knit & perler

Spent the night playing with Perler beads. You know, those little plastic beads you arrange on small pegs and melt with an iron to form shapes? Those things. So much fun! Made a few little things, just to get a hang of it. Pretty fun night. Course, I have a very relaxed sense of fun. Heheh.

Joey came up and settled in my bed for a while, so I had some company. She made a big fuss of it when Janet tried to get her to come down stairs.

At work, I rolled this roll of paper off the laminator. Double handing this roll, always holding it up as it got heavier and heavier, and rolling it with your hands? That is a tough work out, I tell you what. Also rand the sleeves on a job, and taped up some screens, and burned some screens. I got a lot of ink on my arms, but none on my shirt. My shirts are considerably less messy than when I started. Whoo!

After work, I made a grocery run. Yay for food. And I installed better anti-virus on my computer. Then I broke out the perler beads and cut loose.

Is this what I expected my life to be like, at age 24?

Dunno. Yes? Maybe?

"I'm an American. Have gun, will travel."

Monday! And I enjoy my job, so I never wake up going "uhg". Sometimes I want to sleep a bit more, but who doesn't? Anyway. Got up, showered, had my breakfast and prepared my lunch. Went to work only to have my boss say "you didn't get my text?". "....what text?" Turns out he was doing an install in Carmel and there wasn't anything on the docket for the day. So I went home to enjoy the day off. Whooo!

And I checked my phone and BOOM there was the text. I'm pretty sure I checked my phone before I left? Thankfully it is a short commute.

Watched the new episode of Downton Abbey. Such fabulous costumes! It is 1920 in the show now, so that is pretty fun. And Mom's favorite Shirley MacLaine is in it.

Watched that. Had scrambled eggs.

Worked on thumbnails. It was pretty nice to have this extra day off, actually. Gave me just enough extra time to do some things. Still need to do some grocery shopping though, I'm out of apples. I can do that tomorrow.

And tonight I went to the game meetup at Woodstock's! Chris, Andy, and Alan were there, and I met Peter, Alissa, and Karen. After I consumed my pizza and beer, Andy, Alan, Peter and I played Evo. I came in a close second. The next game was with the seven remainders, and it was Saboteur, this card game thing where you secretly sabotage others in the game. That was fun! I tied with Karen for first place.

So after three hours, I returned home and finished up my thumbnails and sent those off. All is well!

there can be only one

Another weekend day spent over the hill! This time all in Redwood City.

Though first I slept in till noon. Because I'm worth it.

I also found out that there is another Trillian. At PNCA. Who is an illustration major. DAAAANG! I should challenge her to pistols at dawn.

Anyway, I had lunch at Pamplemousse in Redwood City with Luke. Who is Luke? Well another of those online fellows. He would be the....fourth? Hahah. Though some may be more reoccuring than others. Luke is studying biology (or some subdivision of it) at Stanford and has been all around the world and generally was pretty cool. I had a bacon avocado turkey sandwich and it was amazing. It was a nice little luncheon followed by a little walk around the area. A nice day for it.

After that, I went to Nathan's and played Guild Wars 2 and watched Breaking Bad and drank lemonade and caught up on sibling stuff. Good times.

My GPS is having issues detecting the charger, so I got back to Santa Cruz on purely memory. I need to figure what its deal is, so that I don't have to struggle to get around north of highway 17, provided I continue to hang out with more people above the hill. Hmmmn.

sunshine on my skin

Most of my posts start at the start of my day, because that is easiest. Got up, had breakfast, as it is the weekend and I'm not working and it is Saturday I watched the new Doctor Who episode. Had some more food.

Then I hopped in my car and headed over the hill to San Jose to spend the day with Steven. You might remember him as being the dude I saw Lawless with and walked around Santa Cruz. Anyway, this time I went up to his area and walked around it with him. San Jose reminds me a lot of other places, but only for a couple blocks at a time. We played frisbee a bit and talked about Discworld and the Bechdel Test. Had dinner, and then brewskis at this new opening place. There was a Reddit meet up of sorts going on, so we shared a table with some other Redditers and talked about stuff that is relevant to the Reddit types. It feels good to know I can be randomly social with people. We shared poutine and it was good, but I want to have proper Montreal poutine. Afterwards we watched the Edward Norton movie Leaves of Grass, and it was an odd, darling, weird little movie. Norton is a great actor who isn't in nearly enough movies these days. My GPS had a dickens of a time finding reception when I was leaving San Jose, but it eventually did.

Tomorrow I'll be back over the hill. Hanging with Natey.

Though have some stuff I want to get done in the morning time.

HUGO STIGLIIITTZZZ daa naaaahhhh

Just got back from another Midnight Movie at the Del Mar! This week's choice was Inglorious Basterds. The thing about my blog is I have a record of the past five years of my life, and I can go back and access the specific date that certain things happened. The first time I saw Inglorious Basterds was August 22nd, 2009 with Katie and Tom. Here was my then review:

"Inglorious Basterds had more action in the trailer. Seriously, all the action in the movie would take up about 7 minutes worth of footage. It was brief and sudden when it happened. Still, having a little violence punctuates the power of the moment. A lot of talk but good talk. Some random moments occurred that are clear indicators that it was a Tarantino flick (HUGO STIGLITZ!! comes to mind). I enjoyed it though I might not watch it again for a while. Good shots, good black humor."

I've watched it a few more times between then and now. It is true that the action happens very quick. The build up is very slow and intense, and when it pops it POPS and is gone. All the dialogue scenes are much more intense upon further viewings. Maybe because one knows when they are coming to an end. It was a good time, and I am glad I went out for it. I was going to meet up with Daniel and Ryan, but the former wasn't up for a midnight movie and the latter was stuck at a fair. Hopefully not stuck on a ride or something. That would suck.

At work I coated screens and did a good job of it. The bossman acquired a three wheel, one seater, with a truck bed of sorts little vehicle. Sort of like a tuk-tuk, sort of like a meter maid, sort of like a Reliant Robin but not really. It is AWESOME! There are plans to wrap it in awesome vinyl. I hope he goes bright. But to wrap, you must remove previous vinyl, which there was. So I learned how to remove vinyl! I us...okay my train of thought went elsewhere for a second. Anyway. I used a heat gun, which I very nearly burned my thigh with when I absent mindedly set it in my lap.

After work I worked on sketches and type and I ate pasta. Have some plans for tomorrow, and Sunday. Yay for the weekend!

get up, stand up

Just spent the night chatting with Ryan and Cassidy at The Poet, after seeing a chunk of standup at The Blue Lagoon. Lookit me, knowing people and going to places! Anyway, at The Blue Lagoon, every Thursday is stand up night, so that is pretty neat. Ryan, one of those online fellows, said that his friend was performing and invited me along, and since I had nothing else going on tonight I went. I sketched most of the performers and took note of a few of the jokes that I liked. Some of the stand up people were pretty dead in the water, but some were awesome. Cassidy, Ryan's friend, was really good. Afterwards, we three went to The Poet and I had a "Black Adder" which is Guiness and cider. Pretty good little drink. I managed to get some laughs, we talked about Doctor Who and other nerd stuff. I sketched a bit more. I made a really good drawing of Ryan that looks a lot like him, too bad I can't scan it. All in all, a really awesome night. Since the stand up is free, I'll probably go next week as well, and invite Daniel along. Tomorrow is Inglorious Basterds at the Del Mar! WHeeee!!!

At work we finished the jobs on the table, and I broke down the press. So a day spent half catching, half cleaning and reclaiming. It was a nice, warm day. I discovered some sugar at work, so my tea was much nicer. At least I hope that was sugar. And I hope it was fit for consumption...well, I'm not dead right now so I assume it was and is. I take a lot of minor unnecessary risks.

I wish I had a kitten. I wish I wasn't mildly allergic to cats. I just want something to cuddle right now.

But hey, I'm making friends! Awesome!

'ello there Claire

I've been having a rough time sleeping lately. Well not lately, just these past couple days. Very restless and I don't know why. I don't drink except in the morning.

Work was consumed with one job. Lots of learning happened! I switched the heat flash from 2 to 3, and the friction from tightening and struggling with the knobs has given me three lovely blisters. I've named the one on my palm Claire. Hopefully Claire heals all right and doesn't burst prematurely.

Ran the front on the job. Switched and taped the screens. Oh, the shift also started a bit late. I also registered the screens and did a pretty good job at it. I'm getting better! Whooo!

Had pasta for dinner. Now I'm tired. That day went by fast.

grumpy in SC

I got majorly sidetracked, after work, driving in circles around town trying to find that damn Safeway and eventually gave up. I executed a perfect parallel park between two cars, but even that didn't alleviate my grumpers attitude. I don't like going in circles, and all these stupid U turn/no turn lanes in California. So hard to get going in the way you want to go! Grrr argh. So the rest of the night was a bit of a wash. I've got a bunch of stuff in my hair right now because I'm testing out something, that hopefully will go the way that I want.

At work we ran some jobs. I coated some screens.Weeded some stickers. Not the most involved of days, but its all good.

Finished off my tuna for lunch.

Tonight was a bit of a wash.

Whistling Karla

A video I recorded last night. Such an amazing talent!

Work started late, and it was just me. I cleaned some screens, weeded some vinyl, tidied up, cleaned the stuff in the sink. Brock stopped by, but he is now working as a screenprinting rep! So he won't be working the weekends with me! Noooo! I liked our occasional weekend shifts. He gave us a free degreaser sample. It smelled like flouride bubblegum. Which is to say that it smelt better than the chemicals.

