. They were near 100 by the end of the half hour period.

Halftime had a not really all that good musical act. I was too busy waiting in line for the bathroom to pay much attention. A lady came by and directed the line to a secret ladies room father down the hall. No waiting! Hurrah! After that, Jason and I shared a lemonade slushie that had almost too much sugar for me. Chilly drink, chilly hall, chilly Trill, oh well!

The next two bouts were first the losers vs the losers and then the winners vs the winners. Break Neck Betties lost to the High Rollers by a larger margin. Near the end you could really tell how exhausted the players were. They just were not going as fast or being able to overtake one another. The Heartless Heathers won again by almost double again. They really slayed GNR. I rooted for them and they did it. Whoo! Roller Derby is fun but my attention would drift. It didn't change up enough that it was gripping for all two hours of it. At 9:30, we numbly staggered towards the yellow line. It was waiting there for us and we grabbed some seats. It became really crowded as its departure time loomed. We rode it to Pioneer Place and switched to the other train. A quick hug and a peck on the cheek was exchanged and I waved goodbye to Jason and Joe as they scooted off to Beaverton.

Katie and her friend Patty were watching Santa's Slay. I huddled up in my room doing other things for a while but I cam out when they put on The Hunger, a sort of Vampire movie from the 80's which stars David Bowie. It had nice direction but I was so tired that it went right over my head. Still, I watched it all and then went to bed.

Today I slept in! Big surprise!

I put on Dead Ringers and worked on the initial layout sketches for my first woodblock. It is going to be one of those pieces that several things collect together to make another shape. I am having several animals form to make a face. My face as it is for a self portrait assignment. Now I need to collect references and do a proper version. I also wrote out some ideas for my comic. Dead Ringers was WEIRD. It was good and it was a good psychological thriller but it left me feeling very disturbed. Jeremy Irons plays twin genius infertility doctors and their lives fall apart and they both go crazy. It was weird but well constructed. The madness descent was very balanced.

I finally finished watching A Very Long Engagement. Jean-Pierre Jeunet rocks.

I ate a gigantic dinner and then went over to Robin and Diana's for Munchkin and then I found out that they were preparing a dinner for all of us. I had a small little taco but that was all I could really manage. I was so totally stuffed. Beyond that really. But it is good to eat eat eat because some days I don't eat as much as I should. We played Munchkin Bites at first and it was fun but then we started exchanging riddles and word games and things and it fell apart. I left earlier than others. I wasn't feeling too good. Might have been the excess of food.

Tomorrow is the first day of my new Illustration Studio. New teacher. I heard that the class might be technique focused. Hmmn.

Initial thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Spencer. Thank you for the wonderful card, I promise I did not spend my birthday money all at once (I think I have some left even). Averie also sent me a card, that was awesome. Dad's fine wooden bowl is containing balloons right now and I am wearing the awesome Singapore shirt.

going out and staying in and standing in the door way

Bekka stayed the night and we both slept in till 11. Luna traded beds quite often. What a loving little kitty. We woke up with green tea and oatmeal and The Tick. I walked her to the Max and hugged her goodbye and quickly showered up.

The RA's were having a little food party with burgers and hot dogs and chips. Charades were also to be had for awesome prizes. I woke one of those elongated forks that you can use to steal other people's food. There were Da Vinci, Van Gogh, and Blackbeard toys but I really wanted that fork. Whooo!! There was a fair number of people around and coming in and out. I talked with Junko a little bit. My Japanese is horrible but it might be good practice to converse with her. Well it would be good practice.

My birthday was fun.

Today, well rather tonight, Jason and I are going to the Rose City Rollers to see some roller derby. It is a long way out and I don't know when I'll be back so I'm just putting this up now. I feel bad when I miss a post.

shindiggies

Whoo! Birthday Shindig was a huge success in my book. I got a late start but everything came together with plenty of time to spare. Ate breakfast, ate lunch, went to Safeway. I bought some more sake (cheap but good and cozy) and I wasn't carded. I had my passport out, ready to show him but I guess he didn't need to see it. Noticed I was ready to provide proof. Anyway, got my feeding friends supplies so it was time to prepare!

After cleaning!

And dishes!

I got it all tidied up in less time than I expected. I made the gluten free brownies first. Bought the mix because Diana is intolerant to the stuff. I think it turned out right. It was edible so I guess it was supposed to fall apart like that. I made a batch of chocolate fudge cupcakes. I bought the icing and had left over sprinkles so I went with last years decorating choice of letting my guests make their own. Everything was set out and ready to go! So I put on A Very Long Engagement and waited for people to show up.