It was a shorter day. Monday's typically are. Ahhh yay, work is now in a "typically" time. Falling into a rhythm. Listened to mostly music.

Got home and didn't feel like the game night. Boo anti social me! I cooked up the rest of the fish, ate it, watched Parade's End, and kicked back. I'm kinda sore from all the Sunday salutations.

awesome day!

Had an awesome wonderful day! Was all up in San Francisco with my favorite people: the band members of Odd Owl and their friends who are becoming my friends slowly but surely.

Alarm went off at 7, was out of the house at 8:20. Magic! Filled up my tank and away I went to the great North. Well, the great slightly more northern. It was a nice ride and there was parking on the street. Boom, easy!

Carmen took a nasty spill on her bike, so I helped her haul some stuff into her car. Then we were off to Steve's! From there we rode to the venue (the street outside Candybar) and unloaded the car, and Carmen took the car back to Steve's because it was Sunday Streets, which is where they shut down some of the streets to cars. So we quickly unpacked and got the car out of there. Then we moved the stuff to the back and once it was all secure we went back to Steve's (which is Steve and Erin's and their roommate....ohh I've forgotten his name, he is German but it isn't a-FABIAN! He is name is Fabian. Okay). Anyway, it is multiple people's place. Because like many dense cities, there are as many people as possible crammed into houses.

Hung out there. Phil arrived. Josh showed up. We chatted and snacked and chatted some more. It was nice.

At 1ish we went back to Candybar (everything was all in the same neighborhood, just a few blocks from one another, OOHH earlier we dropped a speaker and stand off at the house that the second gig of the day was to be held). I mostly held guard while things were getting set up, and hauled this and that.

The set was awesome! Some of the tunes sounded different live. They played on the street, and lots of people congregated and listened to many of their songs. I danced a bit along with Erin and Dina and Robert. Dina petted many dogs. It was fun. It was warm. It was outside. And Odd Owl ROCKED! They always do, but yeah.

They broke down the set, and we hauled the equipment the couple blocks to the Wigg Party House Party Party thingy? It was another instance of getting things to a place and going back to Casa Steve and Erin to chill for a bit.

The Wigg Party shindig was full of nice people, though I mostly hung with those I knew. Steve had set up the entertainment and Julia, a street performer, was first. She has a beautiful voice, is talented on the accordion, is a superlative whistler, and can juggle AND balance on a ball? Her set was lovely.

Steve played some awesome diddys on his guitar.

The next guy whose name I have forgotten was also swell.

Then Odd Owl! Though it was the same set just about. OH! They had a cover of Very Superstitious which was awesome. So quality. It was quite chilly in the backyard of the house, where the show was happening, so we danced to get warm. I had my arms around Erin and Tanya and we did a three lady kickline. That was fun. I danced and ate corn and chatted and they sold some merchandise and I gave out my card. All was awesome. It was corn on the cob. Dina, Robert and I cheers'd each other with our corn, though it turned into a bit of a sword fight. My kind of party!

All was awesome today. Josh dropped me off at my car. I got back at a reasonable hour, and since I don't work till noon tomorrow I get to sleep in a bit.

Yay!

GH w/ D.L.W. & OO & G

Oh maaan. I went to Pizza My Heart to meet Daniel for lunch, and while in line this guy just rubbed his shoulder against mine and when I gave him a clearly "what the fuck?" look he said, "you haven't been harassed that much, have you?". I just sort of sputtered and looked around for Daniel to show up.

Uhhhgg creeper. There are some weird burned out people in Santa Cruz. Too much sun.

But after that, lunch was nice. This is the same Daniel I met at the game shindig and later met for We burgers. We chatted about families and linguistics and television and Japanese game shows. I never thought about the differences between the words holiday and vacations. The former is typically for days off and the latter for trips and relaxation, though I use both interchangeably, whereas some don't use holiday at all. It was a nice afternoon.

Doctor Who was fun. Did my laundry. Went grocery shopping. Worked on some sketches. I've feeling quails. Quails are in right now for me. That and echidnas. Still working on some sketches, though I have to be in San Francisco by 9:50 at the latest tomorrow. It is a hang out with Odd Owl and other cool people day! Hurray!

Ohh I'm yawning. Sleep soon.

where is Hank Hill when you need him?

Today was a very short work day due to some sort of unforseen circumstances. Nothing bad! It just abbreviated the day. Monday should be busy though.

We got some shirts done. I cleaned some screens. Like I said, short day.

Got out early but didn't get a lot accomplished with that time. Bad!

Ate a tuna sandwich for lunch. Talked to Madeline.

Are there no 40 foot smoking distance laws in California? Every time I am on Front and Pacific I always leave feeling choked out by the smell of it. Bleh. Saw Natural Born Killers at the Del Mar. Midnight showing. Talked to a couple foreign students in the line. Got to use a bit of my much neglected Japanese.

It was quite a weird movie. Weirdly shot. Just...odd. Violent but I'm pretty desensitized to stuff now so err.

I feel funky. Damn that cigarette smoke! In the future, I won't arrive so early to the showings.

fishwife

I pan fried up one of the tuna fillets. Go me! And it cooked through and through. And it was tasty. And I squeezed a bit of lemon over it. Go Trillian, being all learning new cooking stuff even though she is 24 and a half. When did I become 24? That seems strange.

Anyway. So I did that. And I felt good about doing that.

Work was work. But isn't it nice to say that? I've settled in, I know how things go, I am part of it. I still ask questions and confirm things. We ran a couple shirt jobs. I burned and taped some screens. Since I found out my new mp3 player saves your place in audiobooks (there is a separate menu for them! and it saves your place! perfect for me!) I've been listening to Brideshead Revisted at a slower place. I am almost done though. Might go back to a Discworld book. In the mood for something light hearted.

Weekend coming up. I have some plans. Midnight movie probably. Go up "over the hill" as they say in reference to going from Santa Cruz north on 17.

Kelly Green

Oh maaaan. Janet made a mudslide cake thing. And she saved me a slice! It was so good! Ohh she is awesome. Joey was looking at it expectantly, so I told the doggie that it was horrible. But that was a lie. It was so delicious. Best housemate EVER.

So apparently you can get a working visa for New Zealand? Like you can stay there for a year and work....sort of tourist but not really? Something to consider as a means to get to another country.

Work was good. I ran the press. Printed some shirts. Talked to Cara (Kara? Carah? Karah?) who was catching. Ran some towels as well. Coated screens. Patched some screens. Weeded vinyl. Helped with the laminator. Full work day. Have lots of gunk under my nails. Wasn't the cleanest of work days.

The boss gave me some smoked tuna, so that was my dinner. Need to cook that uncooked fish he gave me. Tomorrow, I'll cook it tomorrow. And hopefully not give myself food poisoning from undercooking it.

I need to work on some thumbnails for a drawing. Yup yup.

something smells fishy, actually it doesn't because fish doesn't smell until it goes bad

Just moved my clothes into the dryer. So awesome having laundry on site.

My boss went fishing over the weekend and gave me some of the albacore tuna that he caught! What an awesome dude. Some of it was cooked already, so I had that for dinner. Booyah. I'll cook up the rest of it in the next couple days. Just have to figure out what method. I called mom and dad for recipes, but they had conflicting responses.

At work I cleaned and reclaimed screens and weeded vinyl. A mellow short shift, and it started later in the day so I had time to consume a big breakfast.

Work, called ma, ate tuna, laundry. That was my Tuesday.

"grr grunt" was all he said

Labor Day, Labor Day! Gaaah I'm no good with three day weekends. Give me work! Thankfully work is tomorrow.

I did stuff today, which was nice. I got out! And my housemate saw me leave, which is good. Because when I go out and in when she is gone, and she comes back and never sees me leave...well I don't feel judged by her at all, just that no, I am social to an extent! I leave the house!

Anyway. Was meeting another of those online fellas for a movie and food. Steve! We caught the 4:30 matinee of Lawless at the Del Mar. The movie was pretty neat. Guy Pearce and Tom Hardy stole the show a bit. The costumes were awesome. The dialogue was good. Hardy's character's lines were a bunch of grunts and expressions. That man is built like a slab of beef. Just, massive. Good actor though.

After the movie we got some burgers and chatted about travel and games and things. We spent the rest of the night walking down to the boardwalk and up and down the beach. It was a nice night for it. A bit hazy. The lights of the boardwalk were quite pretty. Steve's in computers. Nice guy, nice evening.

Breaking Bad had an awesome finale.

Work tomorrow! Yaaay! Cleaning, reclaiming, probably burning. Booyah.

I miss work. I don't like three day weekends.

Spent a bit of the afternoon sitting on my porch and drawing my neighborhood from my vantage point. That was enjoyable. The drawings are in the post, headed to some destinations. I don't like to hold onto my art. Hahah. I also wrote up a few postcards and those are in the mail. It is good to keep up correspondence.

I need to buy more stamps. Have stamps, will mail.

I cuddled with Joey the dog a bit.

Near the end of the day I started to feel a bit weary and poorly once again. Not quite a cold. Just a sort of weakness. Need to eat more vegetables or protein or something like that.

Oh the shirts I ordered came in the mail yesterday. They are REALLY COOL. One is glow in the dark. So cool. I don't have a picture of me wearing any of the shirts and I can't be bothered to link to an image of what they look like. Either way, I am happy with my purchase.

I'm going to go to bed. If I am tired, why force it?

Check out my sheeeeelves

My current Tetris shelf set up.

Woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Well, 9am ish. I was showered and fed by 10. Weird. Still felt really tired. Probably because I was up late and up early.

I watched the new episode of Doctor Who. It was good! Scary, a bit relationshippy, but it seems to have a lot of promise in this new up coming season. Had some pasta for lunch. I went grocery shopping and got my usual staples.

Today I was feeling very Marvin the Paranoid Android. Just sort of tired and glum. Not getting out didn't help. Ah oh well. There is tomorrow. And the day after. Then back to work!

I like work.

Man, almost 1am already? Time really flies when you take a nap.

out and about, and then back, and then woosh out and about again! twice! in one night!

Just got back from the Del Mar. Went to see a midnight showing of Super Troopers with this guy Ryan, who I met on that site with the people on it that isn't Facebook. We met a bit before hand and walked around downtown and he pointed out this and that. He has been in Santa Cruz most of his life, so he knows whats up. There are midnight showings every Friday and Saturday, so I think I should make regular appearances and get in with the locals and make friends. There were two Taylors and an Adam who sat behind us and they were chatty and nice. The movie was pretty silly. A good thing to watch late at night.

My shift at work today was a short one. Caught shirts. Broke down the press (a term for removing all the squeegees, floodbars, and screens), set up the next job, caught and boxed that. Cleaned the squeegees and floodbars, removed the tape and scraped the ink from the screens. I left them to be cleaned on Tuesday. Three day weekend!

For dinner I met up with Daniel, one of the guys from the Monday night game group. We met at Betty's, though we both showed up at DIFFERENT Betty's. Oooops. He is really nice. We showed each other our sketches, talked about language and Japan and tactics for making friends in a new city.

I accidentally took Seabright back (on my bike) instead of Murray, but I know Seabright runs parallel to Ocean, so all I had to do was turn left on Broadway and that intersects with Ocean and zoom I was home. It wasn't that far out of the way. Glad to know I know how to get around a bit.

The late night movie wasn't planned till after dinner. It was a nice impromptu thing.

I still want to see Cosmopolis and Lawless.

Thursday already?

Did some uber taping on a job. And some tandem burning. Seems like we have a big job coming up! We normally don't tape like that unless it is a high volume. I caught shirts. I listened to Jeremy Irons read Brideshead Revisited. Damn that man has a nice voice.

Had a salad for dinner (turns out my lettuce had been moved to a veggie drawer. Thankfully I noticed this BEFORE it went bad). Hard boiled some eggs to make an egg salad sandwich. I've had so many pb & j sammiches. I'm not sick of them, but I want to add variety before I get totally sick of the easiest thing to make in the morning.

Yesterday, and the day before, it was pretty hot in the studio. Today it was a bit chilly but I was near the heater so whatever. Movement warms the body!

Tomorrow I have some evening plans. Hurray! With someone else! Hurray!

I need to draw something. Well, I have some things on my slate to draw. I really need to to-do list the stuff I have to do...BOOM just made the list.

I wonder if I have a three day weekend? Hmmn. I don't really care if I don't.

breezing through them books

Weeding! That is the term for peeling vinyl. Weeding vinyl. That thing. I did more of that. I almost drove up to San Jose for a pick up, but that didn't happen. I caught and boxed shirts. I picked vinyl off these signs. Not the most eventful of shifts.

And not the most eventful of nights. Talked online with people. Washed dishes. Washed my sheets. I need to start taking some further initiative. Sunday and Monday were initiative taking days, why not Tuesday and Wednesday?

I finished Whose Body? I like the character of Wimsey and will probably listen to more of his adventures and mysteries in the immediate future, but now I have a copy of Brideshead Revisited that is read by Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons wins all. Such a great voice.

peeler

Today I learned how to remove cut vinyl thingies from their vinyl! And I learned whilst peeling the excess from our really complicated logo. So many little bits, so many ways to muss it up. Vinyl trial by fire. Still, good to acquire even more skills. I finished The Light Fantastic and started Whose Body? a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel. Wanted a change of pace.

Earlier in the shift I burned and taped some screens and coated a fresh batch. Getting better at it!

But most of the day was spent peeling vinyl. It went by pretty fast actually, once I got the hang of it. There is still more to peel. I'll also learn how to put them on the other stuff, to make them transferable to things, though I think I've figured that out.

Back at home I chowed down on carbs and put my feet up. We have all these screens taped, but no shirts are in the shop. Either a weekend shift is coming up oooor....I don't know.

game on!

Guess who was social tonight? I was social tonight! But thanks to a different website. On the Santa Cruz sub-forum on Reddit, someone posted about things to do and ways to meet people, and someone mentioned a board game group that meets at Woodstock's Pizza every Monday, and lo and behold, Woodstock's is a quick bike ride from my house. So I decided, provided I got out of work not exhausted or too later, to check it out.

I worked a three hour shift today. Just clean up and reclaiming, and it started late.Very mellow. After work I washed my car, and now it looks quite pretty. It was getting a bit pollen-y.

So yeah. I rode my bike over to the pizza place. First time riding my bike in this city. Not two minutes was I out before someone said, "I like your helmet." Polka dots win again. There is a bike path along the river, which keeps one off San Lorenzo, which is nice. Really easy bike ride. Not really anything in the way of hills.

Oh, in regards to the cable bike lock (responding to Dad's phone message in my blog instead of calling). You could mail me another care package, or put it in Nathan's luggage when he visits. Either way.

Anyway, back to today's narrative. The table of gamers was obvious, mostly on account of the games they were setting up. There was Alan, Andy, Jeff, Jim, Chris, Daniel, and Kathleen. Boom, remembered their names. We split into two groups. Daniel, Andy, Alan and I played Evo, while the others played some other game that I've forgotten the name of. Evo is this sort of complicated dinosaur evolution thingy thing. It was fun and I won! I had a lot of dinosaurs on the board during game play, so I got a lot of gold from that. We played Seven Civilizations next, at least I think that is what it is called. I came in last. Still, it was fun. I like these sorts of games, though they take a lot of instruction. But now I know two games! And if I have the time, I'll be back next Monday. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, and the pizza was good (feta and chicken, my usual pizza order).

Rode my bike back. A really easy ride too. What a nice night! I'm being social! Yaaaay!

what I hinted at yesterday is...

Okie dokie. Soooo. I decided to give online dating a try. All though more for the meeting people/getting out of the house and checking out the area aspect of it than the finding someone to date part. Went with OkCupid because it is free, and if Carmen met Josh on it, then there should be some really awesome people? Anyway. I have good instincts and know how it goes: meet first in a public space, let someone know where you are going, set a good end time. Among other cautious things.

So today I hung out with Amir in the Stanford Library. Amir is a TA for the English program at said fancy college, and is starting work on his dissertation. Smart stuff. And he showed me the tea cupboard, and let me have as much tea as I wanted. I only had one cup, but I could have had two. It was a beautiful day, and we walked around the campus and talked about books and perception and travel and linguistics and all sorts of topics.

Not a bad little meeting, not a bad one at all.

Afterwards I went to Redwood City and hung out with Nathan. Ate a burrito, drank soda, talked video games, saw what my painting looks like matted and framed (it looks GOOOOOD), and watched an episode of Breaking Bad.

All in all, a pretty good Sunday. Now I await Breaking Bad.

Tomorrow I start work a bit later, so an extra sleep in day is nice.

cleaning house

Got my paycheckola, and since I definitly have enough to more than cover rent I went shopppping! For paper towels, Draino, car soap, and other household things...because I'm an adult and I have to buy those things instead of tickets to Disneyworld. All though actually I wouldn't buy that anyway. I did get some Seagram's Sweet Tea flavored vodka, because you can buy that sort of thing in Californian Targets. That and lemonade, which when mixed together makes for a lovely drink. I also got a new MP3 player! Now my tunes are easier to access. Hurray! It is a little clip on thing and should serve me nicely. Amazing how the same size mp3 player in the iPod line of things costs $80 more. Why spend that much more money? I don't understand.

Anyway. Ran them errands. I wanted to wash my car, but a doucher parked way too far across our driveway for me to feel safe getting in, so I parked elsewhere, which ended up being too far away from a hose. So my car will go dirty another day.

I scrubbed the bathtub though. It was looking grubby. Cleaned the little no slip thing and scrubbed away the stuff that had collected under it. And poured Draino down the drain. It was draining slow and I couldn't get the stopper off to try and dig out the culprit (probably hair). So I poured down some chemicals and 30 minutes later it drained like gangbusters. It is back to looking nice again. And draining nice.

Had a scramble for a late lunch and half an avocado creme cheese sandwich for a late dinner. Had my Arnold Palmer as well, and that was tasty indeed.

Got some plans for tomorrow. I'll tell you about them after they happen.

Oh and I watched the first episode of Parade's End. It was awesome.

a Friday like normal people have

Work started late and it ended up being a long shift, so that occupied most of my day. I did some awesome registration. Getting better at that. Yay me! Scrubbed the wash out booth a bit more, now it looks super clean. The track listing on The Light Fantastic (the next Discworld book) was out of whack, so I listened to more Raffles once I was done with Drawing of the Three. I think come next paycheck, I'll get myself a new mp3 player. I don't need an uber one. Just one that I can select what I want to listen to.

I'm not working any weekend shifts. I have a weekend! Woah! What ever am I going to do?

muscle bound

I pulled or twerked something in my arms, because my muscles are really sore. Or maybe that just means they are growing because I have been using them? Either way, oof! Not a way to spend ones Thursday night. I spent the last of my cash on groceries, like a mature adult. Oh I have money in the bank. Just the last of my cashola is gone. Now I have oatmeal and bread and seaweed and granola bars and apples and bananas and eggs and all sorts of things. Hurray!