Bekka and Madeline came together and it was awesome. We put on Fifth Element and got settled. Kristen and Chelsey followed soon after. Amanda was next and a little later came Karen, Robin, and Diana. We all managed to seat ourselves comfortably and the movie was highly enjoyable. Fifth Element is a lovely movie to watch with a group. Fast paced, easy to follow, and plenty of laughs abound. The cupcakes were devoured, cheese puffs were consumed, laughs were had. After the movie Kristen and Chelsey left. The remaining ones gathered in a circle and we played Uno with the new sleek cards that I got for my birthday. I can't quite remember who won but it wasn't me. I think Amanda won the second turn. Hmmn. It was really fun. Uno can go for so long. Diana and Karen skipped out to do some RA stuff. I set us up with Wario Ware and Mario Kart. I made some tea, brought out the sorbet, and tried to be the best hostess I could be. Could have been better but oh well. Karen brought a vegetable platter so there was a little balance to the sweets. There were a lot of sweets. After the games, Diana left and Adam showed up. I set up my speakers and computer and put on The Fall for the remaining crew. The sound went in and out on my horrible speakers but the gist of movie was caught. Anyway, The Fall isn't watched for the sound anyway. Lovely!

I had a wonderful birthday. Lots of people showed up, sweets were consumed, and I had fun. It was nice. Bekka is staying over because she takes the Max to Hillsboro. We are chatting while I blog.

pool and probability

Katie and I arrived at the theatre to find that JCVD was only playing late on the weekends. What a bummer! We ended up going to Momo's instead. There was a large enough amount of people that it didn't feel odd being there on a Wednesday night, but it wasn't so full that I was uncomfortable. Katie bought us a matching set of Long Island Iced Tea and we set in on them at a center booth. As I finished, one of the cute pool playing boys asked us to join them. We did. There were two of them, tall shaved head Jeff and shorter short haired Mikey. Jeff bought me a Kamikaze and Mikey bought me a White Russian. My drinks were spaced fairly evenly through the hours so I didn't PARTY HAAARDDYYY. Not my thing anyway. I was out to have some fun, and I did. We played some pool (Mikey was on my team, we won the first game and Jeff and Katie won the next). I sunk a few in. I hit my finger on the table and a chunk of skin came off. It sorta hurt but oh well. Jeff took an interest in Katie. Mikey held his interest in pool, which is fine because I still have my interest in that curled haired computer science major named Jason. We talked about which dinosaur we would want to be, school, art, and other things. We left at around 1:30am. It was a lovely little birthday all around, even though we didn't see JCVD.

Thank whatever that my class was at 9:30. I was still tired and drifted off a little bit but I think I understood the probability explanations. The homework wasn't due but I have it done. So I'm ahead in this one class! Hurray, what good news. After class, Robin was caught by the teacher griping about the pace. She is a smartie so artists math is a little easy for her.

I wasn't feeling up to riding home and back again so I took a nap in the library. Jen, Robin, Karen and I all commandeered the couches and poured over the artbooks. One by one they left and I was left to doze. Another girl took the other couch indicating that my idea was a good one. Eventually Karen returned and she escorted me to Quiznos. I devoured my sandwich while reading Terry's very personal zine. Terry rocks. He is working on an awesome Pushing Daisies piece.

Digital Painting was productive. Some of the little techniques went by a little quick for my learning but I picked them up well enough. We worked with overlaying things and transforming objects to look like they are on a curve. It was very educational but hard to follow. Like, you are doing it at the same time and all of a sudden the rest of the instructions have passed in a blink. It was a quick little class. I can't wait to get into the bigger projects.

On the way home, I got some stuff for my birthday shindig tomorrow from Trader Joe's. Picked up some gluten free brownie mix so Diana won't miss out on the sweets tomorrow. I love Trader Joe's. Picked up a lot of little things.

Karen, Robin, and Diana all stopped by for House. Karen and I watched more episodes. I think we watched three. Wonderful show. I really need to watch more of the second season. Tomorrow is my shindig! Have to bake and clean and clean some more even though it won't be enough.

21 on the 21st, my Golden Birthday

Last night (or rather this morning) was very fun! The sake was thoroughly enjoyed by me and the movie was hilarious because of it. It was shot all in sepia tone and had a long sequence with hopping Roman gladiators. It was bad bad bad but it was fun. And I had a pretty good sleep and no issues with getting up.

Graphic Novel is as was said. August, Lacey, and Maddison are in my class. It will be focused on one project with some deadlines. Most of the stuff will be due pre-finals in time for Stumptown. I think I might try and do a series of chapters, that way I can finish as many as I have time for and not rush a huge project.

I stopped by Office Max to pick up some notebooks, envelopes, and mechanical pencils.

For a little while, all the printmaking classes grouped together and they chatted about the department. I gave an invite to Madeline for my birthday. Then the two classes split up. My woodblock and screen class has Patrick (the one who I told off a year ago, he seems to be a lot more focused and joyful so I'm down with that), Phil, Diana, Devin, and Junko. A few others I recognize but don't know right now are there as well. It seems like it will be good.

For lunch Karen peer pressured me into going to On Deck, a sports bar a block from the school. We shared an order of onion rings and we each had a lovely pale ale to accompany it. Diana watched us drink. It was a nice cozy rozy little lunch (we have an hour at school to eat). Some people came in to sell us woodblock tools, I am sharing with Karen so I just bought some wood and a small u carver. Most of class was spent discussing what editions meant and what the assignments will be like. No tutorial yet but next week it seems like we shall be hardcore into it. The design for the woodblock is due then and we will start carving.