At work I caught shirts. I sorted through the shirt bin and separated used up test shirts from the not so used up ones. I taped some screens. I mixed some emulsion. I cleaned some screens and squeegees. A regular mixed day. I'm getting a bit tired of Drawing of the Three. It is picking up a bit but I am ready to move on to a Discworld book. Don't know how excited I'll be to return to a Dark Tower book, but we'll see where I am with that when I finish the audiobook after this one.

Ahhh my arms hurt. How did this happen?

The weekend is almost upon me. I don't know if a big job is coming in or...

emulsion applying level up

A neighbors cat was stuck on top of our shed, and I helped them get her down. Lots of "Lily! Lily! Lily!" calling. So sometimes my neighborhood is quaintly normal.

Dinner was pasta and tea, consumed while watching a bit of Inception. I did a load of work laundry. Even though I live within sight of a laundromat, it is really awesome to have laundry on site.

At work. It was emulsion applying time. And THIS TIME....I didn't mess it up. I was super awesome in fact! Woosh flip woosh woosh flip woosh! I just didn't have the rhythm or coordination or whatever down. But it all clicked today. And when time came to do a second batch, once enough of the first ones had dried to make room on the rack for more wet ones, I did those without Andrew to guide me. BOOYAH! Getting better at my job every day I do it. Awesome. So yeah, that felt good. Also learned more about patching screens. There are six screens remaining to be emulsified. Just don't have the room. Gotta burn some screens!

I used the heat applicator thing and put some images on things that were not quite screenprintable surfaces. Listened to a big chunk of The Drawing of the Three. Well, it felt like a big chunk. Hard to tell when your mp3 player has no display.

Not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow at work. Lots of burning? Print helping? Short day?

pressure washing queen

My blog anniversary is technically the 20th, I just notice things late sometimes. Five years of near daily blogging! That is pretty neat. All of my college days. Now my post college days. What is next? I guess the more independent days?

Work was as expected. Had squeegees and floodbars to clean. And had a ton of screens to clean and reclaim. 25? Around that. Though closer to 40 because some older burned screens got added to the pile when it came to reclaiming. Full day of work doing just that. Full day of Colour of Magic and moving on to The Drawing of the Three. Well, not really full because the pressure washer drowns out any audio I am listening to.

Tomorrow we apply emulsion to the screens...which is something I'm not really good at (not the studio method, anyway). But the way to get better at doing something is to practice! So practice I shall and hopefully I won't mess it up too much.

I consumed a carb-tastic dinner of rice and seaweed. It looks my salad in a bag got composted while I was gone. That stuff does go wilty pretty quick. Will go food shopping tomorrow. Down to one apple and banana! Oh no!

props

Breaking news: Trillian tries huckleberry pancakes and enjoys them! Dad made them for breakfast, and chided me for being picky, so I consumed the long avoided breakfast food and found it scrumptious.

Heather and Daniel met my parents and everyone seemed to get on well. Lots of great conversations about travel and family and garages and art and other things. After breakfast, they were shown around the property and we walked down into the valley. Holly followed and had a good time of it. The creek runs dry in the summer. I like showing people the Seabeck house. It has a lot of cool stuff, and the surrounding area is nice. It is a bit hectic and eclectic, but that adds to the charm. We sent H & D on their way with some rhubarb and drinks, and then I packed up.

Time ran short, so I was driven to the airport. Probably the last time that will happen. Airporter from now on, hhaha. There was the fear of traffic, but that was unfounded. I arrived two hours before my flight, but got my boarding pass, bag checked, and was through security in about 10 minutes. And my gate was right there...so for an hour and a half I relaxed. Ate some fish & chips. Logged onto the airport Wifi.

The planes I flew today were both prop engine smaller planes, and I loved that! And being smaller, I got on and off really easily. I read my book, looked out the window, enjoyed the complimentary beverages. I had a 50 minute transfer in Portland, but the gate I had to take was a couple over from where I came off the Seattle flight, and again was left with a bunch of time. I got some candy and logged onto Wifi again. The flight to San Jose was an hour and a half, and the first flight was barely over 30 minutes. So quick!

Arrived in SJ, got my checked box of stuff, got on a shuttle, got to my car, paid for parking, and drove southward to Santa Cruz. Easy drive. My Christmas Tetris shelves are now set up in a tower on my bedside table. They look quite cool with their assorted nick knacks in them.

Long day, time to rest because it is back to work tomorrow!

Cherish & Isaiah

Tucked into bed after a lovely day.

The wedding was lovely. The venue was pretty and nicely staged. The company was excellent. The food was divine and plentiful. Ah nice.

I arrived about 15 minutes late (due to much traffic in downtown), but people were still being seated when I arrived, so all was well after a bit of driving stress. I sat with Daniel, Heather, Danielle, Jared, and Jason. The latter two being the boyfriends of Danielle and Sandra (who was a bridesmaid) respectively. There were four long tables set up, with the aisle between the middle two. The ceremony was surprisingly religious, but I think there is a lot of religion on the two sides of the family. Their vows were really cute. Nerdy, but cute. Cherish looked gorgeous. Her dress had so many nice details and she had a veil and all this great stuff. Isaiah had a great mustache and a bowtie. Really lovely. I didn't take any pictures, because I was a bit far away and I figured the wedding photographer would do a better job anyway. I did do some sketches, so I have that. Had a couple brewskies. Gorged myself on salmon, chicken, gnocchi, bread, beans, salad, and rice. Yum. It was a buffet style, which is a good way of doing it. There were banana cupcakes for the cake, and they were amazing. It was a nice ceremony, and oh so smart to do it at the venue. None of that driving to the reception stuff that is so silly.

It was nice to see friends, to have good company and good food.

Breakfast was poached egg on toast with melted cheese. I looked through some of my bins and sorted out some clothes. We caught the 3pm ferry from Bremerton. Ma and Pa planned to spend the day in Seattle, so that was nice. Got the lift from them, and a life back from Daniel & Heather.

Heather had only been on a ferry once before in her life, so she enjoyed the Edmonds/Kingston ferry ride. It was a starry night. Back in Seabeck, we hot tubbed it up. Tomorrow we shall have breakfast and I'll give them a tour. Then I'll figure out how the heck I'm getting to the airport, and what I am packing with me.

Nice to be with friends. Nice to spend time with people that matter. It was about five years ago that I started this blog. Look how far I've come!

A Return to Washington

Kind of amazing how eight hours of travel, through many different means, can take a person from Santa Cruz, California to Seabeck, Washington. My alarm went off at 5:30. I got up and showered at 6ish. Packed my things up. Prepared an avocado creme cheese sandwich to eat on the road, and at 7:00am, off I went to the San Jose airport! The roads were not crowded in the slightest, and it was really easy to get into parking. I arrived two hours before my flight, but I could have been way later, as I was not checking a thing. Got my boarding pass, got through security, and walked up and down the terminal hoping for a frozen yogurt place, but settled for a hot chocolate and muffin from Starbucks.

The 10:00am flight was uneventful. I'm a really unanxious flyer. I just get to my seat and all is well. Take off is fun, the bumps along the way don't worry me. An hour and a half later and we were touching down. Got off the plan quickly, and strolled to the light rail, and it pulled out of Sea Tac at around 12:30. I've never ridden the light rail train in Seattle before. It is new. Part of the way I sat next to a guy who was browsing Reddit on his phone. We struck up a conversation about the various subreddits we subscribe to, and he asked me if I liked banana slugs, which is a pretty effectual pick up line when it comes to me and my way of going about life. Not that I think he was picking me up, because the ride was too short and I live in Santa Cruz. Shame. But nice to remember that I can easily chat up someone when I notice a big common interest like a shared favorite website.

Walked from the University Street stop down to the ferry, and just in luck the Bremerton ferry was unloading! Hopped on the 1:30pm ferry to Bremerton. Read from the drudging tome that is Shadow of Night. I was so enthusiastic for the book, and it has been such a let down. Gah! Oh well. I am determined to finish it before I start any more books (exception being Neuromancer, which is for a book club I have joined). Ma and Pa were there with hugs, and we ate at the Bremerton Bar & Grill. My steak dip sandwich was good eating, and we caught up and chatted. At 4:00pm I was in Seabeck. The house is looking really tidy and squared away. Things are all organized. And there is an influx of cool Mats Mats things. Too bad the Bingo box is full of Bingo, because it is a really cool box, I just am not going to trash its contents, ya know?

We walked the dog. I met the new outdoor kitty, thusly named Salvador. Helped dad with the arbor. We hot tubbed. Then went to see ParaNorman.

As we pulled into the theater, I saw Jared and Jamie and waved frantically and hugged them. Ahhh! How great to see friends randomly like that. This visit is a very short one, so I haven't agreed to meet anyone save for the wedding and my parents. We chatted briefly and parted ways.

ParaNorman was great. I only wish it were longer, but the animation was so beautiful and obviously time consuming. It didn't treat kids like morons, the humor was great, and did I mention the amazing animation? It was amazing. So much creativity and thought and technological awesomeness.

Back at home, I sorted through my library and pulled a few choice books. Tomorrow, before I head to the wedding (which isn't till 5 in the evening) I want to check out the sizes of the frames in the house, and go through my left behind things a bit. I didn't check baggage coming up, but I will when I return.