Rode home and took it easy. Karen stopped by for an episode of House. I ate some pizza. I got my box from home! My birthday box! I got the Leyendecker book, the Juxtapoz Illustration book, Bangkok Haunts, Stardust dvd, some new cons, some card games, and gummy worms and some other wonderful stuff. It was a big box of spoiled Trillian.

Now Katie and I are going out to see JCVD and drink a little.

Happy birthday to me! 21! The time goes by so fast.

bloga bloga bloga

School has started. Math used the whole class. We introduced ourselves and made sure to talk about something interesting. Jen, Karen, and Robin are in my class. It is the Rubik's cube class. We have homework. I was quick to call Jason for help after class. I think it will be cool. It is artists math after all. We did a quick survey to find out the probability of having two people with the same birthday in our class. No one had the same birthday but there were about 5 clusters that were really close.

9:30 is a much nicer class period to attend.

I worked on my homework in the library and checked out some movies. I talked to Gordon in the commons for about an hour. Chatted about fiction and nonfiction, I suggested some comics, talked about projects. He has nice, new glasses.

I rode home. Didn't feel like sticking around. Watched Daily Show. Relaxed.

Painting Techniques was introductions and some Googling and suggestions of artists. cool site, like youtube for images: http://ffffound.com Bryan, Erin, Lee, James (who got a free tattoo recently), Terry, Nathalie, Karen, Jen, and a few cool others are in the class. We let out early.

I called Jason for some more math help. Karen came over for House. The projector draws a big crowd. Karen, Adam, and I went to Safeway at 12:45am to utilize my 21 status. Now I shall drink sake and watch a movie with the crew. Tomorrow I am going with Katie to Living Room Theatres to watch JCVD (it is a fancy bar theatre). Yay!

Bacon Man!!

There was sleeping in and no going out this morning. I brewed up a pot of Billy Tea and all too soon it was time to stroll to the station. With an hours worth of time to do it, Llyw and I opted out of taking the streetcar or max. A guy was yelling at the Safeway cops. It was a lovely little visit but it ended all too soon.

I didn't feel like heading back to my place so I called Jen to find out if she wanted to catch the 2:15 matinee of The Wrestler at Cinema 21. I read Alex Garland's Coma while waiting outside the theatre for her. It is a brilliant day, not too chilly to get nippy and not too hot to overheat. With much time to spare, Jen and I went to the Blue Moon cafe for lunch. I had a root beer and a cheeseburger with tater tots. It was the perfect portion of food. The Wrestler was good. The character interaction seemed very real and it was a beautiful character portrait. Something just didn't click all the way through. It was very different for an Aronofsky movie.

Jen and I strolled but I split at 19th to go home. I took a bath to relax. I read some more of Coma. Felt like watching a bad movie so I watched The Happening. It was bad. Katie's friends Tom and Nikki came over and we watching Sharks in Venice. It is about this hidden gold that the Mafia wants and has put sharks in the Venetian canals to prevent people from getting it. Enter the emotionless Stephen Baldwin: archaeologist and diver! His leg got bitten off but...it wasn't. It was bad but good. Happening was just bad. Nikki (Nicky?)is pregnant. I suggested the name Bacon. The father's last name is Man(Mann?).

School tomorrow. Math. Digital painting.

"I like how scott is completely and totally stupid"

While Llyw reads Scott Pilgrim, I shall write!

The train came in right on time. A little brisk walk and a job landed us right on the Red Max to Goose Hollow. We relaxed a little bit and then it was time to introduce him to my friends. Karen, Adam, Diana, and Robin were at Karen's. There were macaroons and popcorn. Diana tucked in early. We tried to figure out Killer Bunnies and near the end we got it but then it was over and Karen won. I had a lot of carrots but no bunnies. After the game we stayed up for way too long chatting. The process of distillation was brought up, glass work, story telling, ninjas, what people would do for a million dollars, and more ninjas. There was a lot of ninjas.

At around 2am we crawled into my apartment. Katie set us up with a sweet foam thingy and sleeping bag. Gabe is locked out of his place. Gabe made us breakfast. Fritata! It was fluffy and delicious.

The ability to set right out adventuring was hampered by a Goose Hollow Pod meeting at 2. It was tiny and not really well attended. We talked about activities we would like to do. I ate some ginger snaps. Then it was back to my apartment and time to adventure! The general course of action was to go to Compound Gallery via the Skidmore Fountain Max Stop and work our way up. Compound had lovely prints for good prices. Not the most amazing selection. A significant portion of their current gallery show was lame and dull. There were some pieces that had some brilliant type and lovely hues.

It was time to eat again but Ichiban Sushi would not open till 4pm. We killed time in the Powell's Technical Books. We got in right on time. The place filled up quick. Heather the print aide works there and she was very nice and chatty. I stuffed my face and even tried a little wasabi. It was delightful.

Cold set in. We hobbled over to Peet's Coffee House and thus began a long series of ping pong voice mail messages to Auntie Celia. She was breezing through town and all she wanted was some coffee. When we got back to my place we Googled directions but she was already in downtown and just needed to be told to go up Jefferson. Starbucks was open till 7. She parked on the hill, we met her, we hugged. It was wonderful! I didn't get a good enough chance to catch up with her over break. She got a nice amount of coffee and, well, we caught up. She was wearing the awesome hat I gave her for Christmas. I miss my auntie C.

After that we spent the rest of the night in. We watched about seven-eights of Repo: The Genetic Opera. Played WarioWare (I didn't win). Time went by far too quick. By noon tomorrow Llyw will be on the train to Seattle. And then school.

big blue eyed bond

The fire alarm went off at 2:30. It was from an actual fire this time. It was triggered by someone on our floor. A sprinkler went off and the hallway had a big pool of water. They rigged up some fans to blow on it and dry it but seeing as how they set them up in the AM and the alarm is horrid, Katie and I couldn't quite sleep. Lots of noise and agitation. So we relaxed with Big Trouble. At around 4 we crawled back into bed.

And at around noon we both crawled into action. Jen and I met up at 2:15 to take another try at some cheesesteaks. Failure! Again! Where is that guy? We love him. We wanted his food. Boo! We went to Roxy's instead. A steak dip sandwich isn't nearly as good as a cheesesteak. Still, it was nice. A lovely little lunch. Jen's short do still looks great. It was one of those deceptive sunny days where you should have really brought a thick coat.

After lunch we walked over to Fox Tower to see about watching something indie and good. Slumdog Millionaire was the first choice but it was too crowded so we changed out tickets to Defiance. It was a long movie with nice sets and costumes. It is about how during the war, some Russian Jewish people hid out in the forest. They moved camp many times and started over. I like movies that focus on the hiding over the concentration camps. It was sad, of course, but you know a few of them have to survive because at the start it says it is a true story. Daniel Craig's accent wasn't too laughable and the battle sequences were knuckle biting.

I've got the snuffles. I don't know if it is a cold or if it turns out that I am actually allergic to long haired kitties.

We hugged goodbye and I went back home to try and get it clean enough. Presentable enough. Now to go get Llyw from the train station! Hurray!

boo on you Ooohreegaaahn

Okay. Seriously. What the hell, Oregon? $39 for a new ID? A million forms of proof that it is me? In Washington you just show up with your old ID and you can get a new one. No second form of proof, no verification of where you live, nothing. They trust people.

With a flask of Billy Tea shared betwixt us, Karen, Adam, and I went up to Vancouver, Washington to procure new IDs. We decided not to deal with the most irksome Oregon DMV and just renew our Washington ones. Also, it seems a better idea to just keep my parents address because it would be costly to change my address every time I move in Portland. If I move like, 4 times in the next five years then that is $25 a pop for new ones. Washington is just $10. Because I renewed it before I turn 21, the orientation is that of a minor but it doesn't expire till 2014. Whoo! I'm a big girl. They let me take my picture again because the lady thought I didn't smile. We waited about 20 minutes and we all were called in succession. We all got through it right quick. Like, under five minutes we were all done after our numbers were called. A little trust goes a long way when it comes to efficiency.

BILLY TEA! SO AWESOME!

After the quick IDs we all we to a Mongolian Grill, all you can eat. I only had one plate of meat and noodles and some vegetables but I had all I could eat of ice cream with caramel and chocolate dribbled all over it. Mmm. I like soft ice cream.

Matt came over for some movies. We watch Repo: The Genetic Opera. A musical about this guy that steals organs from people that can't pay for them. It came from a stage production. It was very silly but highly enjoyable. Good, gruesome effects. Of course it was watched on the projector. To round off the gore we watched Fargo. I was expecting a lot more from it. It seemed very simple and straight forward. People make mistakes. It doesn't work out. Did I miss something? Mom HATES this movie but loves Hot Fuzz? Hot Fuzz has more violence than Fargo. Ehh? Yeah. After the double feature I kicked Matt out. Well not kicked.

I had a tuna fish sandwich. Mmm.

Got a letter informing me that I am on the Dean's List.

trill vs the man

So today's big quest was to renew my driver's license so I could get a pretty one all fresh for my 21st year. Hurray! DMV wasn't a long wait. I had my passport, my old ID, and three proofs of where I live now to show them. Turns out I needed a sixth thing: proof that the social security number that I wrote down was in fact the same one I used for my passport and all that. The number was on my grades but he said he couldn't use that because how do they know that that might not be my school ID. I whipped out my school ID which has my school ID number which is clearly different. Still not good enough. I might have become irked and asked to see a higher up if the guy helping me wasn't so nice about it. I took the driver's test in the instance that later, if I found something with my SSN, I could come in and get my ID. I failed the test. It would be easy question, easy question, and then something about how you are actually supposed to slow down if someone is tailgating you. What? I always go the speed limit because slowing down just pisses tailgaters off. I slow down when they are passing to make it easier and safer. So even if I had the stuff, I would have waited a day. But still a day is fine. Now there is a big runaround. I asked mom to send me my SSN. Karen and I are going to Washington to see about doing it there because it is cheaper and requires less proof of identity. Be good to have my SSN anyway because I've run into this sort of problem before.