A long day, but not wholly exhausting. I got through many different types of transportation effortlessly and with confidence. That seems like something worth noting. Airport navigation? No problem. Getting off at the right train stop and knowing where to walk to get to a ferry terminal? Also no problem. Were I a tourist, it would be much more difficult. Proud of me. Go me!

Weekend in Washington

I just cut up an avocado to turn into an avocado creme cheese sandwich for tomorrow. Breakfast! Likely to be consumed while driving to San Jose. The day rate of parking at the airport is expensive, but I'll only be there for a couple days. In the future, I'll look into the other parking lots. Or look into getting rides from other people, like Nathan! Like, I park my car at his place, and get a ride...all though I think Redwood City to San Jose might still be a distance? Anyway. Something to think about on a later date.

I had salad for dinner. And Toblerone dessert.

Work was work. I helped pop stickers out of their cuttings. I caught shirts. I even registered a couple jobs and was trusted that they were properly lined up (it was one color jobs, but still it is nice to be trusted like that). I cleaned the ink off screens, I cleaned the gunk off squeegees and floodbars. I listened to Colour of Magic. I sweated A LOT because it was really warm and I was working in areas of the studio that the fans were not quite pointed at.

Not that I don't like my work when I say "work was work" just that I can't quite come up with anything new to say about it? Come Tuesday, I'll have a lot of screens to clean and reclaim. And squeegees to clean. Lots of MP3 player time!

I should get to bed now. Wait. No, I have laundry. I should pack, and take care of everything, so that when laundry comes out I can hurry up and fold it, and THEN go to bed. Yes.

ALSO, Heather sent me this great drawing of Benedict Cumberbatch. It is now on my wall, and it looks so very good. Love it.

from Roland to Rincewind

At work I made the suggestion to make a test print of gradients, so that we have a reference in the future (we were working with gradient underbases and it was tricky) and the bossman liked the idea. Hurray! Good suggestions from me! It's always good to put forward ideas. Yay me.

It was a long shift, as the set up for the job was complex. I caught shirts and burned and taped screens. Always with the burning of screens. I was also shown how to mix ink. It was a weight measurement type system. 1000 grams of ink, and the division of the inks within that.

I finished The Gunslinger. Pretty good, though very much an establishing story. Not interesting enough on its own, but a good set up for the rest of the Dark Tower series. Moved on to Colour of Magic. I think I'll alternate between Discworld and Dark Tower books. Both are a lot shorter than Reamde, which was nearly 40 hours, and I only listen to my MP3 player for about a third of my shift duties. When I'm catching, reclaiming, washing out, or assisting directly in any capacity, I turn the player off. Cleaning the ink, burning, and taping are the main audiobook friendly duties at work.

Got home 8ish. Ate some carbs. Watched some 10th Kingdom. Tomorrow I think I'll be cleaning screens and catching, and then the day after that I visit home! The last time I saw my parents, I just was offered the job, and the time before that I was leaving to California to find a job. It looks up more every time I see them!

the burninator

The 10th Kingdom is on Netflix Instant! Yay! I loved that miniseries! There goes the rest of my night, haha.

Today I burned and washed out and taped up 17 screens. Lots of jobs. I was offered a weekend shift, but had to decline on account of going up to Washington for the wedding. He already forgot I asked for the time off, haha! But at least I still have it?

Anyway. Also did some more dusting. Cleaned the top off the dryer. Everything is looking really nice in the shop. I didn't touch any ink, and so I didn't get any ink on me! But I was constantly drying off because of washing out screens.

I listened to a good chunk of The Gunslinger. I'm not sure if I just want to go through all of The Dark Tower series or switch between that and Terry Pratchett's Discworld. I have Colour of Magic on my mp3 player as well as The Drawing of the Three, so we shall see what I feel like when I finish Gunslinger.

I was taking out the recycling and compost bins, and my neighbor was nice enough to inform me about the proper placement of the bins (and how the trash isn't actually left out or something??). Nice neighbor, yay!

Dinner was breakfast. As in scrambled eggs and bacon and diced onion. With ice creme for dessert. Yum!

dust in the wind, and in my lungs

Spent the night, after my dinner of Udon and egg, cutting the hems off my work shirts. And collars, and bits of the sleeves. Basically the end bits. The collars were sitting a bit tight and uncomfortable. And the shirts I but in 6/7 packs for like, eleven bucks, so if I cut them up and they get wonky, it's not the biggest loss. Not that I'll toss them, just that they are work shirts. Now they are much more comfortable, and not so long! I wish Hanes made ladies shirts in the six packs. Maybe I should get XL boys shirts instead of S mens? I'll think about that next time I buy another six pack. Hahah. So I did that, and watched Captain America on Netflix. That was my night. Exciting!

My housemate Amanda was Skypeing with her boyfriend in the kitchen, and he startled me. Mostly because she was talking to someone who didn't seem to be there, and when I turned around, BAM there he was (on her iPad). I went "AHH!" and then scuttled out of the kitchen muttering about kids and their technology.

At work I burned some screens. Nine screens for three different jobs. Wait. No. I taped nine screens. I burned seven. And the rest of the time was spent doing some end of summer cleaning. Andrew vaccumed, and I cleaned the press. I dusted the press, and cleaned the ink off the press, and dusted some more. The studio looks really nice now. I also did some surface cleaning, and put away some ink. It's nice to take the time to clean, especially since due to the break, there is a lull in jobs. Not a big lull, just the pace slowed and we got the time to clean it all up, and now it should get back in action.

My skin is settling into a nice shade of tan. My face doesn't hurt from the peeling. It is still a bit pink on some areas of my body, but I don't think it will peel. My back has a really weird pattern to it. Ah, oh well.

bluebell and bugs (this is a reference to the shirts I bought)

Thought I had a bruise on my arm. Turns out it was just a smudge of ink. Back at work and it feels so good!

I ended up not starting till noon, and it was just a clean up day. Lots of screens to have their tape and ink and emulsion removed. Lots of squeegees and floodbars to be cleaned. Bossman had a good time in Nicaragua. I listened to some A.J. Raffles stories. I think these are creative commons and should be free to download for the Kindle. I might have put them on there already Mom. They are by E.W. Hornung, who is Doyle's brother in law or something, and Raffles is pretty much the opposite Sherlock Holmes. The stories are endearing. I recommend them.

Payday! I went grocery shopping at my beloved Trader Joe's. Yay! Food! I was out of granola bars, and now I have a variety. Also treated myself to a couple teeshirts. Really cool ones, and bought them through Etsy, so direct from the artist, which is always good. I feel better about treating myself if I am supporting an artist in the process. Plus they are awesome shirts, and I've had my eye on them for about half a year now.

Had pasta for dinner. I think I'll make myself an avocado creme cheese sandwich for lunch tomorrow. That is some good stuff right there.

Pretty good Monday.

an incident

That was. I don't know what that was.

At around 8pm I heard shouting from the San Lorenzo side of the street. This one woman yelling about narcs and disrespect. She was moving towards the Barson end, in some sort of retreat/walk away, but a couple people followed, and more people followed them. I don't know if they just wanted to make sure she left, because if there was a confrontation it happened out of my line of sight. She didn't seem to come to any violence. But she came back, screaming more about family and disrespect, east side, and throwing out threats. A man in the group she was yelling at lifted his shirt to expose his stomach. I don't know if he was showing her something, if it was some threat signal I'm unaware of, a taunt...or what. She eventually left for good, and what appeared to be a policeman on a motorcycle rolled down the street.

I don't know what I'm feeling. It seems like some form of shock. Again, as I am not in a gang I don't think I have much to directly fear. I'm on the far end of the street, opposite where the drive by occurred.

I'm just going to play it safe; play it cautious. Janet has lived in this house for 15 years. It can't be all bad? Would you stay in the same bad neighborhood for fifteen years? Especially if you were a renter, and were not tied to a mortgage.

I took the compost out. Took the trash out. Took care of my skin. Ate food. Tidied up. The rest of the day was pretty good.

*****

I made the above post about 45 minutes after it happened. I've had some time to calm down. If I wasn't home, I wouldn't have know what happened. If I wasn't home when the cops inquired if I knew anything about the shooting, I probably wouldn't have known about it either. It's amazing how ignorant a person can be of things if they are not around to witness them. I shall continue on. Cautious, yes, but optimistic.

Things get bad, but things get better if given enough time.

clang clang, clang clang

My skin is peeeeeeling, and I want to claw it off. But instead I am moisturizing and that is doing nicely.

Sat on the couch and read Shadow of Night. It is picking up again! Hurray! Again, it is best when she is away from Matthew and doing magic witchy stuff. Matthew just sort of drags the plot down.

Ate pasta. Stayed inside. Kept moisturized. Only one day left. I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I'd like to during this break. Oops. Oh well. I'll keep working.

Amanda, my roommate, and her friend hung out at the house a bit.

Now I'm reading some comics and thinking about projects I want to accomplish.

This song (just the song, there isn't a video) is my song of the night:


1:30am edit:

I ended up going to get wings with my housemate Amanda and her friend Heather. We brought the wings back to the kitchen nook, and consumed them with some beer and gabbed and chatted. I did a little drawing of Heather's dog, and drew in my sketchbook, and we chatted and it was nice. They were both in a sorority together, so it is interesting to get a perspective into that social scene a bit. Not so different.

Wellington Camel

My face is starting to peel. Yay!

I spent most of the day working on a couple paintings. Watched cartoons and other shows and listened to Snow Crash and all was good. Ate noodles and scramble and drank tea. Kept inside. Found an aloe plant and smeared its insides on my burnt outsides. Pretty good day. I do enjoy working on art.

Oh! I bought a piece of Samantha Mash's artwork off of Etsy, it was shockingly cheap, and it arrived in the mail and I promptly put it in a frame.

It's the piece in the top left, the two Martin Freeman pieces are by my friend Daniel, aka W.C. Williams. I like my little desk set up. Yes that is a jar full of peanut M&Ms, DON'T JUDGE ME!

My vacation is winding down, but that is good because I'm getting antsy. I want to get back to working! Employment rocks.

Anyway, yeah. A home day. Just me and my art. It was good though.

13. That is just a kid!

Last night on my street, a 13 year old was killed in a drive by shooting. The police say it was gang related. I didn't hear anything, and the reports indicate only two gunshots, so it wasn't as if the whole block was shot up. It's so sad. 13! That is, that is way too young. I'm not scared of my neighborhood. It's quite the specific crime. Okay it does show I'm not in a great place, but I don't feel unsafe in my own home, or walking down the street during the day. I just need to be cautious during the night time.

And stay away from gangs.

A policeman and a lady who seemed to be a translator came to my doorstep to ask if I remembered anything. I remember some sirens, but sirens are not uncommon in any city, especially if you live nearish to downtown.

So. There was that.

I also woke up with super puffy swollen eyes. Some reaction to the sun exposure yesterday, I'm sure. So I spent a lot of the day with a cold compress on my face. And the swelling went down. My face hurts. It isn't extremely pink/red. It doesn't look burned. It just feels a bit tight. I can't find any aloe. I thought I packed it in my stuff, but I guess I didn't. So that constant agitation and tending to my puffyness kept me...doing that during the day and now it's night time.

Err. I'm really bad at productivity.

oh yeah, those are gunna be tan lines

Owww my faaace. I stayed in the sun for about 30 minutes more than I did yesterday, and at an earlier hour, and now I'm sunburnt! Not sure if it peeling level burnt, or just rather extremely pink burnt. Either way, I'll be taking it easy and staying indoors for the next couple days. I kept pushing my luck, didn't I? I hope my freckles don't get too engulfed. Either way, I think I've achieved a tan. Ha...ha..hmmmn. Yeah.

Listened to series 4 of Museum of Curiosity. It was pretty good. Finished watching the silly Teen Wolf. Finished off that enchilada casserole. Ate some salad.

Got up a bit earlier, hence the earlier start to the beach. Okay. Time to get down to vacation business!

Santa Cruz birds are up to no good

How are my freckles doing? I think they are coming along quite nicely. Just a few more days on the beach, and I should be good. I trimmed my bangs up nice and proper. Now they look artfully blunt, instead of inartfully wonky. Still, I keep them headbanded back when I'm on the beach. I listened to Museum of Curiosity and rotated my position every episode. That was relaxing.

Some seagulls tried to steal my sour patch kids. I was like "HEY!" and they scuttered off. Gotta keep an eye on my snacks, it would appear.

I had a salad and some rice and seaweed after the beach, and enchilada casserole before. One serving left and then it is all consumed! Hurrah! I didn't quite accomplish anything today. I think I got a case of the Tuesdays. That is to say that the week is just starting and there is also Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday and then BACK TO WORK! Yaaay work.

tarr jay

Spent another couple hours on the beach. My freckles are coming in nicely. I can't tell if I am tanning, but there are freckles. I just listened to The Unbelieveable Truth. Didn't feel like reading that damned tome Shadow of Night. But maybe I'll tuck into it.

Oh! I slept pretty well last night. My mattress pad is a bit lumpy and ill formed from its misuse on the floor (the padding isn't even dispersed anymore) but it should form itself a new. All in all, sleeping in a bed is quite nice. I am sleeping at a different angle, so that is something to get used to. It's a firm bed, but I don't mind firm.

I had oatmeal for breakfast, then a scramble for second breakfast, then walked around a bit, then went to the beach. I think I'll get an earlier start on the beach tomorrow. I leave it till 3/4ish, and after an hour and a half, it gets a bit chilly for sun lounging. If I went down around noon, after my main meal, things should be good. I want to be plenty freckly, and then I'll give it a rest. Or rather, I'll go back to work where I'll be mostly indoors and in turn that will make me give the sun exposure a rest. I saw a pretty wrinkly, though otherwise young looking lady, and that was a good warning. Still, the sun is quite comforting.

I also ran to Target and got some bath things, and some hair scissors, because my bangs are quite mangled and they need a better trim than my larger sheers can provide.

Now I'm loading up my MP3 player with all sorts of good audio things. Tomorrow, I shall put pencil to paper and make some art! Because I've been way slacking on the art stuff.

Nathan is awesome. Having a proper room set up is awesome.

Nathan was super awesome today. Took me to Ikea. Helped me get stuff from Ikea to my house. Helped me assemble stuff. Though he did do one thing backwards, but that was easily fixed. Hurray Nathan!

In case you are unaware, because sometimes I like to pretend that people who are not my Mom and Dad read my blog, Nathan is my brother.

Also Jared, you read my blog. Hi Jared! I think you knew Nate was my brother, but if you didn't there it is.

I set my alarm for 8, and it took my a while to realize why my alarm was going off. I got up, and did the routine, but I still was a bit slow leaving the house. Arrived in Redwood City at around 1ish. Got the extra futon and my buffalo plush.

Then off we went to Ikea! No trip to the blue and yellow mecca of flat pack is complete without starting with meatballs, and start we did. I had already scoped out stuff online, so I had a good idea about what things were on sale and what wasn't worth a gander. I started with a white color scheme, but it ended up being a natural wood (see: really basic) frame bed, with a dark brown bed side table (that is technically a coffee table), a dark gray metal shelf unit, and black legs for a white table top. I've been organizing my room, and there is a sort of division between the bedroom side and the art side, and with the table and already installed shelf both being white, it makes one side white, the other black, in scheme. Though with bits of red and blue throughout. Anyway, it all ties together. I want a comfy chair to go in the now freed corner. Like, a papasan or something. I also got an underbed storage thing, that is actually big enough to fit my shirts and trousers, so no need for a chest of drawers, unless I procure a lot more clothes. I also got a trashbin and some frames, and Nate got some things as well.

Traffic was a nightmare at this one intersection, because douchers kept pulling too far forward and blocking the intersection.

We assembled the desk first, then the bed, then I did the end table while Nate did the shelves. Then we ate enchilada casserole and cupcakes and watched the second episode of the fifth season of Breaking Bad. Nathan left after that, and he took some leftover casserole with him. Almost finished that beast off!

My bed looks nice. Can't wait to test it out! I'm off the floor, though not by much.

I hung some art up, the art that would fit in frames anyway, and also did a little tack + cut out image thingy for me to hang by necklaces and other small hangable stuff from. Now that's all in a line and it looks okay. Trying to not use tacks except where proper, like with calenders. I put a bunch of glue on my chipped/cracked Glam Breakfast mug, so now it is a pen holding mug. Now I have a desk, and a bed, and my room seems like a room. I'm getting situated! I'm thankful that I have a bit of time to continue to situate, and it isn't just straight back to work.

past the full moon

I didn't clean the fridge.

Did anyone else see that coming? Haha.

Naah, I did laundry though. And ate casserole, and creme cheese avocado sandwich, and oatmeal, and hot cocoa, and measured my room and artwork so that I'll be prepared for Ikea.

I also drank a couple beers and watched Teen Wolf, the MTV show, not the Michael J. Fox movie. I gotta admit, it's a cheesy show with a lot of inconsistencies and "really, this kid drives a 90k PORSCHE!?" but I'm hooked. Thankfully the season is short.

I miss work!

Tomorrow is Ikea! Yay!

Another relaxing day. Haven't started to bike around the city yet. I can't think of anything to do! Or a way to meet people besides signing up for classes somewhere, but classes cost moolah and I'm trying to watch that. Hmmmn.

new chrome in our domecile

Tickets confirmed, I am coming home! For one full day (during which I will be at Cherish and Isaiah's wedding) and two half days, during which I will be flying. Still, it will be nice to see the family and see Holly and all that. And also grab some clothes and books and things. And I'll get a chance to experience the San Jose airport. Yay?

Today I set my alarm. Enough sleeping in! Time to return to some sort of schedule. My tummy hurt through most of the day, so I took it easy. Got out and did some grocery shopping, as you can't make creme cheese avocado sandwiches without creme cheese.

All the cashiers at Trader Joe's are so nice. I wonder if they'll be friends with me? Oh god, I sound like the whale in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

We got a new faucet installed in the kitchen, as the last one was leaky. I didn't notice till Janet pointed it out to me. I should have noticed, because instead of having a separate hot and cold knob, it is one of those singular ones where you turn it one way for one, the other for the opposite, and inbetween is, well, inbetween. And it is shiny. And doesn't leak. For a mostly observational drawing artist, sometimes I can be really not observational.

There are seven avocados on the table in our breakfast nook. SEVEN! I need to look up a guacamole recipe, because uhm, SEVEN AVOCADOS!

The fridge was smelling a bit like old broccoli. The culprit was old broccoli. Composted that. I might spend tomorrow cleaning the fridge. It seems like the last roommate left food behind (as there were some eggs with a June expiration date). It isn't a big fridge. I think just getting to the back and making sure there are no more suspicious vegetables, ya know?

I miss my jooooob

Today I sat on the beach and did some quick studies. Going to send some drawings out to people, woo! Will go down tomorrow and draw some more, if the weather looks good. I also got some Dippin' Dots. Mom ordered me to do so. I finished listening to American Gods.