It is all screwy. Boo DMV, booo!!

Hung out with the girls tonight. Just sort of read and they worked on things and discussed RA stuff. Well they discussed RA stuff. I drifted off into space. Robin sewed some lovely buttons onto a shirt for me. They look awesome. Whee!

Started watching Peep Show. It is a two person point of view camera BBC comedy. A little silly and uncomfortable at times but it does have nice build up.

Tomorrow: road trip to Vancouver! And Saturday night Llyw is coming into town for a little visit. Yay! Oh did I mention I'm working on thank you cards? Because I've been working on thank you cards.

the teabag pod

Bad news! Daniel called me to inform me that the Graphic Novel course I was taking only had four people in it. It might become an independent study that focuses on one huge project due at the end. We would meet every couple weeks or so. Not be a steady class. Really sucks, it was the class I was looking forward to the most. But hey, might be good to learn now how to dedicate myself to a project that doesn't have a weekly class structure. Very important when it comes to comics. Booo!!

I caught up on my back issues of The Boys. Then I went to Powell's and treated myself to P. Craig Russell's edition of Coraline. As well as a couple really great deals in terms of anthologies. Less crowded than my last visit to Powell's. I had a lovely chat about comics with the guy who rung me up. He had no idea of the comic version of Coraline. It looks really nice.

It was very chilly but I didn't bring a coat. A little bit of chill goes away fast when you are scooting uphill on a heavy bike.

Robin stopped by for a quick Hi and I lured her into a viewing of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I made a big bowl of popcorn and some tea and we enjoyed it on the projector. Having a projector says a lot about your status. Means you have enough money to own one and some place to project on. Robin was adorable during the suspenseful end of the movie. It does keep you on your toes.

After the movie we went for a lovely walk around the neighborhood. Peeking at peoples places and finding spooky spots. The usual. Some wonderful houses and some magnificent stairs. Lots an lots of stairs. Robin led and I followed. Near the end my thighs were hurting from so much exercise. A very foreign concept. After the walk we sat about looking at YouTube videos while waiting for Diana to return. She did. We all hugged and talked. I called it good night.

Whew! long day where I did stuff. Now that people are back we can start doing game nights again.

short post, but there are not many of these left

Had a very restless night sleep.

A knock on my door got me out of bed at around 10. A nice lady in a wheelchair needed some help with the washing machine. I kindly obliged. I lay in bed for several hours with the alarm going off every half an hour or so. Need to slowly bring myself to the 6:30am alarm. Luna cuddled. One alarm I rolled over and she flopped off of me. Oops!

Watched Joe Dirt on the projector while working on thank you cards.

Watched The Fall on the projector while enjoying dinner.

Love the projector.

Got the electric bill. Slowly going to try and bring it down after the very high Winter months.

here I go, mumbling

Did me some laundry today. Three heaping loads. Well more like one normal sized load of pants and towels and one huge load split into two smaller loads of shirts and delicates. None of them dried proper so I draped the pants and towels and, since I combined the delicates all together in one of the large dryers, I just ran them through again. Try to be cheap and combine a dryer cycle and you end up having to do it twice anyhow. Oh well.

Watched Rock n Rolla while folding. Watched a bit of A Scanner Darkly on the pretty projector. Watching Forrest Gump. Haven't seen it all the way through in a long while.

My legs hurt. Probably from the random biking from yesterday or maybe not enough vitamins. Hmmn.

Katie's parents stopped by for a little bit. Said some hellos. Easy little day. I'm having a birthday party at my place on the 23rd. Probably going to go out with the 21+ friends on Saturday. It's my Golden Birthday. 21 on the 21st. Whooo! Now I can actually go to stuff in Portland.

Total Thus Far: 13 As, 2 Bs.

Keep forgetting to mention it but I got my grades. Straight As across the board. My GPA is 3.836 now. Booyah!

Had some spicy chicken nuggets for dinner. Gabe made them. I had three cups of milk, one for every nugget I was able to consume.

The projector got hooked up in our living room. Now we have a sweet picture and can play games and all sorts of awesome stuff. Whoo!! Can't wait to figure out how to hook my computer up to it to watch movies. Our apartment has a pretty sweet setup now.

I've been watching Generation Kill, a seven part miniseries by the same guy who did The Wire. About the Marines going into Iraq. It is interesting. It is rather sad in fact. Like how underarmed and under protected they are. Not enough batteries for night vision, etc. We are pouring so much money into this and... yeah. Sure it is sort of fictionalized but even so.

Chilled with Karen. Helped her cut out and paste her pirate ships. Helped her put the pirate ships on the doors to indicate her pirate ship dorm pod. We gossiped and we chatted and I ate some of the rice she made. She was nice enough to let me.

Went to Trader Joes. Got some caramel chocolate tartlets. Very tasty. Got some money so I can do major laundry tomorrow. Maaajor laundry.

I don't think I'm working again till school starts. There is a possible visitor on the weekend.

With the projector rigged up we watched Pineapple Express. Still as silly and buddy buddy. Sokay I guess, yeah.

Laundry! Art! Tomorrow!

a day off from blogging is not a day spent idle

Yesterday:

I had another date. Whoo! I am also getting slowly addicted to Super Mario 64. I have 10 stars now. Only 110 to go. Haha. So yeah, I slept in and played the game. Ate delicious leftovers. I think I did more but I slept in and Jason showed up at 6:30 on the dot. He was dressed in a sleek, well tailored suit and I was in a sort of casual fancy dress with nice shoes. Jason said he just felt like dressing up and the place wasn't extremely fancy. Next time I'll wear a dress and tights and he will surely be in jeans. Dagit!!

We went to the restaurant that is attached to the Hilton. An Italian sort of place with food with many ingredients. I had the linguine with shrimp. He had this Gnocchi special made to be vegetarian (did I mention he was a vegetarian? not a strict one though). The place was not busy save for a large party. It was a lovely little dinner. Turns out that Jason new the Sous Chef there, hence the choice of restaurant. Ray (the chef) came out and we chatted a little bit. Color me very impressed.

After a lovely dinner we took the Max to his work where he had his car parked. It was iced over but not to Seabeck standards of ice. The apartment was as clean as ever. We played Mario Kart Double Dash and some of the Sega Saturn Sonic Games (the very same ones from my youth). I ended up crashing at his place instead of demanding to be taken home.

Jason hasn't seen Jurassic Park all the way through.

Today:

Very lazy and late morning. An oatmeal breakfast was followed by ravioli lunch and more Mario Kart. It was nice. Jason's nice. Oh, we also looked at his old yearbooks. Simply adorable but no double page spread about tattoos and piercings like in my yearbook. Go me!

After he drove me home I finished off some leftovers (Gabe's Pad Thai portion he left for me) and played more Super Mario. Also watched Heathers. Funny movie in a way that no movie can ever be now because of political correctness. One week and I don't have a work schedule so I may not be working at all. Up to 10 stars in Super Mario. Kitty sat in my lap.

princess peach, I will save you!

Another day another little adventure.

Katie and I went to Ikea! She had never been before, so exciting. She ordered meatballs but I was full from breakfast so I just had some chocolate cake. It was nicely not busy. I'd hate for my first Ikea trip to be during one of the insane sale times. Most of the show rooms were unchanged and we got through them fairly quick. I just picked up some more magazine holders and a thermos (oh and some cookies and chocolate). I love Ikea, I love seeing all the styles and colors and patterns. Just lovely. The Sims has an expansion pack of all the Ikea wares. After the couple hours spent wandering we each had one of the giant 1$ frozen yogurts. Lovely!

We quickly swung by Goodwill and Katie dropped off some stuff from an old installation and back home we went! I played a little Super Mario and got two stars. Woohoo!

Michael and I met up to go see The Spirit. It was ridiculous. Not really good or horrid just silly and ridiculous. Really really silly. Blimey... Still, it was nice seeing Michael. Been a long time.

Now I am itching to play more Super Mario...dangit!

d: it is written

Slumdog Millionaire is a fantastic movie. Everyone should see it. Amazing. Perfect. And it has Bollywood dancing! I went to see it with good ol' Jim. We are both big Danny Boyle fans, seemed only right. Slumdog Millionaire is lovely film about the rise from poverty and the pursuit of love.

After the movie we went to Chipotle because I was starving. I stuffed my face into a burrito and we caught up a little. It was cold and windy and sucky as I waited for the max to come (which was 5 minutes late boo).

Uhh I think there is more to be said about that but I'm not feeling wordy.

Played a lot of Mario Kart and some Super Mario on the N64.

Returned some books to the library and picked out some linguistic books and art books. I just can't break my library habit.

player

Kitty loves sleeping in my bed. Prefers it to the couch and Katie's bed. Ha HA!

The Internet went down so I sat on the couch with Luna and read half of Blankets in one sitting. It is a good story and it is probably aided by the fact that it reads really fast. Once I know the story I can go through it and marvel at the art. Some of the style reminds me a lot of David B's Epileptic.

I don't think I accomplished much today beyond dozing and reading.

Gabe made some awesome soup and noodles for dinner. Very flavorful and a tad spicy but I still gorged. I shared my Billy Tea with them. They loved it. Everyone loves the Billy. Katie moved her TV and a couple game systems into the living room and they played Super Mario and later we played Mario Kart. If his name is Mario then why are they the Mario Brothers? Mario Mario and Luigi Mario? Karen came by and we tried to figure out how to play Banjo Tooie. I won by a narrow margin.