Oh, Reamde. Did I say how excellent it was? Maybe that is why it is so jarring to read Shadow of Night, because Reamde was so damn well executed.

Anyway. Trying to find the next audio book to listen to, and I think I'll give Stephen King's The Dark Tower series a listen. I like his books in audio form. And if I recall correctly, the last time I listened to part of the Gunslinger, it played properly on my funky player.

Starting to get bored with my enchilada casserole. Uh oh. I'll keep eating it though. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Put some hot sauce on it.

Other meals included a scramble for breakfast and udon and egg for dinner.

Here is a doodle of me as a print technician (aka my job):

defending probably bad habits

Texted with mom about how frustrating and slow Shadow of Night is. It is kinda amazing how I can read a couple pages and a lot happens, but then I get through 50 pages and it seems like NOTHING has happened. I love the magic descriptions, but some of her writing is just, erggg, needed someone to read it before it went to print. A bit rushed or something. I'm hoping that, after the 200 page mark, it picks up. I am comitted to not starting any new books still I finish one I'm currently reading. I ordered Cloud Atlas and a biography of Lucrezia Borgia, so those are my incentives to finish Shadow of Night. It seems to be picking up, now that Diana is all "I need to find a witch". YES. YOU NEEDED TO DO THAT 200 PAGES AGO! COME OOON!

Anyway. I went to the beach. I only go down for an hour, hour and a half. Enough to get warm, but not enough to get pink. Tomorrow I plan to bring some of my art supplies, so maybe doing some drawing will extend my exposure and thus, give me a tan. I know tanning is bad, but I've been pale for so long. Vitamin D is good too! And as long as I'm not, you know, spending 6 hours toasting every day, I should be good. Just a little bit to get my freckles started. The sun is still a novelty to this Pacific Northwest gal.

I miss work. I like doing stuff. I like working.

End of July, now for August!

Yay, got my paycheck! Was enjoying thinking about how much money was in my bank account, then I paid my rent. Ah, oh well. I really enjoy my house. I enjoy having a living room to lounge in, I enjoy having a dining room to eat in, I enjoy having a back porch to soak up some sun from, I enjoy having an avocado tree to get avocado's from, I have a good sized room, I live near tons of great stuff, and my neighborhood is suspiciously quiet. It's a good place to live, I don't mind paying for it.

I stayed close to the house today. Bargain Barn closes at 3, which is silly! I had some of my tasty casserole for dinner. It was tasty.

Relaxing day. Feeling pretty good.

beach, and the thrift quest

I'm getting antsy! I want to work! I like work, I like working, I like my job and want to do it!

I don't like being idle at work, I'm rubbish at taking breaks.

I'm pretty good at being idle at home though, but I still would like to work.

Anyway. Had a first breakfast of oatmeal, then a second breakfast scramble of tastyness. Then I walked down to the beach, and lounged in the sun for an hour. Being good about moderating my exposure. I think I'll go down every day that seems nice enough to venture down to the beach. Though I'm a Washington gal, it doesn't take much for something to "seem nice". I kinda want to bring some cash next time, so I can get some Dippin' Dots, but I need to watch my moolahs. Just bring a towel, water bottle, book, and sunblock. Then I am gangbusters!

I wandered to a couple local thrift stores and found that all the furniture was pretty pricey, and no beds. Though a fold out couch...? If I put my mattress pad on it? Nah, I need a bed. Plus I don't think a couch would fit through my door. And how would I even get it home? There is a Goodwill Bargain Barn somewhere, so I think I might drive and check that out tomorrow, and see what they have. Just scoping out what is around, not actually buying. I'm planning an Ikea trip.

I prepared another enchilada casserole, and popped it in the fridge. Yay for easy dinner tomorrow!

no bed for the wicked

Target has opened in Capitola, and I swung by to check out their furniture selection. They only had a couch. No futon. Gaaah. I want a bed! I think this lack of bed is what is throwing my body out of whack. Or maybe its the inactivity. Hmmn. Anyway, I need to make some more expeditions to find a futon bed of sorts. Even a futon would be a step up, and I could procure a frame later. I ended up getting a seven pack of generic work shirts (white small mens shirts that come in a multi pack) and some head bands and nail clippers. Now I have 2+ weeks worth of work shirts. Hurrah!

Early in the day, I went to brunch at Storey House, where my friend Michal lives (though she is moving out). Storey House, it is on Storey Street, is a little bit run down but has its indie charm. It has a back yard with a turtle pond, and cats, and is filled with a pretty cool array of people. I can't remember their names, but they were all nice. I brought juice and showed off my impressive Champagne opening skills (mimosas!). The food was lovely. Corn tortillas, beans, perfect potatoes, spinach pie, brownies, ahh what a spread! Everyone knew each other and I felt a bit out of the loop, but still they were friendly. I was invited along on the record shopping expedition but I declined because I wanted to run the Target/futon errand. Though that ended up being bust.

Made myself a massive scramble for a late lunch. Three eggs, a bunch of bacon, chunky onion, all fried up together. Mmm. I think I shall become really good at scrambles. That will be my "thing". Oh, and I put tapatio on it. Yum.

Spent a lot of time on the couch. Tomorrow I'll go down to the beach and later make a vacation to do list. Art that needs to get done. Correspondence to compose. Those things.

bed to couch to bed again

Ohhh you betcha I slept in. I woke up at around the time my alarm usually goes off, then I went back to sleep. Woke up again a bit later. Went back to sleep. Then at around noon I rolled out of bed to commence a very lazy day.

Had doughnuts and orange juice for breakfast. Followed shortly by eggs, bacon, and tea. Then later on I had another creme cheese and avocado sandwich. I snacked through the rest of the meals.

I'm going to a brunch at Michal's place tomorrow. Michal was a classmate from my Freshmen year at PNCA, but she went on to other places. But she is here (all though leaving soon, boo), and there is a brunch shindig so I'm going to that. I think I'll just bring some juice, as I don't have any ideas for what to prepare.

I spent a good chunk of the day watching Doctor Who in a livestream (where people stream stuff online and people congregate to watch). That was fun. Classic Doctor Who, sort of camp episodes that I haven't watched yet. I also read some more Shadow of Night. I wish there were more magic scenes, as I love those descriptions. The romance is sort of getting to me. Blah blah blah carry on.

I felt quite sore all day long. Not sure if it was because of my sleeping situation (the lack of bed) or a day of inactivity after so many days on my feet. Hmm. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, yup yup.

This blog post is brought to you by avocados. They are awesome.

I think I pulled something in my arm. Or it is just extra sore. Either way, I am looking forward to having some time off. Though I do like my work, and do like making money. A little sad to be out of the game for a while, but oh well. And I might have some shifts here and there, depending.

Today was a short shift. Caught some shirts, cleaned some screens, did some tidying. Finished Reamde, which was awesome. The climax was very exciting. I highly recommend the book. I couldn't be more satisfied with it. Wheee!

After work I went grocery shopping, because I am once again down to minimal food stores. The Safeway here is expensive! Gah! I opted for Safeway because Trader Joe's doesn't have everything. Though now I think I should go to TJ's FIRST and then Safeway second for the additional whatevers. Anyway. I'm all set on food for a while. Bacon, eggs, bread, oatmeal, jam, etc.

Taking it easy now. Letting my arm be not so sore.

The curb in front of my house can hold three cars, but there is always some doucher who parks in the middle in such a way to prevent a third car from parking either in front or behind of them. I made sure to park in such a way that when the middle car moves, there is plenty of room for the next person to occupy the middle.

For dinner I made myself a creme cheese and avocado sandwich, using avocados from the avocado tree in my back yard. Yaaay! So tasty. Yum num nummers.

lovely Lisa

I totally forgot it was mom's birthday! I'm such a bad daughter. Happy birthday mum! I'll call you in the morning and send you a lovely card. A belated one, but a card none the less. I love you! You are so supportive and excellent and lovely.

Today I started at noon. I slept in and that was great. I cleaned some screens, then reclaimed 21 of them. My arm was sore from using the pressure washer, but sore muscles are used muscles, and muscles are good things to have. I cleaned and caught some shirts that were manually printed and my hands got all kinds of messy when I was filling up the ink. A shorter day, but a good one. Tomorrow is my last day and then I am on a forced vacation. Yay! Though I might be called in to do this and that.

Had some pasta for dinner. Watched cartoons. Thought about what I'm going to do with my time off. Work on my correspondence, work on art, read, work on my tan. Those kinds of things.

pallet #7

Ahhhhoohhh I had a long long shift today and my legs are sore sore sore. I was loading shirts onto the pallets for a good while, and got my time down to 12, which was awesome. But that took a lot of motion and leg and arms and stuff. It is tiring work! I cleaned and burned and taped screens earlier. And helped set up the press. And caught shirts. And listened to Reamde. Boss went to a barbecue and brought us (Julie and I) back turkey burgers! So awesome. Didn't have to make/buy dinner. Tomorrow I'll have a late start. Some time to rest.

Boss is going away on vacation, so I in turn have a couple weeks forced vacation. Time to relax, explore Santa Cruz, catch up on correspondence, work on my tan, read my book, get some furniture, work on art. Lots of things. Hurray! So just a couple more days of work and then it is all done.

Now I'm just sitting in bed, enjoying being off my feet. Still, not sitting down all day has got to be good for my health. Keeps my active! Yay!

cog in the machine, but in a good way

Today work ran like a well oiled machine. Julie and Andrew and Chris's Dad were all in shop working (as was I) and we all worked side by side in harmony. I taped screens and cleaned screens and ran the shirts for the job. It was a smallish job and I had a good time of 14 seconds and nothing went wrong. Everything went really well. I like those kinds of days. Tomorrow we finally get to that massive job. The back design is super rad, though I shant divulge it here because I don't know what I can or can't publish about my work. It isn't uber secret, but I'd rather just err on the side of client privacy, ya know?

So, work was awesome. Reamde continues to be an awesome audiobook. Back at home I talked to Madeline for about two hours. We geeked out about geeky things, and it was most enjoyable.

Need to find some Santa Cruz activities to get me out of the house. Hmmm.

Monday? More like Wednesday

Slept in a bit today. Monday's seem to be come down days. Mostly clean up and prep. I taped screens, I removed tape and reclaimed screens. I rewrote the mesh count numbers on some screens, something that I'll do a lot more of as I go on cleaning, just because it is sometimes such a bother to try and dig out screens of certain mesh counts. I also stacked shirts for a job. I started late, which was nice. Had a bit of a sleep in.

Tomorrow is sure to be a big day, as Julie is being brought in. Shirts shall get printed. Thousands of them. And boxed. Whooo! I'll have to pack a big lunch.

Got home. Had pasta. Did my work clothes laundry. Edited some writing of a friends. I'll probably tuck into bed soon, and read. I've been plugging away at Shadow of Night. Matthew is frustrating me as a character, and sometimes the writing makes it unclear how many characters are in a room/where everyone is standing. At least Philippe is sort of hilarious, and I really hope Diana slaps Kit before the book is done, because DAMN HE NEEDS A SLAP!

I socialize...with my housemate's dog

Ohhh Breaking Bad was so good! So quiet and intense.

Today was a relatively short shift, as it turned out. Got there at 9:30 bright and fresh. Counted and laid out the job, caught the jobs, boxed the job, broke down the press, cleaned stuff. Worked with Brock. It was pretty dang warm, even with the fans trying to circulate air. Working on the exit end of a 400 degree heater has its downsides.

Got home, read, waited for Breaking Bad, ate some dinner, watched Breaking Bad.

I need a social life...

all by myself

Ohhh at work they trusted me to finish a job all by myself. And I think I did good. The job went relatively smooth, though there were some hiccups near the end. I like that I am trusted at my job, and I want to work hard to continue to earn that trust. Earlier on, I worked with Brock and we printed shirts and I boxed. I cleaned squeegees when I was done. Tomorrow is sure to be a long day. Have a big print job to finish.

Constantly learning, constantly working, constantly trying to work better. Not that I think I'm doing a bad job, just that I could always do better. I've been working for about a month and a week now. I started June 13th. Hmmn.

Anyway. Back at home, I snacked on chips and dips and sipped some Trader Joe's beer and watched television. I feel like I should be more productive with my beyond job activities, but I'm also still settling. Ahh it's all so much! And after long days, I just want to do nothing!

home life

My weekend! Was today! Yaaay! (?).

I slept way in. Well I woke up at 8ish. Then dozed. Then showered and did my laundry and ate breakfast and did some more grocery shopping and folded my laundry and watched stuff on the Internet and read and ate pasta and relaxed and turned on the lava lamp. It was a lovely day, but I didn't feel like basking in the sun.

Any now it is dark and late and I start early on the weekends (though not THAT early, just earlier).

BATMAN!

I don't work tomorrow, so I said "screw it!" and went to see the entire Batman trilogy. In theaters. Back to back to back. Batman Begins at 6:30, Dark Knight at 9pm, and Dark Knight Rises, after trailers, at around 12:20. I went by myself but befriended the two dudes I sat with, Jimmy and Jerry. We shared snacks and all was awesome. Exhausting. My eyes are bugging. But DAMN. So good. I liked that I watched it immediately after the first two. It was both a refresher, but also a mood setter. They work so well as a trilogy. It was an intense finale with some literally jaw dropping moments. AHhh now I need some sleep.

I taped screens, and reclaimed screens, and learned how to use this heat thingy to apply these thingies to thingies. I'm tired...so my explanation skills are shot. Listened to more awesome Reamde.

Joseph Gordon Levitt is such a hunk.

I want to work more so I can listen to more!

It's amazing how fast one can turn around jobs when they are single color, and just one sided, or if they use a color present in a previous job. No new squeegees/floodbars to clean, minimal set up and registration, just boom on the press and off through the heater. Andrew and I talked about Dark Knight Rises and printed some shirts. I boxed those shirts up, and the other earlier shirts. Then I cleaned the ink off the screens, but not the emulsion, and cleaned the squeegees. A good full day of work. Hurray!

I listened to a whole bunch of Reamde today. SO GOOD! AHH! I was considering switching to a different audiobook, but then it started getting more involved, with greater overlaps, and ahh dang it is super engaging.

I'm working this weekend, but got Friday off, so now I can see a midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises! Hurray! Or a Friday showing...though I gotta see it soon before the internet blows up and spoils it for me. Hahah.

The bossman is taking a vacation, so I'm making sure to clock some hours now before the shop closes up (though there should still be work happening, though just less of it).

Zula!

29 reclaimed screens! Got the tape off, and the ink off, and the emulsion off! I tiered them in 5's, so when I was removing the emulsion, I did a stack of 9 then 10 and 10. I got the pressure washer going in good time, and since I've learned to check the gas levels religiously, I didn't come close to running out. It took most of my day to do all that work, because most of the screens had ink to remove, and that is a lot of screens to pressure wash. Still, I'm getting good at the pull start and I feel my strength going. Even though I'm not lifting heavy things, I'm still using my arms to maneuver this and that about. Yay, strength! I plugged away at the screens, while printing and other things went down on the other side of the shop. I listened to Reamde, which is getting quite exciting. I wasn't too into it at the start, but now I am. I should keep track of the audiobooks I've listened to while working. I'll make a little list on the side of this blog, because something needs to take up that space.

I also broke down the press (which means to take out the screens, set them in the back to be reclaimed, and to remove the squeegees and floodbars and to scrape as much ink back into the containers as possible). And I cleaned the squeegees and floodbars in the sink. Annnd that was that! It looks like there are some more jobs to be caught coming down the pipe, as there are some freshly burned screens.

Returned home. Ate some rice and seaweed and dried mango and drank tea and read on the couch. I also looked at Calphalon pans (online), because I want to get one for preparing my morning meals. The pans available to me are a bit too small or big or just heavy (housemate's pans I mean). I liked the Calphalon ones that Josh & Carmen have. They handled really well. But I shall hold off on such purchases, because rent will be due in a couple weeks, and I need to be all responsible about my money. Still, I liked how quick it was to fry up an egg and slide it onto a piece of toast. Num nums. Buuuut that can wait. Need to be patient while things settle. Someday I shall have a nice pan!

52 in bacon

My day off! I've been in Santa Cruz a full week now, and this was my first full day off. I like it here. It's going to take a while to get fully settled. Moving costs mucho dinero. Plus I want to be all fiscally responsible and stuff. There are things I want to buy, but nothing I need. Though some more work shirts might be nice.

I slept in, properly fully all the way till noon sleeping in. Hurrah! I had some oatmeal and some tea and internetted the day away. I got dinner at Denny's (may or may not have been influenced by the new episode of Breaking Bad) and read Shadow of Night while I enjoyed my pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. Yum nums. I watched telly. Petted Joey. Generally took it easy. I need to figure out how to make friends...local friends. HMmmn.

Tomorrow will be filled with cleaning. There are tons of squeegees and flood bars and a massive stack of screens to reclaim. Yay for audiobooks. But lots of screens means lots of work. It's cycles. Lots of cycles. Never think I am complaining about my work. I dig it. No day is quite like the other. It keeps my mind sharp, remembering all these steps. And it is probably good to be on my feet so much, as it seems one problem that is plaguing people is that they spend all day sitting down. Not good for the body to sit so much.

weekends are for the weak

I am kerpooped. Totally, utterly. Ohhh man. Long day at work. I rolled out of bed at 8:20ish. Showered. Stuffed some food into a tupperware and called it lunch. I caught shirts for almost the whole long day. 1600 in one order, around 300 in the other job. Not that I'm counting. Because counting....ahhh that gets way too specific. I worked with Brock and we listened to a comedy station on Pandora. That was fun. Chris got us pizza for lunch, so that was awesome. I just caught and caught and caught. Chris got on the press for the (relatively) smaller job.

I have Monday off. And there was a sampler shirt that Chris had no need for, so I snagged it. Double yay.

Now I'm waiting on the latest episode of Breaking Bad. Think I'll make myself some tea and do the dishes.

Though that would mean being on my feet. Hmmm.

Edit: I walked downstairs and my legs were like WHAT WHAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING? So now I am in bed. I'll do the dishes in the morning.

work & show

At work I mostly caught shirts and cleaned screens. I did a little registration as well. Brock, my occasional coworker, and I have similar musical tastes. So we just jammed to tunes and pulled shirts. It was a long but good day.

I did some grocery shopping and rant into Phil and Eric, who were preparing for the show. We gabbed a little bit.

The Odd Owl show was awesome. They played a house party. I danced. I talked to an assorted amount of people. Drank a bit. They walked me home. They meaning the band. What as swell group. They are performing in Fresno tomorrow. If I get Monday off, I may see their show. Who knows.

Today was awesome. Work hard, play hard, etc.