I have free reign of the consoles and her extensive DVD collection. Hurray!

new cat in my life

I finished jPod. Yeah it wasn't that good. Had some silly parts but it was all over the place and none of the characters got really developed and they all talked the same. I don't think I will be buying another Coupland novel. Also the ending was horrible, it was like he couldn't be bothered to think of something better. I guess the weak ending plays to the whole idea behind how he came up with the plot (spoiler: in the book the main character meets Coupland and sells him his identity so Coupland can quickly write the book to make money). I'm going back to Raw Shark Texts. A very heavy and thinky persons book. It brings up such thoughts as, "Unspace draws on the mental power of the sublime." Yeah.

I cleaned at work and then helped put away the new "flow". I put up sweaters and folded shirts and tucked tags and folded more shirts and put up pants and tidied up and helped customers in a daze because I had completely forgotten how to because it has been so long and then I took down and folded the pants I had previously hung up. And so on.

My seasonal employment is out of season as of the 17th of this month. I'm leaving on a good note and I think it is for the better. See how my work load is before I look for new employment.

Watched a lot of QI.

The couple who lives above me had a scary loud thumping fight. After they settled down, Karen and I knocked on their door to see what was up. The guy was really shouting at his girlfriend. I could hear the awful things he said through the ceiling. I think I should have called the cops but the girl who opened the door said it was fine. Cops don't report "fine" you know?

Karen was getting rid of piles of old clothes so I went through them and scored some sweet second hand things. Lots of Gap undershirts, a few dresses, and a few fancier things. She and I hung out for most of the night.

Katie moved in! It is a really small world, two of her helpers were the very same boys that I met at Pre-Thanksgiving. Adam and one of the twins. Small, tiny, ridiculous world! Her boxes moved in right quick. She left and came back with just Gabe as well as her cat and some delicious chicken. I scarfed said poultry. The cat, Luna, investigated its new abode. Seems very soft and friendly. Right now she is napping on my bed. Thus far, me and the roomie seem to be in good spirits with one another. Her friends are the friends of my friends so that is a good sign, right? Yeah.

Now to rest and read.

dream and waking

In my dream it was the painting class final. We were in some basement looking room. Very large and industrial with cement poured walls. At first there were many little tables but through my dream they shifted into a large U-shaped table. My classmates were there plus a few extra people like Marilyn Beck and Michael. Michael put out his piece. It was bound already in a book so we had to pass it around. His was a comic about this intense dragon sea monster fight. The book had the old guy with a guitar on the cover and it was full of short stories and little independent tidbits. My final was set out but I forget what it was. I was the last to leave class. The class was held in the basement of this apartment complex which mirrored the building across the narrow street from it. A man was ushering his wife into one of the apartment buildings and he closed the door and walked away. As I looked around I realized that all of the apartments were full of these wives whose husbands didn’t stick around. One such wife exited her apartment and sat at the outdoor table I was sitting at. She had long dirty blonde hair and an oval face. She was wearing this unflattering dress and looked very sad. She started drawing on the paper I had out. She talked of all the things she wasn’t allowed to do. I asked which church she was in and she said their location was in the Lloyd Center Mall. I cut out a piece of card and started to write her a note telling her that she was definitely special but I kept crossing things out because I spelled them wrong. She smiled and patted my shoulder and went to her apartment. And then I woke up. Her name was Olga, or something similar to that.

Today was mostly occupied with another long date with Jason. He came and picked me up at around 1:40. Right on time. We stopped by Blockbuster and picked up Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and this Korean movie called Time. Turned out he had seen the first but had mostly forgotten it, still very good movie. Time was weird and mostly about really crazy people doing things because they think they are in love. I liked the last 20 minutes which were very intense but a lot of time was spent wandering and being insane. Mmm.

Jason made pizza for dinner. He had premade crust but he topped the toppings himself. The balance in number of topics went very clearly to his side of the pizza. The cheese and spinach Trillian half was very tasty. He made pasta for dinner and the sauce was spruced up with nummy cheese. His place his very tidy and white. Really needs the art that he has hung up on the walls.

It snowed a little bit more but that became slush as the night wore on. A lot of rain water had collected on the roads but it was still drivable. Boy, I don't want to get up for work. Sure I don't need to be up till 7 but still, a bit of a bummer.

only keira can have the last sigh

Hmm. What did I do today? Well I slept in, as usual. I turned Cece's keys. I picked up the three lovely packages of Christmas presents that mom was kind enough to post to me. Everything was put away promptly as I am trying to sort out the mess around me. Lots of little, unorganized things.

I was going to see Slumdog Millionaire with Jim but that was delayed till later in the week.

Karen came over and we watched The Duchess, a biopic about the Duchess of Devonshire starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, and Dominic Cooper. The fashion was beautiful but the affair lasted too briefly on screen to be really powerful. What a tragic life she had. It was okay, very much a girly movie.

Oh, I made my notorious popcorn. It didn't pop as well this time, had the heat too high.

I put notes on my calendar when to check/inflate my tires (every other week). I spent my own money, have to take care of my babies.

My shift at work tomorrow morning was cancelled. What a bummer. Well, sorta bummer. I don't have to get up early.

I really, really want to see Waltz With Bashir. And The Wrestler. These movies cannot come to Portland soon enough!

baby got a new set of tires

After a long morning of waking up and sleeping for an hour and waking up and sleeping for another hour and waking up and sleeping for another hour, I managed to get out of the house in time to get the tubes and tires for my bike. I wheeled my poor, deflated baby down 10th towards the Bike Gallery. The nice man who helped me when I came in during the snow was there and got me set up with the tubes and tires. I have some awesome Kevlar reinforced tires with a decent amount of tread but not really intense, mountain bike tread. With the tubes, tires, and the labor fee it came in at around $96, which was $54 dollars under my budget! The guy who helped me was really nice about finding something for my budget and not trying to persuade me to go higher. The other nice guy who put them on advised that I will be needing new brake pads soon. All in all, a pretty nice trip to the shop. They offer free repair training classes so I think I'll take them up on it.

After I got my bike in wheeling state, I rode it around downtown. Took it to Powell's and treated myself to a couple bargain books (two John Hodgman books and a facsimile of the original published Sherlock Holmes stories priced at an amazing $10). It was crowded but there were plenty of cashiers so the line moved. Outside I gave a buck to the nice Street Roots man. As I left it started hailing but it didn't bother me much because I had my bike back! Whee!

Bought some much needed toilet paper. I got back to the Goose right as the office closed. I have three packages that I will pick up tomorrow.

Katie and her friend Gabe stopped by the drop off some preliminary moving in boxes. She seemed pretty thrilled about the apartment.

Kristen and Kris were throwing a little fondue shindig tonight so I set out on Big Red once again. The only other person who attended was her friend Alex but we still had a jolly time dipping and joking. I favored the bananas while Kris dared some cheesepuffs and carrots. Kristen gave me a shirt she no longer wanted and we played games online. It was cozy. Oh and they have an apartment right near the door so I tapped on their window to announce my arrival, instead of calling or buzzing. Heh.

Now to eat a regular, non chocolate banana and read and sleep.

rest and rest

Had a lovely rest today. I may have turned to the way of the nap but not the way of the coffee.

My roommate is moving in the 5th. She has a projector and several game consoles. She also seems quite awesome in general. I tidied up a little bit in preparation. Katie, the roomie, is stopping by tomorrow to drop off a few preliminary boxes.

Just ate food and rested today. Time passed by pretty quick. Talked to Robin and Karen.

It is a soggy day so I didn't take my bike out to get new tubes and tires. Tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow. I hate walking to all my errands. I work Sunday and Monday and then I am free till Saturday. Two weeks left in my vacation, something tells me that they will go fast.

Happy New Years (and happy me)

Work:

Was long. Sabrina was supposed to help with markdowns but she was sick so I had to do the entirety of sale in girls and boys. I was surprised how alert I was but like always I tend to crash at the noon mark. Got the gards in the back and all that done. It was really efficient. Everyone was pleased. Faye came in and did baby and helped in the back. Steve and people like my new shoes but there might be a quibble from Paula. They need to be broken in a little, still stiff (the shoes). Nothing else new to report.

Nap:

Was good and long.

The Date:

Was wonderful! He picked me up when he said he would (well I called after my nap and told him to come pick me up and his time estimate was correct). Jason took me to Montage, which I highly suggest for Adam and Karen because it is in the same district as Adam's studio. Well in general it was delicious. It was crowded and we were on a table for six with a couple on either side of us. Had to shout a little but it was fun. The art on the walls was nice. I took a chance and ordered the slightly spicy macaroni and cheese. I won't conquer my weakness of spicy foods unless I be more adventurous with my eating. Next to us was a jovial couple and all around were many celebrations.

After dinner we went for dessert at The Pied Cow in the Belmont Street district (near where Lindsay moved). I had the chocolate cheesecake. It was much quieter but still none the less cozy and eclectic. The waitstaff was wonderful.

Still not wanting the date to end we went for a night walk to Laurelhurst Park. The fog off the pond picked up the glow of the lamps and it was overall quiet and nice. We strolled and talked about names and school and traveling (he's been to India and Germany). My feet started to hurt from the heels I was wearing so we went back to his car. It was a long walk balk but the neighborhood was full of quaint, Victorian houses.

We wanted to watch some fireworks but in returning to my place and Googling, it turns out there wasn't any on the Willamette. What the hell? So we stayed in and watched In Bruges because In Bruges is a great movie. Midnight came around and 1am came around. It was a really wonderful first date.




Oh, also, the cool thing about Montage is that when they wrap up your take away they make it look like a different animal (or object). Jason's was a Snail and mine was a Crab.